UCLA Law will host local government land use symposium on February 11

UCLA Law’s Evan Frankel Environmental Law and Policy Program is hosting a symposium about local government land use law on February 11, 2011.  This event, Local Agencies on the Cutting Edge – Emerging Challenges to Local Land Use Authority: Proposition 26, the Public Trust Doctrine, RLUIPA, and Takings Law, will focus on issues of practical importance to lawyers and policymakers who care about local governments’ role in environmental and land-use regulation.  The focus on municipal land-use law, and the intention to attract mostly practicing lawyers interested in content specifically relevant to their practice, are new symposium territory for us.  And the issues are of great relevance to Californians, especially in the wake of the passage of Proposition 26 in last month’s election.

Our primary partner on this event is the Municipal Law Institute of the League of California Cities.  U.C. Berkeley’s Center for Law, Energy, and the Environment and U.C. Davis’ California Environmental Law and Policy Center are co-sponsors.  (Co-blogger Rick Frank, who is transitioning from Berkeley to Davis this year, has played an important role in planning the conference along with me and the attorneys who direct the Municipal Law Institute.)  This event is our first collaboration with the Municipal Law Institute.

We expect there will be a wide audience of public-sector, private-sector, and nonprofit lawyers in attendance, along with students and professors.  The symposium website has links for the agenda and registration.

This program is very practically-oriented and aimed squarely at legal practitioners with an interest in local government issues, though we expect others to attend as well.  We’re offering MCLE credit for lawyers; general registration for this program is $150, with discounts for public sector and nonprofit sector attorneys.

Our panelists, distinguished practitioners and law professors, will present four panels on the following topics:

What does the recently adopted Proposition 26 mean for local government land use and environmental fees?

New legal developments relating to land use and religious centers: RLUIPA and beyond, which will explore recent court decisions, as well as  emerging controversies such as those over Islamic centers in New York and in the Riverside County city of Temecula.

The present and future of the public trust doctrine in California, which will explore recent efforts to expand this doctrine beyond its traditional application and what that trend is likely to mean for local governmental agencies.

Cutting-edge issues in takings law.  This panel will explore current and emerging issues such as the implications of recent mobilehome rent control cases; the “Judicial Takings” theory in the wake of the recent ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court in Stop The Beach Renourishment v Florida Department of Environmental Regulation; emerging questions about whether application of the Endangered Species Act can constitute a taking; and new developments in takings and water law.

We’re looking forward to this program!

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