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community planning
second edition
Community Planning
An Introduction to the Comprehensive Plan
Second Edition
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. No part
of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means without permission in writing
from the publisher: Island Press, Suite 300, 1718 Connecticut Ave., NW, Washington, DC
20009.
Kelly, Eric D.
Community planning: an introduction to the comprehensive plan / Eric Damian Kelly. —
2nd ed.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN-13: 978-1-59726-552-2 (cloth: alk. paper)
ISBN-10: 1-59726-552-7 (cloth: alk. paper)
ISBN-13: 978-1-59726-553-9 (pbk.: alk. paper)
ISBN-10: 1-59726-553-5 (pbk.: alk. paper)
1. City planning—United States. 2. Regional planning—United States. 3. Land use—
United States—Planning. 4. City planners—United States. I. Title.
HT167.K38 2009
307.1′2160973—dc22
2009010638
Keywords: Urban planning, zoning, site planning, public transport, transit-oriented develop-
ment, land use policy, municipal regulations, smart growth, regional planning, open space,
sustainable design, planning, processes, city planners, sprawl, public health, parks planning,
community security
To my mother, Pat Kelly, and to the memories of my late father and
grandparents, Bret Kelly, Ruth and Damian Ducy, and Florence and
Bill Kelly, who by example and by exposition taught my sister, Kate,
and me the responsibilities of citizenship: to make a difference in the
communities of which we are a part.
contents
Introduction 1
Updates to the Second Edition 1
Substance and Structure of the Book 1
Focus on Comprehensive Planning 1
Legal and Historical Significance 2
Relationship to Other Kinds of Planning 3
A Pragmatic Note 6
The Role of Planners 7
The Role of Individual Citizens 7
Users’ Guide 8
Glossary of Key Terms 9
ix
x Contents
acknowledgments 363
notes 365
bibliography 383
index 391
Introduction
1
2 c o m m u ni ty planning
predominant form of local government planning local government about regulating activities on
in the United States. private land.
Although many government agencies make These practical considerations are reinforced
plans for their own programs or facilities, for most by state laws that encourage or require local gov-
places in the United States the comprehensive ernments to develop comprehensive plans or
plan is the only planning document that considers something similar. Although some of those laws al-
multiple programs and accounts for activities on low local governments a choice of whether to plan
all land located within the planning area, whether or not, laws in an increasing number of states re-
that land is public or private. quire the adoption of some form of plan; laws in
One reason that comprehensive planning is so other states require a comprehensive plan only if
important is that it is carried out by local govern- the local government wants to exercise specific
ments, the level of government that most directly powers, such as regulating activity on private land,
interacts with most citizens most frequently. It is charging fees to developers, or even qualifying for
the local government—city, town, village, county, specific state grant funds. Even states that do not
borough, or parish—that builds and maintains require planning typically have laws describing the
roads and sidewalks, that regulates zoning and land kinds of planning that local governments ought to
use, that typically provides park and recreation ser- do if they plan, and those laws also describe a kind
vices, that provides a police force and fire protec- of planning that is like the comprehensive plan-
tion, and that delivers fresh water and takes care ning described in this book.
of sewage. Although there are special forms of lo- Three important factors make a plan com-
cal governments and even some private utility prehensive:
companies that provide these services in some
areas, the primary responsibility for the services • Inclusion of all of the land area subject to the
and control over the providers still resides with the planning or regulatory jurisdiction of the lo-
city, county, or other local government of general cal government preparing the plan
jurisdiction. Thus, local government planning is • Inclusion of all subject matter related to the
essential to provide a context in which local offi- physical development of the community
cials can make important decisions about these ser- • A long time horizon
vices and facilities.
Most land in this country, and in developing These factors are discussed in Chapter 3.
areas in particular, is privately owned. Although we
have a strong tradition of private property rights in
this country, we also have long recognized that Legal and Historical Significance
there must be limits to the use of individual pieces
of property; for example, locating a foundry, a race The comprehensive plan has its roots in the plan-
track, or a slaughterhouse in a residential area ning and government reform efforts of the 1910s
would damage the quality of life of those living and 1920s, although much contemporary practice
there. Since the 1920s, the policy of most states for has evolved since the mid-twentieth century. It is
most land in this country has been to delegate to the tool that well-managed communities use to de-
individual local governments decisions about the termine their needs and set the goals and objec-
regulation of activities on private land, largely tives that direct their future development.
through techniques called zoning and subdivision The Advisory Committee on Planning and
regulation (topics that are discussed in Chapters 11 Zoning of the U.S. Department of Commerce in-
and 12, respectively). Thus, local planning is also stitutionalized that type of comprehensive plan-
important to provide a context for decisions of the ning in the Standard Zoning Enabling Act (1926)
Introduction 3
Some planning professors view comprehensive Environmental planning takes place at many lev-
planning as simply one of a number of theories els. Since an activist Congress began to address
of planning.1 This book presents comprehensive such issues seriously in 1970, most of the planning
planning as a framework rather than as a theory, for air and water quality in this country has been
however. That framework provides a structure for driven by federal laws and regulations imple-
many related types of planning, and the resulting mented under those laws by the Environmental
plans provide a context for making well-considered Protection Agency. Although extremely important,
public decisions. At its best, comprehensive plan- those laws are beyond the scope of this book and
ning incorporates many other types of planning, are well addressed in other sources.2 Planning for
several of which are described here. environmental issues related to private land, how-
ever, remains a matter of primary local concern.
Some approach this as largely an environmental is-
Land Use Planning sue; this book presents it as an integral part of land
use planning. The type of comprehensive plan-
ning described in this text starts with careful analy-
Planning for future land uses is one of the most vis-
sis of both natural and built environments and de-
ible forms of community planning. Chapter 7 pres-
velops plans in that context.
ents this activity as an essential and integral part of
comprehensive planning but not as a separate ac-
tivity. Future land use plans make sense only in the Planning for Open Space
broad context provided by a comprehensive plan,
which addresses related topics of roads, infrastruc- Parks and open spaces are important land uses
ture, and urban boundaries. to be included in any good comprehensive plan.
4 c o m m u ni ty planning
Although traditional work in this field has focused construction, opening, and closing of school facili-
on planning for formal parks and recreation areas, ties. Thus, the planning for school facilities that
modern approaches also recognize the importance changes the future in most communities is that
of planning for a green infrastructure network, a conducted by the school board. Some school
topic discussed in Chapter 16. The need for parks boards work closely with the local planning com-
and open spaces is in significant part a function of mission and planning staff, resulting in coordi-
population and land use patterns, which are core nated planning processes. Others function quite
issues in comprehensive planning. The logical lo- independently, however, with the result that plans
cations for parks and open space evolve easily from for schools may differ from or even conflict with
the kinds of analysis included in thorough compre- what the comprehensive plan suggests.
hensive planning. Like transportation plans, de-
tailed park and open space plans may be contained
in a specific element of the comprehensive plan, Neighborhood Planning
but there is little justification for planning for parks
and recreation outside the context of the compre- Neighborhood planning resembles comprehen-
hensive plan. sive planning in some ways, but it provides greater
detail for a smaller area. Like other types of plan-
ning, neighborhood planning works best in the
Planning for Utilities and Infrastructure context of a comprehensive plan. If the plan for a
city or county is simply a compilation of neighbor-
Providers of electricity, telephone service, cable hood plans, it is likely that all of the neighborhoods
television, and natural gas typically follow growth will plan for single-family housing and upscale
patterns. The combination of a future land use shopping facilities, and none will plan for waste
map and data about actual construction activity disposal sites, heavy industry, lumberyards, broad-
governs the decisions of these utility operators casting towers, and other items essential to modern
about their own future plans. In contrast, sewer, community life. An important priority in most
water, and drainage services are often provided by comprehensive planning efforts is the protection of
local governments. For reasons described in Chap- established neighborhoods like the one shown in
ter 8, decisions about extensions of sewer and water Figure I.1. A comprehensive plan provides a con-
service in particular may actually guide future land text in which good neighborhood planning can
use patterns. Effective planning for the efficient occur.
delivery of those services must be closely coordi-
nated with future land use planning and with the
related subject of transportation planning; for ex- Historic Preservation
actly these reasons, those are logical elements of a
good comprehensive planning process. Where preservation planning focuses on an indi-
vidual building, it is far more narrow in scope than
the topics discussed in this book. Where it focuses
Planning for School Facilities on preservation of a downtown, a neighborhood, or
a context in which one or more historic buildings
Many local comprehensive plans address the need exist, it is much like comprehensive planning but
for future school facilities. The history of schools in with a more narrow focus. Most effective preserva-
this country is that most have their own governing tion plans exist in the context of a comprehensive
boards, separate from other bodies in local govern- plan, with the comprehensive plan providing the
ment, however. Those boards typically have great land use and other context for the preservation
autonomy on all matters, including the location, plan.
Introduction 5
Figure I.1. The preservation of established neighborhoods, such as this one in Missoula, Montana, is typi-
cally a very high planning priority. Photo: Richard Grice.
Many communities today plan for housing to help Social planning is a broad term that can apply to
ensure that there will be housing opportunities for such topics as state planning to help people move
people of many different socioeconomic condi- from welfare to work, local efforts to deliver specific
tions. Housing must have a context, however. It social services, and social equity planning, which is
must fit into some sort of a larger plan. Those living discussed in the next section. This book focuses
in housing depend on a transportation system to largely on physical planning and thus does not ad-
provide access to work and to shopping and ser- dress social planning in depth. Nevertheless, it is
vices. Although a good housing plan includes op- important to understand that many of the issues of
tions for financing and other details that may go concern to social planners have physical roots: qual-
beyond a classic comprehensive plan, it is the com- ity of neighborhood services; land use patterns in
prehensive plan that provides the context for the neighborhoods, particularly declining neighbor-
provision of housing. Thus, housing is an element hoods; access of disadvantaged people to grocery
addressed in many comprehensive plans; detailed stores, libraries, and other essential services; and
housing plans can then be based on the compre- transportation accessibility for poorer neighbor-
hensive plan. hoods. Furthermore, although the subject matter
6 c o m m u ni ty planning
of comprehensive planning focuses heavily on the provides an important (although not exclusive)
physical environment, social goals often control the context for the activities of the advocate planner.
plan—goals such as improving the quality of life for The work of the social equity planners and radi-
inner-city residents, providing safe neighborhoods, cal planners relates closely to and is often based on
encouraging development of new industry to em- John Rawls’s A Theory of Justice, in which he urged
ploy local residents, and offering a range of recre- that government ought to provide the greatest ser-
ational opportunities to all citizens. Although such vices and benefits to those with the greatest need
social programs as welfare and health care programs and the fewest choices.8
will have operating elements that go beyond the
scope of the typical comprehensive plan, good com-
prehensive plans address social issues and their Regional Planning
physical ramifications.
