Events
Peanut Butter and JAM: Making Local Regulations Stick After the JAM Golf, LLC, Decision
Vermont Planners Association (VPA) Annual Spring Workshop
April 23, 2010, 8:30 am to 12:30 pm
Chase Center, Vermont Law School, South Royalton, VT
Would your municipality’s land use regulations withstand a constitutional challenge?
Most of us were not even pondering this question before the VT Supreme Court's 2008 JAM Golf, LLC decision. The legal landscape continues to shift as a result of that decision. On April 23, come hear the experts give an update on the implications and the related cases that have followed the JAM Golf ruling. The legal update will be followed by a panel of planners and consultants with advice and commentary on how local regulations can be crafted and revised to avoid being tagged as "too vague to be enforceable." Have you taken a good hard look at the regulatory guidance and protections your community members count on? Do you even know where to start? Now is the time!
Download the brochure (.pdf)
Summer Retreat for Development Review Volunteers at Ohana Camp on Lake Fairlee in Thetford, Vermont
June 18-19, 2010
This event will focus on legal and technical training for volunteer, local land use decision-makers. Space will be limited to 40 attendees. This is an opportunity to reward individuals who have provided outstanding public service to their communities! Please contact Peg Elmer (pelmer@vermontlaw.edu or 802-831-1405 ) if you have individuals or spaces you would like to sponsor or if you would like to attend!
Download the brochure (.pdf)
View Workshop Details
Register Online
Past Events
6th Annual Norman Williams Distinguished Lecture in Land Use Planning with Mary D. Nichols
Thursday, Feb. 4, 2010- 4:00 p.m.
Jonathan B. Chase Community Center, Vermont Law School
"Sustainable Communities for a Sustainable State: California's Efforts to Curb Sprawl and Cut Emissions"
Mary Nichols, Chairman, California Air Resources Board
About the Williams Lecture
Norman Williams came to Vermont Law School in 1975, after a long and distinguished career in public service and teaching, particularly in the area of land use planning. Professor Williams played a key role in founding Vermont Law School's Environmental Law Center. The Norman Williams Distinguished Lecture in Land Use Planning and the Law series is a gift of Frances Yates, trustee of Vermont Law School, in memory of both Norman Williams and Anya '94 and Charles Yates '93. The lecture is hosted by Vermont Law School's Land Use Institute.
12th Annual Conference on Litigating Regulatory Takings Challenges Land Use and Environmental Regulations
Friday, November 6, 2009
This conference explores the regulatory takings issue as it relates to land use and environmental regulation. The conference brings together a diverse group of leading scholars and experienced practitioners to discuss the cutting edge issues raised by recent and pending court cases and new regulatory initiatives.
Click for more information and link to registration page.
Joint Water Law Workshop With McGill
October 24, 2009
The Land Use Institute hosted a joint “Workshop on Water” with the McGill Faculty of Law. The workshop gave VLS and McGill faculty members an opportunity to address the over-arching theme of “water” in the context of their scholarly interests. Five McGill faculty members and six VLS colleagues presented short papers or participated in discussion of a variety of cross-border topics as varied as pollution abatement, private law rules governing water usage, tax policy, and climate change. The papers will be posted online by the Vermont Law Review and VJEL and will be published in hard copy in the Law Review. The Workshop was an important step in a larger joint cross-border sustainability initiative that will continue to build on the two faculties’ respective strengths in environmental law, comparative law and sustainable development.
View Workshop Call for Papers (.pdf)
View Workshop Agenda (.pdf)
View Workshop presenters’ biographies (.pdf)
View McGill-VLS Joint Cross-border Sustainability Initiative Documents (.pdf)
Planning Commissioners’ Summer Retreat
June 5-6, 2009
The Land Use Institute at Vermont Law School is calling for applications and nominations of individuals to attend a planning commissioners’ retreat. The retreat will be held at the Ohana Camp on Lake Fairlee from 3 pm on June 5 to 3 pm on June 6, 2009. Keynotes include Vermont Secretary of State Deb Markowitz and Vermont Law School land use law professors Tim Duane and Sean Nolon.
