This Hornbook introduces the fundamentals of land use planning and control law. Subjects covered include the planning process, zoning, development permission, subdivision control law, and building and housing codes. Discusses constitutional limitations and the environmental aspects of land use controls. Explores aesthetic regulation, historic preservation, and agricultural land protection.

This book reviews the common law principles that underpin modern land use regulations, including covenants and restrictions that work with government regulation to limit the use of private property. The Nutshell clearly explains the legal aspects of land planning and regulation, project review processes, and innovative and flexible regulatory devices. Subdivision and site plan regulation, local environment law, discrimination in zoning based on race and religion, regulatory takings, inverse condemnation, and community development practices are all explored. In addition, the book discusses the law of smart growth, and addresses current trends in land use law including the siting of renewable energy facilities, marijuana and drones. An appendix of internet-based resources is also provided. Law and planning students will find that this Nutshell covers the key cases in all land use law textbooks, and seasoned practitioners and planners will find the organization and approach to dozens of subject areas beneficial to their understanding of the nuts and bolts of land use law as well as some current trends.

This Hornbook introduces the fundamentals of land use planning and control law. Subjects covered include the planning process, zoning, development permission, subdivision control law, and building and housing codes. Discusses constitutional limitations and the environmental aspects of land use controls. Explores aesthetic regulation, historic preservation, and agricultural land protection.

The new edition enables professors to teach a broad range of traditional and innovative land use law subjects, ranging from zoning and site planning to sustainable development. The first six chapters of the book focus on traditional practice areas in land use regulation at the state and local levels, and includes a full range of federal First and Fifth Amendment issues as well as preemption (all from the existing chapters in the book which have updated notes/commentary and a sprinkling of new principal cases, enough to modernize the book without requiring significant teaching overhauls). For a nuts-and-bolts approach to land use law the first two-thirds of the book will fully cover a three-credit course. The next three chapters explore land use techniques that go beyond traditional planning and Euclidean zoning such as smart growth, transit-oriented development, new urbanism, and form based zoning. Energy and building codes that address environmental and social concerns are explored, as is the topic of local environmental law that includes: aquifer, wetlands, habitat, and steep slopes protection; storm water control; and floodplains management. How environmental impact review, biological sequestration, and climate change mitigation integrate with local land use regulation is also explored. The book ends with a focus on the critical connection between human settlement patterns-the result of local zoning and land use plans-and climate change management, where students examine methods employed by local governments, with state encouragement, to use land use planning and regulation to design buildings, neighborhoods, cities, and regions to reduce energy and fossil fuel consumption and lower carbon dioxide emissions. For professors and students interested in discovering effective methods for dealing with the worsening threat of climate change, workable strategies and needed encouragement are provided. The last third of the book works well for faculty who wish to challenge students to creatively apply the tools they have learned about to address cutting edge issues facing communities. Faculty have used this material in the basic land use course, as a one credit add-on, and as material for an advanced land use course (making it convenient for students to keep the book).