Courses | Columbia Law School

This course will survey and evaluate the rules restricting the use of land and the various local ordinances, state statutes, and constitutional doctrines that limit such legal restrictions. Specific issues will include zoning ordinances, subdivisions, variances, growth controls, community development, and environmental impact review, along with regulatory takings. The substantive objective of the course is to understand the full range of powers that local and state governments have to regulate the use of privately owned land fairly and within constitutional and political limits. The practice objective is to learn about and critique the delegation of specific land use powers from the state to local governments and explore how this influences the practice of land use, environmental, and real estate law, including administrative procedure and judicial review.