The Takings Issue: Constitutional Limits on Land Use Control and Environmental Regulation FROM THE PUBLISHER
<p>As challenges to land use and environmental controls by landowners and the property-rights movement have become more frequent, the concept of "takings"-government action that excessively limits a property-owner's use of private land-has become both increasingly familiar to the public, and increasingly problematic for planners, local officials, and anyone involved with making day-to-day decisions about land use. A vast and diverse body of case law has come into existence over the past several decades, and the controversy generated by recent legal decisions has resulted in a significant level of ideological bias in much of what has been written on the topic.<p>This volume is an objective and authoritative examination that considers all aspects of the takings issue. It is a much-needed guide and overview that introduces and explains issues surrounding regulatory takings on the local, state, and federal level for anyone involved with private land and government limitation of its permissible use. The authors describe where the law is now, predict where it might go in the future, and review conflict-reducing solutions to a variety of situations. They condense an immense amount of information into a clear and accesible format, making the book equally valuable for lawyers and non-lawyers alike.<p>The Takings Issue addresses procedural hurdles involved in getting a takings issue heard by a court, examines what does and does not constitute a taking, and considers the remedies available to landowners involved in takings actions. It treats concerns such as zoning, dedi cations and exactions, subdivision platting, and other local issues in some detail, and also considers state and federal issues involving industrial site approval, endangered species and wetlands protection, restrictions on access to resources on federal lands, and other topics.<p>The book is an essential reference for planners, land use lawyers, developers, and students of planning and law, as well as for policymakers and citizens involved with takings issues.
FROM THE CRITICS
William A. Fischel - Law and Politics Book Review
Meltz, Merriam and Frank probably...wish that Justice Holmes had not invoked (some say invented) the doctrine in 1922 in PENNSYLVANIA COAL V. MAHON.
But, to their credit, they don't simply rail against it. They conclude with a plea for the U.S. Supreme Court to resolve issues like ripeness and the amount of value that must be lost before property is deemed to have been taken. That's fair enough. The authors address practicing lawyers, and they should expect the
legal hierarchy to do better. But, for reasons the authors have made clear in their book, we should not expect too much progress from fine-tuning the rules. The dimensions of property and the role of government are too vast to be contained by judge-made rules, even if we were to cut government by half.
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