Description
This practical handbook demystifies development review. It explains the tools of local regulation and the technical, bureaucratic, and organizational skills planners need to be effective. Solnit shows how to work with developers, evaluate projects, and use fiscal impact analysis. Includes a section on planning ethics, checklists, and tips on negotiating. Chapters by contributing authors cover subdivision plats, site plans, appearance codes, and writing zoning reports.
The Job of the Practicing Planner is a perfect introductory textbook in classes for planners and a practical handbook for people already on the job.
Table of Contents
See full table of contents
Foreward
Introduction
1. The tools of local regulation of private development
Traditional purposes of land use regulation • New vistas for land use regulation • Tools of the planner
2. Understanding the U.S. system of land use controls
Beginnings • Zoning's birth, evolution • Distinctions between planning and zoning • The real worlds of zoning and planning
3. Skills needed to be an effective practicing planner
Perspectives on planners • Getting hired • Skills for survival • Making the grade • Appendix 3.AùHow to draw a plot plan
4. Working with the developer and the project
The planner-developer relationship • Meeting the developer's needs • Negotiations • Wrapping up the package • Overview • Appendix 4.AùMaterials that must accompany applications • Appendix 4.BùInstructions for an application for a comprehensive plan amendment or zoning change • Appendix 4.CùChecklists
5. How to red-pencil preliminary subdivision plats
Checklist of items to be included on preliminary plats • Appendix 5.AùAn applicant's guide to procedures: Tentative map • Appendix 5.BùAn applicant's guide to submittal requirements: Tentative map • Appendix 5.CùLearning to read plans
6. How to red-pencil site plans
Checklist of items to be included on site plans • Appendix 6.Aùbuilding placement criteria
7. Regulating appearance
Appearance review procedures • The typical code • The survey • Cautions and comments • Appendix 7.AùDefinitions • Appendix 7.BùCriteria for appearance codes • Appendix 7.CùSubmittal requirements • Appendix 7.DùDesign review commission project evaluation checklist
8. Writing better zoning reports
The readers: Planning commissioners • Basic problems • Report content: Basic requirements • Strengthening reports • Tone and style • Conditional recommendations and attachments to staff reports • Oral presentations
9. The public economics of development impacts
The initial evaluation • Quantification • Cumulative effects • Factors of public service demand • A simple guide to fiscal impact analysis • Case study: Lakeland Hills and Windsor, California • The larger issues • Summing up • The analytic process of the sample study
10. Ethics and the planner
The gray areas • The Howe-Kaufman study • Ethical dilemmas • Finding the right niche
Glossary
Bibliography
Index
Back to Top