Housing and Land Use Legal Research
Moira O'Neill, Professor
Institute for Urban and Regional Development
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California's housing crisis is well known, and scholars attribute this crisis largely to the inadequate supply of housing across multiple income levels. This study explores the relationship between local and state land use regulation and housing supply. We will examine approval processes in selected jurisdictions to understand how individual land use regulations— be it zoning, specific plan, environmental or design review—impact development approval timelines and procedural and substantive standards.
Role: Undergraduate Research Apprentices will be required to read background literature, which will include public policy, planning, and legal texts. The URAPs will primarily assist with interview transcription. Opportunities for data collection, data analysis, mapping in ArcGis, and other legal research are also available depending on the URAP's background skills and experience.
Through the process, URAPs will observe and learn from both law students and law faculty on how to gather relevant legal texts, how to read legal texts, and how to contextualize related qualitative data. URAPs are expected to participate in one on-campus training and orientation session and weekly check-in calls. Participants must also submit weekly time sheets. Time commitment is negotiable, but a 3-5 hour per week minimum is preferred. Failure to comply with these requirements can result in your removal from the project.
Qualifications: Required skills include strong note taking skills and experience working with data in excel format. Desired skills include experience with reading legal texts, working with data in mapping and data visualization interfaces, working with secondary, big, and open data to gather data from the American Community Survey for census tracts, and experience with ArcGIS.
Hours: to be negotiated
Off-Campus Research Site: All activities can be completed remotely, including research team meetings.
Related website: landuseinsights.org
Social Sciences Education, Cognition & Psychology