Law Commons^™

Natural Resources Defense Council V. Environmental Protection Agency: A Call For Evenhanded Application Of The Clean Water Act Of 1972, Mary Lim

Golden Gate University Law Review

In Natural Resources Defense Council v. EPA ("NRDC v. EPA"), the Natural Resources Defense Council ("NRDC") challenged the EPA's permit exemption for oil and gas construction sites as a violation of the CWA, claiming that the exemption was inconsistent with the CWA's goal of protecting the nation's waters. The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit held that the EPA's rule was arbitrary and capricious in light of the EPA's consistent, long-standing position of requiring permits for sediment discharges. In addition, the Ninth Circuit supported its reasoning with the fact that Congress did not specifically mention the term …

California's Housing Element Guidelines And The Housing Crisis, Michael Rawson

Golden Gate University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Prime Property Institutions For A Subprime Era: Toward Innovative Models Of Homeownership, Amnon Lehavi, Benito Arrunada

Amnon Lehavi

This Essay breaks new ground toward contractual and institutional innovation in models of homeownership, equity building, and mortgage enforcement. Inspired by recent developments in the affordable housing sector and in other types of public financing schemes, this Essay suggests extending institutional and financial strategies such as time- and place-based division of property rights, conditional subsidies, and credit mediation to alleviate the systemic risks of mortgage foreclosure. It proposes two new solutions. Alongside a for-profit shared equity scheme that would be led by local governments, the Essay also outlines a private market shared equity model, one of “bootstrapping home buying with …

Slides: Costs And Benefits Of Oil Shale Development, James T. Bartis

The Promise and Peril of Oil Shale Development (February 5)

Presenter: James T. Bartis, Senior Policy Researcher, Rand Corporation

21 slides

Making Mountains Of Debt Out Of Molehills: The Pro-Cyclical Implications Of Tax And Expenditure Limitations, Mathew D. Mccubbins, Ellen Moule

Faculty Scholarship

This paper presents evidence that property tax limits have detrimental effects on state and local revenues during recessions. Property tax limits cause states to rely on income–elastic revenue sources, such as the income tax or charges and fees. Greater reliance on these revenue sources results in greater revenue declines during economic downturns. We present analysis of time–series, cross–sectional data for the U.S. states for each of these conclusions. Our results suggest that states would have fewer and more modest financial problems during economic downturns if they did not enact property tax limitations.

Sustainability Starts Locally: Untying The Hand Of Local Governments To Create Sustainable Economies, Jerrold A. Long

Articles

No abstract provided.

Affordable Private Education And The Middle Class City, Nicole Stelle Garnett

Journal Articles

This Essay, which was prepared for a University of Chicago Law School’s symposium on “Rethinking the Local Government Toolkit,” argues that affordable private schools serve an important urban-development function: They partially unbundle the residential and educational decisions of families with children. Thus, state and local officials hoping to make our make central city neighborhoods attractive places to raise children should consider employing a familiar urban development tool - tax incentives - to make quality private schools more financially accessible to middle-income families. The Essay proceeds in three parts. Part I builds the case for a middle class city. Part II …

The Business Improvement District Comes Of Age, Richard Briffault

Faculty Scholarship

It is difficult to say precisely when the business improvement district (BID) was born. BIDs emerged out of legal structures and concepts that date back many decades, but the specific BID form is a relatively recent development. By some accounts, the first BID in the United States was the Downtown Development District of New Orleans, which was established in 1975. Few BIDs were created before 1980, and in most places the surge in BID formation did not really get going until around 1990 – the year that Philadelphia's Center City District was first established. Although new BIDs were created on …

Entrenching Environmentalism, Christopher Serkin

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

This piece for the University of Chicago Law Review Symposium: Reassessing the State and Local Government Toolkit, examines how local governments can use private law mechanisms to entrench policy in ways that circumvent typical legal limitations. The piece examines in detail a specific example of a town donating conservation easements over property it owns to a third-party not-for-profit conservation organization in order ensure that the property would not be developed in the future. This is nearly the functional equivalent of passing an unrepealable zoning ordinance restricting development, something existing anti-entrenchment rules would never permit. The piece examines the costs and …

Property In Law: Government Rights In Legal Innovations, Stephen Clowney

Stephen Clowney

Spatial Inequality As Constitutional Infirmity: Equal Protection, Child Poverty And Place, Lisa R. Pruitt

Lisa R Pruitt

This is the first in a series of articles that maps legal conceptions of (in)equality onto the socio-geographical concept of spatial inequality, with a view to generating legal remedies for those living in places marked by socioeconomic disadvantage. Written for a symposium on “rural law,” this article considers in particular whether the funding and delivery of government services at the county level in the state of Montana violate the state’s constitution because of the grossly disparate abilities among Montana counties to finance and provide such services. Pruitt’s analysis focuses on children as a particularly vulnerable and immobile population, many of …

Presentation: Vpr Ordinances, Benton C. Martin

Benton C. Martin

No abstract provided.

