Law Commons^™

Curbing Energy Sprawl With Microgrids, Sara C. Bronin

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

Energy sprawl - the phenomenon of ever-increasing consumption of land, particularly in rural areas, required to site energy generation facilities - is a real and growing problem. Over the next twenty years, at least sixty-seven million acres of land will have been developed for energy projects, destroying wildlife habitats and fragmenting landscapes. According to one influential report, even renewable energy projects - especially large-scale projects that require large-scale transmission and distribution infrastructure - contribute to energy sprawl. This Article does not aim to stop large-scale renewable energy projects or even argue that policymakers focus solely on land use in determining …

Assured Water Supply Laws In The Sustainability Context, Lincoln L. Davies

Golden Gate University Environmental Law Journal

By juxtaposing five western states’ existing assured supply laws, this Article provides a preliminary assessment of whether, and how, assured supply laws can best promote sustainability—and, by extension, make at least one area of environmental law more like sustainability law. The Article reaches three principal conclusions. First, it finds that, as they appear to, assured supply laws in fact promote sustainability. Second, the extent to which assured supply laws likely promote sustainability greatly varies by state, because these laws’ policy designs also depend on the state of enactment. Finally, additional work is needed to provide a more concrete assessment of …

Optimizing Land Use And Water Supply Planning: A Path To Sustainability?, Randele Kanouse, Douglas Wallace

Golden Gate University Environmental Law Journal

The rise of the environmental movement and the growing public embrace of ecological values roughly coincided with the end of the dambuilding era. By the 1970s, most of the good sites for dams had already been taken, and those that remained, such as California’s North Coast rivers, were increasingly valued as natural and recreational resources that should be permanently protected. At the same time, California’s population continued to swell, from under 20 million in 1970 to nearly 38 million today. How did these trends affect water supply development in California? Among other impacts, the average time a major water supply …

Alice In Groundwater Land: Water Supply Assessments And Subsurface Water Supplies, Kevin M. O'Brien

Golden Gate University Environmental Law Journal

The purpose of this Article is to explore the preparation of Water Supply Assessments in the context of subsurface water supplies. The term “subsurface water supplies” is used here rather than “groundwater” because, as discussed below, the proponent of a development project may propose to utilize a subsurface water supply (such as water produced from beneath the surface of land via a well or a flowing spring) that is not properly classified as groundwater because it falls within the legal definition of subterranean stream flow. In such a case, the supply would be subject to the water rights permitting jurisdiction …

Friant Dam Holding Contracts: Not An Entitlement To Water Supply Under Sb 610, Barry Epstein

Golden Gate University Environmental Law Journal

Nearly ten years ago, California’s Legislature enacted Senate Bill (SB) 610, a new law requiring that any proposed large development project receiving local land use approvals be supported by a Water Supply Assessment demonstrating available water supply to meet the project’s 20-year forecast water demand. While some, perhaps most, proposed large development projects are within the service territory of large, public or private municipal water purveyors whose entitlement to the water they deliver is well-established (though not necessarily adequate or secure), developments outside the service territory of such water purveyors can require more scrutiny of the underlying water rights entitlement …

Show Me The Water Plan: Urban Water Management Plans And California’S Water Supply Adequacy Laws, Ellen Hanak

Golden Gate University Environmental Law Journal

This Article reviews the effectiveness of California’s strategy of using enabling legislation and passive enforcement to encourage more integrated local water and land use planning. To shed light on the effectiveness of the current policy framework, the Article begins with a critical overview of the Urban Water Management Planning process, drawing on a detailed analysis of plans submitted in the early 2000s. It then evaluates how water supply assessments are proceeding, with a particular emphasis on steps used to identify adequacy, drawing on telephone surveys of land use authorities and water utilities conducted by the author in 2004 and 2009. …

The Relationship Between Water Supply And Land Use Planning: Leading Cases Under The California Environmental Quality Act, James G. Moose

Golden Gate University Environmental Law Journal

This Article will survey and analyze this 2007 California Supreme Court decision and the key appellate court cases leading up to and following it, all of which address the relationship between land use planning and water supply planning under CEQA. The Article will also address a subsequent California Supreme Court decision addressing the adequacy of the EIR for one of the most significant water supply programs in recent decades, the so-called CALFED Record of Decision, which reflected, as of the year 2000, a long-term strategy for addressing ecological problems occurring in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta while increasing the reliability …

Conservation Of What?: An Introduction To The Issue, Paul Stanton Kibel, Anthony A. Austin

Golden Gate University Environmental Law Journal

No abstract provided.

