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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

An oily change to federal land use policy? ?

Posted on May 29, 2008
My question about the upcoming presidential election is whether gasoline prices will be a major issue of the campaign ? or whether it be the only major issue of the campaign. What does this have to do with land use...

Today, granny flats; tomorrow ??

Posted on May 28, 2008
Where do Americans go when their houses are foreclosed? The enormous downward movement in housing demand is likely to increase the pressure on local governments to allow more non-traditional forms of housing units, such as ?granny flats? and other accessory...

Libertarianism and land use law ...

Posted on May 23, 2008
The Libertarian Party is holding its presidential convention this weekend in Denver. This year, some expect that the libertarian message of ?get government off our backs? might appeal to a large enough number of conservatives to affect the election. In...

Cutting out cul-de-sacs?

Posted on May 22, 2008
Suburban sprawl usually conjures up images of massive exurbs outside a big (or formerly big) city. But even smaller American cities have experienced residents leaving the central town for planned subdivisions with big houses, winding streets, and ?choke? points at...

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LULUs, natural gas, and local versus national needs ?

Posted on May 21, 2008
How is a liquefied natural gas terminal like a low-cost housing project? Both are LULUs -? locally unwanted land uses. But both are also necessary for the wider community ?- the metro area (at least) in the case of the...

Hot times for American farmers ?

Posted on May 15, 2008
The temperature in Sacramento is supposed to reach 103 degrees today, but even the early arrival of summer won?t stop the enormous farm production of California?s central valley, which is one of the greatest efforts of land use in human...

Give me liberty and give me clothespins! The right to dry?

Posted on May 14, 2008
Alongside the right to free speech and the right to exercise one?s religion, should law establish the ?right to dry?? Environmentalists and libertarian activists are taking aim at community rules, covenants, and land use laws that prohibit the drying of...

Green lights for brownfields development?

Posted on May 12, 2008
Among the many hurdles to revitalizing the central city is the problem of brownfields. Sites that used to hold industry or commerce may be contaminated with hazardous materials, which both makes development unattractive and may impose tremendous environmental cleanup costs...

Will billboards destroy Vermont?

Posted on May 08, 2008
A handful of states, including Vermont, have long banned the placement of billboards along the state?s roads. But in an effort to protect a cute painted barn mural with a 1940s-looking car on it that says, ?See Bellows Falls, Vermont?...

Big plans in Las Vegas ? with a twist ?

Posted on May 06, 2008
"Make no little plans; they have no magic to stir men's blood.? The famous dare of century-ago century Chicago architect Daniel Burnham proved to be a daunting challenge in the last century for American cities. Big projects such as the...

Left and libertarians and big bad boxes ?

Posted on May 01, 2008
What?s an article from the libertarian ?Reason? magazine doing reprinted in ?Utne Reader,? an alt-left reader with a picture of Barack Obama on the cover this month? The reason is an essay by Michael C. Moynihan arguing that land use...

The food crisis and the changing land uses of rural America ?

Posted on April 30, 2008
What?s happening to food and how has law contributed to the shock? The Washington Post printed a readable primer on the complex topic this week; the report today concerns the massive increase in corn farming over the past few years,...

Of history, Hitler, hofs, and hip hop ?

Posted on April 28, 2008
It's settled law that demolition or alteration of buildings can be restricted by law simply because something historic happened there. But can, and should, historic preservation laws extend to restricting the "use" of a building, when no significant change to...

Density?s growing pains: Will zoning finally come to Houston?

Posted on April 23, 2008
Who needs zoning in a metro area that has been an exemplar of sprawl, and where land uses have been separated well by covenants and culture? These are some of the reasons why Houston has resisted thorough zoning and land...

Density?s growing pains: Homestead ? and homesteading the central city ?

Posted on April 21, 2008
Is the idea of density really causing significant changes in land use law and practice in the United States? One example of a possible missed opportunity has been the rapid development of Homestead, Florida, south of Miami. As much as...

Density?s growing pains: Mixed-use in Dallas ?