A Local Government By Any Other Name, In Proceedings Of The Washington State Association Of Municipal Attorneys, Hugh D. Spitzer

Articles

This paper reviews the categories that Washington legislators and the Washington State Supreme Court have used to classify and describe local government units. It then describes how the large array of classifications—and the lack of consistent interpretation and use of those labels—leads to confusion and unnecessary litigation. After presenting several case studies of the effects of confusing definitions, the paper suggests that legislation reducing the number of terms classifying local governments would benefit lawyers, judges, local government and the general public. It specifically recommends that "municipal corporation" become the standard category for almost all local governments, and that "governmental body" …

Condemning Religion: Rluipa And The Politics Of Eminent Domain, Christopher Serkin, Nelson Tebbe

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

Should religious landowners enjoy special protection from eminent domain? A recent federal statute, the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (RLUIPA), compels courts to apply a compelling interest test to zoning and landmarking regulations that substantially burden religiously owned property. That provision has been controversial in itself but today a new cutting-edge issue is emerging: whether the Act's extraordinary protection should extend to condemnation as well. The matter has taken on added significance in the wake of Kelo, where the Supreme Court reaffirmed its expansive view of the eminent domain power. In this Article, we argue that RLUIPA should …

Modernization Of New York's Land Use Laws Continues To Meet Growing Challenges Of Sustainability, Patricia E. Salkin, Jessica A. Bacher

Scholarly Works

There has never been a more challenging time to practice land use planning and zoning law in New York. With goals of sustainability at the forefront of the land use regulatory agenda, this brief account of recent developments in land use law highlights some discernable trends, namely: the modernization and increased flexibility of New York State planning and zoning enabling acts, the inspired local initiatives and lethargic State response to affordable housing issues, and the increasing impact of alternative energy systems on local regulatory schemes.

Part I of this article explores the impacts on community development caused by the many …

Essay: Current And Future Challenges To Local Government Posed By The Housing And Credit Crisis,, Alan Weinstein

Law Faculty Articles and Essays

The ongoing problems in the housing and credit markets, caused by a toxic combination of wholesale deregulation of financial markets by the federal government and imprudent lending and investment practices by financial institutions, pose significant challenges to local and state government officials. Some of these challenges are obvious. How will cities cope with an unprecedented number of foreclosures at the same time that state and local tax revenues are decreasing? When will access to credit ease in a municipal bond market that has constricted as a result of both general credit concerns and questions about the companies insuring those bonds? …

From Warranted To Valuable Belief: Local Government, Climate Change, And Giving Up The Pickup To Save Bangladesh, Jerrold A. Long

Articles

Although the public discourse about efforts to address global climate change understandably focuses on national- and international-level efforts, in the United States much of the authority for regulating greenhouse gas emitting activities resides with state and local governments. Many local governments have initiated efforts to address global climate change in some fashion. But this article argues that there remains a disconnect between the local causes and global consequences of climate change sufficient to prevent the adoption of durable and effective local efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. In other words, individuals remain largely unable to connect their personal decisions with …

Varieties Of Marketization In China : The Impact Of Private Entrepreneurs, Local Governments, And State-Owned Enterprises, Ji-Yong Lee

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

The dissertation examines roles and effects of local government and private entrepreneurial class focusing on three localities in China in the course of marketization, based on the assumption that, at the local level in post-Maoist China, transitional paths toward a market-based economy from the planned economy are significantly affected by leading actors such as local governments, private entrepreneurs, or state-owned enterprises; economic development and formation of vibrant local market economy tend to be strongest when led by private entrepreneurs and weakest when led by state-owned enterprises. It especially focuses on formation of private entrepreneurial class and its roles in constructing …

Pretextual Takings: Of Private Developers, Local Governments, And Impermissible Favoritism, Daniel B. Kelly

Journal Articles

Since Kelo v. City of New London, the preferred litigation strategy for challenging a condemnation that benefits a private party is to allege that the taking is pretextual. This Article contends that, although pretextual takings are socially undesirable, the current judicial test for identifying such takings is problematic. Yet an alternative, intent-based test might be impracticable, as well as underinclusive: condemnors often have mixed motives, particularly when confronted with a firm's credible threat to relocate. Instead, the Article develops a framework that emphasizes informational differences between local governments and private developers. When the government lacks information regarding the optimal site …

Climate Change, Consumption, And Cities, Alice Kaswan

Alice Kaswan

In this article, Professor Kaswan argues that hoped-for greenhouse gas reductions cannot be achieved without reducing consumption. Given their control over land use and buildings, cities can play a key role in reducing consumption. She argues that, while existing federal proposals for a market-based approach could indirectly create incentives that would reduce emissions from transportation and buildings, the invisible hand of the market will not suffice. Nor can the federal government succeed alone. Local and regional governments could play a key practical and institutional role, and many have already initiated greenhouse gas reduction efforts.

