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Articles 1 - 30 of 38
Full-Text Articles in Law
Learning From Land Use Reforms: Housing Outcomes And Regulatory Change, Noah Kazis
Learning From Land Use Reforms: Housing Outcomes And Regulatory Change, Noah Kazis
Law & Economics Working Papers
This essay serves as the introduction for an edited, interdisciplinary symposium of articles studying recent land use reforms at the state and local level. These papers provide important descriptive analyses of a range of policy interventions, using quantitative and qualitative methods to provide new empirical insights into zoning reform strategies.
After situating and summarizing the collected articles, the Introduction draws out shared themes. For example, these essays demonstrate the efficacy of recent reforms, not only at facilitating housing production but at doing so in especially difficult contexts (like when producing affordable housing and redeveloping single-family neighborhoods). They point to the …
Corporate Consolidation Of Rental Housing & The Case For National Rent Stabilization, Brandon Weiss
Corporate Consolidation Of Rental Housing & The Case For National Rent Stabilization, Brandon Weiss
Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals
Rental housing in the United States is increasingly owned by corporate landlords that operate under a different set of incentives, behind a level of anonymity previously unavailable, and pursuant to practices that often exacerbate an already precarious housing landscape for tenants. Marketsensitive and nuanced rent stabilization laws have reemerged at the state and local level as a viable policy option to help regulate escalating rents and prevent tenant displacement. These laws, when well drafted, can address outdated critiques of strict rent caps and can complement alternative approaches, like those of the politically popular Yes In My Backyard (YIMBY) movement, which …
Using Youtube To Explain Housing, Michael Lewyn
Using Youtube To Explain Housing, Michael Lewyn
Scholarly Works
In 2021, the author ran for Borough President of Manhattan, New York. The author tried to his scholarship into his campaign by producing over twenty Youtube videos, most of which addressed land use and housing policy. The article describes the videos, and evaluates their usefulness.
Law School News: National Housing Advocate Named To Lead Rwu's New Real Estate Initiatives 02/08/2022, Roger Williams University School Of Law
Law School News: National Housing Advocate Named To Lead Rwu's New Real Estate Initiatives 02/08/2022, Roger Williams University School Of Law
Life of the Law School (1993- )
No abstract provided.
Does Democracy Justify Zoning?, Michael Lewyn
Does Democracy Justify Zoning?, Michael Lewyn
Scholarly Works
One common argument for restrictive zoning is that zoning is more democratic than allowing landowners to build what they please. This article critiques that claim, suggesting that free markets are equally democratic because they allow for self-rule. Moreover, zoning is less democratic than other forms of government decisionmaking, because zoning hearings are often sparsely attended, and commenters at public meetings are unrepresentative of the public as a whole.
Equitable, Affordable And Climate-Cognizant Housing Construction, Shelby D. Green
Equitable, Affordable And Climate-Cognizant Housing Construction, Shelby D. Green
Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications
The almost universal sentiment by a growing body of physical and social scientists is that climate change--with its floods, drought, heat, and cold-- portend losses of life, communities, property, and the rhythms of living. Some are more vulnerable to these impacts than others: individuals and the poor, who through official government policy and self-interest in the housing markets, have been relegated to live in poorly-constructed and poorly-placed structures--in the wake of ocean surges; in the path of strong winds; near hazardous and noxious facilities; stranded in urban heat islands. Failing to heed climate change omens will lead to a world …
Adaptive Rezoning For Social Equity, Affordability And Resilience, Shelby D. Green
Adaptive Rezoning For Social Equity, Affordability And Resilience, Shelby D. Green
Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications
In this Article, I will show how the legacies of the institutional barriers to housing still persist to deprive many of the predicates for economic thriving and personal flourishing and how existing zoning philosophy cannot be justified by the need to protect health and safety. Righting the inequities of the past and of the present will require dismantling some of the institutions, apparently legitimate and well-meaning, but operating devilishly to create and perpetuate hardship and exclusion. This will require laying bare the institutions to reveal their ignoble essence. We need a radical overhaul of the historic zoning regime from one …
The Case Against The Case For Zoning, Michael Lewyn
The Case Against The Case For Zoning, Michael Lewyn
Scholarly Works
Power points used in a presentation on a work in progress, responding to Christopher Serkin's "Case For Zoning" article at 96 Notre Dame L. Rev. 749.
