Law Commons^™

Consuming Government, Richard Schragger

Michigan Law Review

In his ambitious new book, William Fischel, a Professor of Economics at Dartmouth College, gives us a new political animal: "The Homevoter." The homevoter is simply a homeowner who votes (p. ix). According to Fischel, she is the key to understanding the political economy of American local government. By implication, she is the key to understanding state and national government as well. Homeowners warrant special attention because "residents who own their own homes have a stake in the outcome of local politics that make them especially attentive to the public policies of local government" (p. ix). That is because local …

The Limits Of Localism, Richard C. Schragger

Michigan Law Review

In Chicago v. Morales, the Supreme Court struck down Chicago's Gang Congregation Ordinance, which barred "criminal street gang members from loitering with one another or with other persons in any public place." The stated purpose of the ordinance was to wrest control of public areas from gang members who, simply by their presence, intimidated the public and established control over identifiable areas of the city, namely certain inner-city streets, sidewalks, and corners. The ordinance required that police officers determine whether at least one of two or more persons present in a public place were members of a criminal street gang …

Understanding Sprawl: Lessons From Architecture For Legal Scholars, Mark S. Davies

Michigan Law Review

What is suburban "sprawl"? Why is it undesirable? Why do many Americans nevertheless choose to live in sprawl? Do local zoning laws contribute to sprawl? Can democratic institutions discourage it? Legal scholars are beginning to study these urgent and complex questions. This Essay reviews Suburban Nation: The Rise of Sprawl and the Decline of the American Dream, by Andres Duany, Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk, and Jeff Speck, leading architects of the influential New Urbanism or traditional town planning movement. This review makes five points about the legal study of sprawl. First, Suburban Nation provides a definition of "sprawl" that the law can …

Lawyers, Judges, And The Public Interest, John M. Payne

Michigan Law Review

Chares Haar, the Louis D. Brandeis Professor of Law Emeritus at the Harvard Law School and a certified elder statesman of the housing and land-use community, was one of those scholar-politicians of the 1960s who spun out innovative theories in law reviews and then moved into government to see them applied. His generation inspired mine to pursue law as a means to serve the public interest. But the days of the Kennedy brothers' Camelot are long past. Today, big government and "big courts" alike are seen as parts of the problem. In the more austere political climate of the 1990s, …

Icons And Aliens: Law, Aesthetics, And Environmental Change, Scott Schrader

Michigan Law Review

A Review of Icons and Aliens: Law, Aesthetics, and Environmental Change by John J. Costonis

That Old Due Process Magic: Growth Control And The Federal Constitution, Keith R. Denny

Michigan Law Review

This Note argues that the interests of nonmunicipal federal citizens in being able freely to migrate about the nation are not adequately accounted for in a due process analysis which sanctions regulations with any, even a debatable, relation to the public welfare.

More adaptable and appropriate are the constitutional safeguards designed to protect the interests of nonmunicipal federal citizens: the privileges and immunities clause, the right of interstate travel, and the commerce clause. This Note concludes that GCOs should be measured against these safeguards and not the standards of the due process clause. When so reviewed, GCOs are found wanting. …

City Zoning: The Once And Future Frontier, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

A Review of City Zoning: The Once and Future Frontier by Clifford L. Weaver and Richard F. Babcock

Everything In Its Place: Social Order And Land Use In America, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

A Review of Everything in its Place: Social Order and Land Use in America by Constance Perin

Reflections On Stare Decisis In Michigan: The Rise And Fall Of The "Rezoning As Administrative Act" Doctrine, Roger A. Cunningham

Michigan Law Review

In an earlier article in this law review, I discussed the new doctrine that in certain municipalities a decision by the local governing body to rezone or not to rezone land should be deemed an "administrative" or "quasi-judicial," rather than a "legislative," act. This doctrine was introduced into Michigan law several years ago in a series of opinions signed by only three justices of the Michigan Supreme Court. The earlier article dealt principally with the merits of the new "rezoning as administrative act" doctrine. The present article discusses troublesome aspects of the Michigan Supreme Court's attitude toward the principle of …

The Role Of The Local Comprehensive Plan In Land Use Regulation, Daniel R. Mandelker

Michigan Law Review

This article will deal with the enlarged role of the comprehensive plan in the local land use control process. Part I examines traditional judicial views of the role of the comprehensive plan as a guide to zoning administration. Part II suggests that innovations in land use control and comprehensive planning techniques evidence a need for mandatory planning. Subsequent sections examine changes in the judicial attitude toward the role of the comprehensive plan in land use control administration, and survey some enacted and proposed state legislation that modifies the early planning acts by requiring comprehensive planning. This legislation is analyzed to …

The Inadequacy Of Judicial Remedies In Cases Of Exclusionary Zoning, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

This Note presents and evaluates the possible judicial responses to cases, like Mount Laurel, that involve challenges to entire zoning ordinances on exclusionary grounds. It argues that pragmatic and legal difficulties militate against any judicial imposition of affirmative relief not tailored to specific tracts of land and suggests that the most effective resolution of the problems confronted by low-income housing advocates lies in comprehensive legislative programs.

