Should states hold power over local governments to encourage green design?

Should states “take back” some of the power to regulate land use from local governments to help facilitate more environmentally sustainable building? That’s the question that will be debated during a panel discussion on the role of local and state land use regulation in fostering green building design to be held at Vanderbilt Law School April 1.

“The rapidly growing green building movement, coupled with projections that 75 percent of building stock nationally will be new or replaced within the next 20 years, makes this an important local and national issue,” said Vanderbilt environmental law professor and director of the Climate Change Research Network Michael Vandenbergh.

The discussion will be held on Thursday, April 1, at 11:30 a.m. in Vanderbilt Law School’s Flynn Auditorium. The event is sponsored by Vanderbilt Law School and the Environmental Law Institute and is free and open to the public.

Guest speakers include:

  • Mayor Karl Dean, Class of 1981
  • Chris Guthrie, dean, Vanderbilt University Law School
  • Michael P. Vandenbergh, Vanderbilt’s Tarkington Professor of Law
  • Linda K. Breggin, senior attorney, Environmental Law Institute
  • Sara C. Bronin, author and associate professor of law, University of Connecticut
  • Lavea Brachman, Brookings Institution and co-director, Greater Ohio
  • Bert Mathews, president, The Mathews Company

The panel is part of the Environmental Law and Policy Annual Review project, which is designed to bridge the gap between academics and policymakers through discussion of the best environmental law and policy ideas from the legal academy each year.

Any media interested in attending should contact Amy Wolf at amy.wolf@vanderbilt.edu.
 

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