A major limitation on the effectiveness of local
comprehensive planning efforts is the fact that
Social Equity Planning, Advocacy Planning, many communities are simply smaller parts of
and Radical Planning larger metropolitan areas or other regions. Eco-
nomic, social, geographic, and other forces affect-
Students who pursue planning studies beyond an ing such communities are often regional. For rea-
introductory course are likely to learn about plan- sons explained in Chapter 15, regional planning is
ning for social equity,3 advocacy planning,4 and weak in the United States, with some notable ex-
radical planning.5 Those phrases refer to political ceptions in Oregon, Hawaii, and a few other
philosophies intended to change the plans and, of- places. A series of individual local comprehensive
ten, many other aspects of a local community. A plans is not a good substitute for a good regional
good comprehensive planning process is a partici- plan, but that is what governs most regions.
patory one that allows advocates and those with Changes in the approach to regional planning will
“radical” or other views to present them as part of come from changes to state laws and state and fed-
the process; to the extent that the community ac- eral funding policies, not from simple changes in
cepts those views, they will ultimately guide the local planning practice. Chapter 15 discusses some
plan itself. Thus, comprehensive planning is differ- possible and desirable policy changes to encourage
ent in its focus from advocacy planning or radical more regional planning. In the meantime, most
planning, but it certainly does not preclude adher- planning in the United States remains local; be-
ents of those views from pursuing them in the con- cause this book focuses on planning as it is cur-
text of local planning. rently practiced in the United States, most of it ad-
A good example relates to the work of Paul dresses such local planning.
Davidoff,6 whose professional career focused heav-
ily on advocacy for increased suburban housing op-
portunities for people of lower income and limited A Pragmatic Note
choices. His primary battle was against the use of
zoning to keep apartments and small homes out of One purpose of this book is to introduce the field
the suburbs. Those are land use issues regularly ad- of community planning to people who may want to
dressed in the comprehensive planning process. To- become planners. Most people who undertake that
day, in part because of Davidoff’s work, the state of career path will spend a significant part of their re-
New Jersey specifically requires that local plans in- spective careers helping to prepare, analyze, up-
clude “fair share” housing elements.7 Clearly, an ef- date, and implement comprehensive plans. There
fective advocate planner must influence the com- are far more jobs working with these different
prehensive planning process, and the process thus stages of the comprehensive planning process than
Introduction 7
there are developing radical plans, housing plans, then provides a blueprint for making decisions that
or park plans. This book focuses on what typical affect the future of the community.
planners working for local governments really do, Chapter 23 provides an introduction to plan-
and it emphasizes doing that well. Radical plan- ning as a career. Who planners are, where they
ners and others may argue that planners really work, and how they get their jobs are subjects
ought to spend their time doing something else, treated in more depth in Chapter 24, available on
but that is not the focus of this book. the Web site only (www.communityplanning-
book.org). For more detail on that subject, read
that chapter now. Also, boxes at the end of most
The Role of Planners chapters in the first four parts of this book describe
how planners relate to each stage of the planning
Professional planners make planning work. Most and implementation process.
professional planners in the United States work for
local governments because that is where most of
the planning (at least the type of planning that is The Role of Individual Citizens
the subject of this book) takes place. What makes
planning so interesting and challenging is that the A comprehensive plan represents the future for a
role of planners is to help communities make their community. A community consists of a group of
own plans. As many planners discover, and as you people who live together as part of an organized
will learn as you work through this book, getting a system. Most community plans are created and
whole community to agree on a plan for its future adopted by agencies of local government, but ulti-
is not as simple as sitting in a quiet office and mak- mately that government, and the plans it creates,
ing a plan, but the excitement and satisfaction of represent and serve individual citizens.
professional planning come from helping people Anyone who has ever served on a committee
collectively to define their future together. understands that it is sometimes difficult to get a
Some planners specialize, focusing their work group of people to agree even on simple matters.
on transportation systems, parks, downtowns, or When the issues at stake are as complicated as the
economic development. Many deal with all those future of a community, and when the affected peo-
issues and more over the course of a year, and most ple number in the thousands, achieving agreement
will deal with a variety of planning subjects over or even consensus may seem like an overwhelming
the course of their careers. Downtown revitaliza- challenge. Achieving community consensus may
tion, neighborhood protection, low-income hous- be difficult, but it is also essential. Laws in every
ing development, historic preservation, park build- state provide for public hearings at which citizens
ing, suburban growth, highway construction, and have the opportunity to address planning issues;
industrial development are some of the topics that however, because a public hearing is a formal pro-
planners address in their work. This illustrates an- ceeding that usually occurs late in the planning
other characteristic of planning that makes the process, most communities offer other opportuni-
field attractive to many people: It involves a variety ties for citizens to become involved in making
of work and an opportunity to learn about many plans. Those opportunities may include informal
different parts of a community. community meetings, open-ended questionnaires
Will a community have a future without plan- to help identify issues, narrowly focused surveys to
ning? Of course. The future will come regardless determine community preferences on particular is-
of whether the community has a plan. Planning sues, workshops, charrettes, and the circulation of
provides a community with the opportunity to draft plans for comment.
make conscious, considered choices about what Chapter 6 of this book focuses on methods of
kind of future it wants to have. The resulting plan involving the larger community in the planning
8 c o m m u ni ty planning
process, and boxes at the end of most chapters de- report in writing, the effective instructor can turn
scribe the opportunities for individual citizens to many of these exercises into discussion opportuni-
become involved in each stage of the planning and ties for the entire class. An individual reading this
implementation process. book on her or his own will also find it useful to en-
gage in at least some of these exercises. They pro-
vide a means of applying the learning of the chap-
Users’ Guide ter to a familiar context—often a far more effective
Boxes method of reinforcing learning than simply taking
notes or highlighting paragraphs.
At the end of each chapter in the first four parts of There is at least one discussion question at the
the book are boxes labeled “The Role of the Profes- end of each chapter. The text should suggest other
sional Planner” and “The Role of the Individual topics for discussion, and a number of the exercises
Citizen.” The first box summarizes the role of the may be adapted for use as discussion questions
professional planner in the aspect or stage of plan- without the interim step of small group work.
ning discussed in that chapter. The professional
planner has a role to play in every stage of plan-
ning, but that role varies from data collector to in- Further Reading and Technical Resources
formation analyst to process facilitator and imple-
mentation expert, with a variety of related roles in Materials listed in the “Further Reading” section at
between. the end of chapters in the first four parts of the
The second box contains a discussion of how cit- book provide more depth on some or all of the ma-
izens can participate in and influence the planning terial discussed; annotations on each entry indicate
process at that stage. As you will see, some stages of the scope of the material covered there. These ma-
the planning process are built around the participa- terials will provide good background for students
tion of the individual citizen, and others are highly interested in preparing a paper related to that chap-
technical, with limited opportunity for citizen par- ter, for a professor preparing to lead a class in dis-
ticipation. The ultimate role of the body politic, cussing unfamiliar material, or for honors or ad-
which represents individual citizens, is that of plan vanced students who want to explore the subject in
maker. As in all other parts of democracy, the indi- more depth than that presented in this introduc-
vidual citizen can choose how small or how great a tory text.
role to play in that process. In a democracy, we get In contrast, the material listed under “Techni-
the government we deserve; if a community of citi- cal Resources” at chapter ends is generally techni-
zens chooses not to plan, they will probably get— cal material, useful for the practitioner (or group of
and certainly deserve—an unplanned future or a students) trying to apply the technique but not par-
future that is planned for them by others. ticularly desirable as background reading material.
Reference material often includes statistics, formu-
las, and detailed methods that are essential to rigor-
Exercises and Discussion Questions ous application of the techniques but inappropri-
ate for most class discussion in an introductory
The Web site for the book includes exercises and course.
discussion questions for each chapter. They are de-
signed to reinforce the learning in the chapter.
Such exercises are often most effective when as- Online Resources
signed to small groups, creating opportunities for
cooperative learning. By asking the small groups to Because online resources are evolving rapidly and
report to the class as a whole, rather than simply to Web addresses are changing constantly, this book
Introduction 9
provides references to only a few key online re- Governing body: The body that has general legisla-
sources. However, we will maintain a chapter-by- tive authority in the local government—usually
chapter list of useful online resources at the Island a city council or board of county commis-
Press Web site at www.communityplanningbook sioners but, in some places, a township board,
.org. That annotated listing will provide links to board of selectmen, board of aldermen, or
reference sites, to sites providing multiple links to board of trustees. This is the body that has the
related sites, and to sites that provide good exam- power to make and change the laws of the local
ples of material discussed in the chapter. government.
