Land Use Law Commons^™

A Euclid Dissent, Michael Lewyn

Scholarly Works

In Euclid v. Ambler Realty, the Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of zoning, including zoning that excluded apartment houses and retail businesses. Although the decision was not unanimous, the Euclid minority did not write a formal dissent. The purpose of this article is to show what such a dissent should have looked like.

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

Scholarly Works

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 …

A Common Law Of Zoning, Michael Allan Wolf

UF Law Faculty Publications

This Article for the first time identifies a common law of zoning, describes the typology of this essential and overlooked element of American land use law, and establishes the historical and structural context for its pervasive set of rules and principles. Over the past 100 years, American judges, filling in the gaps and resolving the ambiguities of a surprisingly uniform set of state enabling statutes, have produced this body of common law. The story will take the reader to Iowa cornfields that surround an iconic baseball diamond; to a federal agency that gave an important impetus to the nationwide adoption …

Comprehensive Rezonings, Sara C. Bronin

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

Of all powers given to local governments, the power to zone is one of the most significant. Zoning dictates everything that gets built in a locality—and thus effectively dictates all of the key activities that take place within it. Nationwide, most zoning codes were adopted in the first half of the twentieth century. Many, including the zoning codes of New York City and Chicago, were significantly revised in the 1960s. While these codes have been revised piecemeal, just a few American cities have undergone a comprehensive revision: replacing the old code with a completely new one.

A comprehensive rezoning can …

The New State Zoning: Land Use Preemption Amid A Housing Crisis, John Infranca

Suffolk University Law School Faculty Works

Commentators have long decried the pernicious effects that overly restrictive land use regulations, which stifle new development, have on housing supply and affordability, regional and national economic growth, social mobility, and racial integration. The fragmented nature of zoning rules in the United States, which are set primarily at the local level, renders it seemingly impossible to address these concerns systematically. While there have been some efforts to address local exclusionary tendencies and their suboptimal effects by means of greater state control, these efforts, which remain contentious, have been limited to just a few states.
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Beyond Localism: Harnessing State Adaptation Lawmaking To Facilitate Local Climate Resilience, Sarah J. Adams-Schoen

Michigan Journal of Environmental & Administrative Law

Notwithstanding the need for adaptation lawmaking to address a critical gap between climate-change related risks and preparedness in the United States, no coherent body of law exists that is aimed at reducing vulnerability to climate change. As a result of this gap in the law, market failures, and various “super wicked” attributes of hazard mitigation planning, local communities remain unprepared for present and future climate-related risks. Many U.S. communities continue to employ land-use planning and zoning practices that, at best, fail to mitigate these hazards, and, at worst, increase local vulnerability. Even localities that have implemented otherwise robust adaptation plans …

The Unconstitutionality Of Consolidated Planning Boards: Interlocal Planning Under New York Law, Albert J. Pirro Jr.

Pace Law Review

This Article will examine the nature and constitutionality of consolidated planning boards in light of the broad powers actually granted them. The issues surrounding the constitutionality of consolidated planning boards begs, yet again, Chief Justice Marshall's question respecting the extent of the power granted to the state governments. The question is whether a municipality may abdicate its power to regulate land within its own boundaries by delegating it to a separate planning entity.

The Development Agreement And Its Use In Resolving Large Scale, Multi-Party Development Problems: A Look At The Tool And Suggestions For Its Application, Robert M. Kessler

Florida State University Journal of Land Use and Environmental Law

No abstract provided.

Local Government Plan Consistency And Citizen Standing: Renard In The Chicken Coop?, Terrell K. Arline, David M. Layman, Carl Coffin

Florida State University Journal of Land Use and Environmental Law

No abstract provided.

Urban Renewal And Sacramento’S Lost Japantown, Thomas W. Joo

Chicago-Kent Law Review

No abstract provided.

The State Giveth And Taketh Away: Race, Class, And Urban Hospital Closings, Shaun Ossei-Owusu

Chicago-Kent Law Review

This essay uses concepts from Bernadette Atuahene’s book We Want What’s Ours: Learning from South Africa’s Land Restitution Program to examine the trend of urban hospital closings. It does so by focusing specifically on the history of Martin Luther King, Jr. Community Hospital, a charitable hospital in South Los Angeles, California that emerged after the Watts riots in 1965. The essay illustrates how Professor Atuahene’s framework can generate unique questions about the closing of urban hospitals, and public bureaucracies more generally. The essay also demonstrates how Martin Luther King, Jr. Community Hospital’s trajectory hones some of Atuahene’s concepts in ways …

Dignity Takings And “Trailer Trash”: The Case Of Mobile Home Park Mass Evictions, Esther Sullivan

Chicago-Kent Law Review

Mobile homes are a primary source of shelter for America’s poor and working classes. A large share of the nation’s mobile home stock is found in mobile home parks where residents own their homes but lease the land under their homes from private landlords. Urban growth has put pressure on park landlords to sell and redevelop mobile home parks. When parks are redeveloped mobile home residents are evicted and entire communities are destroyed. Residents lose their homes and home equity as they struggle to relocate their homes to different parks or are forced to abandon them. Through two continuous years …

Houston Strong: A World Series Ring, But Is There A Problem With A Lack Of Zoning Laws?, Brady Getlan

University of Baltimore Journal of Land and Development

No abstract provided.

How Will Technology Change Cities?, Klaus Philipsen

University of Baltimore Journal of Land and Development

No abstract provided.

