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Full-Text Articles in Law
Should Taxpayers Pay People To Obey Environmental Laws?, John A. Humbach
Should Taxpayers Pay People To Obey Environmental Laws?, John A. Humbach
Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications
Should taxpayers have to pay people not to put pollutants into streams and reservoirs? Should taxpayers have to pay people not to kill off entire species? Should taxpayers have to reach into their pockets and pay people not to disperse development seamlessly across the countryside, relentlessly consuming, fragmenting, and degrading our nation's remaining natural lands until almost all is gone? Should we, in short, have to pay people not to engage in land-uses that have been determined to be too socially unacceptable to allow?
Law And A New Land Ethic, John A. Humbach
Law And A New Land Ethic, John A. Humbach
Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications
As open space comes under increasing development pressure, existing-use zoning provides a direct and forthright way to preserve the line between urban and non-urban land use. Ultimately it may be the only practical means for protecting high-demand or sensitive areas such as wetlands, coastlines, lakeshores, floodplains, stream corridors, and pristine reservoir watersheds. This Article reviews the viability of existing-use zoning under United States Supreme Court interpretations of the Constitution's takings clause. It concludes that nothing in those interpretations disallows this straightforward approach to preserving our country's familiar patterns of land use and development.