Stephen Sizemore: New LUL&ZD Editor

In November 2002, Stephen Sizemore, AICP, took over the editorship of Land Use Law & Zoning Digest, APA's monthly journal devoted to all the legal aspects of land use. He also serves as staff attorney in the APA Research Department.

Sizemore is an attorney and a planner. He has 20 years of experience in a wide variety of urban and regional planning issues, from preparing comprehensive plans, land-use plans, community facility plans, and housing plans to drafting and administering development regulations.

Since 1990, he has served as planner/attorney and development regulations specialist for Wake County, North Carolina, a rapidly growing county that includes Raleigh. His previous experience also includes work as a senior planner with the Maine Office of Comprehensive Planning and as a development review coordinator with the Chapel Hill Planning Department.

His first job in planning was as a VISTA volunteer in the late 1970s when he served as a town planner for Clayton, North Carolina.

Sizemore has both a law degree and Master of Regional Planning degree from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. In addition to AICP membership, he is a member of APA's Planning & Law Division, the North Carolina Bar Association, Tenth Judicial District Bar, and North Carolina State Bar.

APA asked Sizemore to talk a bit about the publication he edits and about land use law in general:

Q. What drew you to the editorship of Land Use Law & Zoning Digest?

A. I have respected and admired LUL&ZD for a number of years, finding that it does a good job of connecting the planning and legal sides of dealing with land use issues. I see the editorship of LUL&ZD as an opportunity to continue fostering that connection and to improve the digest's relevance and usefulness to not just land-use planners and lawyers, but also to planners, lawyers, and others dealing with those environmental and other planning issues that are increasingly being addressed by land development regulation.

I recognize the importance of retaining those aspects of LUL&ZD that have contributed to the great respect it had earned over the years, as well as to its steady base of loyal readers. But there are many more people out there who could greatly benefit from reading the digest, and I hope to explore how LUL&ZD might be improved so as to better attract the attention, readership, and respect of those people.

Q. How did you come to blend planning and law in your own professional life?

A. I started my career as a planner, but early on was given the responsibility of working with a consultant (Bob Leary) in developing a unified development ordinance for Chapel Hill, North Carolina. That experience piqued my interest in land use law and convinced me to combine graduate planning studies with law school. Although I have since continued to work in planning agencies, my work has focused more and more on the legal aspects of planning and regulating land use and development. Having a foundation in land use law has greatly helped me in drafting policies and regulations and advising others in implementing and enforcing them.

Q. What are the major issues in land use law today and for the next decade?

A. Land use law increasingly will be defined by the need to address the adverse impacts of unplanned growth — especially fiscal and environmental impacts — that are becoming more and more evident. Many new "smart growth" policies and techniques will challenge courts in establishing both the breadth of regulatory authority and when regulation has gone "too far." Land use regulation will increasingly overlap environmental regulation, creating numerous conflict of law and jurisdictional issues.

Q. What can lawyers learn from planners, and vice versa?

A. Lawyers should better understand the policies and objectives planners are seeking to achieve through land use regulation. Such understanding might enable them to be more proactive in helping shape new regulations, rather than reacting to them in an adversarial arena.

Planners should solicit lawyers' input in developing and implementing planning policies. Such input might enable them to draft more realistic policies and more effective land use regulations.

Q. Why do attorneys involved in land use law find LUL&ZD valuable?

A. LUL&ZD exposes lawyers to the increasing breadth and complexity of regulations used to implement planning policies, and gives them concise case law summaries and references that enable them to recognize and address those legal principles and precedents important to their work and clients.

Q. What can planners and others who are not lawyers gain from reading LUL&ZD?

A. LUL&ZD exposes planners and other non-lawyers to a multitude of techniques for addressing a wide range of land use and environmental issues, and introduces them to many of the legal constraints and issues associated with those techniques. LUL&ZD also gives planners a good legal foundation in some of the basic constitutional and due process issues commonly affecting land development regulation.