Local government: The formal, legally structured
government of general jurisdiction (the govern-
Glossary of Key Terms ment with zoning and other police power au-
thority) over the planning area. As used in this
The following terms are used in very particular but book, the term refers to the entire local govern-
consistent ways throughout the text. ment structure, including the mayor or other
chief executive, the council or other legislative
Charrette: Architects use this French term to refer body, and all of the commissions and adminis-
to a short, intensive design exercise; the word trative offices that are part of it.
apparently evolved from work that French ar- Planning agency: The person or office assigned the
chitects did on the tailgates of small carts on the primary responsibility for administering or facil-
way to present their proposed plans. Planners itating a planning process for a community. In
sometimes use similar short, intensive exercises larger communities that is typically a planning
to address focused issues or small areas, and this department; in other situations, it may be a con-
book uses the term in that way. sultant, a planning agency with another local
Citizens: Used broadly to refer to people who live government, or some other local official.
or work in a community. Planning body: For reasons explained in Chapters
Community: The geographic planning jurisdic- 2 and 3, communities sometimes use a special
tion, whether it is a city, county, township, or task force or steering committee to lead a com-
town, and the people, businesses, and institu- prehensive planning effort; we use this term to
tions that are a part of it and make it a center of refer to the entity actually preparing the plan,
human activity. The typical planning jurisdic- whether it is the official planning commission
tion is a city or town, but the principles and or some other ad hoc or standing committee.
practices included in this book apply equally to Planning commission: The official body within a
counties and other local jurisdictions. local government identified in state law as the
Comprehensive plan: This book uses this term only body with the duty and the power to prepare
for the kind of plan described in Chapter 3. To plans for the community and its local govern-
be comprehensive, a community plan must ment. In many places, this body is called the
have at least three basic characteristics: It must planning and zoning commission, but it is often
be geographically comprehensive, including called simply the planning commission or plan-
the entire jurisdiction of the local government; ning board.
it must be comprehensive as to subject matter, Stakeholders: Individuals and (usually) groups that
addressing all issues affecting the physical fu- have some real stake (economic, social, physi-
ture of the community; and it must be long cal, or political) in the outcome of a planning
range, typically using a planning horizon of process. Although all citizens of a community
about 20 years. Other types of plans are identi- are stakeholders, some stakeholders may not be
fied simply as plans or by the use of some other citizens, such as people who work there or who
descriptive word. live in a nearby community and are affected by
10 c o m m u nity planning
the air quality, traffic, and other impacts of that includes some of the classic theory articles cited
planning decisions in the community. here and a discussion of their relationship to the com-
prehensive plan.
Friedmann, John. 1987. Planning in the Public Domain:
From Knowledge to Action. Princeton University Press,
Further Reading Princeton, NJ. An excellent history of planning and its
theoretical foundations in the United States, followed
Alexander, Ernest R. 1992. Approaches to Planning: Intro- by the author’s argument for radical planning.
ducing Current Planning Theories, Concepts, and Is- Krumholz, Norman, and John Forester. 1990. Making Eq-
sues, 2nd ed. Gordon and Breach Science Publishers, uity Planning Work: Leadership in the Public Sector,
Philadelphia. An excellent, coherent treatment of plan- Conflicts in Urban and Regional Development. Temple
ning theory. University Press, Philadelphia. A case study of the ap-
Davidoff, Paul. 1965. Advocacy and Pluralism in Planning. plication of this alternative approach to planning, with
Journal of the American Institute of Planners 31:331– discussion of the reasons for it in the context of Cleve-
337 (included in Stein 2004). An extremely influential land in the 1970s.
article on the role of planners as agents of change. Stein, Jay M. 2004. Classic Readings in Urban Planning:
Faludi, Andreas. 1973. A Reader in Planning Theory, Urban An Introduction, 2nd ed. American Planning Associa-
and Regional Planning Series, Vol. 5. Pergamon , New tion Planners Press, Chicago. A good collection of read-
York. An excellent early collection on planning theory ings, including some classic works in planning theory.
part i
The Comprehensive Planning Process
The first part of the book introduces the concept of Chapter 4 describes techniques of existing condi-
planning and then presents the process of creating tion analysis, which provides the starting point for
a comprehensive plan in the sequence most com- a community planning process.
monly followed by communities. Chapter 5 explains how planners bring a sense
Chapter 1 describes some overarching issues of reality to planning, by answering the question
that will be part of most contemporary discussions “Where can we go?” This chapter examines alter-
of planning and that are likely to be central sub- native approaches to determining what realistic
jects in a new plan: sprawl, sustainability, and the choices are available to a community.
relationship of public health to planning. The most important question in any plan is
Chapter 2 introduces the concept of planning, “Where do we want to go?,” which is the subject of
as applied in many different contexts. Comprehen- Chapter 6. It describes goal setting and other meth-
sive planning for a community is easiest to under- ods of determining what results the community
stand in the larger context of planning for human would like to see from the successful implementa-
activity in general. tion of the plan. Much of the chapter is devoted to
Chapter 3 describes the comprehensive plan the topic of citizen participation in the planning
and places it in the context of the planning con- process because it is through such participation
cepts explained in Chapter 2 and in the context of that the plan becomes a plan of and for the com-
a community and the local government that is re- munity as a whole.
sponsible for planning for that community.
The first thing anyone needs to know when us-
ing a map to find directions is the starting point.
11
Chapter 1
This chapter introduces some overarching issues— Sprawling development patterns may compro-
issues that affect many aspects of local planning. mise our ability to live sustainably when consid-
Some specific issues, such as transportation and ered from the perspectives of energy, the environ-
land use, are typically the subjects of specific ele- ment, or, for most communities, even local fiscal
ments or sections of a local comprehensive plan. policies. The most sprawling suburbs are the ones
The issues discussed in this chapter are rarely where people walk the least, a fact that leads to ma-
treated as separate elements, but they often affect jor health problems. One of the secondary effects
most or all elements of a good local plan and are of the excess energy consumption and environ-
very important issues with which it is important for mental impact of sprawl is that it increases the
planners to become familiar. amount of air pollution generated by automobiles,
The three issues—sustainability, sprawl, and thus adding to human health risks.
human health—are closely related. The sprawling
patterns of development that emerged as conse-
quences of road building, home financing, and Relationship to Climate Change
other post–World War II policies are fundamen-
tally not sustainable; many of the sprawling sub- An emerging issue of note, which is not addressed
urbs have physical designs that discourage active, in this chapter in detail but is directly related to
healthy lifestyles. Any effective effort to create sustainability and health, is climate change. Cli-
more sustainable, healthier communities entails mate change is a major international public policy
an understanding of the government programs and issue in the early twenty-first century. In a 2007 re-
socioeconomic forces that have led to the move- port, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate
ment of people from walkable cities to isolating Change concluded that global warming is real and
suburbs. that human activity creating greenhouse gases is a
Sustainability is the extent to which develop- major contributor to the warming trend. According
ment and the resulting lifestyles can be sustained to the report, “There is very high confidence that
over a long period of time without depleting natu- the global average net effect of human activities
ral resources. If one (or two or three) generations since 1750 has been one of warming.”1 In a new
exhaust scarce resources (e.g., petroleum reserves), book, Reid Ewing and others recommend reduc-
those are not available to future generations, and ing the miles traveled by automobile as one of the
therefore a lifestyle dependent on them is also not legs of a “three-legged stool” needed to address
sustainable. the contribution of transportation to the carbon
13
14 c o m m u nity planning
dioxide emissions that damage the ozone layer; the out. Although most people would agree that sus-
other two are improvements in automobile tech- tainability is a good goal for an individual lifestyle
nology and changes in the types of fuel.2 Although and for a community plan, few are willing to give
automobiles are not the only source of green- up their automobiles to make their lives—and
house gases, one third of carbon dioxide emis- communities—more sustainable.
sions come from transportation uses.3 Thus, reduc- There appears to be increasing public aware-
ing sprawl—low-density, auto-dependent develop- ness of sustainability issues, but there is seldom a
ment resulting in overconsumption of land—and connection made to what sustainability means for
creating more walkable communities to reduce individual communities and lifestyles. To the ex-
driving are positive local contributions to reducing tent that it means tax credits for solar collectors,
damage to the ozone layer. The initial focus of green roofs on buildings, and other measures with
most state and local governments in the United lots of glitz and little apparent cost in lifestyle,
States that have adopted climate change plans, many people are supportive. To the extent that it
however, has been on making government build- means smaller cars, more walking and less driving,
ings more energy efficient and, at the state level, more dollars spent on transit, a smaller selection of
taking steps to change the mix of automobile fuels mostly local groceries to reduce shipping costs and
or adopt tougher emission standards for vehicles.4 energy, and a reduction in the use of products
As discussed in Chapter 13 and other parts of this shipped from halfway around the world, there ap-
book, a number of state and local governments pears to be far less public support. That lack of sup-
have implemented programs to reduce sprawl; al- port often leads people to decide that maybe it is
though not identified specifically as plans to ad- not an issue after all. Nevertheless, it is a real issue
dress climate change, those and other efforts rec- and one that ought to be addressed.
ommended in this chapter to address sprawl and In short, these are not easy questions. With lim-
human health will also contribute to the effort to ited public awareness, lack of agreement on defini-
mitigate climate change. tions, and lack of agreement on priorities, it is diffi-
cult to build a consensus around a definition of
each of these issues, making it very difficult indeed
Complexity of the Issues to build a consensus around solutions. On the
other hand, simple things such as including side-
Sprawl is an issue high in the public consciousness walks in all new developments and allowing de-
and is often the topic of discussion at planning velopers to build at the higher densities that they
meetings. The fact that people are aware of the is- request can help improve a community’s perfor-
sue does not mean that they all agree on it, how- mance in dealing with these issues. Because they
ever. Although researchers have offered plausible are overarching, or cross-cutting, issues, planners
working definitions, there is no general agreement and public officials should be conscious of them
among citizens and public officials about what when creating plans. A plan can help to reduce
sprawl is. To some public officials, new develop- sprawl, reduce automobile dependence, and en-
ment represents growth, and growth is good, even courage more walking, thus helping to improve
if it consumes additional land and expands the ur- human health, without ever using the terms
ban area. To individuals and families seeking an sprawl, sustainability, or human health.
idealized lifestyle, the most distant, least dense
suburbs (often the very definition of sprawl) may
seem like utopia. And residents of growing areas Sprawl
who purport to hate sprawl may oppose new devel-
opment in their communities, thus pushing addi- After World War II, suburban communities grew
tional housing development farther and farther significantly while the population density of cities
Chapter 1: Some Overarching Issues: Sustainability, Sprawl, and Human Health 15
declined. Two sets of federal programs and policies direct result of such policies. The VA typically
contributed to suburban growth: federal guaran- adopted the FHA standards.
tees of home mortgages and the construction of the Although neither the FHA nor the VA is a big
interstate highway system. factor in the housing market today, some of the
Through a series of laws, the U.S. government standards that they once imposed have been
created the Federal Housing Administration adopted by the Federal National Mortgage Associa-
(FHA), which provided mortgage insurance. After tion (FNMA, commonly called Fannie Mae).