Will Zoning Fix Itself?, Michael Lewyn
Will Zoning Fix Itself?, Michael Lewyn
Scholarly Works
Typically, zoning artificially limits housing supply, thus increasing housing costs. One possible defense of this system is that zoning can fix itself- that is, that when rents and housing costs become unusually high, politicians will deregulate and thus reduce housing costs. This article suggests that such a happy result is unlikely; instead, where housing costs spiral out of control, voters and politicians are likely to make regulation even more strict out of a fear of gentrification.
Bringing Judaism Downtown: A Smart Growth Policy For Orthodox Jews, Michael Lewyn
Bringing Judaism Downtown: A Smart Growth Policy For Orthodox Jews, Michael Lewyn
Scholarly Works
Until the late 20th century, the most rigorously traditional Jews, haredi Jews (often referred to as “ultra-Orthodox”) tended to congregate in New York City. But as New York became more expensive and haredi population grew due to high birth rates, some haredi Jews (known collectively as “haredim”) moved to small towns and outer suburbs in search of cheaper land, sometimes creating towns dominated by haredim such as Kiryas Joel, New York and Lakewood, New Jersey. As haredi populations have continued to grow, their households now seek undeveloped land outside these enclaves. But as haredim move deeper into the countryside, zoning …
Downtown Condos For The Rich: Not All Bad, Michael Lewyn
Downtown Condos For The Rich: Not All Bad, Michael Lewyn
Scholarly Works
Some new condominiums in urban neighborhoods are too expensive for anyone but the very wealthy. Buyers of these high-cost units include not only wealthy city residents, but also nonresidents who wish to use housing as an investment rather than a residence. Some commentators use this apparent fact as an argument against new market-rate housing generally; they claim that new housing will be purchased by out-of-town investors rather than used by local residents and that those investors will leave housing units empty, rather than renting them out. A related argument is that, even if market-rate condos are purchased by local residents, …
The Limits Of Equity, Michael Lewyn
The Limits Of Equity, Michael Lewyn
Scholarly Works
"Equity" is a common buzzword in urban planning circles. However, nearly any land use decision can be justified as more equitable than the alternatives.
Zoning For Families, Sara C. Bronin
Zoning For Families, Sara C. Bronin
Cornell Law Faculty Publications
Is a group of eight unrelated adults and three children living together and sharing meals, household expenses, and responsibilities—and holding themselves out to the world to have long-term commitments to each other—a family? Not according to most zoning codes—including that of Hartford, Connecticut, where the preceding scenario presented itself a few years ago. Zoning, which is the local regulation of land use, almost always defines family, limiting those who may live in a dwelling unit to those who satisfy the zoning code’s definition. Often times, this definition is drafted in a way that excludes many modern living arrangements and preferences. …
State Constitutional General Welfare Doctrine, Gerald S. Dickinson
State Constitutional General Welfare Doctrine, Gerald S. Dickinson
Articles
It is black-letter law that the U.S. Supreme Court’s takings doctrine presupposes exercises of eminent domain are in pursuit of valid public uses that require just compensation. But, neither federal doctrine nor the text of the Takings Clause offers any additional constraints. The story of the Supreme Court’s takings jurisprudence is, in other words, incomplete and deserves reexamination. However, the usual protagonists, such as the Supreme Court or federal courts, are not central to this Article’s reexamination. Instead, this Article’s narrative is federalism, its characters are state courts, and its script is state constitutions.
