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Ruling on appeals involving adjoining pieces of beachfront property, the New York Supreme Court Appellate Division held the town did not act arbitrarily or capriciously in adopting a policy barring [...]

The 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has reversed a ruling by the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania that held a zoning ordinance that barred churches [...]

A LAND-USE BATTLE of miniscule proportions is brewing in Walnut Creek. A 96.1-square-foot parcel next to a Chico's--and soon to be Neiman Marcus--has been the topic of controversy between city [...]

Federal transportation authorization, public private partnerships, and transportation-land use planning were the focus of the recent meeting of NLC's Transportation, Infrastructure and Services (TIS) Steering Committee. The steering committee met […]

Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) was successful in defeating an attempt to exempt billboards damaged by natural disasters in 13 Southern states from highway beautification restrictions during debate on the supplemental […]

THE LANDOWNER in Mansoldo v. State (see story, p. 82) will get another opportunity to show the application to his land of state rules governing construction in floodways took his [...]

THE PENNSYLVANIA COURTS are known for a landowner-friendly attitude. Nevertheless, the Commonwealth Court's ruling in Ruddy v. Springfield Township (see story, p. 58) raises questions. The appeals court appears to [...]

The measures adopted by the Federal Aviation Agency (FAA), for recovering its share of more that $240 million, and with respect to land needed for noise compatibility given to the airports, are discussed. The measures have been adopted in the wake of the Department of Transportation's audit of the 11 airports.

LEAD: The article 'More Golfers Tee Off on Less Land' [ May 24 ] was only partially accurate with regard to the ownership of the Commack Hills Country Club, and […]

Your article on the Northville Industries Corporation facilities [ 'For Northville, Shifting Fortunes' March 30 ] raises important questions relating to land use and the values that direct our decisions […]

LEAD: ELEVEN years ago the paramount public issue in the West 40's of Manhattan was massage parlors. There were plans to convert the building at 121 West 46th Street, once […]

A DEAL IS A DEAL, the Florida District Court of Appeal has ruled, even if the party against whom the contract is being enforced happens to be a successor in [...]

A zoning bylaw provision forbidding the resubdivision of lots created by taking advantage of an exception to the bylaw's frontage requirements was valid as applied to the property in dispute, [...]

A board of appeals' failure to give notice to abutting property owners of a public hearing on a special permit application kept the time to appeal from the board's decision [...]

A NEW YORK LANDOWNER who lost his property to a redevelopment project in the village of Port Chester won a victory of sorts Dec. 5, when the 2nd U.S. Circuit [...]

The Connecticut Appeals Court has ruled a condition attached to a special permit for a church in a residential area requiring that services not be conducted at the same time [...]

WHAT IS A 'SEARCH'? That was the question the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals had to answer in a recent case involving a zoning administrator's investigation of unpermitted construction [...]

THE TRIAL COURT'S ruling invalidating Oregon's Measure 37 (story, page 157) is not the last we will see of the case. The state, which is legally obliged to defend the [...]

When a permit application fails because the relevant ordinance requires a supermajority vote by the city's board of appeals, the prevailing minority is required to issue findings of fact and [...]

On the same day it struck down large-lot zoning in an urbanizing community (story, page 147), the New Jersey Superior Court Appellate Division upheld similar land-use regulatory techniques in a [...]

TWO DECISIONS from New Jersey's intermediate appellate court illustrate the yin and yang of one tool of 'smart growth,' large-lot zoning (stories, pages 147, 148). The lesson to be gleaned [...]

THE BEAT GOES ON: The same group of Montgomery County, Md., citizens that discovered a developer building a residential community in the town of Clarksburg apparently had approved site plans [...]

CHALK UP ANOTHER WIN for municipal governments in the RLUIPA wars (see story, p. 74). As LULR has noted in the past, courts generally seem reluctant to find a local [...]

IN LIGHT OF precedents holding that rules governing such procedural matters as service of process must be strictly enforced in land-use appeals, the court in Witt v. Port of Olympia [...]

THE TRIAL COURT in Murphy v. New Milford Zoning Commission (see story, p. 51) ruled that only institutional plaintiffs, such as a church or synagogue, are required to exhaust administrative [...]

Landowners could not establish a compensable regulatory taking based on their estimate of the cost of complying with endangered species regulations, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit [...]

In an unpublished opinion, a panel of the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled a township sewer authority did not violate the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act [...]

This is the second in a series of articles revolving around the topics that will be presented at the Leadership Training Institute Seminar entitled, "Creating Sustainable Communities for the 21st […]

A landowner who opposes a zoning board's land-use decision must personally appear before the board and be represented by counsel in order to have standing to appeal the board's ruling, [...]

The New Jersey Superior Court Appellate Division ruled it is not necessary to show legal title to two adjoining lots vested simultaneously in the same person, to establish the lots [...]

Even a strong likelihood that a deadlock on a township zoning hearing board will ultimately result in rejection of a development proposal is not a 'final decision' permitting the developer [...]

The Oregon Court of Appeals declined to rule on the question whether the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (RLUIPA) preempted a county ordinance barring construction of churches on [...]

MAINE'S HIGHEST COURT tackled the nettlesome subject of zoning-law definitions in a pair of decisions issued last week (stories, pages 114, 116). The court's approach appears to be one of [...]

Substantial evidence in the record supported a city's approval of an environmental impact report (EIR) for a proposed mixed-use development, the California Court of Appeal (4th Dist.) has ruled (Defend [...]

AN ATHENS, GA.-AREA DEVELOPER, denied a rezoning to convert 34 acres of agricultural-zoned land to a mixed-use development, in large part because of the opposition of residents of an adjoining [...]

The District of Columbia Court of Appeals has ruled conditions imposed on a special exception allowing operation of a private middle school in a residential neighborhood adequately protected the neighborhood [...]

A subdivision access road that forms a loop is not a cul-de-sac, the Connecticut Appeals Court has ruled (200 Associates, LLC v. Planning and Zoning Commission of Thompson, No. AC [...]

Three years ago, in Simplex Technologies v. Town of Newington, the New Hampshire Supreme Court eased the requirements for demonstrating unnecessary hardship in applying for a variance. Since then, the [...]

IN AN ABOUT-FACE OF SORTS, the Winston-Salem, N.C., planning board recommended against allowing Wal-Mart to build a new 223,000-square-foot supercenter in the city's Old Town neighborhood. Planners reportedly could not [...]

SOME APPELLATE COURTS have taken language in the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in City of Monterey v. Del Monte Dunes at Monterey, Ltd., 526 U.S. 687, as indicating the high [...]