Economics and Land Use Planning


Book Description

The book's aim is to draw together the economics literature relating to planning and set it out systematically. It analyses the economics of land use planning and the relationship between economics and planning and addresses questions like: What are the limits of land use planning and the extent of its objectives?; Is the aim aesthetic?; Is it efficiency?; Is it to ensure equity?; Or sustainability?; And if all of these aims, how should one be balanced against another?




Urban Land Markets


Book Description

As urbanization progresses at a remarkable pace, policy makers and analysts come to understand and agree on key features that will make this process more efficient and inclusive, leading to gains in the welfare of citizens. Drawing on insights from economic geography and two centuries of experience in developed countries, the World Bank’s World Development Report 2009: Reshaping Economic Geography emphasizes key aspects that are fundamental to ensuring an efficient rural-urban transformation. Critical among these are land, as the most important resource, and well-functioning land markets. Regardless of the stage of urbanization, flexible and forward-looking institu- ons that help the efficient functioning of land markets are the bedrock of succe- ful urbanization strategies. In particular, institutional arrangements for allocating land rights and for managing and regulating land use have significant implica- ons for how cities deliver agglomeration economies and improve the welfare of their residents. Property rights, well-functioning land markets, and the management and servicing of land required to accommodate urban expansion and provide trunk infrastructure are all topics that arise as regions progress from incipient urbani- tion to medium and high density.




Environmental Land Use Planning and Management


Book Description

Since the first publication of this landmark textbook in 2004, it has received high praise for its clear, comprehensive, and practical approach. The second edition continues to offer a unique framework for teaching and learning interdisciplinary environmental planning, incorporating the latest thinking, newest research findings, and numerous, updated case studies into the solid foundation of the first edition. This new edition highlights emerging topics such as sustainable communities, climate change, and international efforts toward sustainability. It has been reorganized based on feedback from instructors, and contains a new chapter entitled "Land Use, Energy, Air Quality and Climate Change." Throughout, boxes have been added on such topics as federal laws, state and local environmental programs, and critical problems and responses. With this thoroughly revised second edition, Environmental Land Use Planning and Management maintains its preeminence as the leading textbook in its field.




Land Use and Spatial Planning


Book Description

This book reconciles competing and sometimes contradictory forms of land use, while also promoting sustainable land use options. It highlights land use planning, spatial planning, territorial (or regional) planning, and ecosystem-based or environmental land use planning as tools that strengthen land governance. Further, it demonstrates how to use these types of land-use planning to improve economic opportunities based on sustainable management of land resources, and to develop land use options that strike a balance between conservation and development objectives. Competition for land is increasing as demand for multiple land uses and ecosystem services rises. Food security issues, renewable energy and emerging carbon markets are creating pressures for the conversion of agricultural land to other uses such as reforestation and biofuels. At the same time, there is a growing demand for land in connection with urbanization and recreation, mining, food production, and biodiversity conservation. Managing the increasing competition between these services, and balancing different stakeholders’ interests, requires efficient allocation of land resources.




Order without Design


Book Description

An argument that operational urban planning can be improved by the application of the tools of urban economics to the design of regulations and infrastructure. Urban planning is a craft learned through practice. Planners make rapid decisions that have an immediate impact on the ground—the width of streets, the minimum size of land parcels, the heights of buildings. The language they use to describe their objectives is qualitative—“sustainable,” “livable,” “resilient”—often with no link to measurable outcomes. Urban economics, on the other hand, is a quantitative science, based on theories, models, and empirical evidence largely developed in academic settings. In this book, the eminent urban planner Alain Bertaud argues that applying the theories of urban economics to the practice of urban planning would greatly improve both the productivity of cities and the welfare of urban citizens. Bertaud explains that markets provide the indispensable mechanism for cities’ development. He cites the experience of cities without markets for land or labor in pre-reform China and Russia; this “urban planners’ dream” created inefficiencies and waste. Drawing on five decades of urban planning experience in forty cities around the world, Bertaud links cities’ productivity to the size of their labor markets; argues that the design of infrastructure and markets can complement each other; examines the spatial distribution of land prices and densities; stresses the importance of mobility and affordability; and critiques the land use regulations in a number of cities that aim at redesigning existing cities instead of just trying to alleviate clear negative externalities. Bertaud concludes by describing the new role that joint teams of urban planners and economists could play to improve the way cities are managed.




