Land Use Law Commons^™

Fostering Regionalism: Comment On "The Promise And Perils Of 'New Regionalist' Approaches To Sustainable Communities", Nestor M. Davidson

Fordham Urban Law Journal

This brief comment, written in response to Professor Lisa Alexander's, "The Promise and Perils of 'New Regionalist' Approaches to Sustainable Communities," reviews Professor Alexander's assessment of the US Department of Housing and Urban Development's Sustainable Communities Regional Planning Grant Program. This comment suggests that although the ability to approach regionalism from a national perspective does not ensure that local power dynamics will not be replicated, the distance and independence that the federal perspective provides may in fact be a cause for optimism, particularly for those marginalized at the local level.

Regular Takings Or Regulatory Takings?: Land Expropriation In Rural China, Valerie Jaffee Washburn

Washington International Law Journal

This article takes as its starting point the recent spate of unrest in rural China over government takings of rural, agricultural land. Though the popular and scholarly press has paid a great deal of attention to this issue, few analyses have explored in depth the institutional and legal framework surrounding it. This piece first attempts such an exploration and concludes that the underlying issues have as much to do with China's national land use regulatory system as they do with the behavior of local governments that seize privately-farmed land for other uses. In fact, it is more productive to see …

Winter 2011 Utton Center Newsletter, Utton Center, University Of New Mexico - School Of Law

Publications

No abstract provided.

Practicing Before A Board Of Adjustment: Seven Practical Tips, Kathryn L. Moore

Law Faculty Popular Media

In this article, Professor Kathryn L. Moore sets forth seven practical tips for presenting a case before the board of adjustment.

Constitutional Limitations On Land Use Controls, Environmental Regulations And Governmental Exactions (2011 Edition), Garrett Power

Faculty Scholarship

This electronic book is published in a searchable PDF format as a part of the E-scholarship Repository of the University of Maryland School of Law. It is an “open content” casebook intended for classroom use in courses in Land Use Control, Environmental Law and Constitutional Law. It consists of cases carefully selected from the two hundred years of American constitutional history which address the clash between public sovereignty and private property. It considers both the personal right to liberty and the personal right in property. The text consists of non-copyrighted material and readers are free to use it or re-mix …

Urban Green Uses: The New Renewal, Catherine J. Lacroix

Faculty Publications

As they confront dramatically reduced population and little prospect of significant near-term growth, several cities in the rust belt have turned to innovative tactics to put excess land to beneficial use. These measures include the creation of active land banks, downzoning for "green" uses such as urban agriculture, possible consolidation of population and abandonment of utility and public services, and installation of green infrastructure, such as stormwater retention and renewable power generation facilities, on publicly owned land. In the process, these cities face intriguing legal questions: What steps are needed to form an effective land bank? What is the liability …

Airspace In A Green Economy, Troy A. Rule

Faculty Publications

The recent surge of interest in renewable energy and sustainable land use has made the airspace above land more valuable than ever before. However, a growing number of policies aimed at promoting sustainability disregard landowners' airspace rights in ways that can cause airspace to be underutilized. This article analyzes several land use conflicts emerging in the context of renewable energy development by framing them as disputes over airspace. The article suggests that incorporating options or liability rules into laws regulating airspace is a useful way to promote wind and solar energy while still respecting landowners' existing airspace rights. If properly …

Negotiating The Wind: A Framework To Engage Citizens In Siting Wind Turbines, Sean F. Nolon

Cardozo Journal of Conflict Resolution

In Section I, this Article explores the promotion of wind energy by looking at the current system of incentives and regulations, including the authority to mitigate adverse impacts. In Section II, the Article looks at the role of citizens in siting generally, how involvement can turn into opposition, and how that opposition can be managed productively. Section III explores three approaches to citizen engagement that have been used for decades-participatory planning, negotiated rulemaking and facility siting. Finally, Section IV provides a framework for the federal government to work cooperatively with state and local governments to create comprehensive wind energy plans …

Adverse Possession, Private-Zoning Waiver & Desuetude: Abandonment & Recapture Of Property And Liberty Interests, 44 U. Mich. J.L. Reform 557 (2011), Scott Andrew Shepard

