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Series

Land Use Law

Pace University

Environmental Law

Articles 1 - 10 of 10

Full-Text Articles in Law

Shifting Ground To Address Climate Change: The Land Use Law Solution, John R. Nolon Jul 2008

Shifting Ground To Address Climate Change: The Land Use Law Solution, John R. Nolon

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

This article conceives and describes a Land Use Stabilization Wedge: a strategy that aggregates these five wedges and further organizes strategic energies. This builds on Socolow’s optimistic assertion that “an excuse for inaction based on the world’s lack of technological readiness does not exist.” I assert that the existing legal authority of state and local governments to regulate and guide land use and building is a powerful “technology already deployed somewhere in the world.” The Land Use Stabilization Wedge aggregates several of Socolow’s initiatives and employs multiple mitigation techniques available to citizens in every locality in the country.


Zoning, Transportation, And Climate Change, John R. Nolon Sep 2007

Zoning, Transportation, And Climate Change, John R. Nolon

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

On February 2, 2006, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) expressed the consensus of the scientific community that global warming is unequivocal and that its main driver is human activity. On April 7, 2007, the IPCC issued a second report detailing the likely consequences of climate change: widening droughts, more severe storm events, increased inland flooding, sea level rise, and consequent inundation of low lying lands. The Center for Climate Systems Research at Columbia University estimates that sea levels around New York City’s boroughs will increase by five inches by 2030, with some estimates predicting up to 12 inches …


Climate Change, Zoning And Transportation Planning: Urbanization As A Response To Carbon Loading, John R. Nolon, Jessica A. Bacher Jan 2007

Climate Change, Zoning And Transportation Planning: Urbanization As A Response To Carbon Loading, John R. Nolon, Jessica A. Bacher

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

This article explores the relationship among zoning, transportation planning, and climate change. It discusses the relationship between land use densities and transportation choices, reviews the trend toward transit oriented development in higher density communities and transportation efficient development in lower density areas, presents several case studies where land use and transportation planning are beginning to intersect, and ends with a strategic approach for communities to consider.


Development Agreements: Bargained-For Zoning That Is Neither Illegal Contract Nor Conditional Zoning, Shelby D. Green Jan 2004

Development Agreements: Bargained-For Zoning That Is Neither Illegal Contract Nor Conditional Zoning, Shelby D. Green

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

This Article explores the new model of land use decision-making that is based upon bargaining with the landowner. The fact of a bargain raises the issue of whether such bargaining amounts to “contract zoning” based upon a bilateral contract between the municipality and the landowner, which is largely held to be illegal, or a related form of bargaining, not involving an exchange of promises in the context of a bilateral agreement--“conditional zoning.” Part II of this Article discusses the emergence of the development agreement, which involves a contract with a municipality and the developer under which the developer is assured …


Golden And Its Emanations: The Surprising Origins Of Smart Growth, John R. Nolon Jan 2003

Golden And Its Emanations: The Surprising Origins Of Smart Growth, John R. Nolon

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

This article provides the background for the adoption of the Ramapo ordinance, explains its precocious inventions in some detail, and describes other dramatic local inventions emanating from the Ramapo approach to smart growth. It ends with a reflection on the Quiet Revolution, the continuing disquiet that accompanies the spectacular smart growth inventions of local governments in this country, and modest recommendations for reform. Along the way, the reader will encounter the rebirth of performance zoning, local environmental laws that protect critical environmental resources, a local abandoned property reclamation act, the use of mediation to solve border wars between localities, an …


Dean's Foreword, David S. Cohen Jan 2002

Dean's Foreword, David S. Cohen

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

This issue of the Pace Environmental Law Review contains a description of this emerging field of law and the response of the academic and legal community to it. As Professor Nolon reports in his introduction, we found eloquent coherence in these laws and saw how they fit together to form a comprehensive whole. We examined state statutes that authorized local governments to adopt environmental laws and discovered that they were diverse in nature but prevalent in many states. We also found state court decisions that upheld local environmental laws against the challenges of regulated property owners. We were troubled by …


The National Land Use Policy Act, John R. Nolon Jan 1996

The National Land Use Policy Act, John R. Nolon

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

Professor Miller talked about a particular road that we traveled beginning in the 1970s. Professor Robinson discussed a different road that we traveled when we adopted the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) in 1969. I would like to talk about the road not traveled, a road that led in the direction that Professor Miller just charted. We considered a different more comprehensive approach in the early 1970s when our national environmental policies were being formed. The time may be right to reconsider what we then narrowly rejected, both here and in Argentina.


Comprehensive Land Use Planning: Learning How And Where To Grow, John R. Nolon Jan 1993

Comprehensive Land Use Planning: Learning How And Where To Grow, John R. Nolon

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

This article explores the origins, evolution and contemporary workings of the legal system that determines the use of land. In Part II, the development of zoning and comprehensive planning laws in the United States is traced, emphasizing the importance that zoning be “in conformance with” a comprehensive land use plan, a requirement meant to provide direction and purpose to land use regulation. This retrospect shows that, from the beginning, the framers of the nation's land use regime were indecisive. They failed to define a comprehensive plan, to detail what such a plan should contain, and to prescribe how planning should …


Expanding Traditional Land Use Authority Through Environmental Legislation: The Regulation Of Affordable Housing, John R. Nolon Jan 1988

Expanding Traditional Land Use Authority Through Environmental Legislation: The Regulation Of Affordable Housing, John R. Nolon

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

This article is devoted to an examination of local land use regulation in the context of the use of SEQRA and its mandate, to mitigate environmental impacts to require the provision of affordable housing in high cost housing markets. As such, it looks at one contemporary manifestation of the growth of police power authority to meet new land use challenges.


Review Of Land Use Conflicts: Organizational Design And Resource Management; Environmental Impact Review And Housing: Process Lessons From The California Experience; Creative Land Development: Bridge To The Future; And Toward Eden, Nicholas A. Robinson Jan 1983

Review Of Land Use Conflicts: Organizational Design And Resource Management; Environmental Impact Review And Housing: Process Lessons From The California Experience; Creative Land Development: Bridge To The Future; And Toward Eden, Nicholas A. Robinson

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.