At a time when pollution, urban sprawl, and condo booms are leading municipal governments to adopt prescriptive laws and regulations, this book lays the groundwork for a more informed debate between those trying to preserve private property rights and those trying to assert public interests.

Rather than asking whether community interests should prevail over the rights of private property owners, Public Interest, Private Property delves into the heart of the argument to ask key questions. Under what conditions should public interests take precedence? And when they do, in what manner should they be limited?

Drawing on case studies from across Canada, the contributors examine the tensions surrounding expropriation, smart growth, tree bylaws, green development, and municipal water provision. They also explore frustrations arising from the perceived loss of procedural rights in urban-planning decision making, the absence of a clear definition of “public interest,” and the ambiguity surrounding the controls property owners have within a public-planning system.

Anneke Smit is an associate professor in the Faculty of Law at the University of Windsor. Her research focuses primarily on questions of competing (public-private and private-private) rights in property and the law and lived experiences of forced displacement. She is the author of The Property Rights of Refugees and Internally Displaced Persons: Beyond Restitution.

Marcia Valiante is a professor in the Faculty of Law at the University of Windsor. Her research covers a range of issues in Canadian and international environmental law and policy, with a particular focus on the Great Lakes and water law.

Contributors: Deborah Curran, Pierre Filion, Jane Matthews Glenn, Harvey M. Jacobs, Anna Kramer, Eran S. Kaplinsky, Stanley M. Makuch, Ian Mathany, Stephen F. Waqué, Bruce Ziff

This collection accomplishes its goal, filling the gap in Canadian academic literature in the context of balancing private property rights and the public interest in urban planning … the problems identified in [Public Interest, Private Property] could have continuing relevance for future urban planning and legislation across Canada.

While these topics may seem familiar, the common thread – thinking deeply about private property rights – sets this collection apart and makes it an engaging read. The introduction alone would be worthwhile reading for any property law or planning law curriculum ... One of the reasons the book works so well is that at the heart of the collection is a shared belief among the writers in the value of dialogue as well as a desire to avoid artificially amplifying the public-private rights divide that can stunt public conversation of property rights.