March 30, 2011

Land Use and Sustainability: From Plan to Implementation

Co-sponsored by
the Environmental Law Institute and
ABA SEER Climate Change, Sustainable
Development, and Ecosystems Committee

Program Overview:
Many local and state authorities recognize the benefits of smart growth, including lower pollution and greenhouse gas emissions, increased economic development, and reduced infrastructure costs and energy needs. Legal practitioners who work with these authorities face a new world of sustainability plans, measures, and implementation challenges. The panel offered practical strategies to attorneys who are confronting these challenges on behalf of localities and the regulated community. Topics included: how to implement a sustainability plan, how to address climate change, the significant issues presented by comprehensive plans, how transit oriented development works, what changes need to be made to zoning and planning regulations, how to do a sustainability audit of a municipal building code, and how green building provisions should be considered in the overall context. This seminar is an update and discussion of themes from Patricia Salkin's "Land Use" chapter in Agenda for a Sustainable America, edited by John Dernbach and published by the Environmental Law Institute.

Panelists include:Trip Pollard, Senior Attorney, leader of the Southern Environmental Law Center’s Land & Community Program, and author of "Transportation: Challenges and Choices" in Agenda for a Sustainable America; Danielle Arigoni, Director, Codes, Standards and Sustainable Design Division, Office of Sustainable Communities, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency; and Cullen Howe, environmental specialist at Arnold & Porter LLP, managing editor of the monthly newsletter "Environmental Law in New York," and co-editor of the book The Law of Green Buildings.

Moderator:
Patricia Salkin, Albany Law School, Albany, NY

Panelists:
Danielle Arigoni, Office of Sustainable Communities, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Washington DC
J. Cullen Howe, Arnold & Porter LLP, New York, NY
Trip Pollard, Southern Environmental Law Center, Richmond, VA