Land Use Law Commons^™

Unpermitted Urban Agriculture: Transgressive Actions, Changing Norms, And The Local Food Movement, Sarah Schindler

Sturm College of Law: Faculty Scholarship

Roberta keeps four chickens in her backyard. Bob snuck onto the vacant lot next door, which the bank foreclosed upon and now owns, and planted a vegetable garden. Vien operates an occasional underground restaurant from his friends' microbrewery after beer-making operations cease for the day. The common thread tying these actions together is that they are unauthorized; they are being undertaken in violation of existing laws and often norms. In this Article, I explore ideas surrounding the overlap between food policy and land use law, specifically the transgressive actions that people living in urban and suburban communities are undertaking to …

Adjudications, Brigette Buynak, Darcy S. Bushnell

Water Matters!

Adjudications are lawsuits that take place in state or federal court to resolve all claims to water use in the state of New Mexico, including those of Pueblos, tribes and the federal government. These cases are required by statute to create a formal inventory of water uses and to facilitate administration of New Mexico’s surface and groundwater. The geographic scope of each case is generally described by a stream system and occasionally by a groundwater basin. By statute, the State is always the plaintiff. The mission is to formally identify and recognize all valid water rights in each area being …

The Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge: On A Rocky Road To Creating A Community Asset, 47 J. Marshall L. Rev. 1401 (2014), Rachel Salcido

UIC Law Review

This paper examines the RMA Refuge restoration in terms of key benchmarks of successful restorations: 1) biological integrity; 2) historical fidelity; 3) identifying root causes of and addressing practices leading to environmental degradation; and finally, 4) public engagement, connecting with the public and encouraging environmentalism.

Mitigating The Adverse Impacts Of Hydraulic Fracturing: A Role For Local Zoning?, John R. Nolon, Jessica A. Bacher

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

This article focuses on the action localities have taken toward mitigating some of the adverse impacts of hydraulic fracturing, or hydrofracking. The Article will explore impacts at the local level and will show the governance gap that has resulted from federal and state regulations that leave many local impacts unmitigated. Zoning laws and other practices that local governments are adopting are also discussed, explaining why state preemption over the traditional role of local governments in regulating this particular heavy industrial activity is not the ideal situation.

Preface To Protecting The Environment Through Land Use Law: Standing Ground, John R. Nolon

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

Protecting the Environment Through Land Use Law: Standing Ground takes a close look at the historical struggle of local governments to balance land development with natural resource conservation. This book updates and expands on his four previous books, which established a comprehensive framework for understanding the many ways that local land use authority can be used to preserve natural resources and environmental functions at the community level. Standing Ground describes in detail how localities are responding to new challenges, including the imperative that they adapt to and help mitigate climate change and create sustainable neighborhoods. This body of work emphasizes …

Setting The Table For Urban Agriculture, Margot J. Pollans

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

This article provides context for the various roles that law plays in the cultivation of urban agriculture. This article first reflects on how popular support for the development of a legal framework that promotes urban agriculture is rooted deeply in American agrarian traditions. The article then notes the palatable tension between the rhetoric in support of urban agriculture and the modes of urban law and planning that dominated the twentieth century. It considers how various approaches to urban planning have facilitated or thwarted urban agriculture and surveys recent legal developments designed to accommodate and encourage urban agriculture projects as alternatives …

Preserving Preservation: Long Green Valley Association, Conservation Easements, And Charitable Trust Doctrine, Alyssa J. Domzal

Maryland Law Review

No abstract provided.

Profile - The Wildlife Conservation Society, James Hagy, Lana Buchbinder, Barbara Beau

Rooftops Project

What might it be like if your not-for-profit was responsible for projects with occupants consisting of humans plus some 1,700 other species? How can physical location and the needs of animals and visitors be harmonized through architectural design? Barbara Beau, Lana Buchbinder, and Professor James Hagy of The Rooftops Project interview Sue Chin about her work as Chief Architect at the Wildlife Conservation Society.

The Spirit Of The Buffalo: The Past And Future Of An American Plains Icon, William Holland

Animal Law Review

Though bison are iconically associated with the United States, their historical fortunes have often been opposite those of the U.S. As the nation expanded westward, government policy, de­mand for bison products, and changing land use perilously re­duced bison numbers. Efforts to restore bison have been complicated by overlapping legal concerns: state, federal, tribal, and constitutional. This Note examines the legal context sur­rounding bison restoration, focusing particularly on the critical herd connected with Yellowstone National Park. Former mem­bers of the Yellowstone herd, in turn, are the subjects of the Montana Supreme Court's 2013 ruling in Citizens for Balanced Use v. Maurier, …

Water Governance Challenges In New Mexico's Middle Rio Grande Valley: A Resilience Assessment, Melina Harm Benson, Dagmar Llewellyn, Ryan Morrison, Mark Stone

Publications

No abstract provided.

Jump In Before It's Too Late: Protecting And Increasing Streamflows In New Mexico, Sharon Wirth

Publications

Freshwater ecosystems need adequate streamflow to supply clean water for humans and maintain healthy habitat for wildlife. Over-appropriation, overuse, climate change, and drought plague New Mexico's rivers, taxing many rivers beyond sustainability. Despite the myriad of problems caused by little or no water in our rivers, policies and procedures to protect and increase streamflows in New Mexico are limited. While most Western states have made demonstrable progress in alleviating various legal and technical barriers to protecting and increasing streamflows, New Mexico has made only limited, recent progress towards solutions for our drying rivers. This article takes a critical look at …

Developing The Law Of The River: The Integration Of Law And Policy Into Hydrologic And Socio-Economic Modeling Efforts In The Willamette River Basin, Adell Louise Amos

Publications

A legal and policy infrastructure -- referred to as a "law of the river" -- exists for every river basin in the U.S. an can be as important as natural processes in terms of managing the future of the resource. Because of the way that water law and policy have evolved in the U.S., this infrastructure involves a matrix of state and federal law that governs the choices that policymakers, end users, and agencies make. This "law of the river" provides the context in which decisions are made and not made. It also draws the boundaries within which decision makers …

Green Siting For Green Energy, Amy Wilson Morris, Jessica Owley, Emily Capello

Articles

No abstract provided.

