Municipal & Local Govt law

Here’s one not to miss, not only because it’s free, but because it features our PLF colleague Paul Beard II, arguing and prevailing counsel in Koontz v. St. Johns River Water Mgm’t Dist., No. 11-1447 (June 25, 2013): on Wednesday, July 17, 2013, from 2:00 – 3:30 pm ET, Greenberg Traurig and…

Late last year, we posted the Complaint in a federal court lawsuit originating on Kauai. In that case, the owner of a property that has been designated for resort development for 35 years asserted that the adoption of a Charter amendment by the County’s voters and a follow-on ordinance adopted by the County Council that…

On Wednesday, July 17, 2013, from 4:00 – 5:30 pm ET, I will be a panelist in the American Planning Association’s above-titled teleconference.  The session was put together by our ABA and OCA colleague Dwight Merriam, and in additon to Dwight and me, includes Professors David Callies (U. Hawaii) and Carol Brown (U.

Update: From the July 13 WaPo: As Wal-Mart threatens to walk, what’s next for a dying shopping center? (“The Skyland Shopping Center in Southeast Washington is amost dead. Shops are shuttered and windows broken.” Gee, we wonder why?). See also Gideon Kanner’s thoughts on the story at “Another Kelo Case in the Marking?”…

We’ve been offline for a few days, but wanted to pick up this decision in an important case we’ve been following about the valuation of protective dunes on the Jersey Shore, and general and special benefits.

In Borough of Harvey Cedars v. Karan, No. 070512 (July 8, 2013), the New Jersey Supreme Court held…

Another date to save on your calendar: the 2014 Conference of the International Academic Association on Planning, Law, and Property Rights will be held from February 11-14, 2014 in Haifa, Israel, at Technion-Israel Institute of Technology. The Conference will include the usual presentations, plus day-long workshops, and excursions. You don’t need to be…

Generally, we don’t plug seminars that might compete with our own, but in this case, we made an exception because the faculty for this one consists of three people we could just not go without hearing from.

On Thursday, July 11, 2013, Law Seminars International is sponsoring “Koontz v. St. Johns River Water …

Here’s some of the stories and commentary we’ve been reading about the Supreme Court’s decision in Koontz v. St. Johns River Water Management District, No. 11-1147 (June 25, 2013:

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We’ve commented on the various plans (mostly backed by a private venture capital outfit out of San Francisco) to have local municipalities seize underwater-but-performing morrtgages by eminent domain (see here and here, for example). Apparently the brainchild of Cornell lawprof Robert Hockett and sold as a “no lose” situation (see “Paying Paul …

Some things are constant: the speed of light, the sun rises in the east. And Professor John Echeverria, the well-known environmental lawprof, has never met a taking he’s liked.

Even if that means disagreeing in one takings case with Justice Ginsburg writing for a unanimous Supreme Court, the unanimous Court in another takings…