February 13th—Land Use
The Supreme Court Revisits Regulatory Takings: Murr v. Wisconsin and the Parcel-As-A-Whole Rule
Speakers: John Echeverria, Susan Trevarthen ESQ., FAICP, Daniel R. Mandelker
The U.S. Supreme Court granted certiorari review of a regulatory taking case for the October 2016 term which is focused on the issue of how the court measures the property interest at issue in determining whether the impact of the governmental regulation triggers the requirement for compensation. The case involves a challenge to a lot merger ordinance that involuntarily merges substandard lots by operation of law with a commonly owned, contiguous lot so as to make one fully conforming lot. Regulatory takings expert and organizer of the annual Conference on Litigating Takings Challenges to Land Use and Environmental Regulations Professor John Echeverria wrote an amicus brief in the case on behalf of a group of economists to help the Court understand how regulatory restrictions affect the value of land and will discuss the case and its potential impacts on the law with land use webinar hosts Susan Trevarthen and Dan Mandelker.
Speakers: John Echeverria, Susan Trevarthen ESQ., FAICP, Daniel R. Mandelker
John Echeverria is a Professor of Law at Vermont Law School where he teaches Property, Public Law and a wide range of environmental and natural resource law courses. Prior to joining the Vermont Law School faculty in 2009, he served for 12 years as Executive Director of the Georgetown Environmental Law & Policy Institute at Georgetown University Law Center. He also was General Counsel of the National Audubon Society and General Counsel and Conservation Director of American Rivers, Inc., and was an Associate for four years in the Washington, D.C. office of Hughes, Hubbard & Reed. He served for one year as law clerk to the Honorable Gerhard A. Gesell of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia immediately after graduating from law school.
Professor Echeverria has written several books and numerous scholarly articles on environmental and natural resource law topics. He has published pieces for more general audiences in The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The Christian Science Monitor. He has represented state and local governments, environmental organizations, and planning groups in a variety of legal matters at all levels of the federal and state court systems. In 2007, Professor Echeverria received the Jefferson Fordham Advocacy Award from the American Bar Association to recognize outstanding excellence within the area of state and local government law over a lifetime of achievement. In addition to teaching at Vermont Law School, he has served as a Visiting Professor at Harvard Law School and Georgetown University Law Center.
Professor Echeverria received a JD degree from the Yale Law School. He received a Master’s degree from the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies as well as a BA degree from Yale College (summa cum laude).
Susan Trevarthen ESQ., FAICP chairs the Municipal Land Use and Zoning practice and is a Member of the law firm of Weiss Serota Helfman Cole & Bierman, P.L. in Fort Lauderdale. She handles land use, planning and zoning matters for governments, and is Town Attorney for a Broward coastal community. Her work includes reviewing and negotiating development agreements and approvals, drafting municipal codes and plans, advising municipal staffs, managers and attorneys, defending challenges to municipal regulations and decisions, handling public hearings, and counseling elected officials, as well as advocating for municipalities on legislative issues in her field. Her practice also includes constitutional law issues (such as takings, Harris Act, and First Amendment-protected land uses including signs), public school facilities, and hot topics in zoning law. Ms. Trevarthen has been board certified in City, County and Local Government Law by the Florida Bar since 2003, has been recognized as one of the top land use attorneys in the state in publications such as Florida Trend Magazine and SuperLawyers, and is AV rated. She has also held leadership positions in the Florida Bar’s Section for Environmental and Land Use Law and Section for City, County and Local Government Law. Susan grew up in Boca Raton, Florida. She was graduated from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with a joint degree in law and planning (M.R.P. and J.D., 1991) and from Duke University (A.B., 1986), and is a member of the College of Fellows of the American Institute of Certified Planners.
Daniel R. Mandelker, Stamper Professor of Law, Washington University in Saint Louis, is a leading scholar and teacher in land use law, environmental law, and state and local government law. He was the principal consultant and contributor to the American Planning Association’s model planning and zoning legislation project. He was also the principal consultant to a joint American Bar Association committee that prepared a model law for land use procedures that was adopted by the ABA House of Delegates. He recently published a handbook on free speech law for on premise signs, a coauthored fourth edition of his APA report on Street Graphics and the Law, and a coauthored new edition of his law school casebook in State and Local Government. Additionally, he received the ABA’s State and Local Government Section Daniel J. Curtin Lifetime Achievement Award.