Front Matter, Natural Resources Journal

Natural Resources Journal

No abstract provided.

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

Scholarly Works

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.

Suburban Sprawl: Weaker But Still Alive, Michael Lewyn

Scholarly Works

Review of The End of the Suburbs, by Leigh Gallagher.

How Often Do Cities Mandate Smart Growth Or Green Building?, Michael Lewyn

Scholarly Works

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 …

Land Use Law Update: New York's New Climate Change Resiliency Law, Sarah Adams-Schoen

Scholarly Works

New York State’s lawmakers passed 2,603 bills over the course of the 2013-14 session, 658 of which passed both houses. Although counties and local governments are likely focusing their attention on budget-related items such as the property tax freeze/rebate program, local governments — and zoning and planning officials and practitioners in particular — should also take note of the newly enacted Community Risk and Resiliency Act (CRRA).

How Real Is Gentrification?, Michael Lewyn

Scholarly Works

Some commentators argue that gentrification is turning many cities into a playground for the rich. This article rejects that view, pointing out that even relatively affluent cities are still poorer than the average suburb.

Substantive Due Process By Another Name: Koontz, Exactions, And The Regulatory Takings Doctrine, Mark Fenster

UF Law Faculty Publications

In Koontz v. St. Johns River Water Management District, a 5-4 majority of the United States Supreme Court reversed a state court decision that had limited the application of Nollan v. California Coastal Commission and Dolan v. City of Tigard. Nollan and Dolan concern the imposition of regulatory conditions on proposed development, also called exactions, which commonly occurs in land use regulation. In Koontz, a property owner challenged a regulatory agency's denial of his permit application following failed negotiations over exactions. The Florida Supreme Court had concluded that Nollan and Dolan did not extend to conditions that …

Mitigating The Impacts Of The Renewable Energy Gold Rush, Amy Wilson Morris, Jessica Owley

Articles

No abstract provided.

Weathering Nepa Review: Superstorms And Super Slow Urban Recovery, John Travis Marshall

Faculty Publications By Year

Delays in implementing long-term neighborhood housing recovery measures following urban disasters profoundly disrupt a city's revitalization and resurgence. Following recent large-scale urban disasters, some blame the National Environmental Policy Act environmental and historical review requirement for greatly slowing the long-term recovery process. They claim that the National Environmental Policy Act review is ill suited for the exigencies of disasters. Finding effective ways to advance urban disaster recovery as quickly as possible, while not compromising key environmental quality objectives, is a central challenge to implementing effective post-disaster recovery plans. This Article addresses how best to balance necessary regulation with critical disaster …

Of Trees, Vegetation, And Torts: Re-Conceptualizing Reasonable Land Use, L. Daniel Bidwell

Catholic University Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Environmental Limitations To Property Rights In Brazil And The United States Of America, Leonardo Munhoz

Dissertations & Theses

This thesis aims to comparatively analyze the legislative evolution that environmental protection has experienced in the Brazilian versus the American legal systems and their relationship with property rights.

Demonstrably, Brazil’s concern with the environment actually came into focus in the 1980s and it therefore received treatment within the Federal Constitution of 1988, as a diffuse right, contributing to better, stronger environmental protection.

Similarly, the protection of the environment in the American Constitution and its statutes as well as their enforcement and interpretation within the legal system are explored.

Of concern is the notion that environmental protection and third-generation rights consequently …

State Preemption Of Local Land Use Ordinances And North Carolina's "Fracking" Legislation, Michael B. Kent Jr.

Scholarly Works

No abstract provided.

Regional Integration In Africa, Charles Chernor Jalloh, Ademola Abass

Articles

No abstract provided.

On The Waterfront: New York City's Climate Change Adaptation And Mitigation Challenge (Part 1 Of 2), Sarah J. Adams-Schoen

Scholarly Works

New York City is a city on the waterfront. With 520 miles of coastline, New York City’s coastline is longer than the coastlines of Miami, Boston, Los Angeles and San Francisco combined. Nearly nine million New Yorkers live in areas vulnerable to flooding, storm surges and other natural disaster-related risks that are increasing as a result of climate change.

New York City didn’t wait for a devastating storm to begin comprehensively addressing the effects of climate change. The City’s extensive climate change mitigation and resiliency efforts and communications strategy have put the City in a league of its own. But, …

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

Scholarly Works

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 …

On The Waterfront: New York City's Climate Change Adaptation And Mitigation Challenge (Part 2 Of 2), Sarah J. Adams-Schoen

Scholarly Works

New York City, like other major cities around the world, has acknowledged the problem of climate change and begun to implement proactive policies to decrease the city’s contribution to the problem (i.e., mitigation) and to make the city less vulnerable to the effects of climate change (i.e., adaptation). The City’s initiatives have been comprehensive and progressive, especially its climate change-related data analysis and communication initiatives including NPCC, and its comprehensive reform of building and other related codes. The City’s commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 30% by 2030 and its progress toward that goal are also laudable, but the …

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

Scholarly Works

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 …