Over the past several years, environmental lawyers have increasingly recognized that environmental regulatory programs affect the growth and revitalization of communities in sometimes profound ways, and that land use and urban policies affect the environment significantly. In early 2003, the Section organized a “Task Force on the Interaction Between Environmental and Urban Policy.” The level of interest generated by that task force led to its expansion into a “Special Committee on Smart Growth and Urban Policy” in the 2003-04 Bar Year.

The work of this committee centers on the “law of where things go.” Specifically, the committee’s work focuses on the intersection between environmental and natural resources law and regulation and the policies governing growth initiatives and programs. In other words, the focus of the committee’s attention is on the relationship between land use decisions and their environmental effects, both positive and negative. After all, environmental law is driven by land use decisions, and vice versa.

Environmental lawyers are rediscovering the law of where things go. Join us as we work to grow this committee to explore that subject matter. We have lots of work, no entrenched structure, and loads of opportunity for learning, distinction, and fun. Contact Membership Vice Chair Dave Nash at dnash@mdllp.net for additional information on joining the work of the committee.

Welcome to the homepage of the Smart Growth and Urban Policy Committee. The current leadership hopes to build on the worker of founder and past chair David Mandelbaum and continue explore this interesting area of practice that is having an increasing importance in both the legal and public policy debates.

We invite your participation in the Committee. We could use your help in sharing your learning about any of these topics with the Committee and the broader legal community.

We are always eager for newsletter submissions; as soon as one comes out, the next starts. Our most recent newsletter was published in September 2006, which is available for download from the newsletter archive page on this Web site. It includes an excellent overview of the area from David Mandelbaum, an article by Steven Stout about the relationship between sprawl growth and air quality, and an article about land use controls to protect Brownfield redevelopment by Michael Sowinski and Richard Opper. If you have any questions or would like to submit an article, please do not hesitate to contact Micheline Fairbank at mfairbank@armstrongteasdale.com.

If there are any specific program events that you think may be appropriate, for either full conferences, program events at ABA events such as SEER’s Keystone or Fall conferences, or timely issues suitable to a quick teleconference, we would welcome your suggestions and/or assistance in making those programs happen. Please do not hesitate to contact the Programs Vice Chair, Scott Sherman, to discuss program matters. He can be reached at Sherman.Scott@epamail.epa.gov.

If you see something interesting that you would like to share through our listserv, please post it at environ-smart_growth@mail.abanet.org, and by all means be certain that you are subscribed as well. The Committee will strive to keep you informed of timely topics and news and try to engage in helpful dialogue and discussions, but at the same time not to inundate your inbox.

Also, please pass along any interesting cases, recent legislation, or policy developments to our Year-in-Review Vice Chair, Chris Williams, at cwilliams@maynardcooper.com, for consideration and inclusion in that annual publication. The deadline for submissions is usually early December for that calendar year.

Also, please pass along useful links or other Internet resources to Kelly Blackwood, the Technology Vice Chair, at kelly.blackwood@phelps.com.

We encourage and invite any ideas and participation within the committee. If you have an idea and do not know where to go with it, or if you want to be involved but are not sure how, please contact Dave Nash, dnash@mdllp.net, or me at rlowell@willoughbyhoefer.com.

Randolph R. Lowell
Committee Chair

Chair:
Randy Lowell

Vice Chairs:
Committee Newsletters
Micheline Fairbank

Membership
David E. Nash

Programs
Scott Sherman

Public Service
Michelle A. Gale

Technology
Kelly Blackwood

The Year in Review
Christopher J. Williams

Additional
Richard G. Opper

School Lesson Plan