Zoning laws and land use laws govern the development and use of private and public buildings. Typically, land use regulations involve zoning, which municipalities use to regulate local real estate development. Additional legal considerations associated with land use are trespassing, eminent domain and easements. These rules exist to protect the interests of all relevant property owners. The correct purpose of zoning and land use laws continues to be a hotly contested issue.
A land use lawyer might have clients in the private and public sectors alike, although some lawyers restrict their practices to helping a particular type of clientele. Issues in this area of practice often relate to subsets of environmental law, real estate law, construction law or government contracts. Also, government building initiatives could fall within the government contracts area of practice.
All states have police powers, which the authorities use to devise zoning laws and land use limitations. The federal government does not have much input into this, under the US Constitution. States are granted powers that the federal government does not receive. Every state is allowed to introduce and enforce rules as it deems appropriate.
In turn, the majority of states allocate land use and zoning decisions to local authorities. They think that local authorities are best placed to oversee their own matters. This is why many zoning and land use laws are introduced at municipal level.
Real estate is a tightly regulated industry, so developers, owners, sellers and buyers of properties will benefit considerably from land use advice from an experienced lawyer. If you intend to challenge an impending city domain claim, your lawyer might look closely at the municipality’s proposal to verify its’ validity. If you need to relocate the headquarters of your company, your lawyer would probably study the zoning rules of each potential site.
Zoning and land use lawyers are usually extremely knowledgeable about local regulations and laws. Due to the local nature of these rules, there frequently isn’t much case law interpretation involved in associated legal matters. Instead, lawyers have to depend on the clear wording of zoning legislation, or past cases of other comparable ordinances, to represent their clients’ interests.
Wednesday, January 2nd, 2019, 11:31 pm | 
Legal | 
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