Local governments are, however, unlikely to …

Agenda: Managing Oil And Gas Development In Colorado: The New Cogcc Rules, University Of Colorado Boulder. Natural Resources Law Center

Managing Oil and Gas Development in Colorado: The New COGCC Rules (December 16)

NRLC Hot Topic held on December 16, 2008 from 12:00 noon to 1:30 p.m. at the offices of Hogan and Hartson, Denver, Colorado.

Panelists from COGCC, the oil & gas industry, and environmental community, will present their perspectives on the soon-to-be-issued rules on oil and development in Colorado. Discussion and questions from attendees will follow.

Slides: Linking Growth, Land Use And Water, Jim Holway

Shifting Baselines and New Meridians: Water, Resources, Landscapes, and the Transformation of the American West (Summer Conference, June 4-6)

Presenter: Jim Holway, Global Institute of Sustainability, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Arizona Water Institute, Arizona State University

29 slides

Bridging The Governance Gap: Strategies To Integrate Water And Land Use Planning, Sarah Bates Van De Wetering, University Of Montana (Missoula). Public Policy Research Institute

Shifting Baselines and New Meridians: Water, Resources, Landscapes, and the Transformation of the American West (Summer Conference, June 4-6)

16 pages.

Includes bibliographical references

"2007"

"Collaborative Governance Report 2"

State And Local Governments Address The Twin Challenges Of Climate Change And Energy Alternatives, Irma S. Russell, Jeffery S. Dennis

Faculty Journal Articles & Other Writings

This article examines new programs and initiatives that states, local governments, and regional groups have embarked upon to address the issues of climate change and energy alternatives. The article also questions whether these efforts will be overtaken by federal action or whether a tradition of cooperative federalism will continue.

How To Avoid A "Holy War" -- Dealing With Potential Rluipa Claims, Alan C. Weinstein

Law Faculty Articles and Essays

This article discusses how local government can seek to avoid a claim being brought against it under the Religious Land Use & Institutionalized Persons Act (RLUIPA). Thus, the focus is not on what steps a local government should take when a RLUIPA claim is brought - or threatened to be brought - against it, but focuses instead on what steps local governments should take to seek to avoid a RLUIPA claim in the first place. After reviewing both the changing context of religious observance in the United States, and RLUIPA decisions to date, the article concludes that we are clearly …

When Voters Make Laws: How Direct Democracy Is Shaping American Cities, Elizabeth Garrett, Mathew D. Mccubbins

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Sepas, Climate Change, And Corporate Responsibility: The Contribution Of Local Government, Catherine J. Lacroix

Faculty Publications

Municipalities in the United States are increasingly active in the effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Data suggest that the physical layout of communities and the buildings they contain make significant contributions to greenhouse gas emissions and thus to climate change. One useful tool for municipalities could be the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS), pioneered in the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) at the federal level and subsequently adopted as a policymaking guide in the State Environmental Policy Acts (SEPAs) of many states. A SEPA requires state governments - and, in six states, local governments as well - to consider the …

Municipal Regulation Of Formula Businesses: Creating And Protecting Communities, Patricia E. Salkin

Scholarly Works

People have been trying to exclude chain stores from their communities for decades. This includes "big-box" chains - the behemoth retailers that prefer an architecture of rectangular, single-story unadorned structures reaching 200,000 square feet or more - as well as national and international businesses including well-recognized fast food restaurants, drug stores and clothing retailers. The reasons for restricting these large corporate businesses include concerns over community character and aesthetics, local economics and self-reliance, and corporate ideologies. Over time, many municipalities have been forced to accept that "formula retail" and "franchise architecture" are simply part of the American economy. In many …

Civic Republicanism, Public Choice Theory, And Neighborhood Councils: A New Model For Civic Engagement, Matthew J. Parlow

Matthew Parlow

Progressive Policy-Making On The Local Level: Rethinking Traditional Notions Of Federalism, Matthew J. Parlow

Matthew Parlow