S2EZ
Environmental Protection Agency
Office of Research and Monitoring
Environmental Studies Division
Land Use
and the
Environment
AnAnthol<
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Land Use
and the
Environment
An Anthology of Readings
Prepared by the American Society of Planning Officials,
Chicago, Illinois, under the auspices of The Environmental
Studies Division of the Office of Research and Monitoring,
The Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, D.C.
Virginia Curtis, editor
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Land Use and
Environmental
Quality Research:
Areas of
Major Focus
LAND-USE POLICY
Purpose: Research issues relating to environment and
land use that will be useful in developing land-use
policy which is compatible with environmental
quality.
Goals:
(1) Develop a mechanism which allows for a compre-
hensive understanding of the environmental land-
use impacts of a total plan.
(2) Develop an understanding for the need of a variable
standard related to environmental land-use ques-
tions.
(3) Explore alternative approaches for developing en-
vironmentally compatible land uses.
RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN LAND USE
AND ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY
Purpose: Provide a better understanding of the inter-
relatedness between land uses and aspects of en-
vironmental quality.
Goals:
(1) Provide comprehensive descriptions of environ-
mental quality and land use for planners, decision
and policy makers.
(2) Provide analyses of specific land-use forms and
activities and their direct effect on pollutants.
(3) Provide information in a manner which is useful to
national, state and local officials.
(4) Develop a model useful to regional officials which
win show the effect of a land-use decision on one
or more elements of environmental quality.
TOOLS FOR LAND-USE PLANNERS
AND DECISION MAKERS
Purpose: Develop the necessary means to assist plan-
ners and decision makers in considering environ-
mental aspects in addressing land-use questions.
Goals:
(1) Provide tools, methods and techniques to allow
the planner and decision maker to obtain a com-
prehensive and long-range view of environmental
concerns.
(2) Establish environmental performance criteria
against which land-use plans and decisions can be
evaluated.
(3) Develop techniques which will allow effective trade-
offs to be made relating to limited resources and
non-quantifiable aspects of the environment.
LAND USE DECISION-MAKING PROCESS
Purpose: Provide the information needed to make the
decision-making process more "environmentally
sensitive" as it relates to land-use issues.
Goals:
(1) Synthesize analytical techniques and new institu-
tional/legal devices for the land-use decision-mak-
ing system to provide land-use decisions that are
environmentally sound.
(2) Strengthen the capability of the decision process to
handle questions relating to limited resources and
socio-environmental aspects relating to land ques-
tions.
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Comprehensive Planning Series
Volume One
Land Use and the Environment;
An Anthology of Readings
This anthology is designed to offer a wide selection of high quality readings concerning current
theory and practice of land use and environmental quality. This key relationship between our use
of land and the quality of our environment should be understood by planners and policy makers at
all levels of responsibility. Land use decisions are too crucial to our total environment to
leave to the motivations of various interest groups. These decisions are long-range, often estab-
lishing patterns which endure for generations. The readings in this anthology will help those in-
volved in shaping land use patterns to more fully appreciate the scope of their responsibilities.
It will help them to exercise those responsibilities more fully in the interests of this and of
future generations.
The series of which this anthology is the first volume is being produced under the auspices of the
Comprehensive Environmental Planning Branch of the Environmental Studies Division, Office of Re-
search and Monitoring, Environmental Protection Agency. This series is based on the knowledge
that the capacity of our land and other resources to absorb our mounting pollution is being
exceeded in too many areas. Air, water, and soil, as well as the aesthetic and other unique at-
tributes of regions, are being over-extended. An approach to land use is needed which takes into
account the capability of the total environment to accommodate and absorb the results of various
land use pressures. A systematic and interdisciplinary approach must be developed for and commu-
nicated to those policy planning and decision-making processes which affect all aspects of the
environment.
