Property Law and Real Estate Commons^™

The Power Of State Legislatures To Invalidate Private Deed Restrictions: Is It An Unconstitutional Taking?, Ken Stahl

Pepperdine Law Review

Over the past several years, state legislatures confronting a severe housing shortage have increasingly preempted local land use regulations that restrict housing supply in an effort to facilitate more housing production. But even where state legislatures have been successful, they now confront another problem: many of the preempted land use regulations are duplicated at the neighborhood or block level through private “covenants, conditions and restrictions” (CCRs) enforced by homeowners associations (HOAs). In response, California’s legislature has begun aggressively invalidating or “overriding” these CCRs. While many states have barred HOAs from prohibiting pets, clotheslines, signs, and flags, California has moved much …

Table Of Contents And Masthead, Maribeth Beyer

Pepperdine Law Review

The 2022 Pepperdine Law Review Symposium entitled, A Faster Way Home – Removing Barriers to Increase America’s Housing Supply, brought together scholars from prestigious universities and law schools, law firms, and on-the-ground community members to evaluate the barriers blocking the way to closing the nation’s housing deficit, including local opposition, cost inhibitions, zoning restrictions, and entitlements. They presented original research and findings about how the housing crisis has reached such heights because of zoning law, restrictive uses, and city board decisions. Presenting through panels and speeches, these scholars provided valuable insight into the housing crisis across the country, but especially …

Variances: A Canary In The Coal Mine For Zoning Reform?, John J. Infranca, Ronnie M. Farr

Pepperdine Law Review

There is perhaps no area of land use law where practice departs more from legal doctrine than the realm of zoning variances. According to the legal doctrine, variances are to be granted sparingly, providing a “safety valve” that alleviates unique hardships encountered by a property owner. In practice, variances are granted at high rates—often around ninety percent of applications are approved—and, in some jurisdictions, in high volumes. In such cases, variances effectively serve as a rezoning, enabling jurisdictions to permit otherwise prohibited uses and allow growth and development to occur without addressing needed zoning reforms. By allowing neighbors the opportunity …

Growth ≠ Density: Zoning Deregulation And The Enduring Problem Of Sprawl, Christopher Serkin, Kelsea Best

Pepperdine Law Review

According to its many critics, zoning bears significant responsibility for the housing crisis in America and for promoting unsustainable development patterns. Reformers argue that zoning reduces the supply of new housing and therefore drives up prices in thriving communities. Zoning also increases carbon emissions by restricting density in the urban core and promoting carbon-intensive, land-consuming, automobile-dependent sprawl in single-family suburbs. A growing chorus calls for relaxing zoning limits in order to promote growth in the urban core as a response to the twin crises of housing costs and climate change. Relaxing zoning limits will almost certainly promote growth but may …

Measuring Local Policy To Advance Fair Housing And Climate Goals Through A Comprehensive Assessment Of Land Use Entitlements, Moira O'Neill, Eric Biber, Nicholas J. Marantz

Pepperdine Law Review

California’s legislature has passed several laws that intervene in local land-use regulation in order to increase desperately needed housing production—particularly affordable housing production. Some of these new laws expand local reporting requirements concerning zoning and planning laws, and the application of those laws apply to proposed housing development. This emphasis on measurement requires the state to develop a housing data strategy to support both enforcement of existing law and effective policymaking in the future. Our Comprehensive Assessment of Land Use Entitlements Study (CALES) predates, but aligns with and supports, this state-led effort to improve local reporting. For the cities that …

Federal Protection Of Illegal Short-Term Rentals: How The Protecting Local Authority And Neighborhoods Act Will Hold Airbnb Liable, Enforcing Local Regulations, Nicole Schaeffer

Catholic University Law Review

Section 230 has come under scrutiny from academics and politicians, leading to calls on lawmakers to limit, or even end, Section 230’s immunity for Internet corporations; however, less attention has been given to the effects of Section 230 on the legal landscape in local, off-line communities. Online providers of short-term rental (STR) services such as Airbnb have used Section 230’s protection to shift the burden of complying with local laws and lease agreements onto the users listing STRs. By wielding Section 230 as both a sword and shield in litigation over their listings that violate local laws and lease agreements, …

Homeless Residency Restrictions, Ben A. Mcjunkin

West Virginia Law Review

Last year, the West Virginia House of Delegates introduced a radical proposal for responding to homelessness within the state: privately enforceable residency restrictions. As introduced, the restrictions prohibited homeless individuals from sheltering themselves, from being sheltered by others, or from receiving food or care within 1,500 feet of a school or childcare center. This prohibition was to operate statewide, transforming an issue that historically has been considered hyper-local into a subject of state concern. Moreover, the proposed bill established a private right of action for enforcement, legislating around the possibility of recalcitrant municipal governments declining to abide by the residency …

Testamentary Restrictions On Marriage: A Reexamination Of In Re Estate Of Feinberg In Light Of Obergefell V. Hodges, Christian Poppe

University of St. Thomas Journal of Law and Public Policy

No abstract provided.

