Customer Rating: Summary: What's land use law? Read this book! Comment: This novel gives a great overview of some typical land use issues, cleverly woven into a tale of corruption, revenge, madness -- and love! It's an easy read, and left me thinking about both sides of the story, as well as some real-life land use issues in my own community. I truly enjoyed reading it. Customer Rating: Summary: beach reading about a rezoning Comment: This entertaining, easy-to-read book tells a story of a rezoning application leading to murder and mayhem, with crazed NIMBY (Not In My Back Yard) activists fighting a vengeful mobster. Of course, this tale is not particularly realistic; most zoning disputes involve more compromise than this one. And the book's discussion of legal issues is pretty thin; you wouldn't learn the difference between a variance and a rezoning by reading it. But if you're going to read a novel, you might as well read one with some educational content- and this filled the bill for me.
Bordering on Madness is a novel about a battle between a university and a community over proposed construction of a new campus facility. As the land use fight ripens, the homeowners and university become combatants. The opposition becomes the enemy, depersonalized and reprehensible.
From a teaching perspective, the novel allows for discussion of conventional and unconventional land use strategies as well as the development of a number of issues: When does one person have the right to control the lawful use of property owned by another? When does aggressive advocacy become unethical, unacceptable misconduct? What is the role of government when it comes to disputes between those opposed to development and those seeking approval of a proposed project? What are the best ways to handle the anger and frustration of individuals threatened by what they perceive as destructive change?
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