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Mandatory Credits

Inclusive Planning for Social Change

Property Law for Planners: Principles, Precedent, and Reflections

Monday, March 31, 2025
3:00 PM – 4:00 PM MT
Location: Mile High Ballroom 1 -2
CM: 1 Law
Passport
Division Endorsement: Planning and Law Division
The principles and precedents of property law, as enumerated and affirmed by American case law, have enabled discriminatory practices in the nation’s zoning and land use regime. This presentation:
  • Introduces and contrasts foundational legal and societal theories of property;
  • Traces the legal history of some of the most important property-law decisions — starting with Indigenous dispossession and culminating in modern environmental- and economic-justice cases—that have facilitated and entrenched spatial injustice;
  • Afford space to reflect on the profession’s role in perpetuating racial, environmental, economic, and social inequity; and
  • Offer critical, tangible approaches to overcoming legal precedent and encourage planners to engage with and share policies and movements of resistance from their own communities.

Learning Objectives:

  • Learn the foundational property-law principles and precedents that enabled and continue to perpetuate discriminatory practices and spatial injustice in the American zoning and land use regimes.
  • Reflect on the historical and ongoing role of planners, and the profession more broadly, in perpetuating racial, environmental, economic, and social inequity.
  • Engage with and share tangible approaches to challenge and overcome entrenched legal precedent and systemic beliefs surrounding land use in the United States.