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Land Use Law

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Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

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2006

Land Use Planning

Articles 1 - 2 of 2

Full-Text Articles in Law

Historical Overview Of The American Land Use System: A Diagnostic Approach To Evaluating Governmental Land Use Control, John R. Nolon Sep 2006

Historical Overview Of The American Land Use System: A Diagnostic Approach To Evaluating Governmental Land Use Control, John R. Nolon

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

This article describes how the American land use system has evolved to address recent environmental and economic development problems. It begins by tracing the history of the legal system used in the United States to control private sector land development and demonstrates how it achieved the flexibility needed to respond to modern challenges. The American land use system has paid a price for this flexibility: it is not a coherent whole, but rather a fragmented mosaic of legal influences. Impressive examples of cohesion are cited that suggest a strategic approach to reforming the system so that it can become an …


Champions Of Change: Reinventing Democracy Through Land Law Reform, John R. Nolon Jan 2006

Champions Of Change: Reinventing Democracy Through Land Law Reform, John R. Nolon

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

This Article explores the prospects of achieving policy coherence in the field of land use regulation. It explains how, as municipal governments react to pressures and crises at the local level, they discover and adopt new strategies in a constant process of experimentation. Through a properly constructed legal framework, critical information can be relayed from local to higher levels of government, state and federal legislators and judges can respond, and a "system" of law can evolve. Using theories developed in the fields of systems analysis and diffusion of innovations, the Article describes the process by which local communities perceive land …