Message from the Chairs

Greetings! We are delighted that you are checking the Section of Litigation’s Condemnation, Zoning, & Land Use Committee website. If you are not already a member of the committee, we would love to have you join us. If you are a member already, we would love to have you become more involved.

Property rights and various land-use initiatives continue to be a source of political and legal wrangling in many states, even though Kelo was decided over four years ago.

The major objective of our committee is to make it the premiere source of information for networking for the litigators in our field. We want to make membership an important credential for litigators engaged in the practice of condemnation, zoning, and land use. We are working to enlarge and deepen our committee membership base. We want our members to be able to find a network with other members in their state as well as those in other states. We continue to improve our newsletter and our subcommittee structure to encourage new leadership in our committee and in the Section. We also monitor important issues as they arise federally and on a state-by-state basis by continually asking members to forward information to our website and newsletter editors on late-breaking developments.

Readers of this message who would like to get involved have several opportunities.

The Fifty-State Compendium
First, we continue to assemble a Fifty-State Compendium of condemnation laws through the hard work of its editor, William Blake. We now have state summaries online in states that compose 70 percent of our membership.We are looking for additional authors/editors to complete this compendium, so please let us know if you have a desire to contribute to this effort by emailing William Blake.

Website Articles
In addition to being our compendium editor, William Blake is also our website editor, and he is always interested in obtaining additional articles or stories regarding new cases and cutting-edge issues in our field. If you have an idea for an article or a story, email William Blake.

Annual Review
The committee provides an annual review under the editorship of Charles McFarland, who is always looking to recruit authors for the content of the annual review. Please contact Charles McFarland if you are interested in contributing to our second annual review, which is set for publication in mid-2011.

Meetings
Finally, the Condemnation, Zoning, & Land Use Committee meets at the Section Annual Conference and the ABA Annual Meeting. The Section Annual Conference for 2010 is scheduled for April 21–23 at the Hilton New York in New York City. The following activities are planned:

• Committee Network Lunch: Hilton New York, Thursday April 22 at 11:45 a.m.
• Matt Brinckerhoff of Emery, Celli, Brinckerhoff & Abady LLP, in New York City, will be leading an informal practice-area discussion regarding the status of the Atlantic Yards case and current law on the condemnation of allegedly blighted property.
• Committee Expo and Reception: Hilton New York, Thursday April 22 at 5:30–6:30 p.m.
• Informal Committee Lunch: Friday April 23 at noon. (Email Robert Will for details and to RSVP).

Section of Litigation events at the 2010 ABA Annual Meeting are scheduled for August 5–7, 2010, at the Westin Market Street in San Francisco, California.

So, get involved. We hope to hear from you.

Jill S. Gelineau
Robert J. Will
Co-Chairs, Condemnation, Zoning & Land Use Litigation Committee