The current planning and land use decision-making techniques will be assessed in this series to
determine their sensitivity to environmental concerns. This effort will examine environmental
carrying capacity and systematically relate such technology to developing policy, planning, and
decision-making tools, methods and techniques which are effective in meeting new environmental
goals and objectives. By providing the necessary understanding and capability to policy makers,
planners and others, environmental problems can be dealt with before they become crises.
ill
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Table of Contents
Forword vii
Land Use: A Vital Link to Environmental Quality
Land Use: A Vital Link to Environmental Quality
Martin J. Redding and B. Thomas Parry 3
Land Use Concepts
Toward a New Concept of Land
Fred Bosselman and David Callies 43
Land in Our Daily Lives
Marion Clawson 47
Nature in the Metropolis
Ian L. McBarg 59
Urban Population Expansion and the Preservation of Nature
Edmond N. Bacon 63
The Relationship Between Land Use and Environmental Quality:
Institutions, Processes, Techniques
The Relationship Between Land Use and Environmental
Protection
E.J. Crake, K.G. Crake, A.S. Kennedy, and L.J. Hoover ... 69
Statement on the Relationship Between Environmental Quality
and Land Use 89
Environmental Performance Criteria for Land Use Planning. . 93
Integrating Promising Approaches in a Guidance Systems
Framework
Edward J. Kaiser, Karl Elfers, Sidney Cohn, Peggy A. Reiohert,
Maynard M. Hufsahmidt, and Raymond E. Stanland 95
Land Use Planning: The Cornerstone of Local Environmental
Planning and Control
Edward J. Kaiser, Karl Elfers, Sidney Cohn, Peggy A. Reichert,
Maynard M. Hufschmidt, and Raymond E. Stanland 103
National Land Use Policy
President's Message to the Congress of the United States,
August 1970
Richard M. Nixon 109
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Environmental Protection Permit Legislation
Senator Edmund S. Muskie ................. Ill
Land Use Policy and Planning Assistance Act of 1973
Senator Henry Jackson .................. 115
A National Land Use Policy: Toward a New Land Ethic
Roger P. Hansen .....................
Statement before the Senate Committee on Interior and
Insular Affairs
Russell E. Train ..................... 125
State Land Use Environmental Policies
Toward a State Land Use Policy: Harmonizing Development
and Conservation
Richard H. Slavin .................... 131
Toward a State Land Use Policy, The Maine Experience
Phillip M. Savage .................... 141
Applications
Incentives and Controls for Open Space
Ann Louise Strong . . .................. 151
Reducing Air Pollution Through Land Use and Public
Facility Planning .................... 157
Outdoor Noise, Transportation, and City Planning
Melville C. Branch, Jr ................... 173
Muskegon County, Michigan, Mends Waste Lands with
Waste Water ....................... 185
Just v. Marinette County ................. 189
Conflicts Yet Unborn
Conflicts Yet Unborn
Richard F. Babaoak and Fred P. Bosselman ......... 197
VI
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Foreword
"As we steadily bring our pollution problems under
control, more effective and sensible use of our
land is rapidly emerging as among the highest of
our priorities."
President Nixon, February 19, 19?S
Report on the State of Our natural
Resources
The quote above, emphasizing interest at the highest national policy level on the
subject this anthology addresses, suggests that in the future the energies of pol-
icy-makers will be focused on the problems of land use and the relationship be-
tween land use and our future environment.
Recently we have come to realize that land is, indeed, a limited resource. The
last frontier—the one in our minds that saw land as a limitless resource and
assumed that greener pastures lay beyond every range of hills—this frontier is
dissolving.
We are now reaping the harvest of earlier, indiscriminate land-use patterns. We
are coming to realize that our ability to deal with the symptoms of today's en-
vironmental crises is shackled by yesterday's land-use practices. For example,
the urban sprawl which evolved in the Los Angeles area is apparently complicating
efforts to control air pollution.
Man has been "studying" land use, especially as it relates to agriculture, for
centuries. He has experimented time and time again with direct and indirect ways
of making the land more fecund. For our purposes, we focus on research done
during the last few decades when multiple stresses have developed in the form of
expanded and sprawling urban growth. Some of our best minds have focused on this
area and hundreds of millions of dollars have been spent in research and policy
implementation. New forms of government were tested, new tax laws were suggested,
dozens of studies were carried out. Suddenly the whole problem of metropolitan
growth and suburbanization seemed to fade and we began to focus our attention on
the central city. Here again, in addition to the human problems, we looked at
questions of land use.
