Description
The culmination of a seven-year research project, this final edition of APA's
Growing Smart Legislative Guidebook contains the next generation of model planning and zoning enabling legislation for the United States. This new edition includes a CD-ROM, user manual, and more than 500 pages of new information. Items previously published have been updated based on public comment and changes in planning statutory practice.
The model statutes, with extensive commentary, provide alternative approaches that can be tailored to fit individual states. Language from interim editions of this guidebook has already been incorporated into laws and bills in 13 states.
New materials address siting of controversial facilities, authorization for all types of local land development regulation, adequate public facilities requirements, urban growth areas, unified development permit reviews, design review, traditional neighborhood development, transfer of purchase rights and much more. An invaluable resource for all planners working to update antiquated land-use regulation.
Table of Contents
See full table of contents
Reviews
See all reviews
From the Journal of the American Planning Association
Spring 2003
Growing Smart Legislative Guidebook: Model Statutes for Planning and the Management of Change
This monumental publication presents the fruits of APAÆs 7-year Growing SmartÖ project, intended to update and rethink the Standard City Planning and Zoning Enabling Acts from the 1920s and the American Law InstituteÆs Model Land Development Code from the 1970s. Editor Stuart Meck and his corps of dedicated colleagues present and comment on alternative model statutes for the next generation of U.S. planning and zoning legislation. Growing SmartÖ is a very ambitious project that could significantly affect planners in every corner of the country. Its thesis is that our planning tools are no longer adequate for contemporary planning and development management, because they were drafted when the nation was a vastly different place. While the guidebookÆs language is carefully objective and legally crafted, its underlying goal is to be a handbook for a radical rewriting of land use legislation.
I was admittedly skeptical when I first was asked to lobby for the project by Jim Hoben, the HUD official who helped get its funding approved and was its initial project officer. But after seeing firsthand the value to the North Carolina Smart Growth Commission of Stuart MeckÆs testimony on other statesÆ legislative reforms, I realized the full significance of the project. After reviewing the guide-book, I became a born-again convert.
Not since the Congressional debates on a national land use act during the Nixon Administration has a planning proposal garnered so much national attention. The Community Character Actùcurrently before Congress as Senate Bill 975 and House Bill 1433ùis based on the guidebook. At Congressional hearings, property rights and small business groups objected to its recommendations, and a Bush Administration representative not surprisingly called for ômarket basedö planning instead of the ôcentralizedö approach. However, even if the Community Character Act is not enacted, the guidebook can still effect a revolution from the bottom up.
Primary target audiences for the new guidebook are potential drafters of new land use legislation at the state and local levels. It will be an invaluable reference to state legislaturesÆ smart growth commissions and to local government attorneys charged with revising development regulations. However, it is much more than a how-to-do-it handbook. Planning professors and students, as well as interested practitioners will find a wealth of information and scholarship concerning the evolution of planning practice and theory over the past 80 years. The commentaries are illuminating and well supported with footnoted references to the relevant literature.
WhatÆs in the guidebook? It has chapters on the major topics of state planning and land use control, regional planning, local planning and land development regulations, environmental land development regulation and land use incentives, administrative and judicial review of land use decisions, and enforcement of land development regulations. It also includes interesting chapters on integrating state environmental policy acts with local planning, financing of planning activities, tax equity devices and tax relief programs, and state-level geographic information systems and public records.
Despite its clear and logical organization, the guidebookÆs abundance makes it challenging to navigate. The table of contents alone is 20 pages long. To help the reader, a handy User Manual accompanies the text. Along with synopses of the chapters and example applications, this manual contains checklists that direct users to specific guidebook sections according to their needs. For example, if you want to prepare and adopt a state biodiversity conservation plan, the checklist directs you to chapter four, section 4-204.1. There you would find a commentary on statewide biodiversity conservation plans, with examples from Florida, Maryland, New Jersey, and Oregon, along with a model statute.
For those who just want to get the gist of the content without tackling the details, APA published a 100-page paperback overview in 1999ùa ponyùof the Smart GrowthÖ project. You can find my review of Planning Communities for the 21st Century in the Summer 2001 issue of this Journal. However, if you are seriously considering redrafting state or local planning and land use legislation, you will have to knuckle down and get yourself a copy of the complete guidebook. It will be well worth your while.
David E. Godschalk
Godschalk, FAICP, the Stephen Baxter Professor of City and Regional Planning at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, served on the North Caroline Smart Growth Commission. His recent publications cover state smart growth efforts, conflict management, disaster mitigation, and urban land use planning.
Back to Top