Well, I suppose its fitting that my first Land Use Prof blog post will occur just minutes before the Land Planning and Development course that I teach here at Faulkner.
This semester, I've eliminated the textbooks and hornbooks and replaced them with a semester long simulated development project. For the project, I selected a real parcel of land in the Montgomery city limits and will have the students "develop" it from start to end (in a legal context).
I'm including a series of site visits to the parcel as well as visits to the register of deeds and planning department. I've also invited a series of non-lawyers (engineers, architects, developers, real estate agents, etc.) to participate in certain classes since land development is, by its very nature, quite interdisciplinary.
The students will, among other tasks, research deeds, draft letters of intent/real estate contracts, prepare federal, state, and local regulatory submissions, and engage in mock hearings before local land use agencies.
We're about a month or so into the course and things are going very smoothly (knock on YellaWood (TM)).
Has anyone else engaged in this type of simulated exercise while teaching a land use-type course?
If so, we'd love to hear about the good and the bad that you encountered. Any lessons learned?
Chad Emerson