Law Commons^™

Zoning Ordinances And "Free Speech", Alan C. Weinstein

Law Faculty Articles and Essays

Over the past two decades there has been a marked expansion in legal challenges to local land use regulations claiming violations of the free speech clause of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution. First Amendment claims can arise whenever government enacts or enforces zoning or other regulations that deal with uses such as billboards or adult entertainment businesses. This article discusses why this litigation is taking place, provides an overview of First Amendment law, and offers local officials some guidelines to help avoid potential legal challenges.

Preserving Open Lands: Local Zoning And Financing Authority Work Together, John R. Nolon

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

State governments vest great authority in local governments to decide how and where private development shall occur, and in the alternative, where to preserve open land. The New York state legislature recognizes the importance of protecting open lands, and as such, has created several laws to facilitate local municipal action. Several methods exist that municipal government may use to accomplish this goal and this article provides several examples. For instance, the New York Court of Appeals, in the case of Bonnie Briar Syndicate, Inc. v. Town of Mamaroneck, held that a local zoning ordinance, which rezoned a large area for …

A Critical Review Of The Law Of Business Loss Claims In Georgia Eminent Domain Jurisprudence, Charles M. Cork Iii

Mercer Law Review

The Georgia Constitution provides that "private property shall not be taken or damaged for public purposes without just and adequate compensation being first paid." While the courts have recognized that a business is property within the meaning of the constitution, case law would rewrite this provision more or less as follows:

Private property shall not be taken or damaged for public purposes without just and adequate compensation being first paid, except that the business of a property owner may be partially taken or damaged without compensation, and except that the business of a property owner or tenant may be temporarily …

Land Use Development: Proper Planning Creates Smart Growth, Prevents Sprawl, John R. Nolon

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

The proliferation of sprawl development patterns across the United States causes several problems such as degradation of forests, farmland, and natural resources, plus the declining health of central cities. Sprawl is a well-documented phenomenon among environmentalists, politicians, taxpayers, and others. Many alternative “smart growth” solutions exist to mitigate the damages of sprawl. Government focus on more restrained development patterns such as traditional urban neighborhoods, and other solutions exist, and are waiting to be implemented. This article reviews municipal efforts in New York in the application of comprehensive smart growth methods

Human Rights, Environment & Community: A Workshop: Presentation By Joseph Hill, Joseph Hill

Buffalo Environmental Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Concepts Of Community In Environmental Disputes: Farmersville And Western New York's Garbage Wars, Gary Abraham

Buffalo Environmental Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Reinventing Growth Management For The 21st Century, Douglas R. Porter

William & Mary Environmental Law and Policy Review

No abstract provided.

Managing Space To Manage Growth, Daniel R. Mandelker

William & Mary Environmental Law and Policy Review

No abstract provided.

"Hybrid" Farmland Protection Programs: A New Paradigm For Growth Management, Edward Thompson Jr

William & Mary Environmental Law and Policy Review

No abstract provided.

Some Unconventional Thoughts On Sprawl, Mark Fina, Leonard Shabman

William & Mary Environmental Law and Policy Review

No abstract provided.

Mediation As A Tool In Local Environmental And Land Use Controversies, John R. Nolon

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

This article dedicates itself to highlighting the benefits of alternative dispute resolution. Through the use of mediation and other flexible alternative dispute resolution methods, many conflicts can be resolved without the use of expensive and timely litigation. In turn, court workloads are relieved and cooperation is fostered among neighbors, companies, and other groups or organizations that would have otherwise resorted to litigation to solve a dispute. Negotiations that involve process experts, such as mediators and facilitators, often diffuse disputes by introducing a cooperative, rather than an adversarial attitude. Government is beginning to embrace alternative dispute resolution and legislatures are passing …

Past, Present And Future Constitutional Challenges To Transferable Development Rights, Jennifer Frankel

Washington Law Review

Seattle's transfer of development rights (TDR) system, an innovative land use device, has so far avoided many of the problems that have plagued other TDR systems. Although the system's voluntary participation avoids a takings challenge, it is still vulnerable to attack on due process grounds. In addition, two U.S. Supreme Court cases held that conditions in land use regulations must closely mirror the harms sought to be prevented, suggesting new constitutional problems for Seattle's TDR system. This Comment describes Seattle's current TDR system and examines its vulnerability to constitutional challenges. This paper concludes that while Seattle's TDR system will probably …

Challenging Land Use Actions Under Section 1983: Washington Law After Mission Springs, Inc. V. City Of Spokane, Eric Jenkins

Washington Law Review

Federal law, 42 U.S.C. § 1983, provides a cause of action against persons who use state or local law to deprive individuals of constitutional rights. Federal circuit courts have been reluctant to apply § 1983 to commonplace land use grievances because of the local character of land use planning and a belief that only the most egregious misuse of zoning power can implicate a party's substantive due process rights. To limit the number of claims that can be brought under § 1983, the federal circuits have narrowly defined what property rights are protected by the Fourteenth Amendment and have held …

Platte River Endangered Species Partnership: Collaboration Or Coercion In Disguise, Dale Strickland

Strategies in Western Water Law and Policy: Courts, Coercion and Collaboration (Summer Conference, June 8-11)

9 pages.