Now, as we go from the clean-up strategy to the prevention strategy in dealing
with pollution, it is only natural that we should begin again to look at man's
relationship to his land. In the hope that today's land-use plans and activities
will not add to the environmental problems caused by previous efforts, The Environ-
mental Studies Division, Office of Research and Monitoring, Environmental Protec-
tion Agency, is initiating research into the relationship between land use and
environmental quality. The purpose of this effort is to improve the methodologies
available to decision makers involved in land-use issues. Part of this effort has
resulted in the following anthology—a series of papers reflecting some of the
most useful writings in the field. This anthology is the first of a series of
documents devoted to improving the "environmental sensitivity" of the decision-
making and comprehensive-planning process.
vii
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Land Use: A Vital Link
to Environmental Quality
The face and character of our country are determined
by what we do with America and its resources.
Thomas Jefferson
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Land Use: A Vital Link to
Environmental Quality
Martin J. Redding and B. Thomas Parry
Introduction.
"Of all the factors that determine the quality of our environment, the most funda-
mental is the use we make of our land." This statement from the 1972 Report of
the Citizen's Advisory Committee on Environmental Quality clearly emphasizes the
critical relationship between the quality of our environment and the use which is
made of our lands.
It is being increasingly recognized that the key to the protection and enhancement
of our future environment is more effective land use planning and control. The
radical changes in land use planning in some cities, the "quiet revolution" in
land use controls taking place in many of our state environments, and the movement
toward a national land use policy at the Federal level give evidence to this rec-
ognition.
In order to preserve our future environment it is essential that actions and deci-
sions related to land use place environmental values on a level comparable to so-
cial and economic issues. This paper is undertaken to illustrate that land use
is, in fact, a vital link to environmental quality. It consists of a general dis-
cussion of a range of issues relating to environmental quality and land use. This
is followed by an examination of major land uses (agricultural, timber production,
mining, recreational, and urban), their importance and the effect they have on en-
vironmental quality.
Overview
"Ecologically irresponsible land use practices and generally ineffective land use
control—aside from the "Growth Ethic"—is the basic environmental problem facing
America. Land use patterns are the generators, the root causes, of the environ-
mental degradation symptoms of polluted air, polluted waters and other problems to
which we have given infinitely more attention."!
Congress recognized the impact of man's activities on the natural environment when
it established The National Environmental Policy Act of 1969. This evolving aware-
ness at the national level is leading toward the development of a national land use
policy bill which recognizes that a quality environment can be preserved through
proper land use.
A speech by Senator Henry M. Jackson2 stated that "Regulation and control of the
land in the larger public interests is essential if real progress is to be made in
achieving a quality environment. It is essential because the land is the key to
insuring that all future development is in harmony with sound ecological principles
and environmental guidelines."
This paper was prepared in the Environmental Studies Division, Office of Research and Monitoring,
Environmental Protection Agency.
1 Roger P. Hansen, A National Land Use Policy. Paper prepared for the Council on Environmental
Quality.
2 See Land Use in the United States, edited by Grant S. McClellan, The Reference Shelf Vol
43, No. 2. (New York: The H.W. Wilson Co., 1971.)
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The Council on Environmental Quality, established by NEPA, stated in its first an-
nual report to Congress3 that, "Misuse of the land is now one of the jnost serious
and difficult challenges to environmental quality. ..." In its second report to
Congress 4 c.E.Q. states: "Land use decisions are an important determinant of envi-
ronmental quality. Although planning and control of land use are largely the re-
sponsibility of local governments, the impacts of these activities often reach
statewide, regionwide or nationwide."
In addition to recognizing the vital link between the quality of our environment
and the use to which we put our land, the above sources also begin to acknowledge
that the issues underlying land use and environmental quality are complex, have
a wide range, and cut across all the fibers of our society.
Man brings about massive changes in his physical environment, and the activities
or uses to which man places the land affect others and result in conflict. The
effects are both direct and indirect and range from air, water, soil and noise
pollution to social and psychological stresses.
The following illustrate the range of uses and subsequent environmental quality
consequences:
1. Transportation systems affect air, noise, and water pollution, neighborhood
social arrangements, aesthetic factors, and the general ecology. Dense development
resulting from transportation systems, in turn, causes congestion, crowding, social
stress, and other adverse factors.
2. Ski developments affect the wilderness, water supply and water runoff,
and aesthetic factors, to name a few.
3. Results of mining operations include adverse aesthetic impacts, degrada-
tion of water quality and soil erosion.
4. Power plants affect air pollution, water pollution, and speculative land
development.
5. Dense urban development results in increased congestion, crowding, high
demands on energy and other resources, water and sewage facilities, poor aesthetic
quality and socio-psychological effects relating directly or indirectly to noise,
air pollution and meteorological conditions.
