Lesson 10 - Land Use Planning

1. Lesson 10 - Land Use Planning by TaingYou,Ph.D

2. The Need For Planning • A large portion of the land surface of the world has been changed by human activity. Most of this change occur as people converted land to agriculture and grazing, in the modern world significant amounts have been covered with buildings, streets and other products of society. • Each piece of land has specific qualities based on location and physical makeup. Some is valued for the unique species that inhabit it, some for its scenic beauty, and some for its outstanding potential for agriculture and urban purposes. • Land is a nonrenewable resource.

3. Importance of Waterways • As population grows, competition for use of land will increase, and systematic land use planning will become more important. • Waterways are the primary method of transportation which allowed exploration and the development of commerce. • Earlytowns were usually built near rivers, lakes and oceans. Typically, cities develop as far inland as rivers were navigable. • In addition to transportation, bodies of water provided drinking water, power, and waste disposal for growing villages and towns.

4. The Rural-to-Urban Shift • Improvements in agriculture required less farm labor and at the same time industrial jobs became available in the city. • This pattern of rural-to-urban migration occurred throughout North America, and it is still occurring in developing countries today. Those towns and villages with access to waterways that provided easy transportation could readily receive raw materials and distribute manufactured goods. Industrial development began on waterfront since water supplied transportation, waste disposal and power.

5. Migration from the Central City to the Suburbs • Cities also grew because it offers a greater variety of cultural, social and artistic opportunities that did rural communities. • Because of the growth of the cities, waterfronts typically becamevery polluted, unhealthy, undesirable place to live. So, as the roads and rail transport became available, anyone who could afford to do so moved away from the original, industrial city center. • The more affluent moved to the outskirts of the city, and the development of suburban metropolitan regions began. • Thus, agricultural land surrounding towns was converted to housing.

6. As population of the city grew, demand for land increased. As the price of land in the city rose, people and businesses began to look for cheaper land farther away from the city. • Land was viewed as a commodity to be bought and sold for a profit, rather than as a nonrenewable resource to be managed. The conversion of land around cities to urban uses destroyed many natural areas that people have enjoyed. • Urban sprawl – unplanned suburban growth. It is a pattern of unplanned, low-density housing and commercial development outside of cities that usually takes place on previously undeveloped land.

7. The way we plan the physical layout, or land use of our communities is fundamental to sustainability. • Two main features of our land-use practices over the past decades have converge to generate haphazard, often inefficient and unsustainable urban sprawl(cover a large area of land) • Zoning ordinances that isolate employment locations, shopping, services and housing locations from each other; • Low-density growth planning aimed at creating automobile access to increasing expanses of land. • The complex problems shared by many cities are evidence of the impacts of urban sprawl, such as increasing traffic congestion and commute times, air pollution, inefficient energy consumption, greater reliance on oil, loss of open space and habitat, inequitable distribution of economic resources, and loss of sense of community.

9. Sprawl(large area of land growing to be city) is typically characterized by: • Excessive land consumption; • Low densities in comparison with older centers; • Lack of choice in ways to travel; • Fragmented open space, wide gaps between development and a scattered appearance; • Lack of choice in housing types and prices; • Separation of uses into distinct areas; • Repetitive one-story development; • Commercial buildings surrounded by large areas for parking; • Lack of public spaces and community centers; • Urban sprawl occurs in 3 ways. • One type of growth involves the development of exclusive, wealthy suburbs adjacent to the city.

10. Tract Development – the construction of similar residential units over large areas . • Ribbon Sprawl – usually consists of commercial and industrial buildings that line each side of the highway that connects housing areas to the central city and shopping and service areas. • Megalopolis – A large urban area. When cities began to merge and it became difficult to tell where one city ended and another began .

11. Factors That Contribute to Sprawl • Public investment roads, public buildings, water, sewer, and other infrastructure in peripheral areas; disinvestments in existing centers; • Land use regulations that promote spread out, land consumptive development; • Consumer desire for a rural lifestyle with large homes and large yards, a safe environment, and less traffic congestion; • Preference of business and industry • Demands of commercial tenants for particular locations and designs for buildings and sites • Other public policies, including tax and utility rater policies;

12. Lifestyle Factors • One of the factors that supported urban sprawl is the relative wealth of the population. • With this level of wealth, people are free to choose where and how they want to live. • Many areattracted to a lifestyle that includes low-density residential settings, with easy access to open space, isolated from the problems of the city. Higher costs of development in older, traditional centers; Lower land prices in peripheral areas (edge area of land); Telecommunication advances; Commercial lending practices that favor suburban development;

