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Full-Text Articles in Law
Dispossessing Resident Voice: Municipal Receiverships And The Public Trust, Juliet M. Moringiello
Dispossessing Resident Voice: Municipal Receiverships And The Public Trust, Juliet M. Moringiello
University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform
The residents of struggling cities suffer property dispossessions both as individual owners and as municipal residents. Their individual dispossessions are part of a cycle that often begins with industrial decline. In Detroit, for example, more than 100,000 residents have lost their homes to tax foreclosure over a four-year period that bracketed the city’s bankruptcy filing. Falling property values, job losses, and foreclosures affect municipal budgets by reducing tax revenues. As individual dispossessions exacerbate municipal financial crises, residents can also face the loss of municipal property. Struggling cities and towns often sell publicly owned property—from parks to parking systems—to balance municipal …
Dispossessing Detroit: How The Law Takes Property, Mary Kathlin Sickel
Dispossessing Detroit: How The Law Takes Property, Mary Kathlin Sickel
University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform
Introduction for the University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform's Symposium “Dispossessing Detroit: How the Law Takes Property,” hosted on November 9 and 10, 2019.
Public Use, Public Choice, And The Urban Growth Machine: Competing Political Economies Of Takings Law, Daniel A. Lyons
Public Use, Public Choice, And The Urban Growth Machine: Competing Political Economies Of Takings Law, Daniel A. Lyons
University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform
The Kelo decision has unleashed a tidal wave of legislative reforms ostensibly seeking to control eminent domain abuse. But as a policy matter, it is impossible to determine what limits should be placed upon local government without understanding how cities grow and develop, and how local governments make decisions to shape the communities over which they preside. This Article examines takings through two very different models of urban political economy: public choice theory and the quasi-Marxist Urban Growth Machine model. These models approach takings from diametrically opposite perspectives, and offer differing perspectives at the margin regarding proper and improper condemnations. …
Adverse Possession Of Municipal Land: It's Time To Protect This Valuable Asset, Paula R. Latovick
Adverse Possession Of Municipal Land: It's Time To Protect This Valuable Asset, Paula R. Latovick
University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform
The laws of several states regarding adverse possession of municipal land vary widely from providing no protection to granting complete immunity from such loss. Generally, states that permit adverse possession of municipally owned land do so without articulating a rationale for allowing such a loss of a valuable municipal asset. In this Article, Professor Latovick describes why the current state of the law is unsatisfactory. She then considers the public policies raised by the issue of adverse possession of municipal land. Professor Latovick concludes by proposing that states should adopt legislation expressly protecting all municipal land from adverse possession and …
Conversion Of Apartments To Condominiums And Cooperatives: Protecting Tenants In New York, Charles M. Cobbe
Conversion Of Apartments To Condominiums And Cooperatives: Protecting Tenants In New York, Charles M. Cobbe
University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform
In recent years, the number of conversions of rental apartments to cooperative and condominium ownership has increased dramatically. Such conversions often result in extreme hardships for tenants in the buildings affected. Those who are unable or unwilling to pay the purchase price of an apartment are generally forced to seek other rental accommodations at a time when these are increasingly difficult to find -a problem which becomes especially severe for elderly tenants and those with low incomes. In addition, tenants who purchase apartments may suffer the abuses which often accompany sales of condominium and cooperative units. A further problem in …
Exclusionary Zoning: A Wrong In Search Of A Remedy, Leonard S. Rubinowitz
Exclusionary Zoning: A Wrong In Search Of A Remedy, Leonard S. Rubinowitz
University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform
This article discusses affirmative approaches to providing effective relief in two types of exclusionary zoning cases: (1) remedies specific to a particular proposed development or a given site and (2) regional remedies, which provide a generalized framework for meeting what courts are increasingly identifying as a regional problem: the need for decent housing for all families. In the first instance (the "single-site" case) a court would remove obstacles in order to facilitate development of low- and moderate- income housing on a particular suburban site. In the second case (the regional approach) a court would specify the obligation of the municipalities …
The Interrelationship Between Exclusionary Zoning And Exclusionary Subdivision Control, Robert E. Hirshon
The Interrelationship Between Exclusionary Zoning And Exclusionary Subdivision Control, Robert E. Hirshon
University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform
This article will examine both exclusionary zoning and subdivision control with a view toward analyzing the assumptions common to both types of laws. The operative differences between exclusionary zoning and subdivision control may be non-existent. If this is truly the case, the judicial response to each practice should be the same.