Cancer Alley: A Case Study Of Environmental Injustice And Solutions For Change, Josephine Rosene

University of St. Thomas Journal of Law and Public Policy

No abstract provided.

The Evolution Of The Uniform Simultaneous Death Act And Its Shortcomings, Emily Gootzeit

University of St. Thomas Journal of Law and Public Policy

No abstract provided.

The Problem Of Property: Looking Back To The 'Dark Ages' To Get Through The Dark Ages, Lucas Clover Alcolea

University of St. Thomas Journal of Law and Public Policy

No abstract provided.

How Is A Community Urban Garden Program Related To The Law? Analysis Of Hortas Cariocas (Rio De Janeiro, Brazil), Felipe Jardim, Angela Moulin Simoes Penalva Santos, Dennis Eversberg, Emerson Moura

University of St. Thomas Journal of Law and Public Policy

No abstract provided.

From Transient To Tenant Overnite: The Georgia Court Of Appeals Leaves Room For Improvement In The Rights Of Extended-Stay Motel Residents, Kayla Pfeifer

Mercer Law Review

On September 25, 2020, extended-stay motel residents Armetrius Neason, Lynetrice Preston, and Altonese Weaver filed suit against the Efficiency Lodge branch they once considered home. Efficiency Lodge Inc. is a hotel chain that operates under an extended-stay model and primarily caters to low-income residents. Before litigation arose, Efficiency Lodge’s website displayed the slogan, “Stay a Nite or Stay Forever.” Each plaintiff continuously resided at the extended-stay motel for periods ranging anywhere from almost one to five years. They each signed uniform rental agreements, paid weekly rent, and housed their personal belongings in their rooms. Toward the end of their respective …

The Stewardship Model Of Necessity, Joseph Graziano

Notre Dame Law Review

The current understanding of the necessity defense to trespass to property in American law stems from a simple—or perhaps simplistic—balancing of rights. Based in the individualistic understanding of property as a right against the world that creates an obligation for others, necessity pits the interloper’s right to life, liberty, or property against the property owner’s right. Although feasible in the extremes, dueling rights leads to an unwieldy judicial task, discouraging advocates from alleging the privilege and discouraging judges from recognizing the privilege. Overall, the right to exclude has become more and more the libertarian vision of a right to be …

Hidden Resources, Monika U. Ehrman

UC Irvine Law Review

Vision is central to the human species’ evolution and success. This dependence on sight is reflected in the construction of property frameworks governing natural resources. When humans encounter natural resources they cannot see—hidden resources—they have difficulties imagining an appropriate property regime. As a result, they rely on existing two-dimensional property systems to govern natural resources, which are often three- or four-dimensional in nature. These hidden resources, invisible to the human eye, may be subsurface, distant, or not composed of a visible form. Examples of hidden resources include groundwater, minerals, petroleum, porous space, wind, migratory paths, deep oceans, viruses, and planets. …

Mitigating Catastrophe Risk For Landowners, Stewart E. Sterk

Articles

Local, national, and global catastrophes entail significant risk for landowners. The government-sponsored National Flood Insurance Program illustrates how subsidizing insurance against catastrophe risk can result in overinvestment in risk-prone properties. Government intervention, however, has largely been a response to the historical failure of the private insurance industry to provide adequate protection against correlated risks, a failure with the potential to generate underinvestment in land and devastate existing owners.

When data is available about the incidence and severity of potential disasters, improvements in technology have made it more feasible for insurers to calibrate premiums and discounts with greater accuracy, and sophisticated …

Join Us For Big Law Series Part I: Gibson Dunn, Cardozo Real Estate Law Association

Flyers 2022-2023

No abstract provided.

Condominium Law: How Florida Must Continue To Adapt In The Wake Of The Champlain Towers South Collapse, Austin Price

University of Miami Law Review

Condominiums represent a large portion of the housing inventory throughout the state of Florida. However, until recently, the maintenance of condominium buildings was left largely unregulated in most areas of the state. Only two counties, Broward and Miami-Dade, had inspection protocols in place, but each was limited in scope and allowed for long periods between inspections. Beyond those regulations, Florida law also gave residents the power to waive reserves even for the most important building components. After the tragic events that took place at Champlain Towers South, the state of Florida made great strides in improving the existing procedures by …

Tahican, Llc V. Eighth Jud. Dist. Ct., 139 Nev. Adv. Op. 2 (Feb. 2, 2023), Josette Vanderlaan

Nevada Supreme Court Summaries

Under NRS 14.010(1), a party may record a lis pendens “[i]n an action . . . affecting the title or possession of real property.” A claim of fraudulent transfer of real property seeking avoidance of the transfer supports a lis pendens because the relief sought affects the title or possession of the real property. The recording party does not need to be entitled to title or possession of the property to support a lis pendens.

The Evolution Of Chapter 11: How Corporate Restructuring Has Evolved And Its Important Role In The Recovery Of A Struggling Economy, Eduardo Cervantes

DePaul Business & Commercial Law Journal

No abstract provided.