Despite its historical significance and its state-mandated comprehensive planning approach, the Florida growth management experiment has received only piecemeal attention from researchers. Drawing together contributions from national experts on land use planning and growth management, this volume assesses the outcomes of Florida‘s approach for managing growth. As Florida‘s approach is the most detailed system for managing growth in the United States, this book will be of great value to planners. The strengths and weaknesses of the state‘s approach are identified, providing insights into how to manage land use change in a state continuously inundated by growth. In evaluating the successes and failures of the Florida approach, planners and policy makers will gain insights into how to successfully implement growth management policies at both the state and local level.
"Zoning has for a century enabled cities to chart their own course. It is a useful and popular institution, enabling homeowners to protect their main investment and provide safe neighborhoods. As home values have soared in recent years, however, this protection has accelerated to the degree that new housing development has become unreasonably difficult and costly. The widespread Not In My Backyard (NIMBY) syndrome is driven by voters’ excessive concern about their home values and creates barriers to growth that reach beyond individual communities. The barriers contribute to suburban sprawl, entrench income and racial segregation, retard regional immigration to the most productive cities, add to national wealth inequality, and slow the growth of the American economy. Some state, federal, and judicial interventions to control local zoning have done more harm than good. More effective approaches would moderate voters’ demand for local-land use regulation—by, for example, curtailing federal tax subsidies to owner-occupied housing"--Publisher's description.
Despite its historical significance and its state-mandated comprehensive planning approach, the Florida growth management experiment has received only piecemeal attention from researchers. Drawing together contributions from national experts on land use planning and growth management, this volume assesses the outcomes of Florida’s approach for managing growth. As Florida’s approach is the most detailed system for managing growth in the United States, this book will be of great value to planners. The strengths and weaknesses of the state’s approach are identified, providing insights into how to manage land use change in a state continuously inundated by growth. In evaluating the successes and failures of the Florida approach, planners and policy makers will gain insights into how to successfully implement growth management policies at both the state and local level.
Bringing together a team of national experts, this volume offers a detailed look at the links between public land acquisition programs and efforts to yield smart growth outcomes in the USA. Both public land acquisition programs and state and local growth management efforts have been examined in detail, but while there is growing recognition that land acquisition can play an important role in smart growth outcomes, there has so far been little research into the nexus of these areas of public policy. This book investigates various aspects of the land acquisition-smart growth linkage and describes model programs and makes recommendations for the adoption of land acquisition efforts nationally and internationally. It will appeal to practising planners, policy makers, public officials, and citizen groups, as well as academics of urban planning, environmental studies, geography and other disciplines which examine issues of urban sprawl.
Advocates of growth management and smart growth often propose policies that raise housing prices, thereby making housing less affordable to many households trying to buy or rent homes. Such policies include urban growth boundaries, zoning restrictions on multi-family housing, utility district lines, building permit caps, and even construction moratoria. Does this mean there is an inherent conflict between growth management and smart growth on the one hand, and creating more affordable housing on the other? Or can growth management and smart growth promote policies that help increase the supply of affordable housing? These issues are critical to the future of affordable housing because so many local communities are adopting various forms of growth management or smart growth in response to growth-related problems. Those problems include rising traffic congestion, the absorption of open space by new subdivisions, and higher taxes to pay for new infrastructures. This book explores the relationship between growth management and smart growth and affordable housing in depth. It draws from material presented at a symposium on these subjects held at the Brookings Institution in May 2003, sponsored by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, the National Association of Realtors, and the Fannie Mae Foundation. Contributors seek to inform the debate and provide some useful answers to help the nation accommodate the curtailment of growth in urban and suburban domains while still ensuring a supply of affordable housing. Contributors include Karen Destorel Brown (Brookings), Robert Burchell, (Rutgers University), Daniel Carlson (University of Washington), David L. Crawford (Econsult Corporation), Anthony Downs (Brookings), Ingrid Gould Ellen (New York University), William Fischel (Dartmouth College), George C. Galster (Wayne State University), Jill Khadduri (Abt Associates), Gerrit J. Knaap (University of Maryland), Robert Lang (Virginia Polytechnic
A new way forward for sustainable quality of life in cities of all sizes Strong Towns: A Bottom-Up Revolution to Build American Prosperity is a book of forward-thinking ideas that breaks with modern wisdom to present a new vision of urban development in the United States. Presenting the foundational ideas of the Strong Towns movement he co-founded, Charles Marohn explains why cities of all sizes continue to struggle to meet their basic needs, and reveals the new paradigm that can solve this longstanding problem. Inside, you’ll learn why inducing growth and development has been the conventional response to urban financial struggles—and why it just doesn’t work. New development and high-risk investing don’t generate enough wealth to support itself, and cities continue to struggle. Read this book to find out how cities large and small can focus on bottom-up investments to minimize risk and maximize their ability to strengthen the community financially and improve citizens’ quality of life. Develop in-depth knowledge of the underlying logic behind the “traditional” search for never-ending urban growth Learn practical solutions for ameliorating financial struggles through low-risk investment and a grassroots focus Gain insights and tools that can stop the vicious cycle of budget shortfalls and unexpected downturns Become a part of the Strong Towns revolution by shifting the focus away from top-down growth toward rebuilding American prosperity Strong Towns acknowledges that there is a problem with the American approach to growth and shows community leaders a new way forward. The Strong Towns response is a revolution in how we assemble the places we live.
Featuring over 1900 references, drawings, and tables and drawing on disciplines as diverse as political economics, public management, and urban affairs, this versatile text offers comprehensive information on major policy and managerial issues important to local and national economic development. Pulling together the work of over 40 researchers, the book examines the role of government in economic advances and reform, provides a complete, up-to-date survey of the literature on local and national economic development, details local and regional economic progress in the US, adopts an innovative interdisciplinary approach to the study of economic expansion, and more.