In the post-Kelo v. New London …
Explaining Market Urbanism, Michael Lewyn
Explaining Market Urbanism, Michael Lewyn
Scholarly Works
Compares Market Urbanism to New Urbanism and Landscape Urbanism
Exclusionary Megacities, Wendell Pritchett, Shitong Qiao
Exclusionary Megacities, Wendell Pritchett, Shitong Qiao
All Faculty Scholarship
Human beings should live in places where they are most productive, and megacities, where information, innovation and opportunities congregate, would be the optimal choice. Yet megacities in both China and the U.S. are excluding people by limiting housing supply. Why, despite their many differences, is the same type of exclusion happening in both Chinese and U.S. megacities? Urban law and policy scholars argue that Not-In-My-Backyard (NIMBY) homeowners are taking over megacities in the U.S. and hindering housing development therein. They pin their hopes on an efficient growth machine that makes sure “above all, nothing gets in the way of building.” …
Does The Threat Of Gentrification Justify Restrictive Zoning?, Michael Lewyn
Does The Threat Of Gentrification Justify Restrictive Zoning?, Michael Lewyn
Scholarly Works
Historically, progressives have opposed restrictive zoning, arguing that by restricting the housing supply to high-end housing, zoning reduces the supply of housing available to lower-income Americans. But recently, some progressives have suggested that new market-rate housing facilitates gentrification and displacement of lower-income renters. This article critically examines that theory.
Racism Didn't Stop At Jim Crow, Samuel R. Bagenstos
Racism Didn't Stop At Jim Crow, Samuel R. Bagenstos
Reviews
Nearly 50 years ago, the Kerner Commission famously declared that “[o]ur nation is moving toward two societies, one black, one white—separate and unequal.” The picture has changed distressingly little since then. In the 1950 Census, the average African American in a metropolitan area lived in a neighborhood that was 35 percent white—the same figure as in the 2010 Census. In 2010, the average white American still lived in a neighborhood that was more than 75 percent white. America’s largest metropolitan areas—particularly, but not exclusively, in the North—continue to score high on many common measures of racial segregation. And racial segregation …
Side By Side: Revitalizing Urban Cores And Ensuring Residential Diversity, Andrea Boyack
Side By Side: Revitalizing Urban Cores And Ensuring Residential Diversity, Andrea Boyack
Faculty Publications
Fifty years ago, the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. expressed a hope that someday people of all races would “live side by side in decent, safe, and sanitary housing.” Residential patterns in America today, however, remain highly segregated by race and income. The Fair Housing Act outlawed overt housing discrimination and unjustified discriminatory impacts, but zoning laws and housing finance structures have continued to impede housing integration, leaving communities nearly as racially homogenous as they were in the mid 20th century. These separate neighborhoods are far from equal. The majority of people who reside in financially distressed city-center neighborhoods are …
Segregative-Effect Claims Under The Fair Housing Act, Robert G. Schwemm
Segregative-Effect Claims Under The Fair Housing Act, Robert G. Schwemm
Law Faculty Scholarly Articles
Two types of discriminatory-effect claims have been recognized under the federal Fair Housing Act (FHA): (1) disparate impact; and (2) segregative effect. Neither requires a showing of illegal intent, and both, according to a 2013 regulation promulgated by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), are subject to the same three-step burden-shifting proof scheme, which assigns the plaintiff the initial burden of proving that the defendant’s challenged practice causes a discriminatory effect. Both the disparate-impact and segregative-effect theories date back to appellate decisions from the 1970s, although the Supreme Court’s endorsement of the former in 2015 in Texas …
Zoning’S Centennial: A Complete Account Of The Evolution Of Zoning Into A Robust System Of Land Use Law—1916-2016 (Part Iii), John R. Nolon
Zoning’S Centennial: A Complete Account Of The Evolution Of Zoning Into A Robust System Of Land Use Law—1916-2016 (Part Iii), John R. Nolon
Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications
In land use, there are two things that Americans dislike: one is sprawl, the other is density. This catch-22 can be resolved by mitigating those aspects of urban living associated with density: congestion, bulky buildings, sameness, design incongruities, unsafe streets, inefficiency, and the sense that neighborhoods are not livable and pleasant. These characteristics of density cut against sustainability. They define places that people want to leave as soon as they can. To reduce vehicle miles travelled and carbon emissions, as well as to prevent sprawl, we must create places of enduring value, located next to transit in walkable and sustainable …
Distinguishing Households From Families, Katharine B. Silbaugh
Distinguishing Households From Families, Katharine B. Silbaugh
Faculty Scholarship
The study of the relationship between all families, whether marital or non-marital, and households, is underdeveloped, despite extensive study of the mismatch between family law, which is still focused on marriage and parenthood, and family practices. Often, in an effort to update the discourse, discussions of non-marital families seem to deploy households or living arrangements as a substitute classification in the place of the old marital family. This Article argues that we need to resist the tendency to substitute the idea of “household” when the boundaries of legal family fail us, because households are not necessarily familial, and because core …
The Roots Of Expensive Zoning, Michael Lewyn
The Roots Of Expensive Zoning, Michael Lewyn
Scholarly Works
Review of Zoning Rules, by William Fischel.
