Objectives 

     This course develops several skills useful to practitioners, as well as to planners pursuing advanced degrees and research. Those completing the course will:

• Gain a working knowledge of the American legal system and its application in planning and environmental law.

• Have an in-depth understanding and ability to effectively use the California Planning and Zoning Law, the Subdivision Map Act, the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) and the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA).

• Understand recent legal developments related to planning in California and in other states.

• Learn legal research methods and how to use a law library to answer planning law questions, and how to analyze and interpret court decisions, statutes, and legal opinions.

Assigned Readings and Method of Instruction

     Each class meeting, except the initial one, will be based on assignments in:

• Callies, et al., Cases and Materials on Land Use, Fourth Edition, 2005, a casebook used to teach the land use law course in planning and law schools.

• Fulton, William, Guide to California Planning, Third Edition, 2005.

• A Reader I have prepared containing supplementary readings and materials.

As in past years, I will use the case study method to teach this course.

Requirements

     This course will meet twice a week for a total of three hours. Successful completion of this course requires satisfactory performance on mid-term exam (40%), a final exam (40%), and oral recitation in class of the cases which are included in assigned readings and participation in general class discussion (20%). The mid-term and the final-exams will be taken-home, open book.

Instructor

     I am a member of the law firm of Henn, Etzel & Moore, Inc. My practice comprises representation of local governments, citizen groups and developers. Prior to starting my law practice in 1985, I was Senior Associate with Sedway Cooke Associates, a planning consulting firm located in San Francisco.

     I hold a Master's degree in City and Regional Planning from the University of California, Berkeley, and a law degree from Hastings College of the Law, where I was a member of the Hastings Constitutional Quarterly. I am a member of the California State Bar, the American Planning Association and a Charter Member of the American Institute of Certified Planners.