City of Austin v. Cannizzo

In City of Austin v. Cannizzo, 153 Tex. 324, 333, 267 S.W.2d 808 (1954), the supreme court considered whether 4.57 acres that the City of Austin condemned could be valued as commercial property "in the face of contrary zoning restrictions." 153 Tex. at 332, 267 S.W.2d at 814. The court held that the property could be valued as commercial property, explaining in part: "In the willing seller-willing buyer test of market value it is frequently said that all factors should be considered which would reasonably be given weight in negotiations between a seller and a buyer. This would exclude consideration of purely speculative uses to which the property might be adaptable but wholly unavailable but would permit consideration of all uses to which the property was reasonably adaptable and for which it was, or in reasonable probability would become, available within a reasonable time." Id. at 332-33, 267 S.W.2d at 814 . The court explained that to "warrant admission of testimony as to the value of land for purposes other than that to which it is being put at the time of the taking," the evidence must show that the property is adaptable to the other use, that the other use is reasonably probable within a reasonable time, and that the market value of the land "has been enhanced thereby." Id. at 333, 267 S.W.2d at 814.