Land-use planning
The examples and perspective in this article deal primarily with the United States and do not represent a worldwide view of the subject. (November 2011) |
Land use planning is the process of regulating the
In
In the United States, the terms land use planning,
History
Land use planning nearly always requires land use regulation, which typically encompasses zoning. Zoning regulates the types of activities that can be accommodated on a given piece of land, as well as the amount of space devoted to those activities, and the ways that buildings may be situated and shaped.[4]
The ambiguous nature of the term "planning", as it relates to land use, is historically tied to the practice of zoning. Zoning in the US came about in the late 19th and early 20th centuries to protect the interests of property owners. The practice was found to be constitutionally sound by the Supreme Court decision of Village of Euclid v. Ambler Realty Co. in 1926.[3] Soon after, the Standard State Zoning Enabling Act gave authority to the states to regulate land use. Even so, the practice remains controversial today.
The "taking clause" of the Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution prohibits the government from taking private property for public use without just compensation. The case of Dolan v. City of Tigard demonstrated the criteria that determine the threshold of what is considered taking.[5] One interpretation of the taking clause is that any restriction on the development potential of land through zoning regulation is a "taking". A deep-rooted anti-zoning sentiment exists in America, that no one has the right to tell another what he can or cannot do with his land. Ironically, although people are often averse to being told how to develop their own land, they tend to expect the government to intervene when a proposed land use is undesirable.
Conventional zoning has not typically regarded the manner in which buildings relate to one another or the public spaces around them, but rather has provided a pragmatic system for mapping jurisdictions according to permitted land use. This system, combined with the
As America grew and sprawl was rampant, the much-loved America of the older towns, cities, or streetcar suburbs essentially became illegal through zoning.[6] Unparalleled growth and unregulated development changed the look and feel of landscapes and communities. They strained commercial corridors and affected housing prices, causing citizens to fear a decline in the social, economic and environmental attributes that defined their quality of life.[7] Zoning regulations became politically contentious as developers, legislators, and citizens struggled over altering zoning maps in a way that was acceptable to all parties. Land use planning practices evolved as an attempt to overcome these challenges. It engages citizens and policy-makers to plan for development with more intention, foresight, and community focus than had been previously used.
Description and application
Description
Land use planning is defined as: the process by which optimum forms of land use and management are indicated, considering the biophysical, technological, social, economic and political conditions of a particular territory. The objective of planning land use is to influence, control or direct changes in the use of land so that it is dedicated to the most beneficial use and maintains the quality of the environment and promoting conservation of the land resources. The territorial diagnosis and the generation of alternatives of management and environmental protection for the planning of the use of the land produces the indispensable knowledge necessary for the formulation of the policies of use, contributing to the search of competitive and sustainable productive and extractive activities and systems. The methodological process of land use planning contributes to: orienting the location of economic and social activities regarding the aptitude of the land and providing solutions to conflicts of use; indicate the base of natural resources that should remain and protected areas; point out the areas exposed to natural hazards and their management; identify sustainable productive and extractive activities and systems; guide the planning of land uses and indicate the areas that require land adaptation or recovery projects [8]
Planning process and parties involved
In most countries, the local municipal council/local government, the body responsible of the environment and oftentimes the national government assume all the functions of land use planning; among them the corresponding function to territorial ordering (OT). For this reason, the highlighted bodies have among other responsibilities the promotion of the conservation and sustainable use of natural resources, establishing policies, criteria, tools and procedures of the most appropriate efficient and sustainable territorial order in coordination with any other relevant corresponding entities such as construction companies and the public.[9]
Application
- "Developing cities and towns": land use planning is an important component of city planning. The nature of cities required to the most beneficial use in terms of maximization of economic factors and promoting convenience, while maintaining the quality of the environment and promoting conservation of the land. The only way to achieve this is the utilization of the elements of land use planning.[9]
- "The concept of taxonomy) must allow a deepening (level) of the landscapes according to their scale. For each order of phenomena there are thresholds of manifestation and “extinction” that by themselves can justify the systematic differentiation of landscapes into hierarchical units. The study and zoning of the coverage and land use requires first defining the concepts of land, coverage and use in order to avoid the problems of interpretation associated with the management of these concepts. The concept of land is defined as an entity formed by the mutual interaction of living and non-living nature in a recognizable portion of the Earth's surface. It is a more geographical than edaphological definition. The earth is conceived as the result of the integration of biophysical and socioeconomic elements whose interrelation generates certain particular spatial units or landscapes, therefore, land and landscape are considered in this guide as synonyms. Land cover, on the other hand, is defined as the different features that cover the land, such as water, forest, other types of vegetation, bare rocks or sand, man-made structures, etc. In general, these are the traits that can be directly observed in aerial photographs and frequently in satellite images. The concept of use, applies to the employment that man gives to different types of coverage, cyclically or permanently to meet his material or spiritual needs. Basically, this is where the need for zoning arises.[10]
Conditions necessary
- Community relations: for any land planning activity, the actors involved must involve the community or the public to put into consideration their opinions on the proposed land planning initiatives. After all, the land is being planned so that the public can enjoy the benefits that comes from land use planning.
