Land Use Controls


Book Description

Land Use Controls: Cases and Materials emphasizes an interdisciplinary approach that weaves historical, social, and economic causes and effects of legal doctrine. The casebook also brings out the functional relationships between formally unrelated routes of law—statutes, ordinances, constitutional doctrines, and common law—by focusing on their practical deployment, developers, neighbors, planners, politicians, and their empirical effects on outcomes like neighborhood quality, housing supply, racial segregation, and tax burdens. A thematic framework illuminates the connections among multiple topics under land law and gives attention to the factual and political context of the cases and aftermath of decisions. Dynamic pedagogy features original introductory text, cases, notes, excerpts from law review articles, and visual aids (maps, charts, graphs) throughout. New to the Fifth Edition: A focus on affordability and the new conflicts over urban zoning A fully updated treatment of local administrative law Recent constitutional rulings, including up-to-date Supreme Court decisions on exactions and regulatory takings Thoroughly updated notes, with recent cases, law review literature, and empirical studies Professors and students will benefit from: Distinguished authorship by respected scholars and professors with a range of expertise An interdisciplinary approach combining historical, social, political, and economic perspectives and offering dynamic opportunities for analysis along with broad legal coverage Concise but comprehensive treatment of the legal issues in private and public regulation of land development, including environmental justice, building codes and subdivision regulations, and the federal role in urban development A thematic framework illuminating connections among multiple discrete topics under land law and the factual and political context of cases and aftermath of decisions Excellent coverage and dynamic pedagogy




Land Use Regulation


Book Description




Land-Use Doctrines


Book Description

This essay discusses the land-use doctrines of real covenants, equitable servitudes, easements, profits, and licenses. As it is limited to the private arrangements regarding the use of land, perhaps 'land promises' would describe it best. Private land-use controls remain a viable means of controlling externalities, even in this era of public zoning, because they can be more carefully tailored to particular situations and are supported by more meaningful 'consent' of the governed. Very little of this land use law has received proper economic treatment. Nevertheless, this essay suggests economic rationales for some of the requirements and distinctions in the rules, many of which are under attack by reformers as being overly complicated. In short, the essay attempts to make economic sense of the complex law of land promises.




Existing Uses and the Limits of Land Use Regulations


Book Description

This Article identifies the various ways in which property law provides special protection for existing uses, explores the possible justifications for this protection, and argues that none of them support the strong protection that existing uses currently enjoy. Various land use doctrines, from zoning, to the vested rights doctrine, to amortization rules for prior non-conforming uses, all assume that the government cannot eliminate existing uses without paying compensation. The Article asks whether this result is compelled either by constitutional rules or by normative considerations. Neither the Takings Clause nor the Due Process Clause requires this level of protection for existing uses. Moreover, many of the obvious-seeming normative justifications dissolve on closer inspection. Concerns about reliance on government regulations and underlying principles of fairness are not conceptually different for regulations prohibiting future uses and regulations of existing uses. Nor is the extent of economic loss necessarily greater for one than the other, even though regulations of existing uses involve out-of-pocket costs, whereas regulations of future uses implicate forgone profits. In fact, none of the possible explanations for the special treatment of existing uses actually justifies their protection. This Article ultimately concludes that existing uses should not be entitled to any special judicial protection but instead should be subject to the same takings and due process analysis that applies to all regulations and government actions.




State Legislation for Better Land Use


Book Description




The Consistency Doctrine and the Limits of Planning


Book Description

Constable Ned Parker has his hands full, between raising his grandchildren, Pepper and Top, and trying to keep the peace in the rural community of Center Springs, Tex. When a car runs off the bridge over Lake Lamar Dam killing Frank Clay, the white mayor, and his black secretary, Maggie Mayfield, local speculation runs rampant. Were they having an affair? Could it have been foul play? If so, who was the target: Frank or Maggie? The incident rekindles an ancient feud between the Clays and the Mayfields, and the body count rises.




Land Use and Society


Book Description

Land Use and Society is a unique and compelling exploration of interactions among law, geography, history, and culture and their joint influence on the evolution of land use and urban form in the United States. Originally published in 1996, this completely revised, expanded, and updated edition retains the strengths of the earlier version while introducing a host of new topics and insights on the twenty-first century metropolis. This new edition of Land Use and Society devotes greater attention to urban land use and related social issues with two new chapters tracing American city and metropolitan change over the twentieth century. More emphasis is given to social justice and the environmental movement and their respective roles in shaping land use and policy in recent decades. This edition of Land Use and Society by Rutherford H. Platt is updated to reflect the 2000 Census, the most recent Supreme Court decisions, and various topics of current interest such as affordable housing, protecting urban water supplies, urban biodiversity, and "ecological cities." It also includes an updated conclusion that summarizes some positive and negative outcomes of urban land policies to date.




Doctrines Of Development


Book Description

Doctrines of Development sets out a critique of the idea of practice of development by exploring the history of development theory and action from the early nineteenth century to the late twentieth century, from Britain to Quebec and Kenya.




Land Use and the Constitution


Book Description

This practical handbook explains eight constitutional principles and applies them to real-world planning situations. These statements of principles reflect consensus opinions, but the book also discusses points of dissent. It includes detailed summaries of more than fifty U.S. Supreme Court cases affecting land-use planning, along with a comprehensive table of contents, a cross-referenced index, three matricies that relate sections of the book to one another, and a summary of constitutional principles that relates them to land-use planning techniques. All of these features make it easy to locate key constitutional principles quickly. This book is the result of a 1987 symposium that brought together two dozen leading practitioners and scholars in the fields of planning and law.