Also known as: facilities · correctional facility
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
A building, installation, or other physical structure equipped and used for a particular purpose such as a public utility, waste processing, institutional care, or commercial operation. The term encompasses any place where hazardous substances have come to be located or where public access or services are provided under regulatory standards.
Select any source to read its text and confirm it supports the definition.
Faye Fuller, an invitee, enters the premises of Falcon Dynamics to access its public utility substation. She encounters an obvious hazard near the transformer equipment but proceeds because she is entitled to use the utility facilities. The possessor anticipates the harm and remains liable despite the obvious danger.
Flagship Logistics operates private waste haulers in a municipality that enacts an ordinance directing all solid waste to a government-owned processing facility. The company challenges the rule under the Dormant Commerce Clause. Because the ordinance favors a public provider performing a traditional government function, it receives lenient review and is upheld.
Penn Central owns Grand Central Terminal, a major railroad facility. The city designates the terminal as a landmark and blocks construction of an office tower above it. The owners claim a regulatory taking. The designation treats the terminal as protected property whose economic use is preserved despite development restrictions.
Cleburne Living Center seeks a permit to operate a group home facility for intellectually disabled residents in a residential zone. The city denies the permit under an ordinance requiring special approval for such facilities. The denial is challenged as irrational discrimination against the disabled.
Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Corp. applies to license a nuclear power facility. Environmental groups challenge the agency’s procedures for considering alternatives. The agency must follow statutory procedures rather than judicially imposed ones when evaluating the facility’s environmental impacts.
Massachusetts and other states petition the EPA to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from new motor vehicles. The agency claims it lacks authority because the statute does not expressly address such emissions from facilities or vehicles. The Court holds that the statute’s broad language covers these emissions.
A facility of a public utility includes any part of the land or equipment provided for public use. Invitees entitled to use the facility may take greater risks than ordinary trespassers, and the utility must anticipate harm from known dangers when the invitee has a right to access.
Supporting sources
…budget with costs of acquisitions and maintenance, and results in the preservation of public buildings as museums and similar facilities, rather than as economically productive features of the urban scene. See Wilson & Winkler, The Response of State Legislation to Historic Preservation, 36 Law & Contemp. Prob. 329, 330-331,…