Planning Concepts Overview

Theoretically, land use planning should bring order to the often-conflicting requirements and desires of the individual, society and the environment. That land use planning often fails is obvious by the amount of litigation that it generates and by merely observing the results of past planning efforts.

Obviously, there is a link between zoning and land use planning but the two are distinctly different and are treated as such within this site. For purposes of clarity, it is best to separate the two and to consider land use planning as the theoretical portion and zoning as the practical application of that planning. Thus, this section will deal with a variety of conceptual thoughts on planning as well as provide links to information that may be useful in evaluating those concepts as well as developing new ones.

To provide a brief overview, modern land use planning often encompasses a variety of disciplines and attempts to merge them into a unified whole. No longer confined to allocating use districts and the layout of streets, modern planners must be cognitive of environmental ramifications, transportation issues, landscape and building architecture, case law restraints, economic forces, social justice issues and more. Modern planners must be part anthropologist, part sociologist, part engineer, part architect, and just to make the mix really interesting, part futurist.

Perhaps the most difficult yet most subtle and most often ignored influence on planning is the change in the living styles that is occurring in the United States. The major items, such as the impact of the automobile, are well documented and often discussed. What is often ignored, however, are the details that make up the overall trends and we would suggest that it is actually those details that are most important to consider.

For example, employee tenure continues to decline, especially among younger workers. Simply put, people are changing jobs more often and the tendency to relocate for new employment today is much greater than it was in 1970. As people move more frequently they are inclined to seek familiarity in their new surroundings and take a degree of comfort in a degree of “sameness”. This reality is clearly reflected in the attitude of national retail chains which strive to make all of their stores identical and thus identifiable regardless of location. While there are no good planning reasons for this “sameness”, there are good economic reasons (at least from the corporate perspective) for it and those reasons have nothing to do with land planning but everything to do with psychology. Whether we like it or not, the simply reality is that the general public is embracing the “sameness” as is illustrated by its very success.

The result is “Anyplace USA”. You can go to a suburb in the South and it will look very nearly the same as a suburb in the North (minus the snow - hopefully) and both will look very similar to suburbs in the Mid and Far West. Not only does the rapid move toward sameness destroy local identity but it duplicates the same bad planning over and over and over again.

The growing New Urbanism movement is attempting to alter the basic tenets of land use planning and to stop the sprawling, road based development patterns that have become so prevalent. The ideals and positions presented in the Charter of the New Urbanism reflect many of the thoughts that are being debated in the planning community today and will provide a general overview of the direction the movement is taking.

It should be noted that one solution set is not applicable in all or even most situations and in fact, neo-traditional neighbor developments (TNDs – a seemingly fundamental component of New Urbanism) can and have created an entirely new problem set. Thus, while the goals and ideals of New Urbanism are noble, implementation remains elusive and must be regarded as situation specific.

Throughout this section we will be adding thoughts and ideas to consider and to use as a base for developing planning solutions that may be of value in your community. Please feel free to share your ideas with us and to e-mail us links that you think are important.