The built environment around us is not inevitable or by accident. It is the outcome of a series of legal and political choices about how people should live together; about how to regulate and control the future use of the property around them. These choices result in a legal regime that, at once, is enormously complex, implicates the most basic questions of equity and constitutional freedoms, and affects people in every aspect of their daily lives. This course will examine land use from a legal, historical, theoretical, and, most important, practical perspective. Students will be introduced to a brief history of land use controls in the United States. The course will then cover the basic aspects of land use law: Euclidean zoning, special use permits, variances, vested rights and preexisting uses, exactions, exclusionary and inclusionary zoning, subdivision control, wetlands control, and legal challenges to zoning decisions. The course will also look at more recent trends and issues in land use law, such as smart growth and transit-oriented development, form- based zoning, marijuana regulations, short-term rentals, climate change resilience, and increased federal control of local land use. Finally, the course will examine the constitutional limits of land use regulation under the Fifth Amendment. Students will undertake practical exercises to introduce them to how land use lawyers practice. They will attend a zoning board hearing and report on it; they will analyze a client's proposal to determine what zoning relief is necessary; they will attend a zoning trial or appeal. The course will cover general zoning principles applicable nationally but will focus on Massachusetts law for the practical exercises. The class will require student participation in discussion. The only prerequisite is completion of first-year Property. Students will produce a brief paper on the zoning board meeting they attend and a final paper, and be asked to comment on the trial or hearing they attend. Grading will be based on class participation, the zoning exercise, the comments, and the two papers. UPPER-CLASS WRITING REQUIREMENT: A limited number of students may use this class to satisfy the requirement.
FALL 2026: LAW JD 855 A1, Aug 31st to Dec 3rd 2026