AICP Land Use Law and Regulations 2

Question 1

The legal basis for most local land use regulations, including zoning, is the government's:

Accepted Answer

Police power to protect public health, safety, and welfare

Answer

Eminent domain power

Answer

Spending power to condition federal grants

Answer

Commerce Clause authority over interstate land transactions

Question 2

Eminent domain differs from a regulatory taking in that eminent domain:

Accepted Answer

Involves physical acquisition of property title with payment of just compensation

Answer

Applies only to commercial and industrial properties

Answer

Never requires compensation if the public benefit is demonstrated

Answer

Can only be exercised by the federal government

Question 3

The Supreme Court's Dolan v. City of Tigard (1994) decision requires that conditions placed on development approvals must:

Accepted Answer

Have an essential nexus to and be roughly proportional to the development's projected impact

Answer

Be adopted by ordinance rather than imposed administratively

Answer

Apply uniformly to all properties within the same zoning district

Answer

Be negotiated through a recorded development agreement

Question 4

Inclusionary zoning ordinances typically require developers to:

Accepted Answer

Reserve a percentage of new housing units as affordable to lower-income households

Answer

Include publicly accessible open space in all new projects

Answer

Provide ground-floor retail uses in all mixed-use buildings

Answer

Submit a fiscal impact analysis before any rezoning is approved

Question 5

A Transfer of Development Rights (TDR) program functions by:

Accepted Answer

Allowing unused development potential in a sending area to be sold and applied in a designated receiving area

Answer

Transferring zoning authority from county to city governments

Answer

Permitting density to be shifted from one lot to an immediately adjacent lot

Answer

Moving building permit allotments from one fiscal year to the next

Question 6

The Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment is implicated in land use when:

Accepted Answer

A zoning ordinance is applied differently to similarly situated properties without rational basis

Answer

A municipality fails to hold a public hearing before adopting a zoning amendment

Answer

An environmental review is not conducted before a major rezoning

Answer

A developer refuses to comply with subdivision improvement requirements

Question 7

Procedural due process in land use decisions principally requires:

Accepted Answer

Adequate notice and a meaningful opportunity to be heard before a governmental action affecting property rights

Answer

That all zoning appeals be reviewed by a state court

Answer

Written findings of fact for every building permit issued

Answer

Environmental review before any discretionary land use approval