Structural Obstacles to Settlement of Land Use Disputes
By Stewart E. Sterk, February 8, 2012
This post has been viewed 2,108 times.
This article explores the current problems with settling land use litigation. The author demonstrates that those obstacles to settlement serve few critical functions within the traditional plan model of land use regulation, but they do play a significant role within a more modern model that treats municipal officials as mediators of land use conflicts. The article suggests that within a mediation model, litigation operates to ensure adequate participation in the decision making process. It suggests that a regime that bars potential objectors from challenging a settlement unless they participated in the litigation that generated the settlement would retain the primary advantages of current restrictions on settlement.
