Law Commons^™

Practically Grounded: Convergence Of Land Use Law Pedagogy And Best Practices, John R. Nolon

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

The changing dynamics in the field of land use and sustainable community development law demand that land use law professors rethink the way in which we prepare law students to practice law in this area. This needed paradigm shift converges with the growing momentum of the best practices movement which urges law schools to dramatically revise the curricular approach to legal education, arguing that traditional models are no longer effectively serving the goal of producing competent and fully prepared new lawyers. A perfect storm is present and a unique opportunity exists through the application of many “best practices” concepts for …

Equal Standing With States: Tribal Sovereignty And Standing After Massachusetts V. Epa, Joseph Mead, Nicholas Fromherz

All Maxine Goodman Levin School of Urban Affairs Publications

In Massachusetts v. EPA, 549 U.S. 497 (2007), the Supreme Court held that Massachusetts was entitled to "special solicitude" in the standing analysis because it was sovereign. As a result, Massachusetts passed the standing threshold in a global warming case where an ordinary litigant may have been stymied. The Supreme Court’s analysis raises an interesting question: Are Indian tribes—which have been considered sovereign entities since before the founding, and which hold lands facing heavy environmental pressure—entitled to "special solicitude" as well? We think they should be.

To make this argument, we begin by discussing standing basics; dissecting Massachusetts v. …

Governing? Gentrifying? Seceding? Real-Time Answers To Questions About Business Improvement Districts, Nicole Stelle Garnett

Journal Articles

Business improvement districts (BIDs) have become a ubiquitous feature of the urban development toolkit. An important - perhaps the most important - instantiation of the trend in urban governance toward the devolution of local authority to new sublocal, quasi-governmental institutions, BIDs play an important role in urban re-development efforts, especially efforts to revitalize downtowns and satellite center-city business districts. Drawing upon case studies of Philadelphia’s BIDS, this symposium essay seeks to answer three questions about how BIDs actually work on the ground: First, whether BIDs are actually functioning as local governments rather than quasi-private providers of supplemental services; second, whether …

The Order-Maintenance Agenda As Land Use Policy, Nicole Stelle Garnett

Journal Articles

Debates about the broken windows hypothesis focus almost exclusively on whether the order-maintenance agenda represents wise criminal law policy — specifically on whether, when, and at what cost, order-maintenance policing techniques reduce serious crime. These questions are important, but incomplete. This Essay, which was solicited for a symposium on urban-development policy, considers potential benefits of order-maintenance policies other than crime-reduction, especially reducing the fear of crime. The Broken Windows essay itself urged that attention to disorder was important not just because disorder was a precursor to more serious crime, but also because disorder undermined residents’ sense of security. The later …

Reconciling Development And Natural Beauty: The Promise And Dilemma Of Conservation Easements, Zachary A. Bray

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

Local and regional private land trusts are among the most important and most numerous conservation actors in contemporary America, and conservation easements are perhaps the key land conservation tools used by these trusts. In recent decades, privately held conservation easements and local and regional private land trusts have grown at a rapid and increasing rate, and the total acreage protected by privately held conservation easements is now larger than some states. The early growth of privately held conservation easements met widespread approval, but more recently, contemporary conservation easement practice has attracted many critics, based in part on well-publicized national scandals …

Can Urban University Expansion And Sustainable Development Co-Exist?: A Case Study In Progress On Columbia University, Keith H. Hirokawa, Patricia E. Salkin

Fordham Urban Law Journal

This article uses the expansion of Columbia University as a case study to demonstrate the difficulty in labeling projects as "sustainable" or "unsustainable" when key stakeholders view the process and outcomes of sustainability differently.

The Wholesale Decommissioning Of Vacant Urban Neighborhoods: Smart Decline, Public-Purpose Takings, And The Legality Of Shrinking Cities, Ben Beckman

Cleveland State Law Review

This Note is principally concerned with those takings that arise from the State's exercise of eminent domain, either directly or through the State's designee. To put a finer point on it, this Note addresses the distinction that property-rights advocates have developed to delegitimize certain types of takings. This distinction divides condemnations into disfavored-yet-legitimate takings-the direct-government-use and common-carrier takings-and ostensibly illegitimate public-purpose takings. The property-rights movement unequivocally places economic-development takings in the illegitimate category. The status of blight-remediation takings is ambiguous but tends toward legitimacy.

The Business Improvement District Comes Of Age, Richard Briffault

Faculty Scholarship

It is difficult to say precisely when the business improvement district (BID) was born. BIDs emerged out of legal structures and concepts that date back many decades, but the specific BID form is a relatively recent development. By some accounts, the first BID in the United States was the Downtown Development District of New Orleans, which was established in 1975. Few BIDs were created before 1980, and in most places the surge in BID formation did not really get going until around 1990 – the year that Philadelphia's Center City District was first established. Although new BIDs were created on …

Developing Community Gardens: Removing Barriers To Improve Our Society, Adrianne C. Crow

Kentucky Journal of Equine, Agriculture, & Natural Resources Law

No abstract provided.

Local Regulation Of Mineral Development In Wyoming, Alan Romero

Alan Romero

No abstract provided.

Curbing Energy Sprawl With Microgrids, Sara Bronin

Sara C. Bronin

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 …

2010 Planetizen Blog Posts, Michael Lewyn

Michael E Lewyn

Obrigações De Realizar Obras De Conservação Patrimonial, De Acordo Com O Art. 19 Do Decreto-Lei 25/1937, Rafael De Oliveira Alves

Rafael de Oliveira Alves

No abstract provided.

Cohousing: Joining Affordable, Sustainable And Collaboratively-Govened, Single Family Neighborhoods, Michael N. Widener

Michael N. Widener

This article arises from the residential lending mess on the American middle class (however defined today), proposing a few innovative, forward-looking solutions for Americans whose credit has been ruined or whose largest (and frequently illiquid) economic asset cannot be sold or leased to offset their households’ obligations. The purpose of my essay is to invite conversations among civic leaders from the government, design, lending and residential development sectors, and academic opinion-makers, on how to stem the current foreclosure tide and restore confidence in owner-occupied housing markets, overcoming public anxieties about whether future economic downturns will bury those dwellers anew.

Safeguarding "The Precious": Counsel On Law Journal Publication Agreements In Digital Times, Michael N. Widener

Michael N. Widener

No abstract provided.

Laying To Rest An Ancien Regime: Antiquated Institutions In Louisiana Civil Law And Their Incompatibility With Modern Public Policies, Christopher K. Odinet

Christopher K. Odinet