The Land Use Clinic provides innovative legal tools and strategies to help preserve land, water and scenic beauty while promoting creation of communities responsive to human and environmental needs. The clinic provides tools and research assistance to help local governments, state agencies, and non-profit organizations develop quality land use and growth management policies and practices. The clinic also gives UGA law students an opportunity to develop practical skills and provides them with knowledge of land use law and policy.

The Land Use Clinic promotes the use of growth management tools in Georgia, drafting model legislation to protect greenspace, control stormwater and other water pollution, cluster development away from sensitive resources, promote affordable housing and preserve farmland and open space. The Clinic also broadens the University’s offerings in land use law, helping us attract students interested in the developing field of growth management, and assuring they graduate with invaluable practical experience in the field.

The clinic also develops and diversifies existing opportunities within the Law School’s Civil Clinic program. It provides a formal opportunity for clinical work in transactional and administrative law, with a heavy stress on legal and public policy issues. It is a beneficial experience for any law student interested in land use, real estate, local government, environmental or commercial law, or in community leadership on state or local land use issues.

Jamie Baker Roskie was the clinic's managing attorney. The Land Use Clinic was discontinued in 2012.

• Etowah Habitat Conservation Plan - Helped create many regulatory tools for the 11 counties and 22 cities in the Etowah River basin in North Georgia. (The Etowah River is one of the most biologically diverse river basins in the world, comparable to the Amazon.) The Etowah HCP is a first-of-its-kind multi-species, multi-jurisdictional effort to help protect certain fish species under the federal Endangered Species Act through better growth management. 2002-2007.
• Environmental Justice
  • The LUC is part of a group of citizens activists, lawyers, and experts working to solve problems related to industrial pollution in the Newtown neighborhood of Gainesville.
  • Health, Environment & Quality of Life Impacts - Newtown Community, Gainesville GA November 2008.
• Initiative for Watershed Excellence: Upper Altamaha Pilot Project - The LUC is part of a consortium of multidisciplinary faculty and students from UGA and other colleges and universities helping implement land use tools and other regulatory solutions to issues identified by communities within the watershed. 2005-present.
• Scenic Byways - Advised south Georgia counties on tools for agricultural land preservation and other important resources along scenic byways, in cooperation with The Georgia Conservancy. 2004.
• Strip Corridor Revitalization - Richard B. Russell Parkway, Warner Robins, GA - Sustainable development scenarios for Russell Parkway, created with faculty and students from the UGA College of Environment & Design. 2004.
• Transferable Development Rights (TDRs)
  • Chattahoochee Hill Country Transferable Development Rights Ordinance – Georgia's first TDR ordinance, drafted by the LUC for the Chattahoochee Hill Country in South Fulton County. This ordinance is part of a master plan to save 40,000 acres from sprawl development. The program provides critical protection for the Chattahoochee River. It will preserve natural, historic and scenic resources in the Hill Country while accommodating growth and ensuring landowners receive value in exchange for protecting their land.
  • TDR Feasibility Studies – the LUC has worked on several TDR feasibility studies in cooperation with other UGA faculty and staff as part of the Alliance for Quality Growth. These studies help local governments develop programs for preserving land through private transactions between landowners in sensitive areas and developers, creating desirable higher density projects in appropriate areas.
    • Newton County TDR Feasibility Study – In progress, 2007.
    • DeKalb County TDR Feasibility Study – Funded by DeKalb County. 2006.
    • Thomas County TDR Feasibility Study – Funded by The Georgia Conservancy. 2005.
    • Athens-Clarke County TDR Feasibility Study – Funded by the Georgia Department of Community Affairs and Athens-Clarke County. 2005.
  • TDR Citizens Guidebook - A manual for citizens groups who want to be involved in the process of planning a new TDR program in their community.
  Papers

  • Affordable Housing
  • Big Box Retail Development
  • Conservation Easements 2006
  • Conservation Easements 2008
  • Conservation Subdivisions
  • Corridor Management 2003
  • Corridor Management 2004
  • Dark Sky Regulation
  • Development Impact Fees
  • Green Building 2007
  • Green Building 2009
  • Illicit Discharge
  • Initiative for Watershed Excellence:
    Upper Altamaha Pilot Project 2005
  • Initiative for Watershed Excellence:
    Upper Altamaha Pilot Project 2006
  • Initiative for Watershed Excellence:
    Upper Altamaha Pilot Project 2006

   

  • Junkyard Regulation
  • Livestock Management for Water Quality Protection
  • New Urbanism 2007
  • New Urbanism 2009
  • NPDES Phase II
  • Ordinance Drafting
  • Riparian Buffers
  • Rural Corridors
  • Signs
  • Stormwater Management 2006
  • Stormwater Management 2007
  • Stream Buffers (see Riparian Buffers)
  • Strip Corridor Revitalization
  • Watershed Protection
  • Zoning