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Real Estate & Property Law

Land Use Prof Blog

By Paul Boudreaux

Post Frequency: 9.8/day

Last Entry: April 01, 2011 at 11:17:06

Time for leadership, not honoring ?

Posted on January 26, 2009
President Obama has promised as his one of his first major actions to approve the funneling of federal money to local infrastructure projects and other economically stimulating land use projects. But the latest word from Congress is that proposed bills...

Inaugurations, crowds, and the problems of bus transportation ?

Posted on January 23, 2009
As the world watched the presidential inauguration this week, and the world?s first impression of the new regime was the Chief Justice?s botching of the oath of office and a part-fake classical music performance (reportedly, the music heard was prerecorded),...

Where will the planes land? ?

Posted on January 09, 2009
What?s the biggest and most potentially controversial public land use in metro areas? Airports, of course. They are essential to a city, need to be fairly close to downtowns, but use enormous tracts of land and are not welcome neighbors....

Senses, surf, and seals in San Diego ?

Posted on January 08, 2009
In San Diego for the first time in more than a decade this week, I find that the city?s once-proud main street, Broadway, still holds more homeless people pr block than almost any place in the nation, that the downtown...

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Holidays v. law? ?

Posted on December 31, 2008
To end the year, two vignettes about clashes between private ?holiday? displays and the strictures of land use law. First, in Anchorage, Alaska, the city has for a number of winters battled a large snowman on property. Although it received...

Not much hope for homeowners so far ?

Posted on December 18, 2008
What?s as difficult to find as a new private housing development? Perhaps it?s a successful large-scale government program to help Americans in difficult housing financial condition. After the disappointment of the effort to help New Orleanians find ?the road home?...

Here comes the money ? but where is it going? ?

Posted on December 10, 2008
Some of the first things to go in a time of economic recession are grand ideas of public policy. But David Brooks ?- sometimes dismissed as merely ?the conservative? columnist for the New York Times ?- laments this week that...

A clash of laws ? and another victory for local control of cell phone towers ?

Posted on December 03, 2008
Few land use topics involve a clash of federal and local law as much as cell phone towers. The issue creates a social conundrum: everyone loves cell phones, but everyone hates the ugly towers. Federal law, pushed by the economics...

A clash of laws ? and another victory for local control of cell phone towers ?

From Thanksgiving to ? Hollywood of the East? ?

Posted on November 25, 2008
Should you give a rich person money, in the hopes that he or she will then reward you with an even larger gift? It sounds risky. But many American localities are in effect taking this step by adopting favorable land...

Housing the hurricane homeless, and the barrier of local land use law ?

Posted on November 19, 2008
In this year of big government solutions, one would think America would welcome the federal government?s assistance to those made homeless by hurricanes. After all, one of the lessons of Hurricane Katrina a few years ago is that one government...

The third rush hour ... ending talk of the end of sprawl? ?

Posted on November 13, 2008
Just a few months ago, with gasoline over $4 a gallon, chatter was full of talk of the ?end of sprawl? with a rush to small cars and avoiding driving. Land use law needed to adapt to a dense new...

The brave new world of billboards ?

Posted on November 10, 2008
If law can tell a homeowner that she can?t have a three-story house, or that her backyard shed is too big, or that she can?t paint her house pink, way can?t law restrict electronic billboards? In Los Angeles, where many...

The time for buying up land for the public?

Posted on November 06, 2008
What benefits to land use policy arise by virtue of the housing price slump? One answer is that governments and private organizations may be more able to buy the ownership of, or at least the development rights to, environmentally important...

The changing hues of suburbs and city ?

Posted on November 04, 2008
If there were any doubt that the old model of a poor and diverse central city surrounded by affluent white suburbs is now thoroughly outmoded, here?s a fascinating story from the Virginia suburbs of Washington, DC, which have been some...

Public-private partnerships and low-cost housing ?

Posted on October 29, 2008
While the market for private housing loans for low-income people is pinched, the federal government, having started its financial support for banks, is pushed to help other types of firms. With this shakiness in the private markets, therefore, the times...

Mastering New Orleans? ?

Posted on October 28, 2008
Many American legal systems require that zoning regulations and decisions be ?in accord with a comprehensive plan,? as stated in the Standard Zoning Enabling Act. This principle is often given merely lip service in practice, however. When it comes to...

Should governments worry about a return of redlining? ?

Posted on October 24, 2008
Should law refocus its attention on the practice of ?redlining? ?- the practice of avoiding mortgage lending and other services because of race or location? Some conservative chatter asserts that the housing and financial mess was generated in large part...

A few cattle and a tax break ?

Posted on October 21, 2008
The recent fiancial disasters have made dubious many arguments about ?trusting? the free market to made good choices for the nation. But when government makes these choices, there is no guarantee that it will do better. Government too may be...

If we don?t help them park ? will they not come with their cars? ?

Posted on October 16, 2008
If you want to discourage something, making it more difficult will have some effect. But what if the effort to discourage results more in exasperation than in affecting long-term behavior? The dilemma that faces any parent trying to figure out...

The revival of an old Main Street ? with a new mission ?

Posted on October 14, 2008
I got away from bad news this weekend with a trip to the sunny Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, where I discovered this fascinating and informative local land use story (well, I do tend to look for these) about Stephens City,...

Which history? Location or building? ... in Gettysburg ?

Posted on October 09, 2008
Here?s a fascinating story that, blissfully, has nothing to do with housing. Which is more important: preservation of an historic location, or preservation of an historic building? According to the National Park Service, in Gettysburg National Military Park in Pennsylvania,...

Are we bailing out foreclosures? ?

Posted on October 07, 2008
Local governments and American citizens hope expectantly that the financial bailout plan may do something to stem the tide of foreclosures that runs like toxic waste through many American localities, especially in low-income areas. (And by the way, did anyone...

Social segregation ? in schools and crime ?

Posted on September 30, 2008
Yesterday I argued for a assigning some blame to social segregation in the mortgage-backed financial crisis. Today, I relate two other stories from the American scene that highlight the role of social segregation, which is often fostered by our exclusive...

Social segregation and the financial crisis ?

Posted on September 29, 2008
How could it be that some unwise mortgage loans made during a time of national prosperity threaten a collapse of the American financial system? There is, of course, plenty of blame to go around. But today I want to highlight...

Why not a landmark? Yankee Stadium and elsewhere ?

Posted on September 22, 2008
In many American cities, any famous and historic building that was more than 80 years ago, even if it had been remodeled thirty years ago, wouldn?t be torn down. Why? Because it would be designated an historic landmark, even if...

Of billboards and beautification ?.

Posted on September 19, 2008
In a week in which the lines between private business and the government became blurrier than ever, it?s worth thinking about the line between land boundaries. Although we often think of property boundaries as being absolute, we know that one...

Land use law and the Gulf of Mexico, today and tomorrow ?

Posted on September 16, 2008
?Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.? Many beachfront communities along the Gulf of Mexico have in the past few years experienced hurricane devastation that is all-too predictable, based on the history of colossal storms...

Lessons from the memorial process ?

Posted on September 11, 2008
A depressing repetition each September 11 is a story about how the slow progress, or lack of progress, of the rebuilding at the former World Trade Center site in Manhattan. Here?s a story from NPR today, along with companion stories...

Making future fannies and freddies think twice ?

Posted on September 08, 2008
The federal government?s takeover of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac may do some short-term good in ?reassuring financial markets,? we are told, with the result that housing credit may be loosened somewhat, meaning that fewer Americans will lose their homes...

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