Download the brochure (.pdf)
JAM GOLF LLC. VS. CITY OF SOUTH BURLINGTON: LESSONS FOR VERMONT COMMUNITIES
March 20, 2009
Vermont Law School’s Land Use Institute, Vermont Natural Resources Council and Vermont Planners Association hosted a workshop for Vermont planners, land use attorneys & natural resource professionals.
View Workshop Agenda (.pdf)
View Workshop Notes (.pdf)
View Case Summary (.pdf)
Download Powerpoint presented by Steven Stitzel from Stitzel, Page & Fletcher, P.C. (.pdf)
Download Presentation by Sharon Murray, AICP from Front Porch Community Planning & Design (.pdf)
5th Annual Norman Williams Distinguished Lecture in Land Use Planning and the Law by Joseph L. Sax
Thursday, Feb. 5, 2009, - 5:30-7:00 p.m.
Jonathan B. Chase Community Center, Vermont Law School
"The Property Rights Sweepstakes: Has Anyone Held The Winning Ticket?"
Prof. Joseph L. Sax, James H. House & Hiram H. Hurd Professor of Environmental Regulation, Emeritus, University of California, Berkeley.
Read Joseph L. Sax's full biography (.pdf)
About the Williams Lecture
Norman Williams came to Vermont Law School in 1975, after a long and distinguished career in public service and teaching, particularly in the area of land use planning. Professor Williams played a key role in founding Vermont Law School's Environmental Law Center. The Norman Williams Distinguished Lecture in Land Use Planning and the Law series is a gift of Frances Yates, trustee of Vermont Law School, in memory of both Norman Williams and Anya '94 and Charles Yates '93. The lecture is hosted by Vermont Law School's Land Use Institute.
For more information about the 2009 Williams Lecture, please contact Jane D'Antonio at 80... or jdantonio@vermontlaw.edu
Food, Fuel, and the Future of Farming: Conference on Sustainable Agriculture
July 24 & 25, 9 a.m. - 5 p.m.
This event is free and open to the public; please register online for one or both days. For more information, contact Jane D'Antonio at 80... or jdantonio@vermontlaw.edu.Click for brochure.
Inclusionary Housing and Planning Law Review
June 25, 2008, 2 p.m. – 6 p.m.
Double feature—3 CM credits if you stay for both. The law review event is an annual highlight…really excellent. Contact: Peg Elmer pelmer@vermontlaw.edu, (8...Brownfields Conference 2008
June 20, 2008, 8:30 a.m. – 4 p.m.
This conference will provide developers and their professional advisors (attorneys, design professionals, planners, lenders, and others) with tools for identifying, transacting, and successfully redeveloping brownfields in Vermont.Eminent Domain Takings Law: Federal and Northern New England Perspectives
June 13, 2008, 1 p.m. – 3 p.m.
This program will provide an overview of eminent domain powers, including sources in federal and state—Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine—law, a history of its exercise, and types of eminent domain actions. It will provide participants with a perspective on how to participate in eminent domain processes including appeals. This will all be put into the context of Kelo v. New London, and will include a discussion of how the three states have reacted to that case. The program will conclude also with a review of takings generally, including inverse condemnation.
The program will be presented live, jointly in person at the site and by telephone conference call. Participants will be provided with downloadable access to a PowerPoint presentation and substantial background reading material at least two weeks in advance of the program date. There will be an opportunity for participants to email questions in advance of the presentation as well as during the presentation for response by the speaker.
The program will be presented by attorney Benjamin Frost, AICP. Frost is the director of public affairs for the New Hampshire Housing Finance Authority. He has been a professional planner for 20 years and an attorney practicing in New Hampshire for 13 years, specializing in land use law.
Workshop to be held in Bedford, N.H., for live presentation; remote viewings in Vermont and Maine TBD. Contact: Ben Frost, bfrost@nhhfa.org, (6...Getting Prepared to Save Energy and Reduce Carbon in Your Community: Assessment Tools and Resources
May 30, 2008, 9 a.m. – 3:30 p.m.