World War II, Congress created the Veterans Ad- FNMA is a large mortgage pool (obtaining its
ministration (VA) home loan program, which guar- money by selling bonds to investors) that, through
anteed low-interest, long-term mortgages with low 2008, was the largest buyer of home mortgages in
down payments. the United States. Many local mortgage “lenders”
Through these programs, the federal govern- are actually “loan originators” that sell most of
ment began to redefine housing. During the years those loans to FNMA. Even banks that own some
after World War II, the FHA published an increas- mortgages want to make loans that can be sold to
ing number of guidelines and regulations for FNMA in case the bank suddenly needs cash (e.g.,
homes that would receive insurance through the if many depositors suddenly want to withdraw their
program. These guidelines showed a strong bias to- money). Therefore, most mortgage loans in the
ward suburban, single-family developments. De- United States today meet FNMA standards, which
velopments like the one show in Figure 1.1 are a are, in part, carryovers from the FHA standards. As
Figure 1.1. This photo shows a sprawling, low-density development on farmland, with no indication that it is
near an existing community or services. Homes in such developments typically follow federal financing guide-
lines for construction quality and neighborhood improvements but contribute to the problems of sprawl.
Photo: iStock.
16 c o m m u nity planning
a result, the FHA standards that favored new ties. One solution to sprawl has been to make infill
homes in new, residential-only suburbs continue a more attractive option.
to influence lending practices today. Researchers at the University of Wisconsin ex-
When Dwight Eisenhower became president amining the relationship between human health
of the United States in 1953, he led the federal gov- and sprawl provide this succinct definition:
ernment in creating what has become today’s in-
terstate highway system. Its original purpose was We consider sprawl to be any environment
defense oriented, to provide high-speed transporta- characterized by (1) a population widely dis-
tion for soldiers and equipment between all U.S. persed in low-density residential development;
(2) rigid separation of homes, shops and work-
metropolitan areas, but it was that system more
places; (3) a lack of distinct, thriving activity
than anything else that opened up the suburban centers, such as strong downtowns or subur-
development of the 1950s and created the sprawl ban town centers; and (4) a network of roads
of the 1970s and beyond. Today, most of the spend- marked by large block size and poor access
ing on the system involves system improvements from one place to another.6
within—not between—metropolitan areas. The
Surface Transportation Policy Project calculated Not all growth is sprawl, and not all of the in-
that the increase in roadways in urban areas in the creased consumption of land is necessarily irra-
1990s amounted to more than 22,000 lane miles tional. Changes in society have led most commu-
per year (the equivalent of 5,500 miles of new four- nities to expand outward, even if they are not
lane road).5 Although the stated purpose of much growing very much in population. Average house-
of that road expansion is to address current conges- hold size in the United States in 1970 was 3.14
tion, it has the indirect but entirely predictable ef- people; by 2007, that figure had dropped to 2.57.7
fect of facilitating future commuting and sprawl. If a community anticipated growth of 10,000 peo-
Most people think of their commuting burden ple when it adopted a plan in 1971, it would have
in time, not miles. Therefore, widening a road or needed to plan for about 3,200 additional dwelling
adding a road to a particular area makes that area units to house those people. A community antici-
more attractive to residential users because it pating growth of 10,000 people and adopting a
“moves” it closer to town by reducing the commut- plan in 2008 would have to plan for about 3,900
ing time to it. additional dwelling units. That increase need not
Easy access from the interstate highways made result in a significant increase in the land needed
large tracts of suburban land attractive to develop- for housing. The decrease in average household
ers, often leaving developable land in the city size includes an increase in households of senior
vacant or underused. Into the 1970s, local govern- citizens and other family units that are likely to be
ments contributed to sprawl by providing the nec- more interested in townhomes and multifamily
essary infrastructure of roads, schools, water and units than in sprawling homes on large suburban
sewer systems, electric and gas lines, and neighbor- lots.
hood parks. However, by the mid-1970s, as federal Consider land consumption from a different
funding decreased, communities found it more perspective. A typical block in a city built in the
and more difficult to finance sprawl, particularly nineteenth or early twentieth century was 600 feet
when existing infrastructure needed more funding by 300 feet, or about 180,000 square feet, or 4
for maintenance and upgrading. As older schools acres, in size. Downtown areas, where most people
became vacant, inner-city parks too dangerous to shopped, consisted of many blocks like that with
use, roads more congested, and tax rates high, lots of retail shops on the first floor and some mul-
communities began looking for alternatives to tistory department stores that each occupied a
sprawl. This became particularly critical in older quarter block or a half block. People often walked
cities totally enclosed by incorporated communi- or rode the bus to these stores. If they drove, they
Chapter 1: Some Overarching Issues: Sustainability, Sprawl, and Human Health 17
parked on the street or in public parking lots. To- areas. Figure 1.2 shows one section of the four-
day, many people like shopping at Target, Wal- story Stutz building, which was an automobile fac-
Mart, or Kmart. The “super” versions of these tory in Indianapolis in the 1920s. Many factories
stores typically occupy more than 200,000 square built in the nineteenth and early twentieth century
feet, or more than a whole city block. Although the were multistory structures. Such structures were
major chains have developed multistory formats often located on single urban blocks or small
for stores in large cities such as New York, Chicago, groups of such blocks, with minor interruptions to
and Seattle, in smaller cities they still offer only the the street system.
standard sprawling format; those smaller cities are In contrast, a modern automobile factory is a
often auto dependent, meaning that such a store sprawling, one-story building designed around the
will need a parking lot as large as the store. Such assembly line that Henry Ford helped to perfect
stores simply will not fit easily into traditional (Figure 1.3).
downtown areas. It is possible that retail patterns Communities that want large facilities such as
may shift from these stores, but as long as people modern automobile plants typically have to find
vote with their feet by shopping at such stores, they large sites, outside the developed area.
will be a fact of life for planners. In short, changes in family size, shopping pat-
Industry has also changed and contributed to terns, and manufacturing technology have led to
the changes in urban form, in part due to early some of the increased land consumption. Such
zoning that separated industry from residential sprawl seems difficult to avoid in a healthy, growing
Figure 1.2. The Stutz Building in Indianapolis is now an office complex, but the Stutz company once made
automobiles such as the famous Stutz Bearcat in this building. Photo: Eric Damian Kelly.
18 c o m m u nity planning
Figure 1.3. The Honda plant in Lincoln, Alabama covers dozens of acres and sits on a site of hundreds of
acres. Photo: iStock.
city, as some will always want a suburban lifestyle stopped. With an aging population and smaller av-
and some who would prefer to live in a walkable, erage household sizes, housing demand is shifting.
transit-oriented community are unable to find af- One study shows that in 2007 the United States
fordably priced housing there. had enough large single-family homes on lots
Sprawl is reflected in recent land consumption greater than 7,000 square feet to satisfy demand
trends. Table 1.1 lists sprawl figures for ten major for a decade or more. The growth areas in housing
metropolitan areas. In most of those, the per capita will be in townhouses, condominiums, and other
land consumption increased over the study period; multifamily units, and small single-family units on
in three of those metropolitan areas, the per capita small lots.8 Such units fit easily into infill develop-
land consumption increased by more than 40 per- ment projects and work best when they are near
cent. If the population density at the beginning of mass transit or walkable neighborhoods—all good
the study period was 3,000 people per square mile, reasons for planning for such development primar-
a 40 percent increase in land use per capita would ily in already developed areas and not in new
result in a density of 1,800 people per square mile suburbs.
at the end of the period. Some of that change in- One kind of sprawl that can be stopped without
volved movement out from densely populated much effect on the way people seem to want to
parts of the city, but a lot of it involved urbanization live, work, and shop is leapfrog sprawl: new devel-
of large additional land areas at low densities. If opment that appears to leap out from the existing
new development is built close to or within the ex- community, leaving a gap of undeveloped land.
isting urban area and at densities typical of the ur- Because commuters from the new development
ban area, that kind of sprawl can be reduced or and a variety of public services for the new devel-
Chapter 1: Some Overarching Issues: Sustainability, Sprawl, and Human Health 19
in town, telecommute, or take mass transit, there natural course of which goes nowhere near the
will be multiple benefits for sustainability. city. Similarly, the expansion of Los Angeles re-
In short, the auto-dependent communities that sulted in part from massive investments that
evolved in the 1990s are largely not sustainable be- moved water from fertile, inland agricultural areas
cause we are depleting the fossil fuel resources to the growing metropolitan area on the coast.
