A private nuisance interferes with an individual's use and enjoyment of his or her property. Public nuisances involve actions that injure the public at large. A charge that state and local governments can impose on landowners whose land benefits from the construction of roads or sewer lines adjacent to their property. The amount of the special assessment is usually the pro rata share of the cost of installing the improvement. Traditionally, takings law has addressed physical seizures of land, but regulations that deprive landowners of certain property rights may also result in a taking in special circumstances.
Courts decide whether a particular government action constitutes a taking.
A program that allows landowners to transfer the right to develop one parcel of land to a different parcel of land to prevent farmland conversion. Landowners in the sending area sell development rights to landowners in the receiving area, generally through the private market. When the development rights are sold on a parcel, a conservation easement is recorded and enforced by the local government. For example, a change from a zoning ordinance that requires 100 acres per dwelling to an ordinance that requires 25 acres per dwelling is an upzoning. A theoretical line drawn around a community that defines an area to accommodate anticipated growth for a given period of time, generally 20 years.