Law Commons^™

Racial Impact Assessment In Land Use Planning And Zoning, William West

Pace Environmental Law Review

Racial impact assessments are tools that attempt to predict the effects of actions to help policymakers evaluate the consequences of those actions before their implementation. This article explains the history of race and land use in the United States, the development of racial impact assessments, and the emerging trend of racial impact assessments in land use planning and zoning. The article concludes with an analysis of how racial impact assessments in land use might develop in the future.

The Future Of Pandemics: Land Use Controls As Means Of Preventing Zoonotic Disease, Bailey Andree

Pace International Law Review

Zoonotic diseases are increasing in frequency as climate change worsens around the world, with the recent COVID-19 pandemic highlighting the inadequate mechanisms in place to counteract disease spread. This article reviews various zoonotic diseases and their patterns of spread, highlighting land use change as the key driver of disease to demonstrate the need for legal intervention. International land use law is a little-developed subsect of environmental law that holds the key to combating this disease spread, and this article proposes solutions through this legal lens. Land use techniques which may be used to combat disease spread include conservation laws, setback …

The Road To Affordable Housing: How To Replace Highways With Homes In New York City, Chad Hughes

Pace Law Review

Urban highways cause significant air, water, and soil pollution that disproportionately harm low-income and nonwhite residents. Many urban highways are reaching the end of their useful life and would be extremely expensive to repair or replace. Cities around the world have removed urban highways to improve environmental outcomes and to avoid wasteful spending.

While these teardowns have improved local and regional environmental quality and local traffic congestion, they have also led to increased land values near the retired rights of way. Without anti-displacement efforts, there is a risk that the very people who have been most harmed by urban highways …

Unveiling The “Trojan Horses” Of Gentrification: Studies Of Legal Strategies To Combat Environmental Gentrification In Washington, D.C. And New York, N.Y., Sarena Malsin

Pace Environmental Law Review

No abstract provided.

Public-Private Partnerships And Smart Growth: A Legislative Tool Kit For Public- Infrastructure Projects, Emma Lagle

Pace Environmental Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Unconstitutionality Of Consolidated Planning Boards: Interlocal Planning Under New York Law, Albert J. Pirro Jr.

Pace Law Review

This Article will examine the nature and constitutionality of consolidated planning boards in light of the broad powers actually granted them. The issues surrounding the constitutionality of consolidated planning boards begs, yet again, Chief Justice Marshall's question respecting the extent of the power granted to the state governments. The question is whether a municipality may abdicate its power to regulate land within its own boundaries by delegating it to a separate planning entity.

Public Resource Ownership And Community Engagement In A Modern Energy Landscape, Samantha Hepburn

Pace Environmental Law Review

The onshore resource conflicts that have erupted in the Eastern states of Australia highlight the deep need for axiomatic structural change in public resource ownership frameworks. Much of the conflict that has arisen stems from the failure of the state, as owner, to give proper regard to the social and environmental concerns relevant to the expansion of onshore resource development. The underlying rationale for vesting resources in the state is to ensure they are managed for the benefit of the community as a whole. The implied sumption is that public benefit obligations are met through state administration because this is …

Let’S Be Reasonable: Why Neither Nollan/Dolan Nor Penn Central Should Govern Generally-Applied Legislative Exactions After Koontz, Glen Hansen

Pace Environmental Law Review

This article explains why the Nollan/Dolan test should not apply to legislatively imposed exactions, provided that such exactions satisfy two key criteria: (1) the exaction is generally-applied; and (2) the exaction is applied based on a set legislative formula without any meaningful administrative discretion in that application. Legislative exactions that fail to meet those two criteria should be governed by the Nollan/Dolan standard of review in the same manner as the ad hoc adjudicative exaction in Koontz. Furthermore, legislative exactions that satisfy those two criteria also should not be governed by the factored analysis in Penn Central Transportation Co. v. …

Proactive Natural Disaster Recovery And Resilience In The Northeast: Should Governments Exercise Buyout Programs And, If Necessary, Eminent Domain, To Prevent Disaster?, Stellina Napolitano

Pace Environmental Law Review

In light of the devastation left behind by the three most recent natural disasters in the northeast region—Hurricane Irene, Tropical Storm Lee, and Superstorm Sandy—local and state governments are now implementing “buyout programs” in order to protect the future of beachfront and flood-prone communities. These programs may not be a perfect solution, so, while positions differ on whether to pursue taking private properties by use of eminent domain, it may be a favorable option in order to attain the ultimate goal of safety and resilience against future disaster. Section II of this paper will analyze the background and impacts that …

Climate Change Effects On Snow Conditions And The Human Rights Of Reindeer Herders, Stefan Kirchner

Pace Environmental Law Review

By ignoring the needs of indigenous livelihoods, traditional forms of land use that have long been sustainable, new forms of land use and the construction of infrastructure threaten the right of indigenous peoples to engage in traditional livelihoods. It is the aim of this article to analyze the rights of indigenous peoples in the context of primary and secondary effects of climate change. For the purposes of this paper, the term “primary effects” will be used to describe immediate effects of climate change. This includes temperatures which move around freezing instead of being solidly below freezing.