needed to move people around them. But trans- Even where water used for urban purposes remains
portation is not the only area in which today’s de- in the same drainage basin, however, urban devel-
velopment practices lack sustainability. Here are opment often disrupts the hydrologic cycle on
other examples. which the water sources depend. Many communi-
Land. Mark Twain recognized more than a ties in the country depend on wells for their wa-
century ago that land is a scarce resource, and it ter supplies. Those wells tap into underground
has become more so. Even those who argue for the aquifers. Those underground aquifers depend on
primacy of humans and a corollary right for hu- rain and melting snow that soaks through the soil
mans to use the resources they need must begin to to recharge their water supplies. As humans pave
recognize that today’s development patterns in- the earth and the water runs off directly to nearby
volve the consumption of land far beyond reason- streams and rivers, many underground aquifers are
able needs. The United States is different from depleted. There are methods of managing runoff
many Western nations in that it does not consider that restore some of that recharge to aquifers, but
the scarcity of land in public policy decisions about many communities have not adopted such meth-
how private land ought to be used. ods. Other concerns in water management include
A complicated environmental land use issue is the quality of runoff. Although wastewater is care-
the increased interest in ethanol, soy diesel, and fully treated and often returned to a river in such a
other biofuels in an effort to limit the United condition that the river is both swimmable and
States’ dependence on foreign oil. To the extent fishable below the discharge, stormwater runoff
that the market for such fuels continues to grow, it contains motor oil and other automobile residues
is likely that some land now in conservation reserve from streets, lawn chemicals, and pet droppings. In
or used for food production will be shifted to grow- some states, this seems not to be a problem be-
ing soybeans and corn to be used for fuel. Such a cause water is usually plentiful; even in those
shift has obvious land use implications. One of states, however, water can become scarce in a par-
the encouraging trends in land use in recent years ticular place at a particular time, as a 2008 drought
has been an increase in wetlands and other areas that affected large areas of the Southeastern United
set aside in conservation reserves, some of which States demonstrated. And in states such as Califor-
may be lost to increased demand for ethanol. In re- nia, Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, Nevada, and
cent years, market demand for ethanol has been Arizona, the water issue is critical.12
stronger than for soy diesel. That has led to a some- Wetlands. Besides providing rich sources of bio-
what unbalanced demand in some areas. As a re- diversity, wetlands are nature’s best flood manage-
sult, some farmers have discontinued their normal ment tools. In wet weather, they act like giant
crop rotation patterns of corn and beans, growing sponges, soaking up large amounts of water. Dur-
more corn. Such a one-crop farming method is ing dry periods, they gradually release that water,
far less sustainable than one in which crops are which then flows downstream. Because flooding is
rotated. almost always a temporary problem resulting from
Water. Rapid urbanization is taxing water re- a major storm, such temporary storage of water is
sources. Although some communities treat and re- all that is necessary to alleviate most or all of the
turn to the source nearly as much water as they potential damage from flooding. With rising sea
take from it, there are many exceptions. For exam- levels due to climate change, flooding is likely to
ple, much of the growth of Phoenix has depended increase, and conserving wetlands will be even
on water transported from the Colorado River, the more critical.
Chapter 1: Some Overarching Issues: Sustainability, Sprawl, and Human Health 21
In 1992 the Midwest suffered from devastating sue and provides additional points toward LEED
floods, which resulted in significant part from de- certification for using recycled materials and for
cades of efforts to drain the wetlands of the up- using new “building materials or products that
per Midwest. Ironically, the federal government, have been extracted, harvested or recovered, as
which ultimately paid much of the bill for the well as manufactured, within 500 miles of the proj-
flood damage, probably exacerbated the effect of ect site.”17
the floods with the approval in the second quarter The ways in which buildings are conditioned
of the nineteenth century of the Swamp Lands and lit are environmental and human health fac-
Act, which provided both policy and fiscal support tors. Today, many public and private buildings
for programs to drain the wetlands. Far from be- have rooms without any natural light and other
ing swamps just waiting to be filled, wetlands are rooms with windows that provide light but do not
valuable economic and ecological resources for a open, so the buildings have only recirculated air.
community.13 Although some of the electricity that provides cool-
Buildings. Buildings are major consumers of ing and lighting (and a limited portion of heating)
energy, water, and materials, and they contribute comes from nondepleting hydroelectric sources,
significantly to greenhouse gas emissions. Com- much of it also depends on dwindling fossil fuels.
mercial and residential buildings account for Studies have shown that workers in office buildings
about 39 percent of energy-related carbon dioxide with natural sunlight are more productive and
(a major greenhouse gas) emissions in the United have fewer absences.18
States.14 Most development projects in the United Industrial inputs and outputs. The location of
States today involve new buildings. In some cases, natural resource inputs into industry has always
the new buildings meet new needs. In others, they influenced the location of industry. In contrast,
replace existing buildings, sometimes physically the source of manufactured inputs into industrial
replacing buildings that are torn down and some- processes is often not a factor in determining in-
times simply leading to the abandonment of build- dustrial locations. Taking advantage of special pro-
ings elsewhere. In other countries, it is common to visions of the North American Free Trade Agree-
add onto and remodel buildings extensively, often ment, many companies moved parts of their
over many generations and several centuries. That production facilities to Mexico in the 1990s, leav-
represents a different set of values. With the help of ing other parts in the United States. Manufactur-
green building incentives, education, and stan- ing processes and product delivery depend on
dards in the United States, more consideration transportation modes that consume large amounts
may be given to reusing existing buildings. In its of fossil fuels such as airplanes, trucks, and cargo
Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design ships. Such systems are not sustainable over the
(LEED) standards for green buildings, the U.S. long run and may break down in the event of a ma-
Green Building Council includes specific stan- jor transportation strike; they may become eco-
dards for existing buildings (LEED EB). They also nomically impracticable as fuel prices inevitably
award extra points toward certification for renova- rise. Chattanooga, Tennessee broke out of this pat-
tion projects that retain 75–95 percent of exterior tern with an economic development strategy fo-
walls or 50 percent or more of interior, nonstruc- cused on seeking industries that would use both
tural elements in their new construction rating cat- products and byproducts of the region in produc-
egory (LEED NC).15 The system also gives credit tion processes. The relationship between the loca-
for diverting 50–75 percent of materials removed tion of manufacturing and the location of all of
in a renovation project from landfills.16 its inputs is an important element in planning for
In typical building design little or no considera- sustainability.19
tion is given to the true cost of obtaining and trans- Wildlife habitat and biodiversity. Planning in
porting the materials used in the building. The the United States is largely human centered, with
U.S. Green Building Council has addressed that is- little concern for the impacts on other species.
22 c o m m u nity planning
However, there is a growing awareness that hu- that every dwelling unit had access to light and air
mans have a higher moral obligation to other spe- would limit the spread of contagious diseases and
cies.20 There is also growing evidence that preserv- generally improve public health.23 This effort to
ing biodiversity is in our own self-interest.21 For a separate industrial uses and to reduce housing den-
community that places value on habitat and biodi- sities predated modern pollution controls, sanita-
versity, there are a variety of methods for protecting tion laws, and efforts to manage public health
them.22 directly through improved sanitation, building
It is important to include in an analysis of exist- codes, and vaccination programs. There was thus
ing conditions (Chapter 4) an assessment of the an important public interest, backed by reasonable
sustainability of the community. That must start scientific evidence, in using the tools of planning
with a realistic assessment of the ecologically valu- and zoning to address these issues.
able features of the community. Does the commu- Overlapping this period of major concern with
nity depend on wells? If so, how is the aquifer serious public health issues was the garden cities
recharged? Is recharge continuing at a reasonable movement. It started in the United Kingdom and
rate, or is development causing a reduction in the spread in significant part through a little book writ-
rate? Are there wetlands in or near the community? ten by a minor town official in England, Ebenezer
How do they function, hydrologically and physi- Howard.24 His garden cities were early models for
cally? Are parts of the local environment particu- modern suburbs: residential communities sepa-
larly fragile? Are there unusual natural hazards, rated from urban activity and many land uses by
such as geologically unstable areas or areas subject green space, with green space also shaping the
to wildfire? Ian McHarg’s Design with Nature, form of the community. Howard’s book signifi-
cited repeatedly in this text, remains the basic cantly influenced city and town planning not only
guide to this kind of analysis. The other part of a in his native England but in the United States.25
sustainability analysis is a sort of performance audit Building in part on the work of landscape architect
of the community’s current level of sustainability. Frederick Law Olmsted, garden city advocates in
To what extent is the community dependent on re- the United States argued that living in well-
sources that are dwindling or that come from dis- planned, low-density suburban environments was
tant and uncertain sources? To what extent are its the best way to maintain and improve public
basic local functions, including manufacturing, health.26
dependent on transportation? Are development Major federal laws passed in 1970, 1971, and
and building patterns increasing dependence on 1972 have significantly reduced air and water pol-
energy for local transportation, lighting, and space lution and brought the air quality in most cities—
heating? Are development patterns destroying crit- including areas around factories—to a level that,
ical natural resources, including wetlands, habi- according to modern science, is safe for humans to
tat, and other areas of significant environmental breathe. Industries and cities are required to clean
value? their wastewater, and providers of drinking water
are required to take further steps to ensure that the
water they deliver meets public health standards.
