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Slides: Chapter 7 Of The Commission Report, David L. Bernhardt

The Past, Present, and Future of Our Public Lands: Celebrating the 40th Anniversary of the Public Land Law Review Commission’s Report, One Third of the Nation’s Land (Martz Summer Conference, June 2-4)

Presenter: David L. Bernhardt, Partner, Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck (Washington, DC) and former Solicitor for U.S. Department of the Interior

14 slides

Above All Else Stop Digging: Local Government Law As A (Partial) Cause Of (And Solution To) The Current Housing Crisis, Darien Shanske

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

So many things have gone wrong with our housing market that it is hard to know where to start. One simple diagnosis is that we invested too much in houses that were not worth as much as we thought. Looked at in this way, it is relatively easy to see how innovations like interest-only loans contributed to an over-valuation of housing. Certain actions of the federal government were and are also clearly problematic, such as the longstanding tax breaks for home ownership.

This Article looks at state and local government law, and particularly at financing mechanisms created by state law …

The Baltimore Development Corporation: A Case Study Of Economic Development Corporations, Shadow Government, And The Fight For Public Transparency And Accountability, Maximilian Tondro

Legal History Publications

This paper explores the limited public accountability of local quasi-public development corporations in negotiating and implementing public redevelopment projects by examining the history of the Baltimore Development Corporation (BDC). For most of its two-decade existence the BDC has strenuously resisted all public inquiry and oversight, a tradition inherited from its predecessors that originated as private business-led entities performing tasks under contract with Baltimore City (City). Like other similar quasi-public local development corporations, the BDC justified its need for secrecy as necessary to ensure the BDC’s effectiveness and efficiency in negotiating with private businesses on redevelopment projects. This assertion that a …

Caretti V Broring Building Company: The Sewering And Planning Of A City, Sheba Newman-Blount

Legal History Publications

Caretti v Broring Building Company was a case decided by the Court of Appeals of Maryland in 1926. Louis and Lucia Caretti sued the Broring Building Company in 1925 to enjoin them from polluting a stream that flowed through the Carettis’ property with sewage from their sewer system. The Carettis sued for an injunction to stop the operation of the sewer and further pollution of the stream. The Court of Appeals reversed the trial court ruling and decided in the Carettis’s favor, granting them an injunction against Broring.

The Carettis’ case occurred at a time when Baltimore was undergoing several …

Green V. Garrett: How The Economic Boom Of Professional Sports Helped To Create, And Destroy, Baltimore’S Memorial Stadium, Jordan Vardon

Legal History Publications

Buildings, like people, have lives all their own. They have beginnings, middles, ends, and even good and bad years. This project is a study of a building known by many names, including Venable Park, Mud Stadium, The Great White Elephant of 33rd St., The Old Gray Lady, and the World’s Largest Outdoor Insane Asylum, although for most of its life it was officially referred to as Memorial Stadium, located in Baltimore, Maryland.

The story of Memorial Stadium is really the story of those in the community that surround it. As the use and popularity of the Stadium grew, so too …

Reconciling Development And Natural Beauty: The Promise And Dilemma Of Conservation Easements, Zachary A. Bray

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

Local and regional private land trusts are among the most important and most numerous conservation actors in contemporary America, and conservation easements are perhaps the key land conservation tools used by these trusts. In recent decades, privately held conservation easements and local and regional private land trusts have grown at a rapid and increasing rate, and the total acreage protected by privately held conservation easements is now larger than some states. The early growth of privately held conservation easements met widespread approval, but more recently, contemporary conservation easement practice has attracted many critics, based in part on well-publicized national scandals …