Growth Management

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Growth Management

• UDP 450
• Oct 16, 2007

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Chinitz

• Chinitz, Benjamin (1990), Growth Management
  Good for the Town, Bad for the Nation? Journal
  of the American Planning Association 56(1), 3-8.

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Growth ManagementChinitz

• Is the growth management debate an example of
  "fallacy of composition" in land use policy?
• - What is good for the community is not
  necessarily good for the nation.

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Growth and the Environment

• Although growth can be defined as "the expansion
  of developed space." (Chinitz, p.3), it should
  include employment and income growth as well as
  population growth.
• The manifestations of local economic growth --
  higher demands for housing, jobs, services, etc.
  -- lead inevitably to land absorption and natural
  resource exploitation.

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• "Unmanaged" growth may produce environmental
  stress. The question is what do we mean by
  "unmanaged growth"?

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• Examples of unmanaged growth
• USING THE WRONG LAND development in wetlands
• USING LAND THE WRONG WAY
• automobile-dependent urban sprawl
• Building homes, day care centers, etc. next to
  freeways

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Environmental Problems at the Local Level

• Primarily the environmental consequences of
  development projects
• traffic,
• parking,
• visual settings,
• quality and quantity of water supply,
• neighborhood open space,
• air pollution,
• hazardous waste disposal,
• wetlands management,
• water pollution.

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Who Makes Land Policy?

• Land policy aimed at modifying "market-driven"
  land use choices to reduce negative environmental
  consequences of growth is the product of actions
  at the local, state, and federal level from
  zoning, developer impact fees and growth
  management ballot initiatives (local), to
  statewide land use legislation such as in Oregon
  and Florida (state), to environmental laws that
  affect land use, such as the Clean Air Acts and
  the Endangered Species Act (federal)

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Central government
State Agencies Provinces (Departments )
Local Governments (Communes)
Power Structure of Land Use Decisions in France
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Federal government
-CAA, CWA, ESA BLM
State governments
GMA States
Local/regional governments
Citizen participation
Power Structure of Land Use Decisions in the U. S.
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Competition not Cooperation

• Local government land use regulations are
  frequently "beggar-my-neighbor" policies, trying
  to pass on growth problems to other nearby
  communities.
• But communities should recognize their
  interdependence (this might be an argument
  against growth management or in favor of
  State-level actions).

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The Rationale for Local Land Use Regulations

• Imperfect land markets
• Developers do not consider the social costs and
  benefits that their activities impose upon
  others, regarding land use, density, design, and
  timing of development.

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Difference between Zoning and Growth Management

• Zoning is passive and static, while growth
  management is proactive and dynamic, attempting
  to balance development and conservation,
  infrastructure investments and public service
  needs, etc.
• http//clerk.ci.seattle.wa.us/public/zoningmaps/zm
  apindx.htm

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• The growth management issue that raises national
  environmental concerns is the impact of
  low-density sprawl on automobile VMT, and the
  impact of this on human health, global warming,
  etc.

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Conclusions

• Local growth management does not conflict with
  the pursuit of national and global environmental
  concerns.
• However, "(t)he direct line . . . from growth
  management to greater automobile usage and its
  adverse consequences for the environment is
  fraught with fallacy." Unfortunately, Chinitz
  does not elaborate this argument, but we need to
  evaluate it in detail. It is a core issue in the
  debate.

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FISCHEL

• Fischel, William A. (1991), Good for the Town,
  Bad for the Nation? A Comment, Journal of the
  American Planning Association 57(3), 341-4.

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Growth Controls Sprawl

• Key argument Local growth controls contribute
  to metropolitan sprawl.
• Growth Controls
• raise prices of existing houses
• lower the price of undeveloped land
• increase metro-wide house prices.

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• Do developers flee to more distant sites?
  Probably.
• Peiser's defense of leapfrog-with-infill
  (resulting in higher density development within
  jurisdictions) ignores the fact that growth
  controls often preclude any development
  whatsoever.

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Porter

• Porter, D. (1996), "Growth Management What It
  is and What It Does" Chapter 1 (pp. 1-18)
  Profiles in Growth Management. Washington, D.C.
  The Urban Land Institute.

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Future Growth Pressure

• Urban growth will continue into the next century.
• Most Americans, THREE OUT of every four persons,
  live in urban areas.
• The Sunbelt states (CA, FL, TX, WA, NV, etc)
  grew faster than the snowbelt states.
• Suburban growth gt Central City growth
• Pop loss in Pittsburgh, Cleveland, etc. during
  the 1980s.

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Growth is Good

• economic prosperity
• better job prospects
• diversity

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Growth is Bad

• Overwhelming unplanned and/or under-prepared
  growth can lower residents' quality of life
  overcrowded schools, road congestion, lack of
  sewers, fire stations, hospitals, etc., etc.
• The gap between people's needs and govt. spending
  on infrastructure widens
• Upsets natural beauty, open space, environmental
  quality, habitat, etc,
• Planning-follows-development vs. Plan-ahead of
  -development

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• Growth should be managed.

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GM is

• a dynamic process dealing with constantly
  changing environments (built and natural)
• a political process reaching out to the
  community and searching for consensus
• a technical process identifying future needs

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GM is (should be?)

• comprehensive planning adopted policies and
  programs should be interconnected
• sensitive to economic and social concerns
  affordable housing, housing assistance,
  employment opportunities, redevelopment,
  neighborhood upgrading, etc., etc.