Human Health Epidemics have become rare in this country, and
most of the flu epidemics that still occur seem to
Improved public health has been a goal of city spread at schools and workplaces, not between
planning efforts in the United States since the dwelling units that are crammed together. Modern
modern planning movement began in the early health and building codes, as well as zoning ordi-
twentieth century. Housing reformers and other nances, require that light and air be provided di-
early advocates for planning and zoning believed rectly to each dwelling unit. Modern building
that reducing the density of housing and ensuring codes also require smoke detectors and the avail-
Chapter 1: Some Overarching Issues: Sustainability, Sprawl, and Human Health 23
ability of exit windows in all bedrooms, reducing tion between sprawl and obesity. Would changing
the danger of death or serious injury from fire. the patterns and character of development make a
These improvements in living conditions are in- difference? Several studies have found a significant
cluded in the densest modern neighborhoods of correlation between the density or design of resi-
New York and San Francisco as well as in residen- dential areas and the amount of physical activity in
tial areas in Nogales, Arizona and Selma, Alabama. which residents engage.33 Similarly, the National
With all these laws on the books to protect human Governors Association notes that “students who
health, scientific evidence and common sense no live close to school are more likely to choose walk-
longer support the early twentieth-century notion ing or bicycling as their means of transportation to
that people can live healthy lives only in suburban school.”34
communities. Clearly people are more likely to walk or bike in
As a result of sprawling, car-dominated develop- a more walkable community. A 2003 study pub-
ment patterns, air pollution from automobiles is lished in the American Journal of Public Health
now a more significant source of health-threaten- identified major characteristics of a walkable neigh-
ing air quality problems than industrial pollution borhood.35 They included density and mix of resi-
in a number of metropolitan areas.27 The average dential uses; mixture of land uses, including grocery
automobile produces 8,800 pounds of carbon diox- stores, video stores, and nonfast-food restaurants;
ide per year, and automobiles account for 62 per- lack of convenient parking; development design;
cent of carbon monoxide emissions, 32 percent of availability of sidewalks; traffic speed on nearby
nitrous oxides, 16 percent of volatile organic com- streets; aesthetics of walking routes; and crime
pounds, and 9 percent of particulates.28 safety (addressed in Chapter 19).36
Another health impact of auto-dominated, low- The design of streets in a residential develop-
density development is the increasing obesity rates ment also makes a difference. Chapter 12 discusses
in these areas, where the effective use of active the importance of street connectivity and safe and
modes of transportation is difficult or impossible. A friendly pedestrian routes to create a neighborhood
2008 study examining data from a dozen countries that encourages walking. Figure 1.4 illustrates dif-
showed a powerful negative correlation between ferences in walking distances based on neighbor-
the use of active transportation and obesity.29 The hood design. As this book went into production,
study examined the travel modes people use for the U.S. Green Building Council was in the pro-
daily activities and distinguished between active cess of developing LEED certification standards
transportation and other modes. Along with bicy- for neighborhood design (LEED-ND), recogniz-
cling and walking, it included use of mass transit as ing the significance of such design factors in affect-
a form of active transportation, reasoning that most ing transportation and lifestyle choices.37
people who use transit have to walk to and from
transit stops. The United States, in which only
about 12 percent of daily trips involve active trans- School Facility Siting
portation,30 has the highest rate of obesity, whether
measured by self-reported height and weight or by It is difficult to overstate the effect that trends in
measured height and weight.31 Switzerland and planning for school facilities have had on neigh-
the Netherlands, which have the lowest obesity borhoods in general and walking in particular. Ac-
rates, have by far the highest rates of use of active cording to data from the National Household
transportation, including more than 60 percent of Travel Survey, in 1969 approximately 50 percent of
trips in Switzerland.32 elementary school students lived within 2 miles of
Correlations do not prove causation, of course. their school; by 2001, only about 33 percent lived
The authors of the 2008 study cite other published within this distance.38 In a policy paper, the Na-
research that reinforces their findings of a correla- tional Governors Association reported,
24
c o m m u nity planning
Figure 1.4. This figure shows aerial photographs of two neighborhoods in Atlanta. One has a grid pattern of development, with many points of
connection between streets. The other has a number of loop roads and cul-de-sacs. Points A and B on the two maps are equal distances from
each other when measured in a straight line. With the grid pattern, they are about that distance apart for a pedestrian; in contrast, in the other
neighborhood, a pedestrian must travel nearly three times the linear distance to get from one to another. Source: Lawrence D. Frank, Peter O.
Engelke, and Thomas L. Schmid, Health and Community Design: The Impact of the Built Environment on Physical Activity (Washington, DC:
Island Press, 2003), p. 119, Figure 7.1.
Chapter 1: Some Overarching Issues: Sustainability, Sprawl, and Human Health 25
The decrease in students walking and bicy- Trends indicate that the average school size
cling to school correlates with an increase in has grown and that new schools have been in-
the number of overweight and obese children. creasingly located on large sites away from the
The Centers for Disease Control and Preven- families in the neighborhoods that they serve.
tion estimates that in 2003–2004 more than 17 The National Center for Education Statistics
percent of children and adolescents ages 2–19 notes that the number of schools in the United
were overweight. This is a sharp increase from States decreased from 262,000 in 1930 to
1971–1974 during which only 4 percent of 91,000 today, while student population over
children ages 6–11 and slightly more than 6 the same time has risen from 28 million to
percent of adolescents ages 12–19 were esti- 53.5 million. The student population contin-
mated to be overweight. Children who are ues to grow; the U.S. Department of Educa-
overweight or obese are more likely than chil- tion estimates that by 2030, it will reach 60
dren of normal weight to become overweight million.40
or obese adults, and consequently more at risk
for related health problems such as heart dis-
ease, diabetes, stroke, and several types of The National Trust for Historic Preservation
cancer.39 has published a report titled Why Johnny Can’t
Walk to School, essentially indicting school plan-
These increased travel distances are not just a ners for many of the problems addressed here.41
result of people living in less dense neighborhoods. School buses transport many students who could
They result from a shift in philosophy about the de- walk to school, and the sheer number of them at
sign and siting of schools, a shift that has been seen many schools makes walking up to the school un-
across the country. According to the Partnership pleasant and even risky for those who do (Figure
for Safe Schools, 1.5).
Figure 1.5. Two of a dozen school buses leave an in-town middle school after dropping their loads; the
others follow in rapid succession, crossing the main walking route to the school from several nearby
neighborhoods. Photo: Eric Damian Kelly.
26 c o m m u nity planning
One of the major purposes of the comprehen- possible. Even without changing the modes of
sive plan is to ensure that planning for all major transportation, however, a recent study funded by
public and private facilities is coordinated. Laws in the Environmental Protection Agency found that
most states require either that public bodies, such increased densities result in fewer vehicle miles
as school boards, consider the recommendations traveled. Using a broad comparative study of met-
of the comprehensive plan as they make decisions ropolitan areas in the Midwestern United States,
about major public facilities or that such plans be the authors concluded that a 10 percent increase
submitted to the local planning commission for in local densities (measured at the census tract
review and comment. Both types of laws are in- level) is associated with a 3.5 percent reduction in
tended to require the consideration of larger plan- vehicle travel.43
ning issues as bodies make decisions about individ- Planners and citizens interested in planning
ual facilities. It is important for planners and can encourage the use of the following techniques
members of planning commissions to remind to create more compact, walkable, sustainable
school officials and members of other public bod- communities:
ies about these requirements if the officials seem to
be ignoring them. • Encourage reasonable mixtures of uses (see
The benefits of rethinking current school de- Chapter 7).
sign are addressed in a study funded by the U.S. • Encourage or require higher densities (see
Environmental Protection Agency: discussion of density in Chapter 11).
• Zone to allow for neighborhood shopping
Schools built close to students, in walkable centers in neighborhoods (see Chapter 11).
neighborhoods, can be called neighborhood • Require sidewalks everywhere (see Chapter
schools. We conclude that compared to our 8).
sample from existing schools, neighborhood
• Require “complete streets” that are friendly
schools would reduce traffic, produce a 13
percent increase in walking and biking and a to pedestrians and bicyclists as well as to auto-
reduction of at least 15 percent in emissions of mobiles (see Chapter 8).
concern. Numerous state and local initiatives • Require street connectivity (see Chapter 12).
are responding to the health and environmen- • Update requirements for site design for com-
tal impacts of school location. We hope this mercial uses, offices, multifamily buildings
study is the first of many efforts that add to our and institutional uses to be pedestrian
understanding of how school location and de- friendly and to include facilities for bicyclists
sign can support educational, civic, health,
(see last part of Chapter 12).
and environmental goals.42
For more detail on these and similar concepts,
Conclusion see the discussion of smart growth principles at the
end of Chapter 13.
Sprawl, sustainability, and human health are
global issues, but local actions can make a differ- Other Material
ence. Better planning can create communities that
reduce sprawl, reduce resource consumption, and The Web site contains exercises, discussion questions,
improve human health. and online references related to this chapter. See www
.communityplanningbook.org under Chapter 1.
Reducing the absolute and proportionate use of
automobiles for transportation is a major factor in
addressing all three issues. Reducing vehicle miles Further Reading
traveled and the resulting air pollution from auto-
mobiles is best accomplished by providing other Arnold, Craig Anthony. 2007. Fair and Healthy Land Use:
means of transport, including mass transit where Environmental Justice and Planning, Planning Advisory
Chapter 1: Some Overarching Issues: Sustainability, Sprawl, and Human Health 27
Although a great deal has been written about both sprawl and sustainability, understanding the is-
sues in a local context is a complex subject. As material throughout this book indicates, one of the
most important roles of planners is the gathering and analysis of data to turn it into useful informa-
tion. In dealing with sustainability and sprawl, that is where planners must start. Planners can start
by computing the extent of sprawl in the community, the changes in land consumption per capita,
and the relationship of these changes to changes in household size. Using some of the material in-
troduced in this chapter along with supplemental readings and references, planners can also begin
to assemble a sustainability analysis for the community. The relationship between community de-
sign, physical activity, and human health is difficult to model. This may be an issue on which it is
best to start with a community dialogue about whether existing and new neighborhoods are walkable
and bicycle-friendly and whether the pattern of urban development in general encourages people to
use active transportation.
Sprawl has drawn broad public attention since the 1990s, but many local plans contain few provi-
sions to address the challenges of sprawl. Sustainability and the relationship between physical activ-
ity and physical planning are not even on the agenda in many communities. Individual citizens are
the ones who can get these items on the agenda by asking (or demanding) that public officials begin
to address them. These are subjects on which some professional planners may lack background, so
research and analysis of the issues by citizens may be welcomed by planners and public officials
alike.
Service Report. American Planning Association, Newman, Peter, and Jeffrey R. Kenworthy. 1999. Sustain-
Chicago. A detailed and excellent treatment of issues of ability and Cities: Overcoming Automobile Depen-
social and environmental equity, with additional refer- dence. Island Press, Washington, DC. An interesting
ences. and very readable work by two scholars with an exten-
Downs, Anthony. 2004. Still Stuck in Traffic: Coping with sive record of studying the relationship between trans-
Peak-Hour Traffic Congestion, Kames A. Johnson portation and land use.
Metro Series. Brookings Institution Press, Washington, Roome, Nigel J. 1998. Sustainability Strategies for Industry:
DC. A very readable and interesting analysis by one of The Future of Corporate Practice, Greening of Industry
the leading scholars on the patterns of urban growth. Network Series. Island Press, Washington, DC. A good
Ewing, Reid, Keith Bartholomew, Steve Winkelman, Jerry and still relevant introduction to this topic.