Pick from a series of four innovative training sessions offered to educate and advance community energy and greenhouse gas assessments!The 2008 Norman Williams Distinguished Lecture in Land Use Planning and the Law
For Whom the Bell Tolls: Reflections on Eminent Domain, Constitutional Review, and Public Attitudes
by Professor Jerold S. Kayden, Harvard University Graduate School of DesignThursday, February 21, 2008, 4:30-6 PM
Chase Center, Vermont Law School
In 2005, the Supreme Court of the United States announced its Kelo v. City of New London decision upholding a city's exercise of the power of eminent domain to take a single-family house against the will of the owner to advance citywide economic development interests. The opinion triggered an outraged response from a wide spectrum of groups and individuals and raised deeper questions about how planners go about the business of urban development. What are these questions, and how might they best be addressed by those seeking to redevelop cities and towns around the nation?
Northeast Conference of Flood Hazards, Liabilities and Opportunities, October 15, 2007
This important conference, cosponsored by the Vermont DEC River Management Program, the Land Use Institute, the Vermont League of Cities and Towns, and the Two Rivers–Ottauquechee Regional Commission, provided municipal officials and attorneys with key information they need to understand flood hazards in Vermont and the liabilities associated with municipal and landowner actions. Flood hazard professionals and policymakers from the state, regional, and national levels shared their experiences and participated in discussions on how to advance opportunities for municipalities to minimize local costs and the liabilities associated with floods.
Affordability Covenants: The Policy and Practice of Keeping Affordable Housing Affordable, February 13, 2007
Public agencies and private nonprofits increasingly utilize restrictive affordability covenants to ensure that affordable housing will stay affordable to future generations and to maintain the long-term value and effectiveness of public or private investment in affordable housing. This conference introduced Vermont and New Hampshire lawyers, realtors, bankers, and affordable housing advocates to the diverse models of affordability covenants and provided the basic hands-on knowledge necessary to structure and navigate land transactions that involve affordability covenants. This event was cosponsored by LUI and the Upper Valley Housing Coalition.
3rd Annual Norman Williams Distinguished Lecture in Land Use Planning and the Law, February 8, 2007
Saving Nature in Time: The Rebirth of EnvironmentalismWilliam Cronon, University of Wisconsin, Madison
Vermont Upper Valley Citizen Planners’ Conference: Balancing Housing Needs with Community Character, April 8, 2006
Citizen planners and local experts engaged in a discussion on citizen input in the master planning process, planning for housing in town centers and financing for upgrades of existing housing. This event was cosponsored by LUI, the Upper Valley Housing Coalition, the League of Women Voters of the Upper Valley, and the Vermont Housing Finance Agency.
Vermont by Design: Next Steps, February 24, 2006
Conference Report PDF"Vermont by Design: Next Steps" was a day-long conference to consider means of implementing Vermont by Design: Challenges and Recommendations on Improving the Structure of Planning in Vermont, the final report of the Vermont Council on Planning, issued in January 2006. Vermont by Design contains specific recommendations designed to further the goals of advancing governance, authority, and leadership in the planning system; improving coordination and collaboration in the planning process; expanding education and training; and addressing issues of growth and scale. At this conference, individuals from all sectors of Vermont's planning community, including the drafters of Vermont by Design, other experts, state and local government officials, and private consultants, met to assess and analyze the report and consider means of carrying out its recommendations.
2nd Annual Norman Williams Distinguished Lecture in Land Use Planning and the Law, February 9, 2006
"From a Darkling Plain to What?: The Regulatory Takings Issue in U.S. Law and Policy"John Echeverria, Georgetown University Environmental Law and Policy Institute
1st Annual Norman Williams Distinguished Lecture in Land Use Planning and the Law, February 11, 2005
"Speaking (Vermont) Truth to (Washington) Power"Richard O. Brooks, Professor of Law, Vermont Law School
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