Land Use Law

Chuck Wolfe explains how the fusion of laundromats and dining are evidence of the evolving city and the ongoing need for regulatory reform.

July 17, 2011 - Sustainable Cities Collective

April 4, 2011 - Mark A. Rhoades AICP

For ninety days, Ben Brown lived out of a 308-square-foot cottage designed by Marianne Cusato. He discovered that you really needed to be connected to your community when living in tight quarters.

January 14, 2011 - PlaceShakers

Amanda Thompson, planning director of Decatur, GA, suggests that it is a good thing there isn't such a thing as "designer malpractice" or planners would be sued for the horrible impact their work has had on the public health.

November 17, 2010 - PlaceShakers

November 11, 2010 - Keith Sugar

A Columbia professor finds an obscure 1856 document that created the legal precedents that allowed the United States to seize and hold islands, and it all ties back to bird poop.

October 4, 2010 - CABINET

A new book argues that yes, the priorities of private property often trump those of democracy, community, free expression and life outside of the marketplace.

March 21, 2010 - On The Commons

A survey shows that 2/3rds of Houston residents are ready for stricter land use regulations. This follows a number of high-profile clashes between neighborhoods and developers who want to build in them.

October 22, 2009 - The Houston Chronicle

Michigan's one-year experiment in giving local mayors and township supervisors the option to appoint someone less than 18 years-of-age to a planning commission appears to be coming to an abrupt end.

October 17, 2009 - Building Place Notebook

A new growth management law in Florida is both good news and bad news, says Jane Healy of the Orlando Sentinel.

June 9, 2009 - Orlando Sentinel

On Friday, in the first week of my second semester of planning graduate school, we did the hokey-pokey. We put our right foot in, put our right foot out, put our right foot in, and then we shook it all about. We turned ourselves around. That was what it was all about. The demonstration was all about pointing out common ground and how people were rooted in order to approach problem solving and conflict resolution. It sounds a little squishy, I know. But it got the point across, and more important, it introduced the dance to one international student who had never heard of the hokey-pokey.

January 18, 2009 - Jeffrey Barg

A battle is brewing in Utah over a Senate bill that banned voters from overturning land use decisions, and the power plant that is the first significant land use to be impacted by the law.

October 10, 2008 - The Salt Lake Tribune

In thousands of planning and zoning laws across the nation, official announcements are required to be published in the local newspaper of "general circulation." In an era of newspaper decline and expanding diversity of media, are these laws becoming obsolete? Furthermore, should we be concerned with newspapers at all if a newer, more universally accessible medium is available: the Internet? A variety of announcements are legally required to be published in a local periodical of "general circulation," sometimes in addition to being published in an official government gazette. The practice entered the planning world through the U.S. Department of Commerce's highly influential standard zoning and planning enabling acts.

September 28, 2008 - Robert Goodspeed

Canton, Ohio residents and property owners who don't pay close enough attention to their lawns could face jail time. A new law would apply to repeat offenders and to lawns and weeds growing higher than eight inches.

June 4, 2008 - Canton Repository