Walters, and Don Chen. 2008. Growing Cooler: The
Evidence on Urban Development and Climate Change.
Urban Land Institute, Washington, DC. An important
new work discussing how patterns of urban develop- Technical Resources
ment contribute to climate change and how better
planning can reduce the damage. Baskin, Yvonne, and International Council of Scientific
Frank, Lawrence D., Peter O. Engelke, and Thomas L. Unions, Scientific Committee on Problems of the En-
Schmid. 2003. Health and Community Design: The Im- vironment. 1997. The Work of Nature: How the Diver-
pact of the Built Environment on Physical Activity. Is- sity of Life Sustains Us. Island Press, Washington, DC.
land Press, Washington, DC. A seminal work on a field A scientific approach to a topic that others have ad-
of growing interest. dressed more qualitatively.
28 c o m m u nity planning
Beatley, Timothy. 1994. Habitat Conservation Planning: struction and Major Renovation, version. 2.2. U.S.
Endangered Species and Urban Growth. University of Green Building Council, Washington, DC. The cur-
Texas Press, Austin. A practical guide to balancing the rent edition of standards for LEED-certified green
needs of wildlife and urban growth. buildings. Updated from time to time. Check Web site
U.S. Green Building Council. 2005. LEED for New Con- at www.usgbc.org.
Chapter 2
Introduction to Planning
Would you rather plan your future or just wait to policymaking, implementation, and monitoring.
see what happens? If the subject is next Friday In a simple planning process, two or even three of
night, waiting to see what happens may be an ac- these elements may be undertaken simultane-
ceptable answer. But what if the subject is the rest ously, but they are almost always distinguishable
of your life? What if the subject is the future of your factors in the planning process.
community? Planning the future of an entire com-
munity may seem like an overwhelming challenge,
but do you think a community ought to just wait to Data Gathering
see what happens? Planning involves making con-
scious choices about the future. Those who do not Every rational plan or decision is based on some set
plan just let the future happen. of information. A transportation department plan-
Planning is a rational way of preparing for the ning a highway gathers data on traffic demand, ca-
future. It typically involves gathering and analyz- pacities of existing roads, budgets, road construc-
ing data, examining possible future trends, consid- tion costs, and cost and availability of rights-of-way.
ering alternative scenarios, analyzing costs and Planners preparing a comprehensive plan gather
benefits of those scenarios, choosing a preferred data on existing conditions and on population
scenario, and planning for implementation. trends that will bring changes; they also gather data
Every year in some community, the state trans- on the capacity of the natural and built systems of
portation department improves the roads on the the community to absorb the effects of change.
east side of the town, while the public works de-
partment extends new sewer and water service to
the south, and the school district decides to build a Data Analysis
new school on the west side of town, on land that
turns out to have been a bargain because it has Sometimes data are self-explanatory, but usually
poor road access and no sewer or water service. some interpretation and analysis are needed to
Communities ought not to make such mistakes in turn them into useful information. Transportation
planning (or failing to plan) their own futures. demand, for example, is a complex topic. Planning
a new road involves a great deal more than just sub-
tracting presumed demand from the capacity of ex-
Elements of a Planning Process isting roadways. Raw population data tell one story
about a community, but careful analysis of that
Some basic elements are common to almost all data can provide a good basis for predicting fu-
forms of planning: data gathering, data analysis, ture school enrollment, cemetery needs, and other
29
30 c o m m u nity planning
Chapter 14) to developers desiring access to goal; and policies requiring specific implementa-
either road, with the revenues to be added to tion actions, actions that are usually immediate.
a fund to help pay for the road; and deferring
approval of new development along the exist-
ing road until construction on the new road Monitoring
has begun.
The best plans include a feedback loop that pro-
Another way to think of this list is this: vides monitoring of the plan. Transportation de-
partments check traffic counts, speed, and flow
• Goals, including general aims with some before and after construction of a new road to de-
details termine whether it improves traffic flow. Environ-
• Strategies, including additional details of the mental enforcement officers measure the effluent
objectives and specific methods for making from sewage treatment plants to ensure that the
them occur plants are meeting clean water goals. Community
• Actions, focusing on the fiscal or physical im- planners observe and map changes in land use,
plementation of the plan comparing them to the plan.
One aspect of monitoring is its role in im-
Sometimes the goals, objectives, and policies plementation. Zoning enforcement officers (see
are all included in a local comprehensive plan (dis- Chapter 11) check new buildings to ensure that
cussed in depth in Chapter 3). More typically, they conform with zoning, for example, which is
however, objectives are established through some one of the implementation tools for planning; zon-
sort of midrange implementation planning pro- ing officers have a variety of methods for stopping
cess. Often, establishment of the specific objec- construction on a building that is inconsistent with
tives to implement a goal requires additional study. the plan. Another aspect of monitoring goes be-
A capital improvement program is one sort of yond implementation, however, and provides the
midrange implementation plan often used by local foundation for updating a plan and preparing its
governments, but there are others. Policies and ob- replacement. Communities base their plans on
jectives may evolve from the same stage of the projections of future population growth and other
planning process, but policies are often specific changes. If the population grows more slowly or
tools that are approved by a separate agency. Thus, more quickly than planners anticipated, that differ-
the public works department of the local govern- ence in growth will affect the plan. Community
ment, perhaps with the advice of the planning planners monitor such changes and suggest plan
commission, may develop the objective of building updates and amendments based on them.
the parallel road, while the implementing policies
require the approval of budgets and the adoption of
ordinances by the governing body. Community Planning in Concept
The terms goals, objectives, and policies are
not used with complete consistency in the field of Planning for a community is very different from
comprehensive planning. Thus, a plan may use planning for many other organizations, because
the term policies to refer to what are called goals the first step in planning for a community must be
here. In general, however, when the terms are used to identify a collective set of goals or a common vi-
together, they are used in the hierarchy described sion. Many organizations that plan already know
here, with goals setting the long-range, general what their goals are. Some of the leaders in effec-
aims of the community; objectives establishing tive planning are business and military organiza-
more specific, midrange strategies to meet the tions. Their goals are firm and clear. A business
32 c o m m u nity planning
must make a profit. It may have objectives of offer- rest of the planning process. Establishing
ing excellent customer service and providing a long-range goals is often a complex process,
healthy and happy working environment, but the however, sometimes requiring sophisticated
ultimate goal must be a profit. A business that does management. Public participation in this
not make a profit eventually exhausts its capital process is very important but sometimes
and ceases to exist, at which point concepts such as complicated; ultimately, the task of framing
“customers” and “employees” become irrelevant. the goals must fall to a smaller group, such as
Similarly, the clear goal of a military organiza- the planning body or the governing body.
tion is to take ground or hold ground. In peace- (Note that trend analysis and issue identifica-
time, society may forget that, but military planners tion, also discussed here, are often used as in-
never do. In most cases, the specific ground that a puts into a goal-driven process.)
military unit must try to seize or defend is an objec- • Trend driven. A trend-driven approach to
tive determined outside that organization and planning simply projects current population
given to it as an assignment. and land use trends into the future and
There are many other examples. The local uses those as the basis for planning. This is a
United Way plans its annual campaign with the technical and not particularly participatory
knowledge that its goal is to raise money for social approach. Because trends are so likely to
services and other charities in the community. The change, it is not the ideal approach to form
school district knows that its goal is to provide an the core of a community planning process. It
education to children and youth of specified ages, can provide a useful point of reference for
in accordance with standards set out in state law. other planning approaches, however.
Thus, the task in the kind of planning used by • Opportunity driven. In an opportunity-driven
businesses, military organizations, and others with planning process, a community assesses its fu-
defined goals is to determine how best to meet ture based on opportunities and constraints
those goals. In contrast, a good community plan- rather than on simple projections of trends.
ning process must begin with a process to deter- Often, citizen participation efforts in local
mine the goals. planning involve identification of opportuni-
ties and strengths. Professional planners of-
ten identify objective opportunities, such as
Alternative Approaches underused transportation facilities, large and
vacant industrial buildings, and availability of
There are several different approaches to commu- cheap energy sources.
nity-wide planning. Planners have used all of these • Issue driven. In an issue-driven planning pro-
approaches as the basis of comprehensive plans in cess, a community identifies the critical is-
different communities at different times. Each has sues facing it and focuses its planning efforts
strengths and weaknesses. The choice of approach on those issues. This is a simple and practical
(or approaches) will depend on local needs and approach to planning that can be broadly par-
preferences; that choice in significant part will de- ticipatory. It is typically very result oriented.
fine the process that is used and influence the re- Issue-driven planning can take one of two
spective roles of professional planners and inter- forms. Sometimes it poses challenging ques-
ested citizens, as well as the role of the planning tions such as “What type of industry can re-
body. Here are the basic approaches: place our historic dependence on the auto in-
dustry?” In other cases it may be the obverse
• Goal driven. This is the classic approach to of the opportunity-driven approach, with the
planning. It establishes long-range goals for “questions” really representing problems,
the community, and those goals guide the such as “How do we eliminate the traffic con-
Chapter 2: Introduction to Planning 33
gestion that discourages new industry from energy with their environments (which are
coming here?” larger systems).