Zoning Rules!


Book Description

"Zoning has for a century enabled cities to chart their own course. It is a useful and popular institution, enabling homeowners to protect their main investment and provide safe neighborhoods. As home values have soared in recent years, however, this protection has accelerated to the degree that new housing development has become unreasonably difficult and costly. The widespread Not In My Backyard (NIMBY) syndrome is driven by voters’ excessive concern about their home values and creates barriers to growth that reach beyond individual communities. The barriers contribute to suburban sprawl, entrench income and racial segregation, retard regional immigration to the most productive cities, add to national wealth inequality, and slow the growth of the American economy. Some state, federal, and judicial interventions to control local zoning have done more harm than good. More effective approaches would moderate voters’ demand for local-land use regulation—by, for example, curtailing federal tax subsidies to owner-occupied housing"--Publisher's description.




Ethical Land Use


Book Description

"That land is a community is the basic concept of ecology," wrote Aldo Leopold in 1933, "but that land is to be loved and respected is an extension of ethics." Since then, every generation has taken up Leopold's search for a "land ethic" to guide decision making which would balance economic considerations with concerns for beauty, sustainability and quality of life. Should a community preserve or develop the remaining wetlands within its jurisdiction? Should a local government allow low-income housing to be built in an affluent neighborhood? Does a farmer continue farming despite surrounding urbanization or does he sell the land for a profit and allow further development? Ethical Land Use is the first comprehensive examination of the eithical dimensions of land-use decisions and policy. Its premise is that all land-use decisions—whether to build an interstate highway or maintain a suburban lawn with chemical fertilizers—invariably involve ethical choices. Historically Beatley observes, many such decisions were made on narrow legal, technical, or economic grounds rather than on a full consideration of their complex ethical and moral dimensions. Drawing on a combination of actual land-use conflicts and hypothetical scenarios, Beatley offers a full description and analysis of the difficult issues faced by policy makers as well as individual citizens. He concludes by proposing a practical set of principles for ethical land use to guide future policy and planning




