About attorney/planner Daniel Lauber, AICP

City planner and zoning/fair housing attorney Daniel Lauber, AICP, pioneered the use of spacing distances between community residences for people with disabilities (group homes, sober living homes which in Florida are statutorily known as “recovery residences”), small assisted living homes) in 1974 with Frank S. Bangs, Jr. in their Planning Advisory Service Report Zoning for Family and Group Care Facilities. Since then, Mr. Lauber has conducted the necessary studies needed to adopt the state–of–the–art zoning provisions for community residences for people with disabilities that he has drafted for dozens of cities and counties throughout the nation. These include the jurisdictions listed on page 152 of this report. He has worked with well over 100 jurisdictions across the nation to remove unjustifiable zoning barriers for community residences to bring their zoning for community residences into compliance with the Fair Housing Act. These zoning amendments balance the need for community residences (and recovery communities) with the need to preserve the residential character of the neighborhoods in which they locate which is necessary for these homes to achieve their core, essential goals.

Mr. Lauber wrote the model zoning guidelines for community residences issued by the American Planning Association and the American Bar Association. As an expert witness for the U.S. Department of Justice, he crafted the successful legal argument that prevailed in United States v. City of Chicago Heights 161 F.Supp. 2nd 819 (N.D. Ill. 2001). He has been retained as an expert witness in court from Connecticut to Oklahoma. He has served as an expert witness on zoning applications for community residences before more than 30 jurisdictions and has successfully guided more than 40 operators of community residences including sober living homes through the zoning process. In 2019, by explaining the legal basis to require certification or licensing of recovery residences and recovery communities and how mandatory certification or licensing does not run afoul of the nation’s Fair Housing Act, Mr. Lauber’s expert testimony contributed to the Florida State Senate’s Committee on Children, Family, and Elderly Affairs passing SB 102 which would have required certification.

Mr. Lauber was principal author of the American Planning Association’s influential amicus brief before the U.S. Supreme Court on behalf of Oxford House in City of Edmonds v. Washington State Building Code Council, 514 U.S. 725 (1995).

Mr. Lauber consulted for Dallas, Texas and Prescott, Arizona to assure that their licensing of community residences for people with disabilities complied with the Fair Housing Act.

Retained by the State of Illinois to implement the “Illinois Community Residence Location Planning Act” in 1990, Mr. Lauber worked to bring the state’s 110 home rule communities into compliance with the Fair Housing Amendments Act of 1988, evaluating 99 local zoning codes, writing a model zoning ordinance, producing a report for the General Assembly, and recommending state legislative action. This project garnered the 1991 award from the Illinois Chapter of the American Planning Association (APA) for a “Planning Program of Unusually High Merit Performed Under Serious Budgetary, Manpower, or Political constraints.”

The Illinois Chapter of APA also recognized Mr. Lauber and his work with an Award of Merit in 1983 and Best Practices Award in 2009. In 1998, the national American Planning Association honored Mr. Lauber with its prestigious Paul Davidoff Award.

Mr. Lauber has written extensively on this subject in professional publications and has conducted countless seminars and webinars on zoning for community residences and recovery communities at state and national conferences, law schools, the Association of State Mental Health Attorneys, the American Bar Association, Ameri- can Planning Association, the Indiana Fair Housing Task Force, Michigan Department of Civil Rights, and the Fair Housing Legal Support Center of the John Marshall Law School.

His 1996 article, “A Real LULU: Zoning for Group Homes and Halfway Houses Under the Fair Housing Amendments Act of 1988,” in The John Marshall Law Re- view, has been cited countless times.

In 1983, Mr. Lauber provided technical assistance to housing providers and municipalities for the Illinois Department of Mental Health and Developmental Dis- abilities which included writing model zoning ordinances for group homes, conducting workshops for local government officials, and writing a guide to zoning for housing providers. In 1986, on behalf of the Illinois Governor’s Planning Council on Developmental Disabilities, Mr. Lauber conducted a scientific study of the impacts of group homes on property values, neighborhood stability, and safety in the surrounding neighborhoods.

Mr. Lauber has served as President of the American Planning Association and been President of the American Institute of Certified Planners twice. He was Legal Advocacy Vice–Chair of the Region VI Executive Committee of the American Association on Mental Retardation and chaired the Group Home and Congregate Living Subcommittee of the American Bar Association’s Committee on Regulation of Land Use.

Mr. Lauber has received a B.A. from the University of Chicago, a Masters of Urban Planning from the University of Illinois–Urbana, and a J.D. from Northwestern University School of Law.