Land Use & Zoning
Comprehensive land use planning in the United States began in earnest in the 1920's with the promulgation, by the Commerce Department, of model statutes authorizing municipalities to adopt and enforce planning and zoning ordinances and regulations. In a suburb of Cleveland, a realtor sued a village, arguing that one such zoning ordinance, which was designed to prevent Cleveland's burgeoning industries from "spilling over" and changing the character of the village, was an unconstitutional "taking" which violated the due process clause of the Constitution. In 1926, in Village of Euclid v. Ambler Realty, the US Supreme Court upheld the ordinance. In the wake of that decision, zoning ordinances proliferated throughout the United States, but the effect of "Euclidean" zoning was to create an environment in which work places are separated from residences and living spaces, and to promote urban sprawl and overreliance on the automobile. The more recent "smart growth" movement emphasizes mixed uses, creation and restoration of communities, and cooperative efforts to preserve open space.
It is against this backdrop that land use law is made in individual cases.
Lawrence & Jurkiewicz, LLC are land use lawyers who are prepared to represent your interests in connection with zoning enforcement hearings, before municipal planning & zoning and inland wetlands & watercourses commissions, and in connection with administrative appeals from such decisions.