• Vision driven. Although the term visioning is
A student is a system, made up of many biologi-
sometimes used loosely to refer to a goal-
cal systems. That student is a part of several larger
setting process, the term vision is more accu-
systems, perhaps including a class in which this
rately used for an overarching goal that con-
book is used as a text. That class is a part of a larger
trols the entire process. True visions generally
system, probably an academic department. That de-
arise from within a community through
partment, in turn, is part of a school or college that is
strong leadership (which is often informal
part of a university, which itself is part of a state.
leadership). A plan to fulfill a vision can be
Understanding the relationships of systems in-
one of the most exciting kinds of plans to
volved in a planning study is often critical to the suc-
develop. It is difficult to use a vision-driven
cess of that planning effort and its implementation.
planning process to extract a vision where
Understanding systems can be particularly impor-
one does not exist, however.
tant in facing difficult problems, because a problem
that is not solvable at one system level may be easily
Most local plans are developed using some
solvable at a higher system level. Consider parking
combination of approaches. Sometimes separating
as an example. Today many communities require
the approaches, as in this list, oversimplifies mat-
that new development include adequate off-street
ters. On the other hand, simplification makes
parking to serve the buildings and land uses in the
them easier to explain and understand. In prepar-
development; that usually implies creating parking
ing a plan, communities should blend one or more
spaces on the same lot. In that context, each lot is a
approaches to best meet their unique local needs.
system. However, trying to address parking needs on
Trend-driven planning works best as an input to
individual building lots in a downtown area may in-
other types of planning approaches, illustrating
terfere with other goals of creating a dense and
what will happen without a plan for managing a
pedestrian-friendly environment. At the system
change in trends. All of the other approaches rep-
level of the individual lot, there is no good solution.
resent valid approaches to planning, each useful in
If planners consider an entire block, or even the
its own way.
whole downtown, however, it becomes practicable
to think about solving the parking problem off the
Systems Thinking and Planning individual lot but within the larger system; for ex-
ample, First Street might be pedestrian oriented,
with buildings filling every lot, and Second Street
Systems analysis provides a rigorous framework for
would be lined with parking lots behind the First
making some planning decisions. It is easily adapt-
Street buildings. A problem that has no good solu-
able to computerized analysis and testing of alter-
tion at one system level may have one or more easy
natives, making it an appealing tool to those who
solutions at another system level. Thus, it is often
want quantifiable, defensible decisions.
useful in planning to define the systems involved
Equally important to planning is the notion of
and to consider solving a difficult problem by mov-
systems thinking. Systems theory starts with three
ing to a different system level.
basic concepts:
pervasive activity. Businesses plan their operations Canal, the famous waterway that effectively con-
and marketing campaigns. Television networks nected the Great Lakes to the Atlantic Ocean, al-
plan their seasons. Armies plan battles, campaigns, though the canal itself ran only from Buffalo on
and entire wars. Some engineers plan highways, Lake Erie to Albany on the Hudson River; the
and others plan sewer systems. College students Hudson in turn flows out to the Atlantic, around
plan their programs of study. Professionals plan Manhattan Island. Major cities grew up along this
their days, often using computer systems to track important route of commerce, and therefore later
multiple appointments and other commitments. planners for railroads and highways placed their
Planning is a fundamental activity, essential to major infrastructure along this route. Even today, a
any complex or long-range endeavor. It is much map of the major cities in New York State looks
older than our nation, but it has played an impor- like an inverted letter L, reflecting the route of the
tant role in our nation’s evolution. The Constitu- Erie Canal through the middle of the state, con-
tion that guides us some 200 years after it was necting on the east to the Hudson, which forms the
drafted was a plan for a nation—a plan developed leg of the L.
when the proposed Articles of Confederation The combination of two grand plans opened
proved unacceptable. The creation of the District up the West, as the United States acquired more
of Columbia resulted from a plan to create a na- Western territory through purchase and conquest.
tional capital outside the boundaries of any state. One plan promoted settlement through the home-
Even today the capital reflects the remarkable stead program, under which a family or individual
planning of a Frenchman, Pierre L’Enfant, which could acquire a quarter section (160 acres) of land
was updated more than one hundred years later in the new territories simply by claiming it, liv-
by the MacMillan Commission (a congressional ing there, and beginning to improve it or use it
body)1 and again in the 1990s by the appointed Na- productively. Figure 2.1 sets out the preamble to
tional Capital Planning Commission.2 the law that established the homesteading pro-
An early example of physical planning that gram. Much of the private property in the West-
helped to shape the nation is provided by the Erie ern United States today traces its history to orig-
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Con-
gress assembled, That any person who is the head of a family, or who has arrived at the age of twenty-
one years, and is a citizen of the United States, or shall have filed this declaration of intention to be-
come such, as required by the naturalization laws of the United States, and who has never borne
arms against the United States Government or given aid and comfort to its enemies, shall, from and
after the first of January, eighteen hundred and sixty-three, be entitled to enter one quarter section or
a less quantity of unappropriated public lands, upon which such person may have filed a preemption
claim, or which may, at the time the application is made, be subject to preemption at one dollar and
twenty-five cents, or less, per acre; or eighty acres or less of such unappropriated lands at two dollars
and fifty cents per acre, to be located in a body, in conformity to the legal subdivisions of the public
lands, and after the same shall have been surveyed.
Figure 2.1. The Preamble to the Homestead Act, one of the two major pieces of legislation in Congress’
plan to open the West to settlement.
Chapter 2: Introduction to Planning 35
inal grants from the United States of America to The same system of describing land defines real
homesteaders. property in most of the United States today. The
A related plan for the new territories was a de- exceptions are the original colonies, Texas, and
velopment plan, and that was the plan for rail- parts of the Southwest that trace their titles to origi-
roads. Under that program, beginning after the nal Spanish and Mexican land grants. Homesteads
Civil War, the U.S. government granted millions were based on quarter sections, or squares that con-
of acres of land in the new West to the railroads. As tained 160 acres of land and measured one-half
an incentive, the government granted to the rail- mile on a side. The railroad land grants were based
roads not only the rights-of-way necessary to build on full sections. In many of the Western states, spe-
the railroad lines but also designated parcels of cific sections in every township were retained for
land along the rights-of-way whose development the state as school lands, and those remain sources
into new settlements would profit the railroads. of support for public education in many states
Many Midwestern farm communities were laid today.
out by railroad surveyors on just such land in the Later examples of national planning in the
last half of the nineteenth century, and those early United States include the national park system,5
survey grids still form the heart of many communi- which is the result of the vision of a few people a
ties today.3 century ago, and the interstate highway system.6
The national coordinate survey system repre- The interstate system became a reality under Pres-
sented a different sort of planning, one that was es- ident Dwight Eisenhower, who as General Eisen-
sential to the homesteading and railroad land hower had led the Allied forces in Europe in World
grants. Chaos often resulted from colonial land War II. He believed that an efficient road system
titles, which might describe a parcel of land as for the movement of troops, equipment, and sup-
running, for example, “along the Newtown Road plies was essential to the future defense of the na-
to a large rock, thence west to the creek, thence tion. Today, its principal purpose is to serve com-
north approximately 220 feet along the meander merce and convenience, and many trips on the
of the creek to a large oak tree.” There were often system are intraurban, not interstate. However, the
disputes over which rock and even which road, important point is that this system developed from
and trees disappeared and streams changed their a national plan. It can trace its planning roots to
courses, with or without human help. Therefore, such landmarks as the National Road, the first ma-
engineers working with the new national govern- jor interstate highway, most of which became part
ment developed the national coordinate survey of U.S. 40, and the Lincoln Highway (now mostly
system to describe lands in the new Western terri- known as U.S. 30), which was the first coast-to-
tories. This system, first used in the Ohio Territory coast road.
in the 1780s, created a grid based on lines of lon- Although our society remains very different
gitude and latitude. Major lines in the grid were at from those in which even the economies are cen-
6-mile and 1-mile intervals, creating townships trally planned, a great deal of planning is essential
that were 6 miles by 6 miles and sections that were to the operation of the nation. Without planning,
1 mile square, containing 640 acres; there were, of there would be chaos. There would be roads with-
course, thirty-six sections in a township. Town- out bridges, bridges without roads, railroad stations
ships, ranges, and sections were numbered in ac- in the middle of the prairie and cities without rail-
cord with a uniform system.4 Figure 2.2 illustrates roads, schools without students and students in
the system. The acre became the standard mea- other communities without schools. Although no
sure of land in the United States; it represents 40 system is perfect, planning is more notable for its
percent of the size of a hectare, which had been success in helping the United States achieve re-
the common measure before creation of this markable growth and prosperity than for its occa-
system. sional failures.
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isäntääni Anselmoa, joka on nähnyt hyväksi luovuttaa tuolle
hävyttömälle sellaisen vallan talossaan! Ja jos sinä, señora, nyt
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hänelle hänen kuoltuaan?
— Voi minua poloista, jos kohtaloni on niin kova, että hän kuolee
tässä käsiini, tämä maailman kaiken kunniallisuuden kukka, hyväin
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Lotario ei ollut niin typerä, ettei ollut arvannut, mitä Camila aikoi
tehdä, jo silloin, kun hän oli käskenyt toimimaan niin, että Anselmo
piiloutuisi, ja siksi hän sopeutui Camilan suunnitelmaan niin
älykkäästi ja sujuvasti, että tuo valheellinen kohtaus olisi voinut
heidän esittämänään käydä tosimmasta todesta. Hän vastasi
Camilalle näin:
Viidesneljättä luku,
— Odota, sinä rosvo, ryöväri, konna; nyt olen saanut sinut käsiini
eikä käyrä sapelisi sinua avita!
Hän kuului huimasti iskevän huoneen seiniin. Sancho sanoi:
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hyppäsi ikkunasta; hän on minun omani, vieläpä niin, että on
mieheni.
Niin pitkälle Anselmo oli kirjoittanut, ja siitä voi huomata, että hän
oli heittänyt henkensä tuossa kohdassa, kykenemättä päättämään
lausetta. Hänen ystävänsä ilmoitti seuraavana päivänä kuolemasta
hänen omaisilleen, jotka jo olivat kuulleet hänen onnettomuudestaan
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seuraamaan miestään välttämättömälle viimeiselle matkalle, ei siitä
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nyt leski, halunnut lähteä luostarista eikä myöskään antaa
nunnalupausta, ennenkuin saapui, pian senjälkeen, tieto, että Lotario
oli kaatunut taistelussa, johon niinä aikoina kävi monsieur de Lautrec
suurta sotapäällikköä Cordoban Gonzalo Fernandezia vastaan[22]
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ystävä oli lähtenyt. Tuon kuultuaan Camila antoi luostarilupauksen ja
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Cardenio kuuli kaikki nuo sanat aivan selvästi, koska hän oli niin
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johtava ovi oli heidän välissään, ja ne kuultuaan hän huudahti
ääneen: