Course Description
Analysis of significant national, state, and local legal issues involving the use, development, and preservation of land and natural resources. Major legal challenges past, current, and anticipated. A review of the positive and negative effects of the application of various legal measures on the resources they regulate and protect.
Athena Title
Urban Planning Law
Semester Course Offered
Offered fall and spring
Grading System
A - F (Traditional)
Course Objectives
The primary objectives of the course are to teach students to understand the key substantive legal issues involving the use, development and preservation of land and natural resources; to learn the principles and thinking process by which the legal system reaches decisions intended to resolve these issues; and to learn to spot these issues in practice. Discussion of how land use and environmental/sustainability laws and regulations reflect the fundamental tension in our society between government regulation and constitutionally protected rights of individuals, and discussion of the role that planning can have in helping to define the balance between the means used to achieve public goals and the protection of private property rights. The course will examine the two distinct legal frameworks through which land use and development are regulated in the United States: zoning and other local land use and development controls, and federal and state environmental laws. Knowledge: -understand the legal issues involving the use, development and preservation of land and natural resources -understand the evolution of planning and environmental law in the U.S. and the basis for legal challenges under U.S. and state constitutions Skills: -develop the ability to read and comprehend legal briefs, cases, legislation and related writings -become familiar with the use of traditional and innovative legal techniques employed at the local level Values: -understand the need for a sound legal system to support planning, land use regulation, and environmental protection in the United States -appreciate the social and political impact of the application of land use and environmental laws
Topical Outline
Lecture, legal research, and analysis and discussion of statutes, legal cases, and other legal materials. Weeks 1-15 Introduction to course: introduction to legal terminology; hierarchy of laws Law library resources; basic legal research Private land use controls; easements and covenants Constitutional framework for planning and environmental law; police power, eminent domain, regulatory takings, due process and equal protection; religious land use Legal framework for basic land use planning and regulation at the state level Legal framework for basic land use planning and regulation at the local level Relationship between land use planning and regulation Aesthetic based controls Theory and structure of traditional federal and state environmental law Other legal issues (exclusionary zoning, brownfields, greenfields, environmental justice, sustainable design) International perspectives on planning law
Syllabus