The complexity and diversity of the land use effects indicated in the above ex-
amples illustrate the importance of taking a comprehensive approach to land use
and environmental quality issues. The approach which focuses on a specific envi-
ronmental element in evaluating a proposed use of a parcel of land may result in
minimizing particular impacts but may fail to recognize impacts on a number of
other environmental factors with complex relationships.
Before discussing what can be done in the planning and decisionmaking processes
to protect and improve environmental quality through land use, it is useful to
look at the ethic which has evolved with the growth of our country.
From the time of the first settlers man viewed the land and its elements as fac-
tors which he must conquer and control in order to survive in the new world. Fur-
thermore, it became more and more important to the individual that he be allowed
to own his own piece of land. This feeling combined with the government's need to
have land developed to supply goods reinforced the concept of private land owner-
ship. In addition, once an individual owned his land he could use it as he wanted.
The ethic that evolved in the United States is one that has viewed the ownership
and use of a parcel of land as a private matter.
3 Environmental Quality: The First Annual Report of the Council on Environmental Quality.
(Washington, D.C.: CEQ, 1970.) P. 165.
* Environmental Quality: The Second Annual Report of the Council on Environmental Quality.
(Washington, D.C.: CEQ, 1971.) P. 19.
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In a paper prepared for the Council on Environmental Quality, Roger Hansen asserts:
"This 'Frontier Ethic' is not largely different from the attitudes most Americans
have about land today: a commodity to be possessed, exploited, conquered."5 He
further states that,
America lacks a land ethic which generates consumer demand for housing
developments which are sensitive, responsible and responsive to the
social needs of humans and the organic needs of nature. It lacks an
ethic which its political leaders can utilize to enact appropriate
legislation and control mechanisms to direct and promote proper growth.
It lacks an ethic upon which the lending and financial institutions can
make judgments, not only as to economic viability of a development, but
also as to the environmental appropriateness of that development. And
it lacks an ethic upon which the planning, design and construction pro-
fessions can generate innovative plans compatible with the carrying
capacity of diverse, sensitive and beautiful ecosystems. It lacks an
ethic which recognizes that everything affects everything else.
This "Frontier Ethic" has pervaded our past thinking and actions. Nevertheless,
we have recognized, to a limited extent, that activities on a parcel of land can
affect adjacent property. Past techniques such as conditional fees and covenants
combined with the more recent devices such as zoning and subdivision regulations
give evidence to this recognition. However, the effects as perceived in the past
are reflected in the following objectives of zoning: (1) protection of property
values by requiring uniformity in each district; (2) exclusion of dangerous and
nuisance uses from residential districts; (3) prevention of the overexploitation
of land and the reduction of building density; (4) fostering public service effi-
ciency, e.g., preventing overcrowding at locations nearest transit facilities.6
In addition to not recognizing the enhancement and protection of environmental
quality as an objective, zoning and other land use controls have resulted in ad-
verse consequences, including: (1) the separation of people from employment op-
portunities; (2) the straining of transportation facilities and indifference to
the relationship of land use and traffic; (3) the distortion of the tax bases;
(4) the promotion of monotony; (5) the encouragement of poor architectural and
site design; (6) the frustration of areas with sewer, water, and public facilities
systems; (7) the administrative divorce of controls from planning; (8) the de-
crease of housing supply for the poor and an increase in its price; (9) the en-
couragement of tinkering with the mechanics of the various land use controls "to
prevent this or that from happening [while] the broad picture is sometimes blurred
in the process."7
The increasing pressures placed on a limited supply of land combined with an evolv-
ing new land ethic highlights the importance of identifying and describing the so-
cial, economic, and environmental effects associated with specific land uses. De-
veloping policy and controls need to address the environmental and ecological con-
sequences of land use activities on surrounding areas. The way property is used
should be a public concern when activities on the land have significant effects
on adjacent property. By shifting the emphasis of concern for land uses to the
performance of a specific use, we can begin to have better control over adverse
consequences and develop patterns of land use which are compatible with the envi-
ronment as well as with adjacent activities.
Land use planning and control has been concerned with environmental problems for
some time, though mostly at a very limited level, for example, the neighborhood
effects of noise, fumes and smoke. Today, however, environmental problems extend
throughout our urban regions and cross state and national boundaries. The magni-
tude of the problem requires new approaches for land use planning.