Posted on April 16, 2008
Will Americans accept living above stores? A generation ago, the answer probably would have been a resounding ?No!? in a nation suckled on the notion of separation of commerce and residences. A few optimists might have offered: But what about...

Density?s growing pains: Los Angeles ?

Posted on April 15, 2008
?Density? captures the essence of most plans to foster ?smarter? growth and change the American tradition of sprawling land use law. But the seemingly simple idea of allowing ?- or maybe even encouraging ?- denser development often runs into opposition...

Too much affordable housing?

Posted on April 14, 2008
Can a town have too much affordable housing? May local governments think so, as they try to avoid the presumed tax and other unwelcome consequences of allowing low-income residents into their jurisdiction. So it was in Canton, Mass., an affluent...

More land put to the plow ... and more problems ?

Posted on April 09, 2008
With the dollar plummeting and the reputation of the United States at a low point throughout much of the world, in which ways is the United States still the leader in the world economy? One way is our agriculture ?-...

Even if you can't get a burger there anymore, you can get a landmark ?

Posted on March 31, 2008
Can a boarded-up Denny's restaurant be considered a landmark? Yes, according to the Seattle Landmarks Board, which recently designated such a building in the Ballard section of the city. The decision was made in part because of the once-futuristic "googie"...

Whose homeless are these, anyway? ?

Posted on March 28, 2008
Like many cities that feel overburdened with homeless people, the city of Ontario, Cal., has decided to take steps against those who it does not believe are its responsibility. Earlier this week, the Ontario police entered a "tent city" and...

The curious case of smoking at the Curious Theater ?

Posted on March 26, 2008
The play tempOdysssey, which has received many favorable reviews, involves a character who dies because of smoking. The plot calls for smoking on stage. Can government uses its powers of land use law to ban such smoking indoors, even in...

Does lawful land use depend upon the popularity of music?

Posted on March 24, 2008
If my memory is correct, an English defendant represented by the fictional Rumpole of the Bailey back in the ?60s testified that he could not have committed the crime because he was seeing the Rolling Stones with a mate at...

Changes in Harlem ?

Posted on March 19, 2008
Meanwhile, about 1300 miles up Route 1 from Key West, Manhattan?s Harlem is coming to grips with a variant of a change in ?character.? The famous African American section, which has had its ups and downs over the years, is...

Render unto tourists ?

Posted on March 18, 2008
Historic places that have turned into tourist towns inevitably face the dilemma of trying to preserve charm while at the same time facilitating the modern amenities desired by the lumpen tourist. Such a challenge is facing Key West, Florida, which...

The end of the auto culture? ? and a time for glee?

Posted on March 17, 2008
Last week I wrote about the creep of auto-based residential land use into Europe. This week I give time to the opposite viewpoint ?- in particular, to one of the latest manifestos of James Howard Kunstler, Scourge of the Suburbs....

European land use -? old and new ...

Posted on March 13, 2008
When one hasn?t visited a more traditional town in Europe for a while, the distinctions in land use seem remarkable. I was in the beautiful city of Granada, Spain, last week, where I was struck both by the increasing homogeneity...

Why the housing roller-coaster? Easy credit or tough laws, or both?

Posted on March 10, 2008
Are restrictive land use laws the real culprit in the housing bubble dilemma? Yes, according to Randall O?Toole of the libertarian-minded Cato Institute. He argues that laws inflated the price of housing ?- mostly by restricting the supply ?- which...

Who?s responsible for this abandoned house?

Posted on March 04, 2008
The distressing boom in foreclosures is imposing costs on local governments, which find that many houses are abandoned, especially in poorer neighborhoods, both serving as annoyances to neighbors and attracting vandalism and crime. Some cities are resorting to demanding that...

Why aren?t you walking and shopping in our newly designed downtown?

Posted on March 03, 2008
A goal of many land use laws for the central city is to make our cities look like they did before 1950 ? or like many European cities still do ?- a mixture of commerce and residences, few parking lots,...

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