December Professor's Corner Call: Impact Fees and Assessments

Please join us for this month’s Professors Corner call this Wednesday, December 12, at 12:30pm Eastern (11:30am Central, 9:30am Pacific).

Call-in number: 866-646-6488

Passcode: 5577419753

Professors’ Corner is a monthly free teleconference sponsored by the ABA Real Property, Trust and Estate Law Section's Legal Education and Uniform Laws Group. Each month’s call features a panel of law professors who discuss recent real property cases of interest to real estate practitioners and scholars.   This month’s program is entitled "The Future of Impact Fees and Growth Management."  The panel will feature Professor Julian Juergensmeyer of the Georgia State University School of Law and Professor Alan Weinstein of the Cleveland-Marshall Law School. 

Prof. Weinstein, who is Associate Professor & Director of the Law & Public Policy Program at Cleveland-Marshall, will discuss recent cases from Iowa, Mississippi, Florida, and Ohio that have re-examined the legal status of development exactions and the ability of local governments to use impact fees to finance infrastructure improvements. These cases include Drees Co. v. Hamilton Township (Ohio Supreme Court) and Koontz v. St. John's River Water Mgmt. Distr. (Florida Supreme Court, on which the U.S. Supreme Court has recently granted certiorari). Other relevant decisions include Iowa Home Builders Ass’n of Greater Des Moines v. City of W. Des Moines, 644 N.W.2d 339 (Iowa 2002); Mayor of Ocean Springs v. Homebuilders Ass’n of Miss., Inc., 932 So. 2d 44 (Miss. 2006); McCarthy v. City of Leawood, 894 P.2d 836 (Kan. 1995); Hollywood, Inc. v. Broward County, 431 So.2d 606 (Fla. Dist. Ct. App. 1983); and Call v. City of West Jordan, 606 P.2d 217 (Utah 1979).

Prof. Juergensmeyer, who holds the Ben F. Johnson, Jr. Chair at Georgia State, will discuss the relationship between the financial crisis and recession and impact fees and assessments. Changing demographic and economic conditions are reshaping development patterns. He will discuss these trends, as well as the need for local governments to create alternatives to facilitate the financing of future development.

This will be a really interesting call, and you'll either learn a lot about impact fees, or gain new knowledge from two experts!

Tanya Marsh