5 Hansen, A National Land Use Policy, p. 3.
6 Stephen Sussna, Land Use Controls. Urban Land Institute, Research Monograph No. 17, p. 6.
7 Ibid., p. 7.
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Planning for land use at all levels is one of the most important approaches for
achieving environmental quality, and the information that planning provides is a
key element for decisionmakers at each level of government. Certain planning ap-
roaches are more appropriate at one level than another. For example, performance
standards, erosion control regulations, open space requirements, pollution control,
urban design, renewal and historic preservation are of concern to all levels of
government but are more appropriately dealt with by one specific level.
Unless meaningful and effective land use controls and planning techniques are used
to assure that land use policies and plans are carried out to meet the new envi-
ronmental problems, the result will be haphazard and reckless development and a
continued degradation of the environment.
Significant actions are taking place at all levels of government which address the
land use issues. At the Federal level steps are being taken to pass a National
Land Use Policy Act.
States are beginning to pass land use legislation to implement land use policies
and plans. The legislation of the state of Hawaii is a good example of what can
be done in statewide land use regulation. The Hawaii Land Use Law of 1961 allows
for implementing planning on a statewide basis. A Hawaiian state administration
agency has the responsibility of designating broad basic land use categories (i.e.,
urban, rural, agricultural and conservation) for different parts of the state.
At the local level much needs to be done to assure that there is effective land
use action that is compatible with state and national goals. The controls at this
level should be specifically oriented to the unique problems of the area. They
should cover an area of appropriate size, have an effective administrative struc-
ture, and be compatible with state controls. Again to use Hawaii as an example,
the responsibility of local government is to provide detailed regulation shaping
the character of the permitted uses. County land use control powers are being
increased across the country but at a painfully slow pace. As the land use plan-
ning and control processes at this and other levels are accelerated every effort
needs to be made to assure cooperation between each level of government.
As we move forward to tackle the land use issues from the policy to the daily de-
cisionmaking levels, it is essential to understand what is happening to our envi-
ronment as well as to understand why and how it is happening.
To comprehend the relationship between the uses to which we put our land and their
effect on the environment, it is important to understand the interrelatedness of
land ownership patterns, land management goals and techniques, and land use con-
trols and how they, as the very basis for land use methods, affect the quality of
the environment.
Land Use History
In order to gain a better insight into present attitudes and practices, an under-
standing of the history of the land use and the land use ethic is necessary.
The Indians were first to make their mark on the American landscape. Private own-
ership was not a concept in their society: "The idea that land could be bought
and sold was an alien concept to the Indians of America. They clung possessively
to certain chattels, but lands were nearly always held in common. An individual
might have the use of a farm plot, but at his death it reverted back to the com-
munity."8 The environment changed little under Indian stewardship.
The colonists from Europe had quite a different view. They had seen their society
in Europe grow and transform with technological, political and social changes.
Their experience had included land ownership by some and servitude by others.
Though the feudal system was reaching its end, it was still very much in the minds
of the settlers. Owning land was a measure of wealth and, to them, was an end in
itself.
8 Stewart L. Udall, The Quiet Crisis. (New York: Avon Books, 1963.) P. 18.
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The new world had a two-fold effect on the settlers. The forest and the wilder-
ness represented a threatening force that had to be conquered if they were to feel
secure; it also represented the great vastness and abundances of resources that the
new land possessed.
The settlement patterns of the New England colonies and the southern colonies give
an insight into what was to come. In New England when a group of settlers wanted
to establish a new town they first obtained permission from the government and
then surveyed and prepared titles for the land. They established a common grazing
and meeting ground and built their houses around that area. They cleared the land
collectively and divided it up evenly by family. Such settlements had little or
no land speculation. Agriculture was the concern of the entire town and was not
the domain of a few large landowners.
The southern colonial establishment was quite different. Each man that settled
in the colony received 50 acres (called a headright). Those given headrights
could select their location. Surveying and the issuing of land titles were ignored
and thus land speculation became common practice. Headrights could be bought and
sold. This led to the assembling of lands into the large plantations so evident
in the south later in the century. The southern colonial methods and ethic pre-
vailed.
As the colonies developed they claimed western land that was yet unsettled. The
first controls imposed by state governments began in the colonial period, includ-
ing state government taxation of land, taking of private land for public purposes
and regulating laws on inheritance of land.
