Law Commons^™

Green Amendments Land Use And Transportation: What Could Go Wrong?, Michael Lewyn

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Numerous states have amended their constitutions to include a green amendment (that is, an amendment providing that the state's citizens have a right to a healthy environment). Unfortunately, the vagueness of these amendments leaves an enormous amount of interpretative power to courts. This article examines how some courts have interpreted green amendments and how these interpretations risk the misuse of green amendments. Additionally, this article examines how such misuse may be avoided.

Using Youtube To Explain Housing, Michael Lewyn

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In 2021, the author ran for Borough President of Manhattan, New York. The author tried to his scholarship into his campaign by producing over twenty Youtube videos, most of which addressed land use and housing policy. The article describes the videos, and evaluates their usefulness.

Commentary: Dan Mandelker—A Land-Use Legacy Unlike Any Other, Patricia E. Salkin

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It is an honor to share thoughts about the importance of Professor Daniel Mandelker’s legacy to the field of land-use and zoning law. The word “legacy” means, among other things, “something that is part of your history or that remains from an earlier time.” At ninety-two, he was the longest actively teaching land use law professor in the United States. His academic career began in 1949 when he was appointed an Assistant Professor at Drake Law School, with relatively short stints at the University of Indiana Law School and Columbia Law School, followed by his appointment at Washington University School …

New York’S Professor John R. Nolon: A National Leader In Land Use Law With A Large Impact Across The Hudson Valley And The State Of New York, Patricia E. Salkin, Samuel Stewart

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As Professor John R. Nolon steps down from active law teaching, this article reflects not only on his contributions as a national thought leader in the field, but also on how he has a hand in changing the land use and conservation patterns in New York while promoting affordable housing and combating discrimination.

The Limits Of Equity, Michael Lewyn

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"Equity" is a common buzzword in urban planning circles. However, nearly any land use decision can be justified as more equitable than the alternatives.

Death Need Not Part Owners And Their Pets: Regulating Pet Cemeteries Through Zoning Regulation, Patricia E. Salkin, Sydney Gross

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Pet ownership in the United States has grown substantially over the years. In the past, when a family pet died, it was typically buried in the back yard or cremated by the local veterinarian who might return the ashes to the owner if requested. Today the relationship between people and their pets is different. In many cases pets are treated like members of the family, and a growing number of people wish to be buried alongside their pet either in a burial ground for human remains or for animal remains. Others wish to inter their pets in a specially designated …

Professor Julian Conrad Juergensmeyer’S "Impact": Scholarly, Theoretical, And Practical, Becky Jacobs

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It is difficult to believe that a decade has passed since the original Festschrift in honor of the occasion of Julian Conrad Juergensmeyer’s 45th year of teaching. That first Festschrift was an impressive and moving scholarly tribute to Julian’s impact on his colleagues, on his students, and on broader legal doctrine. Yet, despite the many accolades received and accomplishments documented in Festschrift I, Julian lamented with typical humility and self-deprecation, in his Introduction and Thank You that he had “never succeeded in developing a course which adequately links the coverage of land use and environmental law[,]” but that he hoped …

Relationships And Ethics In The Land Use Game, Patricia E. Salkin, Thomas Brown, Aisha Scholes

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Ethical considerations in the land use decision making process can be organized into a number of categories, including, first and foremost, the broad subject of conflicts of interest.1 Players in the land use game can find themselves in real or perceived conflicts situations based on personal financial interests resulting from investments, including businesses and real estate holdings (such as the location of their property vis-à-vis the location of the subject property before the Board), employment for themselves or members of their immediate family, and memberships in nonprofit organizations that may be either passive or active (e.g., simply dues paying member …

Further Developments In Land Use Ethics, Patricia E. Salkin, Darren Stakey

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Ethical considerations continue to play a fundamental role in shaping the course of land use and developmental regulatory proceedings throughout the country. From an innocuous donation by one public official to his alma mater, to the outright bribery of a former mayor, the past year has been rife with a range of conduct implicating professional responsibility and land use.

Land Use Law Update: Reed V. Town Of Gilbert Redux, Sarah Adams-Schoen

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The Winter 2015 Land Use Law Update asked whether the Supreme Court’s decision in Reed v. Town of Gilbert would require municipalities throughout the country to rewrite their sign codes. The short answer is “yes.”

At a minimum, following the Supreme Court’s decision that the Town of Gilbert’s temporary directional sign regulations violated petitioners Good News Community Church’s and Pastor Clyde Reed’s First Amendment rights, municipalities will want to act quickly to amend their sign codes if they regulate different categories of signs differently. A code that places fewer restrictions on political or ideological signs than on directional signs likely …

Land Use Law Update: Will Reed V. Town Of Gilbert Require Municipalities Throughout The Country To Rewrite Their Sign Codes?, Sarah Adams-Schoen

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The author discusses the imminent Supreme Court decision in Reed v. Town of Gilbert. Depending on how the Court decides the case, municipalities may need to act quickly to amend their sign regulations.