UIC Law Open Access Faculty Scholarship

Adverse-possession doctrine labors under a pair of disabilities: a hesitancy by theorists to embrace the abandonment-and-recapture principle that informs the doctrine, and a substantial unwillingness of governments to abandon an antiquated and outmoded maxim shielding them from the doctrine's important work. Removing these disabilities will allow a series of positive outcomes. First, it will demonstrate that all would-be adverse possessors, not just those acting "in good faith" or with possessory intent, should enjoy the fruits of the doctrine. Second, it will provide valuable additional means by which the public may monitor the performance of government employees, and additional discipline to …

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

Scholarly Works

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 …

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

Scholarly Works

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 …

How Suburbia Happened In Toronto, Michael Lewyn

Scholarly Works

No abstract provided.

The Legal History Of Federally Granted Railroad Rights-Of-Way And The Myth Of Congress's "1871 Shift", Darwin P. Roberts

University of Colorado Law Review

Beginning in the 1830s, the United States government granted railroads thousands of miles of rights-of-way across the public lands. In 1850, Congress began to further subsidize the construction of certain railroads by granting them title to millions of acres of the public lands. By the late 1860s, however, the public came to vehemently oppose giving vast tracts of the public domain away to railroads. As a consequence, in 1871, Congress ceased granting subsidy lands to railroads. Federal grants of railroad rights-of-way, though, continued well into the twentieth century. The Supreme Court has held that the year 1871 marked a transition …

Re-Evaluating Tribal Customs Of Land Use Rights, John C. Hoelle

University of Colorado Law Review

Indigenous peoples developed sustainable land tenure systems over countless generations, but these customary systems of rights are barely used by American Indian tribes today. Would increasing formal recognition of these traditional customs be desirable for tribes in a modern context? This Comment examines one traditional form of indigenous land tenure-the use right-and argues that those tribes that historically recognized use rights in land might benefit from increased reliance on these traditional customs. The Comment argues that in the tribal context, use rights can potentially be just as economically efficient, if not more so, than the Anglo- American system of unqualified, …

Alternative Learning Formats In A Land Use Seminar, Michael Lewyn

Scholarly Works

No abstract provided.

They Do Teach That In Law School: Incorporating Best Practices Into Land Use Law, Patricia E. Salkin

Scholarly Works

This article, prepared as a follow-up to Salkin & Nolon, Practically Grounded: Convergence of Land Use Pedagogy and Best Practice, 60 J.Legal Education 519 (2011), describes how practice-based assignments can supplement the traditional casebook method of instruction to meet goals and measure outcome assessments for students in the course. The article is based on my own course goals and explains how each assignment relates to individual outcome assessments.

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

Scholarly Works

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 …

A Yellow Light For “Green Zoning”: Some Words Of Caution About Incorporating Green Building Standards Into Local Land Use Law, Michael Allan Wolf

UF Law Faculty Publications

The focus of this essay is a growing practice to which we can attach the label “Green Zoning” — the incorporation of LEED and competing privately generated standards into local government law, as part of the existing zoning or land use ordinance, or as a free-standing green building ordinance. After reviewing some of the pertinent literature on this topic, this essay will highlight and provide illustrations of six problems with Green Zoning practices: 1. The Delegation Problem — Can and should local laws be based on a moving target (standards set by private parties that continue to change and evolve)? …

Images Of Force: The Power Of Maps In Community Development, Jill M. Fraley

Scholarly Articles

Recent trends in critical geography have drawn attention to the secret political lives of maps. Beneath a veneer of abstraction and scientific neutrality, maps are deeply political devices, embedding within them perspectives on what is important in a community, what are assets and what are liabilities, what is central and what is marginal. By drawing on the historical example of the mapping work of the Tennessee Valley Authority in the United States, this article examines the power of maps in community development, land use planning and natural resource allocation. This examination yields a lesson in the significance of the maps …

The Role Of The Site Selector, Andrew H. Shapiro

South Carolina Journal of International Law and Business

No abstract provided.