Single Family Zoning, Intimate Association, And The Right To Choose Household Companions, Rigel C. Oliveri
Single Family Zoning, Intimate Association, And The Right To Choose Household Companions, Rigel C. Oliveri
Faculty Publications
Many local governments use single family zoning ordinances to restrict occupancy in residential areas to households whose members are all related to one another by blood, marriage, or adoption. The Supreme Court upheld such ordinances in the 1974 case of Belle Terre v. Boraas, and they have been used to prevent all sort of groups from living together – from unmarried couples who are raising children to college students. This Article contends that Belle Terre is wholly incompatible with the Court’s modern jurisprudence on privacy and the right of intimate association. The case appears to have survived this long because …
American Dreams, American Realities, Michael Lewyn
American Dreams, American Realities, Michael Lewyn
Scholarly Works
Review of Zoned In The USA, by Sonia Hirt.
Private Regimes In The Public Sphere: Optimizing The Benefits Of Common Interest Communities, Gerald Korngold
Private Regimes In The Public Sphere: Optimizing The Benefits Of Common Interest Communities, Gerald Korngold
Articles & Chapters
No abstract provided.
Following Industry's Leed : Municipal Adoption Of Private Green Building Standards, Sarah B. Schindler
Following Industry's Leed : Municipal Adoption Of Private Green Building Standards, Sarah B. Schindler
Faculty Publications
Local governments are beginning to require new, privately constructed and funded buildings to be “green” buildings. Instead of creating their own, locally-derived definitions of green buildings, many municipalities are adopting an existing private standard created by members of the building industry: LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design). This Article explains and assesses the privately promulgated LEED standards. It argues that the translation of LEED standards, which were intended to be voluntary, into law raises several theoretical and practical problems. Specifically, private green building ordinances that rely on LEED do not ensure a reduction in the negative local environmental impacts …
A Quiet Crisis In America: Meeting The Affordable Housing Needs Of The Invisible Low-Income Healthy Seniors, Patricia E. Salkin
A Quiet Crisis In America: Meeting The Affordable Housing Needs Of The Invisible Low-Income Healthy Seniors, Patricia E. Salkin
Scholarly Works
Part I of this article discusses population statistics in greater detail, exploring available financial demographics of seniors and showing that many seniors are likely to be in need of affordable housing today, and that many more will likely join this group in the future. Part II discusses the role of the federal and state governments in providing affordable senior housing and concludes that these programs have typically failed to yield effective results on a wide enough basis. Part III focuses on the impact that local governments can have immediately in helping to address the affordable senior housing crisis through the …
Exclusionary Eminent Domain, David A. Dana
Exclusionary Eminent Domain, David A. Dana
Faculty Working Papers
This Article explores the phenomenon of "exclusionary eminent domain" – the exercise of eminent domain that has the effect of excluding low-income households from an otherwise predominantly or entirely middle-class or wealthy neighborhood or locality, whether or not exclusion itself was the purpose of the condemnation. All condemnations exclude the condemned owner (and his or her tenants, if any) from the condemned property. Exercises of what I am calling "exclusionary eminent domain" are doubly exclusive because the displaced residents are unable to afford new housing in the same neighborhood or locality as their now-condemned, former homes. In exclusionary eminent domain, …
Local Inclusionary Housing Programs: Meeting Housing Needs, John R. Nolon, Jessica A. Bacher
Local Inclusionary Housing Programs: Meeting Housing Needs, John R. Nolon, Jessica A. Bacher
Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications
This article explores the expansive legal authority that local governments in many states have to meet housing needs directly by providing for the production of new affordable homes. There is not a great deal of scholarship on the subject as we approach it. The emphasis in the academic literature in the field of affordable housing is on top-down, systemic, or theoretical solutions: urging reforms in federal and state finance programs, imploring courts to penalize localities that engage in exclusionary zoning, describing in detail a variety of inclusionary zoning techniques, or explaining relevant theories or the economics of the issue of …