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 …

Recent Developments In Land Use Ethics, Patricia E. Salkin

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Current events across the country reveal no shortage of allegations of unethical conduct in the land use review process. Sadly, there are countless other media accounts of alleged and proven conflicts of interest and other ethical misconduct. In this annual review of reported decisions involving ethics in land use, recent decisions are discussed in the hopes that municipal attorneys will use this information as the basis of ongoing training for members of planning boards, zoning boards, and local legislative bodies who must be routinely reminded of not only their legal but ethical responsibilities in upholding the public trust.

It's A 'Criming Shame': Moving From Land Use Ethics To Criminalization Of Behavior Leading To Permits And Other Zoning Related Acts, Patricia E. Salkin, Bailey Ince

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In the past, land use ethics inquiries predominately involved conflicts of interest or an official holding public office while engaging in a previously held business or law practice. Now, prosecutors are looking at the underlying criminality of the unethical acts carried out in the context of land use decisions. With a wide array of criminal statutes in the hands of federal prosecutors, almost all forms of unethical conduct could in some way also violate a federal criminal statute.

Part II of this article reviews the federal statutes most often used by federal prosecutors and provides some examples of recent reported …

Land Use Law Update: The Court Of Appeals Issues A Victory For Home Rule In Wallach V. Town Of Dryden And Cooperstown Holstein Corp. V. Town Of Middlefield, Sarah Adams-Schoen

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In the midst of the often heated controversy swirling around the issue of hydraulic fracturing (commonly referred to as “hydrofracking” and “fracking”), New York’s Court of Appeals recently issued a straightforward ruling, which focused on long-established precedent concerning the right of municipalities to regulate mining land uses, rather than focusing on the contentious economic or environmental issues surrounding the fracking debate. This article discusses that ruling.

Climate Change Adaptation And Mitigation: A Local Solution To A Global Problem, Sarah J. Adams-Schoen

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Local land use laws offer powerful tools for climate change adaptation and mitigation. However, notwithstanding New York municipalities’ many impressive efforts, local laws are not yet being utilized sufficiently to create disaster-resilient or disaster-adaptive communities. New York City has done substantially more than many other cities, including, critically, setting specific CO2 emissions reduction targets and amending zoning and building codes. But, in light of the evidence of climate change and its impacts, local decision makers, resource managers, and planners throughout the state must ask whether we are doing enough. Failure to do so will continue to be costly in terms …

The Key To Unlocking The Power Of Small Scale Renewable Energy: Local Land Use Regulation, Patricia E. Salkin

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Myriad federal and state programs have been promoted to incentivize the research and development of renewable energy as a means of achieving sustainability and producing more affordable alternative energy systems, and these programs could potentially have a profound impact on the way that electricity is produced and consumed in the United States. Small-scale renewable energy generation from sources such as solar and wind, that can be used at the consumer level as a source of power for homes and small businesses, is an important part of this paradigm shift. However, regardless of the fiscal incentives offered to clean-tech companies to …

The Modest Impact Of Palazzolo V. Rhode Island, Gregory M. Stein

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Before 2001, state and federal courts did not agree on the extent to which a property owner’s regulatory takings claim should be weakened by the existence of legal restrictions on her use of the property at the time she acquired it. The Palazzolo Court addressed this doctrinal confusion but did not completely resolve it, offering six opinions that partially contradict each other. Some of this discord has persisted, with Palazzolo already cited in nearly five hundred judicial opinions, and not always consistently.

This Article examines the impact Palazzolo has had on state and lower federal courts. After reviewing the law …

Government "Green" Requirements And "Leedigation", Patricia E. Salkin, Graham Grady, Nicole Mueller, Susan Herendeen

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No abstract provided.

Engaging Deliberative Democracy At The Grassroots: Prioritizing The Effects Of The Fiscal Crisis In New York At The Local Government Level, Patricia E. Salkin, Charles Gottlieb

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Part I of this Article discusses many of the factors contributing to the fiscal crisis at the local level in New York including historic decreases in federal and state revenue sharing, the imposition of a new property tax cap, the failure of New York to address meaningfully the subject of unfunded mandates on local governments, and the dependency of some local jurisdictions on the timely adoption of a state budget. Part II discusses concepts of deliberative democracy and how local residents might be engaged to become partners with local officials in making difficult fiscal decisions that impact all community residents. …

The Quiet Revolution And Federalism: Into The Future, Patricia E. Salkin

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This Article offers an examination of the federal role in land use planning and regulation set in the context of varying theories of federalism by presenting a historical and modern overview of the increasing federal influence in local land use planning and regulation, specifically highlighting how federal statutes and programs impact local municipal decision making in the area of land use planning. Part II provides a brief introduction into theories of federalism and their application to local land use regulation in the United States. Part III provides a brief overview of federal legislation in the United States which affected local …

Land Use Regulation: It Just Gets Worse, Michael Lewyn

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Some commentators treat suburban sprawl (by which I mean automobile-dependent land development) as the result of the free market at work. This article reviews City Rules, by urban planning professor Emily Talen. In this book, Talen shows not only how zoning and similar land use regulations generate automobile-dependent suburban sprawl, but also how these regulations have become stricter, more pro-sprawl, and more complex over time. Talen proposes to reform these regulations through municipal codes that promote more walkable, less automobile-dependent development.