Rezoning By Amendment As An Administrative Or Quasi-Judicial Act: The "New Look" In Michigan Zoning, Roger A. Cunningham

Michigan Law Review

The traditional view in zoning law has been that the enactment of an original zoning ordinance and any amendments thereto by a local governing body is a "legislative" act, as contrasted with the granting of a "special exception" or a "variance" by the zoning board of appeals (or board of adjustment), which is an "administrative" or "quasi-judicial" act. Recently, however, the Oregon and Washington supreme courts have challenged this view, concluding that, under some circumstances at least, the enactment of a zoning amendment should be considered an "administrative" or "quasi-judicial" act, and thus subject to more extensive judicial review. Although …

Beyond The Eye Of The Beholder: Aesthetics And Objectivity, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

The term "aesthetic legislation," as used in this Note, refers only to legislation that bears upon the visual character of the physical environment, rather than to legislation on problems of noise and odor. The legal system has handled problems of the latter sort much better; only the sense of sight has been left unprotected. Perhaps one reason for its neglect is that in order to make an area visually pleasing positive programs, such as zoning, must be used, as well as passive prohibitions of such noxious uses as billboards. Noise and odor problems, which can be resolved by prohibitions alone, …

Metropolitanization And Land-Use Parochialism--Toward A Judicial Attitude, Michael H. Feiler

Michigan Law Review

The purpose of this Article is to explore those situations in which courts have given meaning to the Euclid caveat in operation, and, from those instances, to attempt to evolve a judicial approach to the problems posed by the conflict between purely local interests on the one hand and more comprehensive regional interests on the other. Four basic premises are herein indulged: (1) that strictly local zoning is unsatisfactory; (2) that new and innovative legislation will not be readily forthcoming; (3) that the burden of mediating these conflict situations will continue to fall upon the judiciary; and (4) that present …

Constitutional Law--Equal Protection--Zoning--Snob Zoning: Must A Man's Home Be A Castle?, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

This Note will analyze and evaluate the legal theories that may be employed to attack snob zoning in the courts. First, the feasibility of attacking snob zoning via the equal protection clause of the fourteenth amendment will be examined. The second part of this Note will delineate alternative judicial responses to snob zoning that are couched in more conventional zoning-law terms.

Conservation And Rehabilitation Of Housing: An Idea Approaches Adolescence, J. Michael Warren

Michigan Law Review

From the time of construction, buildings are subject to the physical elements, the wear and tear of time, and the constant march of progress which transforms yesterday's luxuries into today's necessities. Left unchecked, these forces tend to produce the slums and blight that traditionally have been the curse of urban areas. Private, charitable, and civic organizations were the first to deal with the problem of improving conditions in slum areas. Later, state and local governments joined the effort, and although they were somewhat more successful than the pioneers in the field, without federal assistance the task proved to be beyond …

Zoning--Townships--Complete Exclusion Of Trailer Camps And Parks, Rolfe A. Worden S.Ed.

Michigan Law Review

Plaintiff challenged the validity of an amendment to the zoning ordinance of the defendant township which barred all trailer camps and parks from its industrial district. As trailer parks had previously been zoned out of the business, residential, and agricultural districts, this amendment had the effect of completely excluding them from the entire township, although approximately half of its twenty-three square miles consisted of open rural area. The parties stipulated that the plans of the plaintiff, who wanted to develop a trailer park on his premises, met all of the applicable health standards. The trial court sustained the amendment, but …

Mandelker: Green Belts And Urban Growth, Curtis J. Berger

Michigan Law Review

A Review of Green Belts and Urban Growth. By Daniel R. Mandelker

Constitutional Law - Due Process - Zoning Restrictions Requiring Land Owners To Provide Off-Street Parking, Eldon Olson

Michigan Law Review

In 1956 the City of Denver passed an ordinance requiring land owners to provide off-street parking if and when they erect new buildings or make structural alterations or change the existing use of the land. The restriction applied to a district adjacent to the traditional downtown district which was in the process of changing from residential to commercial. The ordinance did not specify whether the property owners retained control over parking areas, but the city argued that parking could be restricted to persons using the property. Plaintiff property owners alleged the ordinance was unconstitutional and were granted a declaratory judgment …

Municipal Corporations - Zoning - Exclusion Of Churches From Residential Area, William R. Luney S.Ed.

Michigan Law Review

In two recent New York cases churches sought permits to use residential property for church purposes, including worship, social gatherings, construction of an adjacent parking lot, and, in one case, establishment of a school and playground. In each case the zoning board denied the permit on grounds that a church would change the residential character of the neighborhood, decrease the enjoyment of neighboring property, depreciate property values, and that the contemplated use of the property for other than worship was prohibited by the ordinance. The lower court upheld the decisions of both zoning boards. On appeal to the New York …

Constitutional Law- Zoning - Private High Schools Excluded From Zone In Which Public High Schools Permitted, William D. Keeler S.Ed.

Michigan Law Review

Among the uses permitted in the "A" residence zone by the Wauwatosa, Wisconsin zoning ordinance were "(e) Public Schools and Private Elementary Schools." The city building inspector denied to plaintiff, a private, non-profit religious corporation, a permit for the construction of a private high school in that zone. Plaintiff brought an action in mandamus to compel the issuance of such a permit, alleging that the ordinance deprived plaintiff of property without due process of law, and denied to it the equal protection of the laws guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment. The lower court granted the writ. On appeal, held, …

Covenants - Effect Of Change Of Conditions On Equitable Restrictions, Dan K. Cook

Michigan Law Review

Plaintiff was a lot owner in a residential district consisting of twenty-three blocks. Each lot in the district was subject to a restriction, imposed by the grantor, which limited the use of the lots to residence purposes. Subsequent to the imposition of this restriction, numerous oil and gas wells had been drilled in the territory surrounding the district, so that the lots in the district had depreciated in value approximately thirty-five to fifty per cent. By ordinance, the use zoning area which included the district had been changed from a residence use to an oil and gas use. At the …