Land Use Planning and the Environment, designed primarily for the classroom, takes a comprehensive approach to the instruction of planning and zoning law, regulatory takings, and environmental topics. The casebook is authored by Charles M. Haar, Louis D. Brandeis Professor of Law, emeritus, Harvard University and visiting member, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton University, and Michael Allan Wolf, Richard E. Nelson Chair in Local Government Law, University of Florida Levin College of Law and general editor of Powell on Real Property, the leading treatise on real property.

“The casebook does an impressive job of exploring the evolving, broad, and nuanced landscape of land use law,” said Tony Arnold, Boehl Chair in Property and Land Use, University of Louisville Louis D. Brandeis School of Law. Arnold also served as a visiting professor at UF College of Law last fall. “It will be quite useful in educating the thoughtful and versatile land use lawyer of today and the future because of its rich and balanced approach. It will also be quite accessible to planning students and other non-law students taking a course in land use law.”

Julian Juergensmeyer

UF students, faculty and staff who want to be part of the solution to Florida’s environmental challenges but don’t know where to begin can start by attending the University of Florida Levin College of Law’s 16th Annual Public Interest Environmental Conference Feb. 25-27.

New and longtime environmental advocates and legal professionals are invited to attend the two-day conference titled, “Bringing it All Back Home: Leadership, Land Use and Local-nomics.” The event, to be held in UF Law’s Holland Hall, will emphasize the power of local environmental leadership, the potential of innovative local land-use tools and the promise of place-based economics and agriculture. Paid participants can earn CLEs while interacting with legal experts, environmental writers, and wildlife and ecology scientists during panel discussions and two workshops.

“With this conference, we wanted to bring environmental responsibility back to the local scale while incorporating the realities of modern society,” said Zach Broome, a second-year UF law student and co-chair of PIEC 2010. “We also wanted to make environmental responsibility something viable for attorneys outside the land use or environmental fields, which is why we have a panel on professional responsibility and two workshops on the ethical and legal approach to development.”

The first workshop on Saturday, Feb. 27, is titled, “The Rezoning and Development Order Approval Process.” This workshop will benefit those interested in learning how Florida’s land-use laws are applied and how to effectively participate in the process from a citizen and public-interest perspective. The following workshop, “Cultivating the Next Generation of Environmental Leadership,” will provide tips and advice on how to be an effective board member and how to assume leadership roles. This workshop will also address the impact of technology and the generational differences in leading effectively.

In addition to the panel discussions and workshops, there will be two distinguished keynote speakers. Julian Juergensmeyer, the Ben F. Johnson Jr. Chair in Law at Georgia State University College of Law and co-director of the GSU Center for the Comparative Study of Metropolitan Growth, will give the keynote address Thursday night during the opening reception. The title of his presentation is, “Bringing It All Back Home: Where the Wild Things Are!”

“During my presentation, I will outline two main ideas,” Juergensmeyer said. “First, that current problems (energy and resource shortages, climate change and economic uncertainties) require land-use planners and regulators to consider wild ideas. Second, that wild ideas are best tried and tested on a small scale at the local level. After developing these ideas I will attempt examples of some of the wild ideas that may not be so wild after all.”

Bill Belleville, a Sanford, Fla., resident who is a documentary filmmaker and award-winning environmental author, will give the keynote address during the Friday night banquet. Bellville’s books include River of Lakes: A Journey on Florida’s St. John’s River and Losing it all to Sprawl: How Progress Ate My Cracker Landscape.

The conference is free for UF students, faculty and staff. A discounted registration of $15 is available for non-UF students.

To view the agenda, speakers, room assignments and registration form, visit www.law.ufl.edu/piec.

The symposium invites attorneys specializing in local government, real estate, land-use planning, environmental law and others interested in those topics to attend, and will offer insights on how local governments can address the profound legal, financial and political changes affecting today’s economy.

Presented by the UF Levin College of Law and co-sponsored by The Florida Bar Environmental and Land Use Law Section and The Florida Bar City, County and Local Government Section, this one-day conference titled, “The Squeeze on Local Governments,” will explore pressing questions affecting local governments and identify solutions to help leverage governmental resources. Attendees can earn six general Continuing Legal Education (CLE) credits, and will interact with leading state and national experts in local government, the environment, property, land-use, and redevelopment law.

“These are perilous times for local government officials who find themselves on the front lines of the struggle to contend with the financial and housing meltdown and other serious challenges,” said Michael Allan Wolf, Richard E. Nelson Chair in Local Government Law, UF Levin College of Law, and organizer of the symposium. “Pressured by court decisions, diminishing property tax revenues, and new legislation that threatens their existing regulatory tools, attorneys representing and working closely with cities and towns need to be well-informed regarding new problems and new government assistance programs.”

Symposium topics slated for discussion include, “State and Local Responses to the Housing/Financial Crisis,” the “Neighborhood Stabilization program,” “Experiences with State Regulatory Takings,” and “Post-Kelo Eminent Domain Reforms.”

“Our nation’s economic crisis is taking its toll on state and local governments,” said Deborah Cupples, a board member of the Eighth Judicial Circuit Bar Association. “To deal with these issues effectively requires attorneys specializing in local government, real estate, land-use planning and environmental law to keep up with the evolving challenges and proposed solutions. Attending the Nelson Symposium is a great way to plug into resources and get advice from the experts.”

Presenters include Frank S. Alexander, professor of law, Emory Law School; John D. Echeverria, executive director, Georgetown Environmental Law & Policy Institute, and professor of law, Vermont Law School; James W. Ely, Milton R. Underwood Chair in Free Enterprise, Vanderbilt University Law School; Robert Guthrie, esq., senior assistant county attorney, Orange County, Fla.; D. Kent Safriet, esq., Hopping Green & Sams, Tallahassee, Fla.; Gregory T. Stewart, esq., Nabors Giblin & Nickerson, Tallahassee, Fla; and Andrea Becker and Tara Nelson, J.D. candidates, University of Florida Levin College of Law.

Symposium registration is free for faculty and students and includes CLEs, all program activities, reception, continental breakfast, breaks and lunch. Visit www.law.ufl.edu/news/events/ to view the symposium brochure, which includes registration and accommodation information.