13. Sprawl Impacts Our Quality of Life: • Increased dependency on auto, fuel consumption and air pollution; • Increased commuting times and costs; • Reduced opportunity for public transportation services; • Increased health problems in children and adults due to a sedentary lifestyle (lot of time to work and less exercise); • More time in cars and less time for family, friends, and recreation; • Loss of sense of place and community decline, resulting in fragmented and dispersed communities, and a decline in social interaction and the isolation of some populations, such as poor and elderly in urban areas

14. Economic Factors: • Several economic forces operate to encourage sprawl development. First, it is less expensive to build on agricultural and other nonurban land than it is to build within established cities. • Several tax laws also contributed to encouraging home ownership. Sprawls Impact the Economy: • Excessive public costs for roads, utility line extensions, and service delivery to dispersed development; • Decline in economic opportunity in traditional centers; • Premature disinvestments in existing buildings, facilities and services in urban and village centers

15. Planning and Policy Factors • It is very difficult to integrate the activities of these separate jurisdiction (authority and law) in order to achieve coordinated city planning. • Local zoning ordinances have often fostered sprawl by prohibiting the mixing of different kinds of land use. • Many government policies actually subsidize the development of decentralized cities. • Relocation of jobs to peripheral areas at some distance from population centers; • Decline in the number of jobs in some sectors such as retail; • Isolation of employees from activity centers, homes, daycare facilities and schools; • Reduced ability to finance public services in urban centers;

16. Sprawls Impact the Environment: • Fragmentation of open space and wildlife habitat; • Loss of productive farmland and forestland; • Decline in water quality from increased urban runoff, shoreline development and loss of wetlands; • Inability to capitalize on unique cultural, historic and public space resources in urban and village centers; Problems Associated with Unplanned Growth • Transportation Problems • Air Pollution • Low Energy Efficiency • Loss of Sense of Community • Death of Central City • Higher Infrastructure Costs • Loss of Open Space • Loss of Farmland • Water Pollution Problems • Floodplain Problems • Wetland Misuse

20. Land-Use Planning Principles • Land Use Planning – a process of evaluating the needs and wants of the population, the characteristics and values of land, and various alternative solutions to the use of a particular land surface before changes are made. • A basic rule should be to make as few changes as possible but when changes are suggested or required, several things should be considered.

21. Evaluate and record any unique geologic, geographic or biologic features of the land; • Preserve unique cultural and historical features; • Conserve open space and environmental features; • Recognize and calculate the cost of additional changes that will be required to accommodate altered land use; • Plan for mixed housing and commercial uses of land in proximity to one another; • Plan for a variety of transportation options; • Set limits and require managed growth with compact development patterns. • Encourage development within areas that already have supportive infrastructure so that duplication of resources is not needed.

23. Mechanisms for Implementing Land Use • Establishing State or Regional Planning Agencies • Purchasing Land or Use Rights – simplest way to protect desirable land. • Regulating Use – zoning is the most common type of land-use regulation that restricts the kinds of uses to which land in a specific region can be put. Special Urban Planning Issues • Urban Transportation Planning– usually involves four goals: • Conserve energy and land resources; • Provide efficient and inexpensive transportation within the city with special attention to people who are unable to drive; • Provide suburban people opportunities to commute efficiently; • Reduce urban pollution;

24. Urban Recreation Planning – urban dwellers value open space because it breaks up the sights and sounds of the city and provides a place for recreation. • Redevelopment of Inner-City Areas – special efforts must be made to revitalize the city. • Brownfields – sites or buildings that have remained vacant because the cost of cleanup and renovation is expensive. • Brownfields Development – new approach to utilizing these sites. • Smart Growth– an approach that argues that problems are two sides of the same coin and that the neglect of our central cities is fueling growth and related problems of suburbs.

25. Smart Growth Principles: • Mix land uses; • Take advantage of compact building design; • Create a range of housing opportunities and choices; • Create walkable neighborhoods; • Foster distinctive, attractive communities with a strong sense of place; • Preserve open space, farmland, natural beauty and critical environmental areas. • Strengthen and direct development toward existing communities; • Provide a variety of transportation choices; • Make development decisions predictable, fair and cost-effective; • Encourage community and stakeholder collaboration in development decisions.