How California Local Governments Became Both Water Suppliers And Planners, A. Dan Tarlock

Golden Gate University Environmental Law Journal

The paradox of California is that growth is concentrated in arid southern California but most of the state’s water supply, with the exception of the Colorado and Owens Rivers, originates in the north. This has meant that the state has had to bring massive amounts of water to the south to support the state’s celebrated continued population growth in order to compensate for California’s “bad hydrology.”1 From 1940 to 2007, California’s population increased from 6,950,000 to 37,786,000, and that growth has stressed the state’s capacity to meet the demand for water. Predicting the future is impossible, but the most conservative …

Planning And Practice - The Rooftops Project: Report Summarizing Results Of A Survey Of Not-For-Profit Organizations, James Hagy

Rooftops Project

The Rooftops Project's first national field study of the attitudes and approaches of not-for-profit organizations with respect to the owned, leased or hosted real estate that supports their core missions and operations.

The Georgia Greenway Guidebook: A Tool For Governments, Communities, And Individuals, Christine Clay, Kathleen Nelson, Katie Biszko

Land Use Clinic

The purpose of this guidebook is to provide a tool for local governments, community organizations and individuals that are considering launching or reinvigorating a greenway development project.

Section II of this guidebook explains the concept and use of greenways, as well as many of important steps and considerations for developing greenway projects from inception to completion.

Potential greenway corridors in Georgia are explored in Section III, such as riparian corridors, interstate and highway rights-of-way, railway corridors, fuel pipeline easements, and transmission line easements along high-tension power lines.

Part IV explores aspects of greenway project development, including the need to create …

Justice John Paul Stevens - His Take On Takings, Alan C. Weinstein

Law Faculty Articles and Essays

This commentary reviews and analyzes Justice John Paul Stevens's role in shaping the Court's views on the takings issue in land use regulation.

2010: A Second Odyssey Into Arkansas Land-Use Law, Buckley W. Bridges

University of Arkansas at Little Rock Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Fiduciary Theory Of Governmental Legitimacy And The Natural Charter Of The Judiciary, Luke A. Wake

Luke A. Wake

In legal academia, there are various claims as to the proper role of the courts and the standard of review to be employed in evaluating claims of right. These competing judicial philosophies have been the subject of great debate in recent years. Yet underlying these debates is the question of rights and whether men are entitled, in justice, to assurances of personal autonomy, or whether the concept of rights is a mere legal fiction.

In a recent article in the Journal of Law and Philosophy, Evan Fox-Decent argues that individuals are entitled, at a minimum, to certain guarantees of bodily …

San Francisco's Neighborhood Commercial Special Use District Ordinance: An Innovative Approach To Commercial Gentrification, Mark Cohen

Golden Gate University Law Review

What follows in this article is a discussion of: (1) the problems that have resulted in ten of San Francisco's neighborhood commercial streets due to economic revitalization that has been rapid and disorganized; (2) the City of San Francisco's attempt to deal with these problems by means of the Neighborhood Commercial Special Use District ordinance currently in effect; (3) how the provisions of the ordinance work; (4) the legal issues involved; and, (5) the planning and sociological principles the ordinance seeks to advance.

Bozung V. Lafco: Municipal Boundary Changes And The California Environmental Quality Act, Henry Michael Domzalski Ii

Golden Gate University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Construction Industry Ass'n Of Sonoma County V. City Of Petaluma: Constitutional Limitations Placed On Controlled Growth Zoning, Harriet Parker Bass, Judith Bazeley

Golden Gate University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Development Rights Transfer In Livermore: A Planning Strategy To Conserve Open Space, Patricia Sheehan Peterson, Gerald Richards

Golden Gate University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Free-Range Cattle On The Bay Area's Rural Fringe, Paul C. Ringgold

Golden Gate University Environmental Law Journal

As the population of the San Francisco Bay Area continues to in-crease, added pressures are placed on public land uses in the rural fringe. These uses include natural-resource conservation, scenic value, recreation, and historic activities, including agriculture and grazing. This Article will explore the use of public and nonprofit open space land for grazing, and the unique opportunities and challenges that this use presents in relation to the other public benefits that these lands provide. Key opportunities include the use of carefully managed grazing to restore and maintain California's native grasslands and to reduce the threat of catastrophic wildfire along …

Constitutional Limitations On Land Use Controls, Environmental Regulations And Governmental Exactions (2010 Ed.), Garrett Power

Garrett Power

This electronic book is published in a searchable PDF format as a part of the E-scholarship Repository of the University of Maryland School of Law. It is an “open content” casebook intended for classroom use in courses in Land Use Control, Environmental Law and Constitutional Law. It consists of cases carefully selected from the two hundred years of American constitutional history which address the clash between public sovereignty and private property. It considers both the personal right to liberty and the personal right in property. The text consists of non-copyrighted material and readers are free to use it or re-mix …

