New Ground: The Advent of Local Environmental Law

Local governments have adopted a host of environmental laws that establish new standards governing the use of the land. These are found in traditional land use laws, including zoning and subdivision regulations, as well as in regulations that protect particular environmental features such as ridgelines, wetlands, watersheds, scenic viewsheds, and waterbodies. This is a very recent movement, but one that has proceeded far enough to demonstrate the powerful role that local governments can play in the nation s efforts to protect natural resources and to maintain environmental quality. The advent of local environmental law challenges practitioners and academics to describe this new field and explain its relationship to traditional concepts of environmental and land use law. New Ground: The Advent of Local Environmental Law presents a collection of papers examining local environmental law and its strategic role in shaping an appropriate response to a new generation of environmental and land use challenges. Contributors are distinguished scholars and practitioners who have written casebooks and articles on land use and environmental law, served in federal, state, and local administrations or national bar and planning association committees, or prepared national treatises on the subject. Their papers were presented at a symposium hosted by Pace University School and co-sponsored by the Environmental Law Institute. The book includes a detailed explanation of this developing field by the editor, the participants' papers, and their commentaries at the symposium.