- Government and legal support: the government can support land use planning initiatives in a myriad of ways. The first is by financing or subsidizing a section of land use planning activities. The second way is by reducing bureaucracy and administration bottlenecks that comes with obtaining permits and licences.[9]
Pros and cons
Pros
- Land use planning is an important growth framework: certainly, prosperous urban areas have a vision that they must follow through a framework to achieve a development in a well-ordered way. Hence, land use planning provides the framework.[9]
- A well-planned urban area is a well-prepared urban area: anticipating the future allows for better preparedness.[9] Indeed, the presence of natural phenomenon that represents a threat to human life activities implies a limitation in the use of land. It is necessary then to plan the use of the land taking into account its limitation in order to allow the containment of natural phenomenon and its manifestations either by restricting the presence of human life and/or activities, adapting infrastructure conditions in a manner that reduces its vulnerability to natural phenomenon or implementing plans conducive to risk mitigation. The absence of territorial planning plans, the lack of definition of areas exposed to threats and the lack of studies on natural phenomena that might bring threats, ensure an increase in the number and magnitude of disasters of natural origin. The process of land use planning developed putting into consideration those aspects, allows the identification, location and evaluation of areas exposed to natural phenomena, which allows the implementation of measures that guarantee risk mitigation.
- Good land use planning positively impacts the development of urban economy.[9]
- Promote the national territorial order and economic ecological zoning as a support for the conservation, use and sustainable use of natural resources and biological diversity, as well as the orderly occupation of the territory.
- The analysis of natural and anthropic risk in territorial planning processes is incorporated, as well as adaptation measures to climate change.
- Mechanisms to prevent the settlement of populations and the development of socioeconomic activities are promoted in areas with high potential for risks in the face of natural and anthropic hazards.
- Territorial planning is promoted as a basis for concerted development plans and border development, in the management of watersheds and coastal marine areas.
- The actions of regional and local governments are guided for the efficient fulfillment of their functions in this area of land use planning.
Cons
- The cost of land use planning is usually high, generally because of poor investment and the lack of anticipation of technology.
- Land use planning theory has largely been shaped by case studies of cities in the Global North. Countries all over the world, particularly in the Global South, are seeing population booms and rapid urbanization. Many of the methods, practices, and assumptions about land use planning from 20th Century Europe and the United States are not relevant to the Global South, where conditions are quite different. Many fundamental concepts associated with traditional land use planning, like zoning, have persisted despite a rapidly-changing urban landscape.[11]
Land use planning and environmental sustainability
In view of sustainable development, land use planning is seen as a political and technical-administrative decision-making process agreed with social, economic, political and technical factors, for orderly occupation and sustainable use of the land under development. On the other hand, it seeks regulation and promotion of the location and sustainable development of human settlements, economic and social activities, and spatial physical development, based on the identification of potentialities and limitations that consider environmental, economic, sociocultural, institutional and geopolitical criteria.[12] By and large, these parameters are put in place in order to make sure that the environment is protected during land use or land development. Indeed, based on the recommendations of the United Nations in its Habitat conference, land is assigned a high importance for the development of human life as it is the fundamental support for its permanence and development, this being the most important objective of the policy of human settlements. That is, the land resource is recognized as an essential element, which supports the social, political and economic formation of society. As mentioned earlier, the use of land refers to the occupation of a certain area according to its agrological capacity and therefore its development potential, it is classified according to its location as urban or rural, it represents a fundamental element for the development of the city and its inhabitants since it is from these that its urban structure is formed and therefore its functionality is defined. For this reason, there is a need to ensure sustainability in order to ensure the we continue to enjoy the benefits that come from urban planning and to ensure that future generations will continue enjoying these benefits.