Collaborative Approaches To Conservation: A Critical Look, Larry Macdonnell

Strategies in Western Water Law and Policy: Courts, Coercion and Collaboration (Summer Conference, June 8-11)

7 pages.

Regional Water Planning In Texas, John Folk-Williams

Strategies in Western Water Law and Policy: Courts, Coercion and Collaboration (Summer Conference, June 8-11)

4 pages.

A Laboratory For Collaboration: Where, Why And Why Not?, Ken Salazar, Felicity Hannay, Steve Sims, Ted Kowalski

Strategies in Western Water Law and Policy: Courts, Coercion and Collaboration (Summer Conference, June 8-11)

12 pages.

Nebraska V. Wyoming: The End Or Collaboration?, Wendy Weiss, James Montgomery

Strategies in Western Water Law and Policy: Courts, Coercion and Collaboration (Summer Conference, June 8-11)

13 pages.

Contains footnotes.

Transparencies Used In The Introductory Remarks Of Doug Kenney, Ph.D., Natural Resources Law Center, Douglas Kenney

Strategies in Western Water Law and Policy: Courts, Coercion and Collaboration (Summer Conference, June 8-11)

6 pages.

A Western Slope Perspective: Endangered Species And Municipal Water, David C. Hallford

Strategies in Western Water Law and Policy: Courts, Coercion and Collaboration (Summer Conference, June 8-11)

13 pages (includes 1 map).

Contains footnotes and 1 page of references.

Federal Water Rights In The Snake River Basin Adjudication, Michael A. Gheleta

Strategies in Western Water Law and Policy: Courts, Coercion and Collaboration (Summer Conference, June 8-11)

34 pages (includes maps).

Agenda: Strategies In Western Water Law And Policy: Courts, Coercion And Collaboration, University Of Colorado Boulder. Natural Resources Law Center, University Of Colorado Boulder. Center Of The American West

Strategies in Western Water Law and Policy: Courts, Coercion and Collaboration (Summer Conference, June 8-11)

1 v. (various pagings) : ill., maps, charts ; 29 cm

Conference organizers, session moderators and/or speakers included University of Colorado School of Law professors Gary C. Bryner, James N. Corbridge, Jr., David H. Getches, Douglas S. Kenney, Lawrence J. MacDonnell, Kathryn M. Mutz and Charles F. Wilkinson

Includes bibliographical references

The event will examine the principal problem-solving strategies in western water law and policy: courts, coercion and collaboration. In addressing this broad range of strategies, the program will focus on national, west-wide and Colorado-specific issues.

Conference activities will commence with a free public program cosponsored by the Center of …

The Platte River Cooperative Agreement: A Historical Perspective, Ann Salomon Bleed

Strategies in Western Water Law and Policy: Courts, Coercion and Collaboration (Summer Conference, June 8-11)

No abstract provided.

Regulatory Takings: Analyzing Governmental Invasions Of Private Property Rights, John R. Nolon

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

The complicated arena of takings jurisprudence has confused lawyers, scholars, and courts for well over a century. Generally, a taking is deemed to have occurred when a governmental body takes a property right away from a private individual without providing just compensation. However, courts are unlikely to find that a regulation constitutes a taking if the regulation benefits the greater good of the public. Takings come in several varieties, most notably, “invasions” which include physical occupation and “total takings”, which deprive landowners of all economic value of their property. This article discusses how takings law has evolved into its present …

With Best Friends Like Us Who Needs Enemies? The Phenomenon Of The Puppy Mill, The Failure Of Legal Regimes To Manage It, And The Positive Prospects Of Animal Rights, Adam J. Fumarola

Buffalo Environmental Law Journal

No abstract provided.

The End Of An Era: Suburban Village Aversion In Citizens For Mount Vernon V. City Of Mount Vernon, Ronda Larson

Washington Law Review

In 1990, the Washington Legislature enacted the Growth Management Act (GMA) to counteract problems related to unmanaged population growth. The GMA fundamentally altered two traditional aspects of land use law: the disregard for planning documents and the aversion to mixing uses within zones. Counties and cities planning under the Act now must have comprehensive plans and zoning ordinances that are consistent with those plans. They are also encouraged to use innovative zoning tools such as mixed-use housing developments. In the 1997 case Citizens for Mount Vernon v. City of Mount Vernon, the Supreme Court of Washington applied pre-GMA common …

Can Cowboys Become Indians? Protecting Western Communities As Endangered Cultural Remnants, A. Dan Tarlock

All Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Institutional Controls For Contaminated Sites: Help Or Hazard, Mary R. English, Robert B. Inerfeld

RISK: Health, Safety & Environment (1990-2002)

The authors discuss the different institutional controls available to control long term site remediation of hazardous waste to prevent exposure to residual contamination.

Intermunicipal Compacts; Regional Land Use Strategies Work At The Grassroots Level, John R. Nolon

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

Regional land use control has long been a difficult issue in New York as most localities refuse to acknowledge responsibility for problems extending beyond their own borders. New York law enables municipalities to cooperate among one another to devise improved solutions to land use, and other issues. This article studies the state history of regional land use and provides several successful examples of how grassroots regionalism can change the way municipal governments think about land use and solve problems.

Smart Growth At Century’S End: The State Of The States, Patricia E. Salkin

Scholarly Works

No abstract provided.