Foreword
As cities and suburbs have spread across the country over the course of the past century, city, State, and Federal governments have become more involved in land regulation. Such mechanisms as zoning ordinances, historic preservation edicts, and environmental protection regulations all attempt to put limits and controls on property use and development. Some go as far as forbidding any construction whatsoever.According to the "Takings Clause" of the Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, private property cannot be "taken for public use, without just compensation." Only in the last three decades, however, has the U.S. Supreme Court begun to define exactly…
