Georgia Eminent Domain

Twist the Constitution and you can un-do decades of work sustaining the right to housing. What is the "public interest"? A legal expert analyzes recent legislative proposals and presents a new argument for housing rights.

Georgia Land Surveying History and Law is the first definitive history and analysis of Georgia’s land system and the laws that govern it. The book’s opening section tells the story of the surveyor’s role in transforming Georgia from a frontier to a bounded, populated, and productive colony and state. Paced by anecdotes of surveyors’ wilderness experiences, the narrative traces the evolution of Georgia’s land subdivision system, beginning with the original, and ultimately impractical, scheme of land granting and rectangular land subdivision under the Trustees of the Georgia Colony. The volume then covers the more flexible but easily abused headright procedure, and the subsequent lottery and succession of systematic, rectangular surveys under which most of the state was laid out and granted in the early nineteenth century. Finally, in lay terms supported by meticulous citation of authority, the volume discusses the legal aspects of land surveying, including the interests that make up land ownership, the transfer of real property, the interpretation of property descriptions, the location of boundaries, riparian and littoral rights, and other topics. The book examines every point concerning boundaries found in any Georgia case or statute. Based solidly on primary sources and the author’s fifteen years of experience in land surveying and title abstracting, Georgia Land Surveying History and Law is an exhaustively researched and scholarly reference that will be useful to surveyors, title attorneys, title abstractors, real estate professionals, geographers, cartographers, historians, and genealogists.

Zoning and Land Use Law in Georgia provides an overview of all the major laws and procedures affecting land use in Georgia in one comprehensive volume. This is a must have for city planners, real estate, zoning and land use attorneys and local government officials. The book examines the legal framework in which zoning and land use decisions are made, the practical aspects of representing parties in land use disputes and issues in the law that are well-settled and others where important issues are yet to be decided. Zoning and Land Use Law in Georgia also provides a foundation for making better land use decisions and helping to ensure that our ordinances, laws, and regulations in this area pass judicial muster if challenged in the courts. Zoning and Land Use Law in Georgia includes: *A brief history of land development in Georgia *A discussion of the legal basis for zoning *Constitutional challenges to zoning decisions *Vested rights and nonconforming uses *Variances *The rezoning process in Georgia *Zoning litigation *The Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (RLUIPA) *Environmental laws and regulations in Georgia *The future of land use and zoning