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The Long-Standing Requirement That Delegations Of Land Use Control Power Contain "Meaningful" Standards To Restrain And Guide Decision-Makers Should Not Be Weakened, Orlando E. Delogu, Susan E. Spokes

Maine Law Review

Some forty years ago, a leading land use scholar noted that “it has always been recognized that it is an essential part of the judicial function to watch over the parochial and exclusionist attitudes and policies of local governments, and to see to it that these do not run counter to national policy and the general welfare.” Maine courts by and large have discharged this judicial function by consistently striking down unauthorized and overreaching local governmental land use decisions. Several recent cases, however, cast doubt on the Law Court's continuing commitment to guard against the parochial instincts of local land …