Department of City and Regional Planning

Department of City and Regional Planning CP205 - Fall 2008

University of California at Berkeley ProfessorFred Etzel ______

website: landuseprof.com

CP 205: INTRODUCTION TO PLANNING AND ENVIRONMENTAL LAW

CNN: 13565, 3 UNITS, T TH 9:30-11 am, 106 WURSTER

Objectives

This course teaches several practical skills essential future planning professionals. Those completing the course will:

·  Gain a working knowledge of the American legal system and learn how it applies to planning and environmental law.

·  Obtain a practitioner-oriented understanding and ability to effectively use the California Planning and Zoning Law, the Subdivision Map Act, the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) and related statues.

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

·  Learn 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, Fifth Edition, 2008, 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 a mid-term exam (40%), a final exam (40%), and oral recitation in class of cases which are included in assigned readings (20%). The mid-term and the final-exams will be take-home, open book.

Instructor

I am a member of the law firm of Henn, Etzel & Moore, Inc. My practice comprises representation of developers, local governments and citizen groups. 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 and a Charter Member of the American Institute of Certified Planners.