Land-Use Planning for Sustainable Development

by Silberstein, M.A.; Jane

• ISBN13: 9781566703253
• ISBN10: 1566703255
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Nonspecific Binding
• Copyright: 2000-06-27
• Publisher: CRC Press

Summary

Is the doomsday scenario inevitable? With our increasingly diminishing natural habitat and other natural resources, it seems that we are headed in that direction. After centuries of patchwork land planning, out-of-scale development and cookbook methods, it is clear that we need a better way. Authors Silberstein and Maser explore a different scenario in Land-Use Planning for Sustainable Development. The authors review the foundations of current land use practices from historical, constitutional, economic, ecological, and societal perspectives. They analyze the results of these practices and suggest alternative methods for guiding, directing, and controlling the ways in which we modify the landscape. They make the case that we-as humans-have the capacity for community with all life and can ultimately embrace the notion that individual well-being is wrapped up in the well-being of the whole, and that social change can occur before major disasters require it. This is the first book to incorporate land-use planning with sustainability. The authors offer a perspective that opens a range of possibilities for changing current methods. They tackle the difficult dilemma of creating consensus among people-tapping the powers of mind, intuition, and experience in developing a sustainable community. Using sustainability as a framework, Silberstein and Maser present the underlying concepts of sustainable land-use planning. With Land-Use Planning for Sustainable Development, you will discover an array of ideas for modifying conventional planning for and regulation of the development of land.

Author Biography

Jane Silberstein as her own consulting practice as a planner She also works at the Sigurd Olson Environmental Institute, Northland College, in Ashland, WI, where she is an environmental education specialist, adjunct instructor Chris Maser is an independent author as well as lecturer and facilitator He is also consultant in forest ecology and sustainable forestry practices

Table of Contents

Foundations of debate over land use in America	1	(32)
Property rights and responsibilities	1	(3)
Our economic model	4	(18)
Gross domestic product, eco-efficiency, genuine progress indicators, and Nature's inherent services	5	(2)
Gross domestic product	7	(2)
Eco-efficiency	9	(2)
Genuine progress indicators	11	(8)
Nature's inherent services	19	(3)
Our economic model and planning	22	(3)
Human migratory patterns	25	(3)
Human nature	28	(5)
Attempts to modify conventional land-use practices	33	(8)
Zoning	33	(2)
New Urbanism	35	(4)
Traditional Neighborhood Development	39	(2)
Protecting diversity through land-use planning	41	(28)
Composition, structure, and function of habitat	41	(3)
The effect of modifying habitat	44	(5)
Cumulative effects, thresholds, and lag periods	49	(1)
Constraints: the building blocks of sustainable planning	50	(19)
Open space	51	(2)
Communal open space	53	(1)
Water	54	(3)
Quiet	57	(1)
Surrounding landscape	57	(1)
Agricultural cropland	57	(1)
Forestland	58	(1)
Riparian areas and floodplains	58	(3)
Transportation	61	(2)
Population	63	(2)
Culturalcapacity	65	(4)
Modeling the planning process after nature	69	(30)
Fluidity	70	(13)
Bioengineering vs. natural processes	73	(2)
Riverbank instability and its risk of failure	75	(1)
Riverfront forest	76	(1)
Outcome of the proposed project is uncertain	77	(1)
Listening, really listening, to the citizens	78	(2)
Or only pretending to really listen	80	(1)
Eliminating unwelcome voices within	81	(2)
Nonlinearity	83	(3)
Diversity and self-organization	86	(8)
Eliminating the concept of ``waste''	94	(2)
Interdependency	96	(3)
An alternative approach to comprehensive land-use planning	99	(42)
Land-use planning and the notion of supply and demand	99	(6)
How does the three-part environmental-economic model guide the way we alter landscapes to meet our perceived necessities?	102	(1)
What do we mean by human necessities?	103	(2)
Understanding demand in terms of a more complex array of perceived human necessities will help us find alternative ways to deliver the desired services	105	(1)
Structural components of the comprehensive plan	105	(4)
Overall structure	106	(1)
The role of values	106	(2)
Elements of the comprehensive plan	108	(1)
Developing a comprehensive plan	109	(13)
Setting the stage for planning	112	(1)
mining for meaning --- obtaining community values	113	(2)
creating a community vision	115	(1)
Modeling the plan after Nature	116	(1)
No waste	116	(1)
Interdependency	117	(1)
Nonlinearity	117	(1)
developing elements of the comprehensive plan	118	(1)
Composition and structures	119	(1)
Functions and services	119	(1)
Parallel structures, functions, and services in nature, where identifiable	120	(1)
Critical issues emerging from the earlier analysis	120	(1)
Formulation of goals	121	(1)
Policy definition	121	(1)
Checklists	121	(1)
Follow-up	122	(1)
Sample comprehensive plan elements: transportation	122	(8)
Composition and structures	125	(1)
Composition	125	(1)
Structures	126	(1)
Parallel structures in Nature	126	(1)
Functions	126	(1)
Functions reflecting community values	126	(1)
Parallel functions and values in Nature	127	(1)
Services	128	(1)
Services based on functions and values	128	(1)
Parallel services in Nature	128	(1)
Current status and analysis of structures, functions, and services	128	(1)
Critical issues yield goals, objectives, and policies	129	(1)
Checklist to evaluate goals, objectives, and policies	129	(1)
Sample comprehensive plan elements: land-use	130	(3)
Community structures	130	(2)
Functions and services	132	(1)
Checklist	133	(1)
Sample comprehensive plan elements: community facilities and services	133	(4)
Sample comprehensive plan elements: cultural resources	137	(1)
Sample comprehensive plan elements: economic development	138	(1)
Paradigm warning	139	(2)
Implementing the comprehensive plan	141	(38)
Zoning ordinances	141	(12)
Zoning ordinances and greed	141	(1)
Content of the zoning ordinance preface	142	(1)
Percent impervious surfaces	143	(1)
Building setbacks	143	(1)
Plans for erosion control and contouring the land	143	(1)
Open space requirements	144	(1)
Requirements for landscaping	144	(1)
Design controls: site design, architecture, signs, and graphics	145	(3)
Site design	148	(1)
Architectural standards	149	(1)
Sign standards	149	(1)
Redesigning zoning ordinances	150	(3)
Other regulatory approaches to land-use control	153	(5)
Preservation of farmlands	153	(3)
Population growth rate and new construction	156	(2)
Preventing traffic congestion	158	(1)
Nonregulatory methods of controlling land use	158	(21)
Incentive-based tools	158	(2)
Incentives themselves	160	(3)
Development review	163	(1)
Citizen-initiated development review	163	(3)
Obstacles to development review	166	(5)
Fiscal impact analysis	171	(2)
Environmental impact analysis	173	(1)
Checklists for sustainability	174	(5)
Monitoring progress	179	(8)
Change and our perception of it	179	(4)
Creating measures of progress	183	(2)
Outputs vs. outcomes	185	(2)
Keeping the message alive	187	(8)
The message	188	(1)
At what scale is planning most effective?	189	(1)
Is a ``paradigm shift'' occurring?	190	(2)
Barriers to overcome	192	(3)
Endnotes	195