The "Publicization" Of Private Space, Sarah Schindler

Sturm College of Law: Faculty Scholarship

Recently, many urban areas have moved away from the creation of publicly owned open spaces and toward privately owned public open spaces, or “POPOS.” These POPOS take many forms: concrete plazas that separate a building from the sidewalk; glass-windowed atriums in downtown office buildings; rooftop terraces and gardens; and grass-covered spaces that appear to be traditional parks. This Article considers the nature of POPOS and examines whether they live up to expectations about the role that public space should play and the value it should provide to communities. This analysis is especially important because in embracing POPOS, cities have made …

Explaining Market Urbanism, Michael Lewyn

Scholarly Works

Compares Market Urbanism to New Urbanism and Landscape Urbanism

Striking An Equitable Balance: Placing Reasonable Limits On Retroactive Zoning Changes After Kittery Retail Ventures, Llc V. Town Of Kittery, Heather B. Sanborn

Maine Law Review

Thirty years ago, a developer who wanted to build a shopping center had to do little more than obtain a building permit to go forward with the project. Today, however, the regulation and review of development projects involves a lengthy process of securing a series of permits, often including site plan or subdivision approvals, traffic studies, and environmental impact reviews. Navigating this review process forces developers to negotiate with the community and design their projects to fit the applicable standards adopted by the local, state, and federal regulations, arguably improving the quality of development in our communities. But the lengthy …

Side By Side: Revitalizing Urban Cores And Ensuring Residential Diversity, Andrea J. Boyack

Chicago-Kent Law Review

No abstract provided.

Linchpin Approaches To Salvaging Neighborhoods In The Legacy Cities Of The Midwest, Shelley Cavalieri

Chicago-Kent Law Review

No abstract provided.

Freeing The City To Compete, James J. Kelly Jr.

Chicago-Kent Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Natural Capital Crisis In Southern U.S. Cities, Blake Hudson

Chicago-Kent Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Detroit Frontier: Urban Agriculture In A Legal Vacuum, Jacqueline Hand, Amanda Gregory

Chicago-Kent Law Review

No abstract provided.

It Takes A Village: Designating "Tiny House" Villages As Transitional Housing Campgrounds, Ciara Turner

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

A relatively new proposal to reduce homelessness in the United States involves extraordinarily small dwellings. While the “tiny house” movement is intuitively appealing and has found sporadic success, strict housing codes, building codes, and zoning laws often destroy the movement before it can get off the ground. One possibility for getting around these zoning and building code challenges, without drastic overhauls to health and safety codes, is to create a new state-level zoning classification of “transitional campgrounds.” A new zoning classification would alleviate the issue because campgrounds are consistently subject to less strict building codes, which could permit tiny houses …

Affordable Housing, Zoning And The International Covenant On Economic, Social And Cultural Rights: Some Lessons From The Spanish And South African Experiences, Juli Ponce

Journal of Comparative Urban Law and Policy

No abstract provided.

Embracing Airbnb: How Cities Can Champion Private Property Rights Without Compromising The Health And Welfare Of The Community, Emily M. Speier

Pepperdine Law Review

Peer-to-peer services offer participants considerable advantages whether they are a provider of such services or a user of them. The Airbnb phenomenon is an example of how technological advancement has transformed the rental industry and has signaled a societal acceptance of a sharing economy. However, the question now is to what extent cities should regulate this influx of short-term rentals while still preserving the property rights of homeowners. Much of the answer to this question depends on each city’s individual interpretation of specific areas of the law. Some legal issues raised by regulation and explored by this article include the …

Does The Threat Of Gentrification Justify Restrictive Zoning?, Michael Lewyn

Scholarly Works

Historically, progressives have opposed restrictive zoning, arguing that by restricting the housing supply to high-end housing, zoning reduces the supply of housing available to lower-income Americans. But recently, some progressives have suggested that new market-rate housing facilitates gentrification and displacement of lower-income renters. This article critically examines that theory.

Zoning’S Centennial: A Complete Account Of The Evolution Of Zoning Into A Robust System Of Land Use Law—1916-2016 (Part Iv), John R. Nolon

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

Fracking is happening and local governments are subjected to many of its associated risks. They either need to act, or know—clearly and convincingly—why they should not. The federal government has stopped far short of comprehensive regulation of fracking; the states’ regulations range from fair to poor, sometimes preempting local regulation but most often sharing regulatory authority over land use impacts.

Zoning’S Centennial: A Complete Account Of The Evolution Of Zoning Into A Robust System Of Land Use Law—1916-2016 (Part Iii), John R. Nolon

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

In land use, there are two things that Americans dislike: one is sprawl, the other is density. This catch-22 can be resolved by mitigating those aspects of urban living associated with density: congestion, bulky buildings, sameness, design incongruities, unsafe streets, inefficiency, and the sense that neighborhoods are not livable and pleasant. These characteristics of density cut against sustainability. They define places that people want to leave as soon as they can. To reduce vehicle miles travelled and carbon emissions, as well as to prevent sprawl, we must create places of enduring value, located next to transit in walkable and sustainable …

The Wind Blows In Virginia Too—Deconstructing Legal And Regulatory Barriers To The Development Of Onshore, Utility-Scale Wind Energy In Virginia, Mark L. (Buzz) Belleville

William & Mary Environmental Law and Policy Review

No abstract provided.

Zoning’S Centennial: A Complete Account Of The Evolution Of Zoning Into A Robust System Of Land Use Law—1916-2016 (Part Ii), John R. Nolon

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

The idea that local land use law can intelligently shape settlement patterns was not a familiar concept in the late 1960s when the Town of Ramapo, New York adopted an ordinance that delayed development permits until the Town could provide needed infrastructure. Ramapo was experiencing unprecedented growth as one of the closest northern suburbs of New York City. Developers, who in some cases had to wait years for services to their land, sued; they argued that these phased development controls were intended to prohibit subdivisions and restrict population growth, which is not authorized under the state’s zoning enabling legislation.

New …