Law Commons^™

The Case Against The Case For Zoning, Michael Lewyn

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Power points used in a presentation on a work in progress, responding to Christopher Serkin's "Case For Zoning" article at 96 Notre Dame L. Rev. 749.

The Rise Of Market Urbanism, Michael Lewyn

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Compares market urbanism to new urbanism and to defenders of suburban sprawl. Like new urbanists, market urbanists find urban life to be socially valuable, and emphasize that sprawl is not always in line with consumer preferences. But market urbanists are more likely to emphasize the role of government regulation in creating suburbanization, and to oppose anti-sprawl land use regulations.

Explaining Market Urbanism, Michael Lewyn

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Compares Market Urbanism to New Urbanism and Landscape Urbanism

Attacking Smart Growth, Michael Lewyn

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Review of The Human City, by Joel Kotkin

How To Make Suburbia Less Sprawling, Michael Lewyn

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Review of Retrofitting Sprawl, edited by Emily Talen.

Yes To Infill, No To Nuisance, Michael Lewyn

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This article argues against the use of private nuisance suits to exclude apartments from residential neighborhoods, based on the public interest in affordable housing and walkable infill development.

American Dreams, American Realities, Michael Lewyn

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Review of Zoned In The USA, by Sonia Hirt.

How Often Do Cities Mandate Smart Growth Or Green Building?, Michael Lewyn

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Much has been written about the role of government regulation in facilitating automobile-oriented sprawl. Zoning codes reduce walkability by artificially segregating housing from commerce, forcing businesses and multifamily landlords to surround their buildings with parking, and artificially reducing density. The “smart growth” movement seeks to reverse these policies, both through regulation and through more libertarian, deregulatory policies. The purpose of this paper is to examine to what extent cities have in fact chosen the former path, and to discuss the possible side effects of prescriptive smart growth and green building regulations. In particular, this paper focuses on attempts to make …

How To Make America Walkable, Michael Lewyn

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Review of Walkable City, by Jeff Speck

Suburban Sprawl: Weaker But Still Alive, Michael Lewyn

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Review of The End of the Suburbs, by Leigh Gallagher.

The (Somewhat) False Hope Of Comprehensive Planning, Michael Lewyn

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Comprehensive planning at the municipal level, although useful in a variety of ways, is neither necessary nor sufficient to promote "smart" (that is, pedestrian and transit-oriented) growth. Comprehensive plans can be used to support sprawl as easily as to support smart growth, while smart growth may be promoted effectively through zoning reform or statewide legislation as well as through local planning.

Plans Are Not Enough, Michael Lewyn

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Some commentators see comprehensive municipal plans as a remedy for suburban sprawl. But in fact, a plan can be used to promote sprawl as well as to prevent sprawl.

Why (And How) Conservatives Should Support Smart Growth, Michael Lewyn

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Conservatives have generally been critical of the smart growth movement, because they often fear that smart growth is synonymous with overregulation of land use. This article explains why sprawl threatens conservative values, and suggests conservative-friendly smart growth policies that can both make government less intrusive and make America more walkable.

How Suburbia Happened In Toronto, Michael Lewyn

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No abstract provided.

Sprawl In Europe And America, Michael Lewyn

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Defenders of suburban sprawl assert that sprawl is inevitable in affluent societies, based on trends in Western Europe. According to supporters of this Inevitability Theory, European cities have decentralized and become more car-dependent, thus proving that even where governments are more aggressively anti-sprawl than American government, anti-sprawl policies will be futile.

This Article compares Western Europe to the United States, and criticizes the Inevitabilty Theory on the grounds that:

(1) Europe is in fact far less automobile-dependent than the United States;
(2) Europe has not, contrary to the Inevitability Theory's claims, become more car-dependent and suburbanized in recent years; and …

Five Myths About Sprawl, Michael Lewyn

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In Sprawl: A Compact History, Robert Bruegmann, an art historian, has painted a superficially convincing case for the status quo, asserting that sprawl is "a natural result of affluence that occurs in all urbanized societies." Bruegmann's book has generated glowing media publicity. This article suggests that Bruegmann overestimates the universality of sprawl, by overlooking the differences between pedestrian-friendly cities with some sprawling development and cities in which automobile-dependent sprawl is the only choice available to most consumers. In addition, Bruegmann understates the harmful social effects of sprawl, especially the effect of automobile-dependent development upon non-drivers. Bruegmann also consistently underestimates the …

You Can Have It All: Less Sprawl And Property Rights Too, Michael Lewyn

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Some commentators believe that smart growth and property rights are at loggerheads - and to be sure, these theories do lead to differing positions on a few issues (most notably urban growth boundaries and similar anti-sprawl regulations). But as to a wide variety of issues, smart growth advocates and property rights theorists can find common ground. Both groups can support eliminating zoning regulations that mandate automobile-dependent, sprawling development, such as single-use zoning, minimum parking requirements and minimum lot size requirements.

Squaring The Circle On Sprawl: What More Can We Do?: Progress Towards Sustainable Land Use In The States, Patricia E. Salkin

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With almost ten years of nationwide dialogue and experimentation with the legal implementation of smart growth concepts at the state and local levels, this paper pauses to consider whether and to what extent success has been realized. The one certainty in this dynamic intersection of land development and conservation is that there is no one best model adaptable to all fifty states. Rather, to accommodate national diversity in local government structure, cultural relationships of people to the land, and differences in geography and a sense of place, the best lesson learned is that advocates and lawmakers alike must shape and …

How Overregulation Creates Sprawl (Even In A City Without Zoning), Michael Lewyn

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Numerous commentators have suggested that the spread-out, automobile-dependent urban form (often referred to as "sprawl") that dominates metropolitan America is at least partially caused by government regulation of land use. Other commentators argue that the fate of Houston, Texas may seem to rebut that theory. Houston is America's only large city without a formal zoning code. Yet Houston is as automobile-dependent and sprawling as many cities with zoning. It could therefore be argued that automobile-dependent sprawl is the inevitable result of the free market, based on the following chain of logic: Assumption 1: Because Houston lacks zoning, Houston has an …

How City Hall Causes Sprawl - A Case Study (Book Review), Michael Lewyn

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Some commentators have labeled Atlanta, Ga. as America's poster child for sprawl. Atlanta is highly auto-oriented, and suffers from higher levels of traffic congestion and air pollution than most other cities. This book review explains how sprawl happened in Atlanta - not through the mysterious invisible hand of the free market, but through transportation and zoning decisions made by city officials.

Sprawl, Growth Boundaries And The Rehnquist Court, Michael Lewyn

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The most stringent anti-sprawl measure adopted by any American state is Oregon's urban growth boundary (UGB) program. Urban growth boundaries are lines on maps within which high-density development is encouraged, and beyond which such development is generally forbidden. Outside the boundary, rural industries (such as logging) and open space are promoted. This Article focuses on three issues: whether UGBs are constitutional under recent Supreme Court case law, (2) whether the UGB has in fact saved Portland (Oregon's largest city) from the social problems caused by sprawl, and (3) whether the side effects of UGBs make them a cure worse than …

From Euclid To Growing Smart: The Transformation Of The American Local Land Use Ethic Into Local Land Use And Environmental Controls, Patricia E. Salkin

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No abstract provided.

Smart Growth And Sustainable Development: Threads Of A National Land Use Policy, Patricia E. Salkin

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No abstract provided.

The Smart Growth Agenda: A Snapshot Of State Activity At The Turn Of The Century, Patricia E. Salkin

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No abstract provided.

Smart Growth At Century’S End: The State Of The States, Patricia E. Salkin

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No abstract provided.