Smarter Growth


Book Description

"This volume is based on a conference held in March 2000, at Florida State University in Tallahassee"--Pref. Includes bibliographical references and index. Machine generated contents note: 1. Land-Use Planning: An Overview of the Issues -- Randall G. Holcombe and Samuel R. Staley -- Public Concern About Sprawl -- The Issues -- The Political Response -- Market Mechanisms -- The Market Order -- Conclusion -- 2. An Overview of U.S. Urbanization and Land-Use Trends -- Samuel R. Staley -- How Developed Is the U.S.? -- What Land Is Urbanized? -- NRI Data Reliability -- Housing Preferences and Trends -- Conclusion -- 3. The Geography of Transportation and Land Use -- Peter Gordon and Harry W. Richardson -- Suburbanization -- Transportation Issues -- Conclusions -- 4. Congestion and Traffic Management -- Robert W. Poole, Jr. -- Road Pricing: The History of an Idea -- Resistance to Urban Road Pricing -- Rethinking Highway Finance -- Highway Finance Reform -- Equity Issues -- Can New Technology Make Pricing Feasible? -- A New Paradigm for Urban Roadways -- Getting from Here to There -- Conclusion -- 5. Air Quality, Density, and Environmental Degradation -- Kenneth Green -- Density and Air Quality -- Density and Water Quality -- Density and Soil Contamination -- Conclusion -- 6. National Land-Use Planning Through Environmental Policy -- Jefferson G. Edgens -- Nonpoint Source Water Pollution -- Ecosystem Protection Via Watershed Management -- EPA Authority Under the Clean Water Act -- Expanding the EPA's Nonstatutory Regulatory Control -- The EPA and Federal Growth Management -- American Heritage Rivers Initiative and -- the Gulf of Mexico Initiative -- EPA Authority Over Nonpoint Sources -- Guidelines for Policy -- Conclusion -- 7. Regionalism and the Growth Management Movement -- Gerard C S. Mildner -- The Development of Comprehensive Land-Use Planning -- Regional Planning and Fiscal Equity -- Land-Use Planning in Portland, Oregon -- Conclusion -- 8. Growth Management in Action: The Case of Florida -- Randall G. Holcombe -- Florida's 1985 Growth Management Act -- Concurrency -- Urban Sprawl -- Lessons from Florida's Urban Sprawl Policy -- Growth Management as Central Planning -- Planning for Private and Public Resources -- Planning for Transportation and Land-Use Patterns -- Impediments to Infrstructure Planning -- Conclusion -- 9. Urban Density and Sprawl: An Historic Perspective -- Robert Bruegmann -- Sprawl and Density -- Density A Compact History -- American Cities and European Cities -- Decentralization and Density Today -- Causes of Decentralization -- The Fight Against Low Density -- 10. Property Rights in a Complex World -- Roger E. Meiners and Andrew P. Morriss -- The Nature and Source of Property Rights -- Free Market Environmentalism -- Environmental Creativity -- Conclusion -- 11. Markets, Smart Growth, and the Limits of Policy -- Samuel R. Staley -- The Politics of Smart Growth and Growth Management -- Key Features of Smart Growth Plans -- Legislative Decisionmaking -- Bureaucratic Decisionmaking -- Market Decisionmaking -- Policy Implications -- 12. Infrastructure Provision in a Market-Oriented Framework -- Wendell Cox -- Where Should Infrastructure Be Provided? -- Improving Efficiency and Effectiveness: -- Competitive Service Provision -- Competitive Infrastructure Development -- Competitive Service Delivery (Competitive Contracting -- A Special Case: Roadways -- De-Politicizing Infrastructure -- Conclusions -- 13. Fixing the Dysfunctional Central City -- Steven Hayward -- 14. Policy Implications -- Randall G. Holcombe and Samuel R. Staley -- Urban Development -- Environmental Issues -- Transportation -- Land-Use Policy -- Policy for the Underprivileged, the Poor, and Minorities -- Conclusion -- References -- Index -- About the Editors and Contributors.




Land-Use Modelling in Planning Practice


Book Description

This book provides an overview of recent developments and applications of the Land Use Scanner model, which has been used in spatial planning for well over a decade. Internationally recognized as among the best of its kind, this versatile model can be applied at a national level for trend extrapolation, scenario studies and optimization, yet can also be employed in a smaller-scale regional context, as demonstrated by the assortment of regional case studies included in the book. Alongside these practical examples from the Netherlands, readers will find discussion of more theoretical aspects of land-use models as well as an assessment of various studies that aim to develop the Land-Use Scanner model further. Spanning the divide between the abstractions of land-use modelling and the imperatives of policy making, this is a cutting-edge account of the way in which the Land-Use Scanner approach is able to interrogate a spectrum of issues that range from climate change to transportation efficiency. Aimed at planners, researchers and policy makers who need to stay abreast of the latest advances in land-use modelling techniques in the context of planning practice, the book guides the reader through the applications supported by current instrumentation. It affords the opportunity for a wide readership to benefit from the extensive and acknowledged expertise of Dutch planners, who have originated a host of much-used models.




Planning, Law and Economics


Book Description

What rights does the state have over privately owned land? Why should some landowners be favoured over others? How can the practice of land-use planning be improved? This book addresses these essential questions and shows that the interests people have in property rights over land and buildings are not just emotional but often financial too. It follows that the law, which affects who has property rights, what those rights are and how they may be used, can have great financial consequences for people and great economic consequences for society in general. For those reasons, looking at land-use planning as it affects and is affected by property rights illuminates some core aspects of land-use planning, including the law, economics, ethics and ideology. In this book, Needham examines those aspects from the clear perspective of property rights.