Legislatively Mandating A CBA Is Not The Way: A Case Study Of Detroit’s Proposed Community Benefits Ordinance And Its Constitutionality Under The Takings Clause Of The Fifth Amendment

Community Benefit Agreements, or CBAs, have quickly become a useful tool to ensure that the benefits reaped from large-scale urban development projects are shared among all stakeholders, particularly the community in which the development takes place. In exchange for the local community’s support, which is critical to the developer to progress through the permit application process efficiently, the developer contractually agrees to provide a slate of benefits to the affected community. CBAs have been lauded for their ability to require developers to promote affordable housing, first-source hiring programs, and other targeted benefits which the host community contracted for. However, one of the biggest critiques of CBAs has been that they may violate the Takings Clause of the Fifth Amendment if the local government becomes too involved in the negotiating process of a CBA. During Detroit’s 2016 Elections, grassroots activists, along with local council members, proposed an ordinance which would have mandated a CBA as part of all major development projects undertaken in the City. Ultimately, the ordinance did not receive the necessary votes to become part of Detroit’s charter. However, had the ordinance been approved and implemented, those implementing the ordinance would have either: 1) been constrained by the scope of the Takings Clause, which would severely limit the types of benefits that could be bargained for in a CBA; or 2) risked violating the Fifth Amendment. This Note argues that while legislatively requiring CBAs may increase their number, the CBAs created under this type of ordinance would not facilitate equitable development, as they would be constrained by the Takings Clause. Rather, this Note suggests that a better alternative to legislatively mandated CBAs would be legislation that provides local communities with better tools to negotiate CBAs, without local government involvement in the negotiation process. Accordingly, affected communities would have more bargaining power with developers and be free from the constraints of the Fifth Amendment in the benefits they could broker. As a result, municipalities as a whole would be better equipped to ensure that the effects of real estate development would be equitable to all those who would be affected by it

The Tallahassee Fire of 1843

An account of this conflagration, which destroyed the greater part of the town as first built, appeared in the Quarterly in the issue for July, 1924. These additional documents and notes are taken from contemporaneous issues of the Floridian and the Sentinel, Tallahassee newspapers

Legislatively Mandating A CBA Is Not The Way: A Case Study Of Detroit’s Proposed Community Benefits Ordinance And Its Constitutionality Under The Takings Clause Of The Fifth Amendment

Community Benefit Agreements, or CBAs, have quickly become a useful tool to ensure that the benefits reaped from large-scale urban development projects are shared among all stakeholders, particularly the community in which the development takes place. In exchange for the local community’s support, which is critical to the developer to progress through the permit application process efficiently, the developer contractually agrees to provide a slate of benefits to the affected community. CBAs have been lauded for their ability to require developers to promote affordable housing, first-source hiring programs, and other targeted benefits which the host community contracted for. However, one of the biggest critiques of CBAs has been that they may violate the Takings Clause of the Fifth Amendment if the local government becomes too involved in the negotiating process of a CBA. During Detroit’s 2016 Elections, grassroots activists, along with local council members, proposed an ordinance which would have mandated a CBA as part of all major development projects undertaken in the City. Ultimately, the ordinance did not receive the necessary votes to become part of Detroit’s charter. However, had the ordinance been approved and implemented, those implementing the ordinance would have either: 1) been constrained by the scope of the Takings Clause, which would severely limit the types of benefits that could be bargained for in a CBA; or 2) risked violating the Fifth Amendment. This Note argues that while legislatively requiring CBAs may increase their number, the CBAs created under this type of ordinance would not facilitate equitable development, as they would be constrained by the Takings Clause. Rather, this Note suggests that a better alternative to legislatively mandated CBAs would be legislation that provides local communities with better tools to negotiate CBAs, without local government involvement in the negotiation process. Accordingly, affected communities would have more bargaining power with developers and be free from the constraints of the Fifth Amendment in the benefits they could broker. As a result, municipalities as a whole would be better equipped to ensure that the effects of real estate development would be equitable to all those who would be affected by it

Discussion of the least squares technique and development of a curve fitting subroutine

Least squares technique and curve fitting subroutine for backscatter data analysi

Capstone Design Project Course Pathways

Capstones are open-ended undertakings where students are expected to creatively analyze, synthesize, and apply a wide-variety of learning outcomes from prior coursework. This paper discusses the structure, approach and evolution of the capstone project pathways within our College. Specifically two programs, MET and EET, have adopted different solutions towards the planning, organizing and execution. The areas of contrast among projects are: 1) sourcing, 2) type, 3) feedback and evaluation, 4) assessment methodology, 5) supplemental resources and 6) curricular strategy. For the first five, the advantages and disadvantages of different approaches are discussed along with the issues and benefits experienced by students, faculty and industry sponsors. In the sixth, a means to improve capstone readiness and performance is presented in which experiential courses within a topical area sequentially introduce challenging and open-ended assignments that foster cognitive learning

Holocene Pedogenesis in Fluvial Deposits of the Conejos River Valley, Southern Colorado

Relatively few geomorphic studies have examined Holocene-aged soils developed in alluvial deposits in the Rocky Mountains. Here, we present a soil morphological investigation from a suite of fluvial terraces in the glaciated portion of the Conejos River Valley, southern Colorado. The surficial geology of 25 km of the glacial valley was mapped in detail. Within three separate sub-reaches (Platoro, Lake Fork and South Fork) a total of thirteen soil pits and exposures were excavated and described on alluvial deposits. Soil samples were analyzed for particle size and extractable iron. Soil horizonation (A/C to A/B/2C), structure (fine sub angular to medium angular blocks), clay content of the B horizon (8.0% to 22.8%) and Feo/Fed (0.39 to 0.80) illustrate trends with relative terrace deposit age in individual sub-reaches. However, only Feo/Fed ratios displayed similar rates of development between all sub-reaches highlighting the usefulness of this metric for determining accurate rates of pedogenesis and relative age for Holocene-aged deposits in sub-alpine environments. Results indicate that clay content and structure developed in alluvial deposits of similar ages vary between sub-reaches. Clay contents were found to be lower in the Platoro sub-reach (e.g. 13.1% at Platoro and 20.0% at South Fork on Qt1 deposits). This variation is attributed to heterogeneity in the nature of the inherited parent material and potential variability in aeolian dust contributions throughout the Holocene

Towards Liberal Education Assessment In Engineering And Technology Programs

Our regional accrediting body, New England Association of Schools and Colleges, requires outcome assessment of core liberal education outcomes. Because of this mandate, and our new mission at the University to prepare students with the knowledge, skills, and values necessary to thrive and be engaged in a pluralistic, complex world, we have undertaken a project to develop and assess core liberal education outcomes. This paper describes the planning and actions taken to meet these new requirements in our engineering and technology programs. The college has expanded outcome assessment by including five “intellectual and practical skills,” specifically, critical and creative thinking, inquiry/analysis, problem-solving, and information literacy. VALUE rubrics are being incorporated into the process to ascertain the best opportunities to measure student achievement within the engineering and technology programs. An assessment framework is presented and pilot results are discussed