Hardback
Advanced Introduction to US Land Use Law
This incisive and approachable book presents an overview of land use law and policy in the United States. Stephen R. Miller examines the legal processes that empower and restrict professional urban planning practice, through a narrative that brings together classic cases, innovative codes, and constitutional law.
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Critical Acclaim
Contents
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Elgar Advanced Introductions are stimulating and thoughtful introductions to major fields in the social sciences, business and law, expertly written by the world’s leading scholars. Designed to be accessible yet rigorous, they offer concise and lucid surveys of the substantive and policy issues associated with discrete subject areas.
This incisive and approachable book presents an overview of land use law and policy in the United States. Stephen R. Miller examines the legal processes that empower and restrict professional urban planning practice, through a narrative that brings together classic cases, innovative codes, and constitutional law.
Key land use planning tools, decision making processes and power structures are highlighted in chapters that stress both new alternatives as well as legal limitations. The book also outlines common constitutional claims in land use law while exploring solutions to many of urban planning’s most challenging problems.
Key Features:
● Explores all three legal systems for land use control in the USA: common law, private agreements, such as restrictive covenants, and public regulation, such as zoning
● Analyzes traditional zoning and its alternatives, as well as tens of related concepts such as comprehensive plans, subdivisions, and impact fees
● Presents new solutions to challenging problems like affordable housing, climate change, environmental justice, and universal design within statutory and constitutional limitations
Informative and engaging, the Advanced Introduction to US Land Use Law is a necessary resource for students and academics in law, urban planning, and environmental studies. It will also benefit city council members, local government staff, architects, and environmental consultants involved in planning and zoning matters.
This incisive and approachable book presents an overview of land use law and policy in the United States. Stephen R. Miller examines the legal processes that empower and restrict professional urban planning practice, through a narrative that brings together classic cases, innovative codes, and constitutional law.
Key land use planning tools, decision making processes and power structures are highlighted in chapters that stress both new alternatives as well as legal limitations. The book also outlines common constitutional claims in land use law while exploring solutions to many of urban planning’s most challenging problems.
Key Features:
● Explores all three legal systems for land use control in the USA: common law, private agreements, such as restrictive covenants, and public regulation, such as zoning
● Analyzes traditional zoning and its alternatives, as well as tens of related concepts such as comprehensive plans, subdivisions, and impact fees
● Presents new solutions to challenging problems like affordable housing, climate change, environmental justice, and universal design within statutory and constitutional limitations
Informative and engaging, the Advanced Introduction to US Land Use Law is a necessary resource for students and academics in law, urban planning, and environmental studies. It will also benefit city council members, local government staff, architects, and environmental consultants involved in planning and zoning matters.
Critical Acclaim
‘There is something in this compact volume for the widest range of those interested in land use, from planning and law students, to lawyers, to public officials, to environmental advocates. I’ve been in the field for more than a half century and I learned plenty from it.’
– Dwight Merriam, FAICP, Past President of the American Institute of Certified Planners and co-author of Rathkopf’s The Law of Zoning and Planning
‘Professor Miller’s new book is an important contribution to public understanding of how land use law works. It not only covers the basics but also integrates related topics (like environmental justice, the fiscalization of land use, and restrictive) in text that is both readable and nuanced.’
– Don Elliot, Senior Consultant with Clarion Associates, LLC, US
‘Professor Miller has taken a complex, unwieldy, and hugely important subject and distilled it into a form that will be accessible to professors, students, practitioners, and policymakers alike. Land use law is uniquely consequential to our built and natural environment, and this book offers a comprehensive framework for understanding it.’
– Brian J. Connolly, University of Michigan, USA
– Dwight Merriam, FAICP, Past President of the American Institute of Certified Planners and co-author of Rathkopf’s The Law of Zoning and Planning
‘Professor Miller’s new book is an important contribution to public understanding of how land use law works. It not only covers the basics but also integrates related topics (like environmental justice, the fiscalization of land use, and restrictive) in text that is both readable and nuanced.’
– Don Elliot, Senior Consultant with Clarion Associates, LLC, US
‘Professor Miller has taken a complex, unwieldy, and hugely important subject and distilled it into a form that will be accessible to professors, students, practitioners, and policymakers alike. Land use law is uniquely consequential to our built and natural environment, and this book offers a comprehensive framework for understanding it.’
– Brian J. Connolly, University of Michigan, USA
Contents
Contents
1 Introduction to Land Use Law
2 Authority to Engage in Land Use Regulation
3 The Comprehensive Plan
4 Zoning and its Alternatives
5 Land Use Administration
6 Subdivisions
7 Land Use and the Structure of Local Government
8 Land Use and the Environment
9 Special Topics in Land Use
10 Federal Interests in Land Use
11 Constitutional Limitations on Land Use Controls
12 Ethics
1 Introduction to Land Use Law
2 Authority to Engage in Land Use Regulation
3 The Comprehensive Plan
4 Zoning and its Alternatives
5 Land Use Administration
6 Subdivisions
7 Land Use and the Structure of Local Government
8 Land Use and the Environment
9 Special Topics in Land Use
10 Federal Interests in Land Use
11 Constitutional Limitations on Land Use Controls
12 Ethics
