Land Use, Planning, and Zoning Legal Research Guide: Sustainable Development

The American Planning Association's Great Places in America identifies places that "represent the gold standard in terms of having a true sense of place, cultural and historical interest, community involvement, and a vision for tomorrow."

The American Planning Association's Policy webpages are dedicated to legislative and policy initiatives.

Columbia Law School's Sabin Center for Climate Change Law website contains many useful resources, including model ordinances, compilations of municipal ordinances relating to green building, and "State Actions on Clean Energy: A Fifty-State Survey," an expanded version of the appendix to Michael Gerrard's The Law of Clean Energy: Efficiency and Renewables.

The EPA's webpages for laws and regulations include fact sheets which provide information on EPA policy.

Search the EPA website for model ordinances, actual ordinances, and supporting materials that address issues such as protection of aquatic buffers, erosion and sediment control, open space, stormwater control operation and maintenance, illicit discharges, post construction controls and source water protection.

EPA's Smart Growth website contains links to many EPA resources. Use the links at the left side of the page to dig further into this website.

EPA's State and Local Climate and Energy Program provides technical assistance, analytical tools, and outreach support to state, local, and tribal governments. Includes state and local case studies.

Published by the Partnership for Sustainable Communities.

Georgetown's Climate Center provides links to materials designed to "assist state policymakers, resource managers, academics, and others who are working to help communities adapt to climate change." Areas addressed include water, public health, transportation, and coastal issues. Includes links to state and local adaptation plans.

Prof. Daniel Mandelker's Land Use Law website contains examples of plans and ordinances, relevant articles, and links to other land use websites.

NALGEP represents local government professionals responsible for environmental compliance and the development and implementation of local environmental policy.

The National Association of Home Builders is an industry group that provides information on a wide variety of land use and development issues, organized by housing topics, policy, data and tools.

The NEMO (Nonpoint Education for Municipal Officials) National Network works to help communities better protect natural resources while accommodating growth. There are NEMO programs in many but not all states.

"Hosted by the Safe States Alliance, the Livability & Smart Growth Assessment Tools Database provides centralized access to basic assessment tools and checklists that can assist users with evaluating their communities' degree of livability and provide essential information needed to create safer and healthier neighborhoods. The tools within this database are searchable by community size, assessment type, user role, and six topic areas developed as a practical combination of the Livability and Smart Growth principles."

"Founded by the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy and the Sonoran Institute, the Successful Communities Online Toolkit information exchange (SCOTie) is a repository of best practices and resources from model western communities created by Western Lands and Communities, a joint venture of Lincoln Institute of Land Policy and Sonoran Institute."

Smart Growth Online is a project of the Smart Growth Network, a collection of environmental groups, historic preservation organizations, professional organizations, real estate interests, and state and local governments. Materials on the website include studies, reports, and links to other resources.

The Natural Resources Defense Council's Smarter Cities program investigates the progress made in cities across the U.S. toward sustainability. Smarter Cities breaks down rankings into several categories such as air quality, environmental standards, green buildings, transportation, standard of living, and water quality.

Use search box to find Case studies. This site also contains model RFPs, reports, and city profiles.

Established in 2009, the Partnership for Sustainable Communities: An Interagency Partnership HUD DOT EPA works to "coordinate federal housing, transportation, water, and other infrastructure investments to make neighborhoods more prosperous, allow people to live closer to jobs, save households time and money, and reduce pollution. The partnership agencies [U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT), and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)] incorporate six principles of livability into federal funding programs, policies, and future legislative proposals."

Cyburbia Forums is an urban planning message board that requires registration. Cyburbia has started a PlanningWiki, but the wiki does not have much information in it as of yet.

The Institute for Local Government is the research affiliate of the California State Association of Counties and the League of California Cities. Their website contains this section on Climate Change & Sustainability Best Practices.

The CoolCalifornia.org website provides case studies on the many local governments in California that have "successfully taken steps ranging from adopting climate action plans to implementing green building ordinances to save money and reduce greenhouse gas emissions."

Coolcalifornia.org has a Build Green page with links to sample ordinances from municipalities in California.

CPEX (The Center for Planning Excellence) is a non-profit organization that coordinates urban, rural and regional planning efforts in Louisiana. The website includes a Land Use Toolkit, case studies, and information about current projects.

"The National Center for Smart Growth Research and Education is a non-partisan center for research and leadership training on smart growth and related land use issues in Maryland, in metropolitan regions around the nation, and in Asia and Europe." The website includes articles and recent studies about smart growth initiatives in Maryland.

This Massachusetts toolkit includes case studies and model bylaws for various topics, including transit oriented development, wind power, smart energy, etc.

The Minnesota Planning Environmental Quality Board published these model ordinances in 2000. They address a variety of topics, including growth management, managing community resources, neighborhood design, infrastructure, resource efficient buildings, and economic development.

Next Step is the site of the Minnesota Sustainable Communities Network (MnSCN) and it is designed to provide "information, access to resources, opportunities for networking, and inspiration on the topic of sustainable communities." Click on a topic area (e.g. Land Use) to find a list of links to relevant resources.

The Climate Law Blog comes from the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law at Columbia Law School.