Primary effects of climate …

Thicker Than Water: America’S Addiction To Cheap Flood Insurance, Jeffrey Valacer

Pace Law Review

This paper is broken down into three parts. Part I traces the history and evolution of flood insurance in the United States, including the establishment of federal flood insurance and key reforms over the 20th and 21st centuries. Part II discusses the 2012 flood insurance reform package, subsequent legal challenges to the reforms, and the government’s response to political pressure over the reform. Part III concludes discussing the continued need for flood insurance reform, especially in a world of rising sea levels and more frequent, stronger weather events.

Begone, Euclid!: Leasing Custom And Zoning Provision Engaging Retail Consumer Tastes And Technologies In Thriving Urban Centers, Michael N. Widener

Pace Law Review

Is urban center retailing in a death spiral? Competition for consumers with Internet vendors is afoot; winners and losers shall be anointed. The threats to physical retailing in an era of the “Internet of Goods” initially are described below. Adaptations by tenants, landlords, and stakeholders in urban centers will be required quickly, and new perspectives and partnerships, including those among local and regional governments, are instrumental if physical retail operations in municipal cores are to survive. The balance of this article describes these needs from the vantage point of each stakeholder; but this article argues that integrating information and communication …

Incorporating Third Party Green Building Rating Systems Into Municipal Building And Zoning Codes, Edward Teyber

Pace Environmental Law Review

The role of green buildings in mitigating climate change has thus become a hot topic. This literature has begun to elicit change within corporations pursuing third party certification of their corporate buildings and campuses. Perhaps the success of discrete green building projects in mitigating climate change compared to the failure of international regulatory bodies to reach consensus for meaningful change is due to the publicity and, in turn, profits associated with certification by a third party green building rating system. In addition to reduced GHG emissions, reduced runoff, reduced maintenance costs, and positive publicity of green buildings for the project …

Zoning For Apartments: A Study Of The Role Of Law In The Control Of Apartment Houses In New Haven, Connecticut 1912–1932, Marie Boyd

Pace Law Review

This Article attempts to present a more comprehensive and detailed examination of the place of apartments—before, during, and after the enactment of zoning—than has been presented in the literature to date through an examination of the impact of apartment houses on both pre-zoning land use patterns and the zoning process in New Haven. This Study examines the period between 1912 and 1932, with a particular emphasis on the period between 1922 and 1926. The latter period begins with the selection of New Haven’s first Zoning Commission in 1922 and concludes with the passage of New Haven’s first zoning ordinance in …

Inlaid-Ivory Towers: Higher Education Joint-Use Facilities As Community Redevelopment Bulwarks, Michael N. Widener

Pace Law Review

This paper describes an unusual public-private partnership for real property development not involving typical infrastructure like bridges and roads. It addresses how communities like Mesa manage their way (adopting policies implicating land use and environmental sustainability principles via repurposing of buildings and sharing of additional community assets and “campus” leasing actions) to attract private sector higher education providers to establish a downtown as a node of intellectual stimulation, including cultural diversions. Etching the ivory tower environment into community centers sustains the quality of place. This quality attracts the “creative class,” which forms the core of leadership and entrepreneurship in America’s …

The Visual And The Law Of Cities, Stephen R. Miller

Pace Law Review

This article will attempt to explore, through four separate “tableaux,” or brief sketches, four ways in which the visual interplays with the law of cities, and how a deeper understanding of this intersection can assist in the development of these laws and their underlying policies. This discussion will by no means be definitive. However, by presenting these four approaches in which the visual complicates and assists the law of cities, and sometimes even acts as the law of cities, it is hoped the article will spur a dialogue on the law’s relationship to the visual.

Social Networking And Land Use Planning And Regulation: Practical Benefits, Pitfalls, And Ethical Considerations, Patricia E. Salkin

Pace Law Review

No abstract provided.

Modernization Of New York's Land Use Laws Continues To Meet Growing Challenges Of Sustainability, Patricia E. Salkin, Jessica A. Bacher

Pace Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Taking Of America?, Stefanie Sovak

Pace Law Review

No abstract provided.

Inclusionary Zoning In Westchester County, New York: Is It A Viable Tool To Reduce A County-Wide Housing Crisis?, Ann S. Matthews

Pace Law Review

No abstract provided.