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Property Law and Real Estate

Journal

Pepperdine Law Review

Zoning

Publication Year

Articles 1 - 10 of 10

Full-Text Articles in Law

Zoning By A Thousand Cuts, Sara C. Bronin Apr 2023

Zoning By A Thousand Cuts, Sara C. Bronin

Pepperdine Law Review

Zoning is increasingly viewed as a constraint on the nation’s housing supply, and as zoning enters its second century, there is a strong drumbeat for reform. Across the country, reformers have targeted the elimination of single-family zoning, pointing to research showing that single-family zoning drives up development costs, degrades the environment, and homogenizes communities. While allowing more multi-family options could help address these issues, reformers should not exclusively focus on the elimination of single-family zoning. Process requirements including mandatory public hearings, and substantive requirements involving lot configuration, building size, and occupancy, among other things, play a significant role in determining …


Variances: A Canary In The Coal Mine For Zoning Reform?, John J. Infranca, Ronnie M. Farr Apr 2023

Variances: A Canary In The Coal Mine For Zoning Reform?, John J. Infranca, Ronnie M. Farr

Pepperdine Law Review

There is perhaps no area of land use law where practice departs more from legal doctrine than the realm of zoning variances. According to the legal doctrine, variances are to be granted sparingly, providing a “safety valve” that alleviates unique hardships encountered by a property owner. In practice, variances are granted at high rates—often around ninety percent of applications are approved—and, in some jurisdictions, in high volumes. In such cases, variances effectively serve as a rezoning, enabling jurisdictions to permit otherwise prohibited uses and allow growth and development to occur without addressing needed zoning reforms. By allowing neighbors the opportunity …


Measuring Local Policy To Advance Fair Housing And Climate Goals Through A Comprehensive Assessment Of Land Use Entitlements, Moira O'Neill, Eric Biber, Nicholas J. Marantz Apr 2023

Measuring Local Policy To Advance Fair Housing And Climate Goals Through A Comprehensive Assessment Of Land Use Entitlements, Moira O'Neill, Eric Biber, Nicholas J. Marantz

Pepperdine Law Review

California’s legislature has passed several laws that intervene in local land-use regulation in order to increase desperately needed housing production—particularly affordable housing production. Some of these new laws expand local reporting requirements concerning zoning and planning laws, and the application of those laws apply to proposed housing development. This emphasis on measurement requires the state to develop a housing data strategy to support both enforcement of existing law and effective policymaking in the future. Our Comprehensive Assessment of Land Use Entitlements Study (CALES) predates, but aligns with and supports, this state-led effort to improve local reporting. For the cities that …


Growth ≠ Density: Zoning Deregulation And The Enduring Problem Of Sprawl, Christopher Serkin, Kelsea Best Apr 2023

Growth ≠ Density: Zoning Deregulation And The Enduring Problem Of Sprawl, Christopher Serkin, Kelsea Best

Pepperdine Law Review

According to its many critics, zoning bears significant responsibility for the housing crisis in America and for promoting unsustainable development patterns. Reformers argue that zoning reduces the supply of new housing and therefore drives up prices in thriving communities. Zoning also increases carbon emissions by restricting density in the urban core and promoting carbon-intensive, land-consuming, automobile-dependent sprawl in single-family suburbs. A growing chorus calls for relaxing zoning limits in order to promote growth in the urban core as a response to the twin crises of housing costs and climate change. Relaxing zoning limits will almost certainly promote growth but may …


Embracing Airbnb: How Cities Can Champion Private Property Rights Without Compromising The Health And Welfare Of The Community, Emily M. Speier Apr 2017

Embracing Airbnb: How Cities Can Champion Private Property Rights Without Compromising The Health And Welfare Of The Community, Emily M. Speier

Pepperdine Law Review

Peer-to-peer services offer participants considerable advantages whether they are a provider of such services or a user of them. The Airbnb phenomenon is an example of how technological advancement has transformed the rental industry and has signaled a societal acceptance of a sharing economy. However, the question now is to what extent cities should regulate this influx of short-term rentals while still preserving the property rights of homeowners. Much of the answer to this question depends on each city’s individual interpretation of specific areas of the law. Some legal issues raised by regulation and explored by this article include the …


Zoning And The Vested Right To Use Property: There Ought To Be A Right! , Hugh Breckenridge May 2013

Zoning And The Vested Right To Use Property: There Ought To Be A Right! , Hugh Breckenridge

Pepperdine Law Review

No abstract provided.


Agins V. City Of Tiburon: An Aggrieved Party-Loss Of Inverse Condemnation Actions In Zoning Ordinance Disputes , Walter R. Luostari Feb 2013

Agins V. City Of Tiburon: An Aggrieved Party-Loss Of Inverse Condemnation Actions In Zoning Ordinance Disputes , Walter R. Luostari

Pepperdine Law Review

No abstract provided.


Agins V. City Of Tiburon: Open Space Zoning Prevails - Failure To Submit Master Plan Prevents A Cognizable Decrease In Property Value, Jermaine Chastain Feb 2013

Agins V. City Of Tiburon: Open Space Zoning Prevails - Failure To Submit Master Plan Prevents A Cognizable Decrease In Property Value, Jermaine Chastain

Pepperdine Law Review

This casenote examines the Supreme Court's struggle to reconcile its focus on the facial validity of a zoning ordinance with the traditional "taking" approach requiring diligent factual inquiry. While the Agins Court reiterates such an approach, the author notes the Court's departure from important constitutional and precedential considerations. The author offers a possible explanation for the departure, concluding that the Agins decision apparently makes plan submission a prerequisite for acknowledging economic loss and strongly implies a requirement of complete loss of all property value before a compensable taking will be recognized.


Land Use By, For, And Of The People: Problems With The Application Of Initiatives And Referenda To The Zoning Process, Nicolas M. Kublicki Nov 2012

Land Use By, For, And Of The People: Problems With The Application Of Initiatives And Referenda To The Zoning Process, Nicolas M. Kublicki

Pepperdine Law Review

No abstract provided.


The Abnormalcy Of Normal Delay, Kimberly Horsley Jul 2012

The Abnormalcy Of Normal Delay, Kimberly Horsley

Pepperdine Law Review

No abstract provided.