Law Commons^™

How Environmentalism Changed Urban Planning: English Green Belts To Washington Wetlands, Simma M. Asher

Simma M. Asher

Urban planning preserves green space to achieve three primary goals: to enhance quality of life, to encourage rural-based industries, and to protect the environment. The environmental goal is unique among those because it seeks to protect natural areas from human interference rather than shaping them to serve particular community purposes, such as to form a city boundary or build a farm or park. This paper examines how the addition of the environmental goal to urban planning conservation programs alters their structures. It compares an urban planning regime established before the environmental movement with a recent, environmentally oriented program and finds …

Enacting Libertarian Property: Oregon's Measure 37 And Its Implications, Michael Blumm

Michael Blumm

In November 2004, for the second time in four years, Oregon voters opted for a radical initiative that is transforming development rights in the state. The full implications of this substantial change in property rights have yet to be fully realized, but it’s clear that the post-2004 land use world in Oregon will be dramatically different than the previous thirty years.

Land development rights in the state were significantly curtailed by a landmark law the Oregon legislature, encouraged by pioneering Governor Tom McCall, enacted in 1973. Implementation of that law survived three separate initiatives that sought to rescind it in …