To guarantee this, land use planning come into the fold. In a broader sense, this is a tool through which State defines the type of use land will have within a settlement, e.g. a city, while also determining the guidelines for its use in order to ensure effectiveness and sustainability. Land use, in this case, is assigned on the basis on its physical and functional characteristics that they have in the urban structure, and with the aim of occupying the space in an orderly manner and according to their physical capacity (occupation of areas suitable for urban development and
Throughout the world, there are rising levels of environmental degradation due to unclean energy usage in the development and powering of cities and neighborhoods. In the 20th century, there was a global push to develop large cities quickly to accommodate the people who were migrating from rural areas to cities for jobs.[13] The type of energy used for this was either coal or oil fuel, which meant that the environment was disregarded and damaged by numerous urban development projects.[13] Today, the United Nations has found that over half of the world's population lives in cities that are still growing.[14] In order to create environmentally viable urban landscapes, the UN advocated for green energy use, as well as urban development that encouraged green-friendly transportation. In the United States, about 75% of the energy used is allocated to power buildings and modes of transportation; land use planning can be a useful tool in changing these aspects of energy usage in a way that would be beneficial to both residents and the ecology.[13]
A sustainable urban development includes:
- Methods for reducing waste, such as recycling and composting programs that are easily accessible to residents.[13]
- Limiting pollution, with techniques such as protecting universal access to necessities and encouraging access to facilities, goods, and services in ways that do not require the use of a car.[15]
- Encouraging public transportation usage and spread within a city.[16]
The Partnership for Sustainable Communities, created by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, the U.S. Department Of Transportation, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in 2009 was intended to encourage sustainable land use planning. This partnership helps to ensure that federal housing projects, transportation, and other neighborhood infrastructure would help residents live closer to jobs, while also reducing pollution since there would be less commute time. Over the past decade, this federal partnership has funded 1,066 projects across the 50 States, as well as Washington D.C. and Puerto Rico.[16] The total amount of grant money given to these projects has reached approximately $4.6 billion.[16] Some of the programs that the partnership sponsors are the Housing and Urban Development's “Sustainable Communities Regional Planning” and “Community Challenge Grant Programs”.[16] These programs have made important strides in sustainable urban planning, with about 40 percent of U.S. citizens now having access to communities who were awarded these grants. Both of these programs make up $240 million in federal investment towards local land use planning efforts.[15]
Types of planning
Various types of planning have emerged over the course of the 20th century. Below are the six main typologies of planning, as defined by David Walters in his book, Designing Communities (2007):
- Traditional or comprehensive planning: Common in the US after World War II, characterized by politically neutral experts with a rational view of the new urban development. Focused on producing clear statements about the form and content of new development.
- Systems planning: 1950s–1970s, resulting from the failure of comprehensive planning to deal with the unforeseen growth of post World War II America. More analytical view of the planning area as a set of complex processes, less interested in a physical plan.[17]
- Democratic planning: 1960s. Result of societal loosening of class and race barriers. Gave more citizens a voice in planning for future of community.
- Advocacy and equity planning: 1960s & 70s. Strands of democratic planning that sought specifically to address social issues of inequality and injustice in community planning.[18]
- Strategic planning: 1960s-present. Recognizes small-scale objectives and pragmatic real-world constraints.
- Environmental planning: 1960s-present. Developed as many of the ecological and social implications of global development were first widely understood.[6]
Today, successful planning involves a balanced mix of analysis of the existing conditions and constraints; extensive public engagement; practical planning and design; and financially and politically feasible strategies for implementation.[7]
Current processes include a combination of strategic and environmental planning. It is becoming more widely understood that any sector of land has a certain capacity for supporting human, animal, and vegetative life in harmony, and that upsetting this balance has dire consequences on the environment. Planners and citizens often take on an advocacy role during the planning process in an attempt to influence public policy.[6]
Since the 1990s, the activist/environmentalist approach to planning has grown into the