Social Networking And Land Use Planning And Regulation: Practical Benefits, Pitfalls And Ethical Considerations, Patricia E. Salkin

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This article explores how social networking sites have been used or might be used in the land use context. Part I focuses on the use of social networking for land use planning and zoning. It includes a discussion of the pros and cons of the use of social networking sites to present public information and to gather public input and invite general participation in the process, as well as to provide notice to the public of forthcoming government decision-making. This section offers concrete examples of how this technology is currently being used in the land use context. Part II focuses …

Medical Marijuana Zoned Out: Local Regulation Meets State Acceptance And Federal Quiet Acquiescence, Patricia E. Salkin, Zachary Kansler

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Sixteen states and the District of Columbia currently permit the medical use of marijuana, yet state statutes fail to account for the challenges that confront municipal planners and officials whose agenda includes public health, safety and welfare of residents, including minor children. The intensity of the problem is perhaps most evident in Los Angeles, where there are approximately 800 dispensaries. Varying statutory approaches are provided for individuals to legitimately acquire the drug - they may grow it themselves, they may obtain it from their primary caregiver, or they may obtain it from a licensed dispensary. This raises a number of …

Regional Foodsheds: Are Our Local Zoning And Land Use Regulations Healthy?, Patricia E. Salkin, Amy Lavine

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Governments at all levels have become increasingly interested in fostering healthy eating habits and sustainable agricultural production. Promoting access to locally grown produce is an important part of many policy goals seeking to address these concerns, and the concept of regional foodsheds has risen in popularity as one method to achieve these goals. Research indicates that community based food systems have the potential to address food security, public health, social justice, and ecological health. Food production and consumption patterns are influenced by a range of federal, state, and municipal policies, but meaningful change in regional food system policies is likely …

Practically Grounded: Convergence Of Land Use Law Pedagogy And Best Practices, Patricia E. Salkin, John R. Nolan

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The changing dynamics in the field of land use and sustainable community development law demand that land use law professors rethink the way in which we prepare law students to practice law in this area. This needed paradigm shift converges with the growing momentum of the best practices movement which urges law schools to dramatically revise the curricular approach to legal education, arguing that traditional models are no longer effectively serving the goal of producing competent and fully prepared new lawyers. A perfect storm is present and a unique opportunity exists through the application of many “best practices” concepts for …

Regulating Controversial Land Uses, Patricia E. Salkin

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While the definition of what may constitute a controversial land use differs from community to community, the bottom line is that land use controls have been attempting to regulate these uses since the advent of zoning (and through nuisance law before that). When regulating many types of controversial land uses, constitutional issues may come into play and federal and state preemption issues may arise. However, local governments typically have wide discretion in designing standards and regulations for many types of controversial uses. This article explores four typically controversial uses - off-campus fraternity and sorority housing, tattoo parlors, medical marijuana and …

No Protectable Property Interest In Making Land Use Decisions And Other Ethics In Land Use Issues 2009-2010, Patricia E. Salkin

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This annual review of reported decisions and opinions focused on ethical considerations in land use planning and decision-making, continues to highlight the hotly litigated issues surrounding conflicts of interest of various players in the land use game.

Relationships, The Rules Of Professional Conduct And Land Use: Ethical Quagmires For Land Use Attorneys, Patricia E. Salkin

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This article begins to fill the void by introducing the application of the various Rules of Professional Conduct, as adopted by the specific opining jurisdiction, through a review of the relevant reported opinions of the various committees and sometimes courts, in the land use context. Part I discusses the challenges that arise for lawyers vis-à-vis their clients in the land use context. This is followed by a discussion in Part II of the ethics and professionalism issues that confront lawyers who serve on local boards.

Can Urban University Expansion And Sustainable Development Co-Exist?: A Case Study In Progress On Columbia University, Patricia E. Salkin, Keith H. Hirokawa

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This Article employs sustainability as a framework to analyze the recent proposed physical expansion plans of Columbia University for the purpose of illustrating the complexities that arise in urban development and higher education practices, as well as the problems of trying to simultaneously implement both. Governments and courts traditionally provide a high level of deference and leniency in the application of land-use laws and regulations when it comes to siting and expansion issues for educational institutions, yet institutions of higher education, particularly those located in urban areas, create unique dilemmas for sustainability. For example, available land for expansion is often …