A "Constant And Difficult Task": Making Local Land Use Decisions In States With A Constitutional Right To A Healthful Environment, Michelle Bryan Mudd

Faculty Law Review Articles

This article first examines the role local governments play in four states that have constitutional rights to a healthful environment -- Illinois, Pennsylvania, Montana, and Hawaii. The author notes that while local governments have long worked as quiet yet integral third partners with state and federal governments by addressing environmental issues through land use regulation, for local governments in environmental rights states, environmental protection is not just an aspiration, but a constitutional mandate. Further, the author states, environmental rights cannot be fully protected in these states without the strong engagement of local government.

The article also describes the constitutional provisions …

Procuring Meaningful Land Rights For The Women Of Rwanda, Aparna Polavarapu

Scholarly Works

Land reform and gender equality are important development issues in post-Genocide Rwanda. Beginning in 1999, the government of Rwanda passed and implemented reforms which granted women rights to own and use land on an equal status with men. However, as is expected with widespread social reform, obstacles continue to inhibit widespread gender equality in practice. In Rwanda, major social obstacles manifest in the form of (1) resistance to allowing daughters to inherit land from their parents, (2) adherence to assumptions of female inferiority, and (3) the persistence of informal marriages, in which wives remain unprotected by the new laws. Interested …

Newport's Mooring Regulations: Legal And Policy Analysis, Jenna Algee

Sea Grant Law Fellow Publications

The legal and policy issues facing Newport as it revises and implements its ordinances are numerous. Most of the issues have not been squarely resolved for Rhode Island. While Newport may take guidance from other states, it will be Rhode Island's task going forward to define the reach of its Public Trust Doctine as applied to some novel issues raised by mooring administration. The benefit of the flexibility of the PTD is allowing smaller units of government like Newport to define their regulatory goals based on a locally-tailored balancing test of competing interests facing scarce ocean resources. This report was …

Beware Of Wooden Nickels: The Paradox Of Florida's Legislative Overreaction In The Wake Of Kelo, Ann Marie Cavazos

Journal Publications

This article addresses Florida's reaction to the United States Supreme Court decision in Kelo v. City of New London. In Kelo, the Court provided a more expansive view of "the public use" of the Fifth Amendment Takings Clause to include taking property from one private owner and transferring it to a corporation or non-private citizen when the transfer is deemed by the lawmakers to be in the public good or for a public purpose. Florida, together with several other states, concluded that such eminent domain takings, while constitutionally permissible, offend the states' sense of fair play as it relates to …

From Bricks And Mortar To Mega-Bytes And Mega-Pixels: The Changing Landscape Of The Impact Of Technology And Innovation On Urban Development, Patricia E. Salkin

Scholarly Works

This article reflects upon the impact that technology and innovation has had on urban development. From NASA's Landstat program, to Google maps and GPS, technology has had a significant impact on urban planning and land use law. The article begins with a discussion of the impact of the elevator and steel technologies on urban architecture and density, and then moves to changes in transportation such as the automobile and the development of public transportation systems. Green buildings, GIS, satellite data, online mapping, personal computers, the Internet and cell phones are all examined.

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

Scholarly Works

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

Scholarly Works

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 …

New Mexico’S Major Reservoirs: An Overview, Susan Kelly, Diego Urbina

Water Matters!

This paper describes the salient facts about the major water storage reservoirs in New Mexico. For each reservoir, we address the purposes of water storage allowed by law, storage capacity, the responsible operating agency, and some key operational issues. This is by necessity a vast simplification of the topic.Books, articles, research reports, operation manuals, and other materials on these topics run into the hundreds. Millions of dollars have been spent on technical studies and computer models to understand,and sometimes alter, the operations of various dams and reservoirs.

Not In My Atlantic Yards: Examining Netroots’ Role In Eminent Domain Reform, Kate Klonick

Faculty Publications

(Excerpt)

Since the Supreme Court's decision in Kelo v. City of New London, which expanded the state's power to condemn private property and transfer it to other private owners under the Fifth Amendment, there have been significant calls to curb the power of eminent domain through statutory reform. Scholars and jurists in favor of eminent domain reform have asserted that legislation is needed to protect private property rights against the rising tide of state power, with many arguing that such reform should incorporate a public approval process into land use decisions. Those opposed to eminent-domain reform argue that empowering …

Distributed Graduate Seminars: An Interdisciplinary Approach To Studying Land Conservation, Jessica Owley, Adena R. Rissman

Journal Articles

No abstract provided.