Land Regulations: Under the Courts' Microscopes

Abstract

Abstract Today planners and lawyers are often puzzled about how closely courts will scrutinize land regulations. Prior to the 1970s, it was clear that, of the three possible levels of judicial scrutiny, courts would apply the “fairly debatable” standard that is most favorable to communities (the standard that Judge Goldberg in Arceneaux v. Treen, 671 F.2d 128 (5th Cir. 1982), once described as the “anything goes” test.) In the interim years, however, as land regulations have become increasingly complex and intrusive into the rights of landowners, there have been signs of courts' discontent with the traditional minimum scrutiny standard and a new rule may be in the making.