Sustainable Land Development Today - January 2008 - (Page 19) RESOURCES About.com http://austin.about.com land reserved for homes, farms and forests. According to a recent article in the Salem, Ore., Capital Press, Oregon residents filed more than 7,000 Measure 37 claims in the three years the measure was in effect. Richard Whitman of the State Department of Justice, who is in line to take over as director of the Department of Land Conservation and Development, said some claims previously rejected under Measure 37 could be approved under Measure 49. If it seems confusing, it is. Under Measure 49, the state has 120 days from the implementation date to notify Measure 37 claimants of three options: • Claimants can choose to enter an "express lane," a path that allows claimants to build up to three houses without obtaining an assessment. • Claimants can enter the "conditional-use lane," a path that allows claimants to build up to 10 houses but requires two assessments and includes several restrictions. • Claimants can enter the "vested lane," a path that allows claimants to continue developing their Measure 37 claim under the premise they have vested in the development. council rezoned the land to a planned development district. Adjoining property owners commenced a lawsuit alleging that the rezoning by the county violated the ZLDR. On appeal from a summary judgment motion, where the court below found that the county’s action were contrary to the ZLDR, the Appeals Court reversed, finding that the county’s action were not arbitrary, unreasonable or unjust, and that the county council was authorized to adopt the planned development ordinance.* GovTrack.us http://www.govtrack.us Intiative and Referendum Institute http://www.iandrinstitute.org *Law of The Land http://lawoftheland.wordpress.com Library of Congress http://thomas.loc.gov National Conference of State Legislatures http://www.ncsl.org National Taxpayers Union http://www.ntu.org The White House http://www.whitehouse.gov South Carolina A court ruling may impact the land use policies in South Carolina as an Appeals Court found that a county had authority to adopt a Planned Development Ordinance. The appellants own 162 acres on Edisto Island, which is divided into six parcels and subject to the County’s zoning and land development regulations (ZLDR). Five of the parcels were zoned Agricultural Residential (with a maximum density of one dwelling unit per acre) and one was zoned Agricultural Preservation (with a maximum density of one dwelling unit per 10 acres). To achieve the highest allowed density of one dwelling unit per five acres in this district, an application must be processed through a planned development process. Following a request for a zoning change, the county Texas Proposition 7, an amendment to the Texas State Constitution, overwhelmingly passed in November with 80 percent approval and now allows a governmental entity to sell property acquired through eminent domain back to its last owner, at its original purchase price, if the public use of the property has been canceled, if no progress toward the public use is made by a prescribed deadline, or if the property is unnecessary to accomplish a public use. In addition, Texas voters also passed, with a majority of over 60 percent, $5.25 billion worth of bonds that are directly tied to infrastructure. Plus, in the wake of the home mortgage situation, voters passed Proposition 8, with almost 80 percent of the vote that clarifies certain provisions relating to the making of a home equity loan and use of home equity loan proceeds. Washington Feeding off their success in 2007 when Washington environmentalists helped pass four of their initiatives into law, including cleanup of Puget Sound cleanup, the doubling of state grants for purchase of parks and open space, they recently identified their four priorities for 2008; and they come with bipartisan support, relatively low startup costs and few obvious enemies. According to reports in The Olympian, the environmental community in the state of Washington will be lobbying the legislature for more urban trees as well as land-use and zoning changes that encourage cities to be better served by mass transit. Local Level Meanwhile, some cities are taking aggressive steps to change the building and development climate. These can be as wide-ranging as there are cities and counties. Professionals within the industry must realize that local governments are mimicking the demands of their residents and they vary widely. San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom introduced a measure in mid-December that would drastically alter the city's building codes. If the Board of Supervisors approves the legislation, San Francisco would have the country's most stringent environmentally friendly building standards. The ordinance would require that new residential buildings over 75 feet tall, new commercial buildings over 5,000 square feet and renovations on buildings over 25,000 square feet comply with stringent standards developed by the U.S. Green Building Council. By 2012, new projects and renovations would be required to comply with the strictest levels of those standards known as Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, or LEED®. According to Newsome, the required environmental guidelines would result in San Francisco being “the greenest large city in the United States of America.” Last year, San Francisco began fasttracking permits for developers who voluntarily met the LEED standards. SLDT www.SLDTonline.com 19 http://austin.about.com http://www.govtrack.us http://www.iandrinstitute.org http://lawoftheland.wordpress.com http://thomas.loc.gov http://www.ncsl.org http://www.ntu.org http://www.whitehouse.gov http://www.SLDTonline.com
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