The results of this dissertation indicate that urban containment policies play an important role in affecting urban sprawl, employment center formation, and urban commuting, as well as explaining the contrasting views (planning-oriented vs. market-oriented) of urban containment policies. Implementing urban containment policies can produce positive effects such as compact development, which can promote J-H balance. However, as seen in the relationship between urban containment policies, urban sprawl and housing values, stronger urban containment policies can produce negative effects, such as traffic congestion and an increase in housing prices. goes here.
One of the policies that has been most widely used to try to limit urban sprawl has been that of urban containment. These policies are planning controls limiting the growth of cities in an attempt to preserve open rural uses, such as habitat, agriculture and forestry, in urban regions. While there has been a substantial amount of research into these urban containment policies, most have focused on issues of land use, consumption, transportation impacts or economic development issues. This book examines the effects of urban containment policies on key social issues, such as housing, wealth building and creation, racial segregation and gentrification. It argues that, while the policies make important contributions to environmental sustainability, they also affect affordability for all the economic groups of citizens aside from the most wealthy. However, it also puts forward suggestions for revising such policies to counter these possible negative social impacts. As such, it will be valuable reading for scholars of environmental planning, social policy and regional development, as well as for policy makers.
Abstract: Numerous communities have adopted some form of urban containment policies (UCPs), such as greenbelt, urban growth boundaries (UGBs), and urban service areas (USAs), as methods to prevent urban sprawl and protect open space. Although there is controversy over the negative and positive impacts of UCPs, little is known on their impacts on population and employment growth, and on the overall urban spatial structure. The purpose of this research is to (1) understand the system of UCPs, (2) empirically analyze their impacts on population and employment growth, and built-up areas in combination with housing values, and (3) examine their impacts on the location of industrial activities as well as population. Two approaches are considered to empirically analyze the impacts of UCPs on urban growth and urban spatial structure. In the first approach, a simultaneous equation model is used with, as endogenous variables, the changes in total population, total employment and sectoral employment, housing values, and land area at the municipal/city level. In the second approach, population and employment density gradients, estimated with both monocentric and polycentric models at the metropolitan level, are used to examine the impacts of different UCPs on urban spatial structure. The research finds that both the stringent containment policies (SCPs), including greenbelts and UGBs, and the less stringent containment policies (LSCP), including USAs, have significant impacts on changes in population, employment, housing values, and land areas. When both direct and indirect effects are taken into account, the SCPs have a positive effect on changes in population, employment, housing values, and land area twice larger than the LSCPs, suggesting that SCPs more successfully accommodate new growth within the growth boundaries, and that housing values increase with the tightness of UCPs. In terms of the urban spatial structure, statewide SCPs encourage metropolitan areas to move to a polycentric development pattern, locally-enforced SCPs support a monocentric pattern, and USAs produce sprawled development patterns.
(Cont.) Results indicate that the configuration of commuting spectrums mirror the changes in urban spatial structure in terms of job-housing proximity. In addition, the spatial variation, temporal change and regional differences in commuting can be significantly explained with job-housing proximity. Empirical results suggest that spatial decentralization pathways in Atlanta and Boston change the regional patterns of job-housing proximity, attracting people to commute longer distances. The relatively constrained spatial decentralization in Boston results in shorter commuting time and distance than in Atlanta. The empirical results point to a constrained and balanced vision of urban growth for achieving a commuting economy. Both urban growth management and transportation policies are needed to help achieve this vision.
Recent global shifts in population have led to the fast urbanization of Africa. For Africa and the developing world, choosing the right policy strategies, processes, and tools are essential to turning urban centers into engines of industry and economic prosperity. Industrial and Urban Growth Policies at the Sub-National, National, and Global Levels is a pivotal reference source that examines current and evolving conditions of industrial and urban policies and their relationships around the world, especially between developed and developing economies. While highlighting topics such as the Fourth Industrial Revolution, urban policy, and global common good, this publication seeks to deepen and broaden the understanding of transformation in industrial development and responses to emerging urbanization processes. This book is ideally designed for industrial planners, entrepreneurs, urban development authorities, policymakers, academicians, researchers, and students.
Planning and the Political Market argues that the enthusiasm for planning as an essential component of environmental protection is misplaced. Drawing on the experience of Britain and other Western democracies, the author uses public choice theory to explore the practical experience of land use planning as an example of government failure. The book opens by outlining the institutional focus of public choice theory, examining the central questions of market and government failure and the theoretical case for government intervention in the environment. Having explored the principal impacts of planning the book goes on to analyse the institutional structures which have produced these policy outcomes. The analysis suggests that institutional incentives within the 'political market' have frequently led to policies which favour special interest groups and public sector bureaucracy. The book concludes with an assessment of the potential for a private property rights, free market alternative to increase community involvement and access.
TRB has released the third edition of Commuting in America. The report was prepared by author Alan E. Pisarski under a joint project of the National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) and the Transit Cooperative Research Program (TCRP). Commuting in America III is one of the most comprehensive documents of its kind. Based on the latest census information available, it contains 155 figures, 79 tables, and some 100 "factlets" that tell the story of America's commuting trends and patterns over the last ten years. This publication will be a valuable reference for the transportation community--practitioners, researchers, and decision makers--who wish to understand how individual behavior and public policies have affected, and will continue to affect, commuting patterns. A press release and factsheets on information contained in Commuting in America III is also available.
While ordinary people tend to make myopic, independent decisions, planners deal with linked decisions intentionally and act accordingly in space and time. Little has been said, however, about how these linked decisions should be made. This collection of essays extends the concepts derived from decision theory in order to explain planning phenomena, particularly planning behavior. The book contains work gathered over a period thirty years that covers micro-decision making and macro-plan making processes in the context of urban planning. It answers the questions of why urban containment policies fail in stopping urban sprawl, how land development decisions are analyzed, and, more fundamentally, why cities need plans. Through the lens of decision theory, this book provides a fresh look at how planners do and should behave in making and using plans in the face of urban complexity.
One of the policies that has been most widely used to try to limit urban sprawl has been that of urban containment. These policies are planning controls limiting the growth of cities in an attempt to preserve open rural uses, such as habitat, agriculture and forestry, in urban regions. While there has been a substantial amount of research into these urban containment policies, most have focused on issues of land use, consumption, transportation impacts or economic development issues. This book examines the effects of urban containment policies on key social issues, such as housing, wealth building and creation, racial segregation and gentrification. It argues that, while the policies make important contributions to environmental sustainability, they also affect affordability for all the economic groups of citizens aside from the most wealthy. However, it also puts forward suggestions for revising such policies to counter these possible negative social impacts. As such, it will be valuable reading for scholars of environmental planning, social policy and regional development, as well as for policy makers.
