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 …

Planners Gone Wild: The Overregulation Of Parking, Michael E Lewyn, Shane Cralle

Michael E Lewyn

A review of Donald Shoup's book, The High Cost of Free Parking (to be published in William Mitchell Law Review).

Watts My Line? Energy Generation Siting Strategies For Urban Areas, Caleb W. Christopher

Caleb W Christopher

The growth of urban areas has historically been both constrained and encouraged by energy and related infrastructure. Varying degrees of regulation have been sought to respond to compelling public safety needs: more recently, modern environmental law system was derived from public conflicts over siting of an energy plant. While the greater urban density offers reduced per-capita energy consumption rates, contemporary urban revitalization has brought a greater amount of people into closer contact with their energy sources. The unique geography, and increased securities needs, of urban areas demand both reliability and local proximity in energy source production. Urban siting issues will …

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

Michael E Lewyn

The article describes two visions of suburban development, a “smart growth” vision which critiques automobile-dependent suburban sprawl, and a “property rights” vision which emphasizes individual freedom. The article then shows that these visions are to a great extent reconcilable, by discussing a variety of legal reforms which can both reduce suburban sprawl and enhance landowners’ property rights. For example, if zoning laws were reformed to allow landowners to build more compact developments, landowners would obviously have a wider range of options (thus enhancing property rights) and more people could live within walking distance of jobs, shops and public transit (thus …

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 …

The Takings Clause, Version 2005: The Legal Process Of Constitutional Property Rights, Mark Fenster

Mark Fenster