Stream Access In Montana And The Dispute Over Public Recreation On The Mitchell Slough, Tyson Radley O'Connell

Montana Law Review

Stream Access in Montana

Climate Refugees Require Relocation Assistance: Guaranteeng Adequate Land Assets Through Treaties Based On The National Adaptation Programmes Of Action, Holly D. Lange

Washington International Law Journal

Rising ocean levels in the South Pacific threaten thousands of inhabitants with displacement. Many of these small Pacific island states lack available land to internally accommodate displaced individuals. Thus, thousands of “climate refugees” will be forced to move off their island homes and, without provisions of adequate land rights, will most likely end up in refugee camps in other countries. Climate change exemplifies an inherently global challenge. Developed countries produce disproportionately more greenhouse gases, and developing countries lack resources to adequately respond to climatic displacement. International treaties establish a legal responsibility to assist developing states adapt to climate change. However, …

The Displaced Residents' Right To Relocation Assistance: Toward An Equitable Urban Redevelopment In South Korea, Jihye Kim

Washington International Law Journal

Major urban redevelopment projects are currently on-going to beautify the urban landscape in Seoul, which is the most densely populated metropolitan area of South Korea. In this process, massive acquisition of homes has taken place, displacing many residents who are now demanding relocation assistance. South Korean law imposes obligations upon developers to provide relocation assistance for displaced residents. However, vagueness in the statutory language causes not only confusion in the implementation of the law, but has also led to a Supreme Court decision denying displaced residents’ legal right to relocation assistance. This interpretation further expanded developer’s discretion in carrying out …

Conservation Easements And Adaptive Management, Jesse Richardson

Law Faculty Scholarship

The perpetual nature of conservation easements makes adaptive management difficult on easement property. Various easement provisions may be used to incorporate adaptive management principles into a conservation easement, but various factors, including state statutory requirements and Internal Revenue Code requirements for deductibility, limit the flexibility of management on conservation easement lands. Jesse Richardson discusses how conservation easements limit implementation of adaptive management principles on protected lands. Case studies of conservation easements that now fail to fulfill the original conservation purpose, but are locked into perpetual conservation, illustrate the limitations of conservation easements. Richardson also discusses likely future conflicts between conservation …

Slides: Climate Change Adaptation And The Federal Lands, Robert L. Glicksman

The Past, Present, and Future of Our Public Lands: Celebrating the 40th Anniversary of the Public Land Law Review Commission’s Report, One Third of the Nation’s Land (Martz Summer Conference, June 2-4)

Presenter: Robert L. Glicksman, J.B. and Maurice C. Shapiro Professor of Environmental Law, George Washington University Law School (Washington, D.C.)

12 slides

Slides: Climate Change And Public Lands: Examples From National Parks, Stephen Saunders

The Past, Present, and Future of Our Public Lands: Celebrating the 40th Anniversary of the Public Land Law Review Commission’s Report, One Third of the Nation’s Land (Martz Summer Conference, June 2-4)

Presenter: Stephen Saunders, President, The Rocky Mountain Climate Organization (Denver, CO)

40 slides

Slides: Second Thoughts About The Antiquities Act: Does The Process For Public Land Decisionmaking Have An Ethical Dimension?, James R. Rasband

The Past, Present, and Future of Our Public Lands: Celebrating the 40th Anniversary of the Public Land Law Review Commission’s Report, One Third of the Nation’s Land (Martz Summer Conference, June 2-4)

Presenter: James R. Rasband, Dean of the J. Reuben Clark Law School, Brigham Young University (Provo, UT)

32 slides

Hardrock Mining And The Public Land Law Review Commission: The More Things Change….21st Century Mining, A 20th Century Report, And A 19th Century Law, Roger Flynn

The Past, Present, and Future of Our Public Lands: Celebrating the 40th Anniversary of the Public Land Law Review Commission’s Report, One Third of the Nation’s Land (Martz Summer Conference, June 2-4)

3 pages.

Slides: Livestock Grazing On The Public Lands, Joe Feller

The Past, Present, and Future of Our Public Lands: Celebrating the 40th Anniversary of the Public Land Law Review Commission’s Report, One Third of the Nation’s Land (Martz Summer Conference, June 2-4)

Presenter: Joe Feller, Professor of Law, Arizona State University Law School; Visiting Professor, University of Colorado Law School

33 slides

Slides: Chapter 7 Of The Commission Report, David L. Bernhardt

The Past, Present, and Future of Our Public Lands: Celebrating the 40th Anniversary of the Public Land Law Review Commission’s Report, One Third of the Nation’s Land (Martz Summer Conference, June 2-4)

Presenter: David L. Bernhardt, Partner, Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck (Washington, DC) and former Solicitor for U.S. Department of the Interior

14 slides