The Revolution had a great effect on evolving settlement patterns in the United
States. The new government was faced with heavy debts from the war and depreciated
currency. When the Union was formed, the colonies claiming vast quantities of
land to the west gave up their claims to the Federal government. It is important
to note that at the very basis of the new government was the firm belief in pri-
vate property. The question at the time wasn't whether, but how, the government
should dispose of its land to private citizens.
Land Disposal
The first method of disposition of public lands was through land sales, which be-
came a main source of revenue for the government. In the 1820s the sale of land
led to a high level of economic speculation. Land speculators at this time wanted
to accumulate large tracts of land along the Atlantic coast where values would be
highest. The settlers were more interested in the government opening and selling
land in the western areas.
Settlers began moving west faster than the government could survey and put the
land up for sale, and they were given priorities in the pre-emption act of 1841.
This act allowed the settlers to buy land on which they had already settled for
$1.25 per acre.
Land grants were also an important means of disposing of the federal lands. Grants
were given to support public education. Also, lands were given to the state.
Another type of land grant was of swamp and overflow lands, given to states
for the purpose of land improvement. This was based on the assumption that
the states would be better equipped to improve those lands than the federal
government. The states were in fact much less well placed to undertake the
large capital expenditures needed for extensive land reclamation. A great
deal of valuable cropland, subject to occasional overflows, was given to
states in this way; often the states sold this land at very low prices to land
speculators with political influence. Much of the central valley of Califor-
nia and the Mississippi Delta went this way; the acreages involved were
substantial.*
* Marion Clawson, The Land System of the United States. (Lincoln: The University
of Nebraska Press, 1963.) P. 61.
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Land grants were also made for various modes of transportation. Grants for roads
at this time were small, but lands granted to the railroads were substantial. The
government was more than generous with the railroads at this time simply because
they felt it was the best way to settle the country.
The following acts were passed in response to increasing pressure on the govern-
ment for free land:
Homestead Act of 1862 - provided 160 acres of land free of charge to settlers;
they had to reside on the land for five years before the title passed to them.
Many settlers claimed pre-emption rights after six months, bought the land
for $1.25 per acre, and then sold to land speculators.
Timber Culture Act of 1873 - gave 160 acres of land to an individual if he
would plant trees on one-quarter of the land.
Desert Land Act of 1877 - provided 640 acres to a settler if he would irrigate
one-eighth of it.
A series of land acquisitions accounted for the remaining land that was to make up
the continental United States as it is today: Louisiana Purchase, 1803; Florida
Purchase, 1819; Texas, 1845; Pacific Northwest, 1846; Pacific Southwest,1846;
Alaska, 1867. These purchases gave the United States the land area it has today,
with the exception of the extracontinental possessions.
Land Disposal Summary* (in Millions of Acres)
Total Land Area
Original Public Domain
Total Disposition, All Methods
Cash Sales, and Misc. Methods
Homesteads
Grants to States
Military Bounties and Private Claims
Railroad Grants
Timber Culture: Other Related Acts
1,904
1,442
1,031
300
285
225
95
91
35
Source: Clawson, Land System of the U. S., p. 65.
The Land Ethic
It is important to understand the land ethic that was established in the U. S. As
was mentioned earlier, there was never any question that land should not be private-
ly owned. How the land was used was up to the individual, despite the early con-
trols by state governments. Since land was plentiful and cheap a "use it up, throw
it away" attitude was established. There was always more land, more trees, more
water and more minerals. Land speculation became a common (and basically accepted)
practice in our early history. Much of this attitude still prevails.
Growth was an early goal of the United States. It was important to settle the west
quickly, and, thus, a plan for growth and settlement was not devised. Even after
the western lands had been settled, the concept of "planned growth" was held in
disdain.
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Non-Urban Lands
The historical perspective just discussed is needed to gain a better insight into
the way America uses its land today and the present land use ethic. A discussion
of our major non-urban land uses (agriculture, timber production, mining and out-
door recreation) will give a clear picture of how present land use patterns in
America affect the quality of our environment.
Agriculture
The prime factor in the development of the land disposition system in the United
States was the need to develop a strong agrarian society. The Homestead Act of
1862 provided 160 acres of farm land to a settler if he would cultivate the land
for five years. Only then did he receive title to the land.
There has always been the feeling in the United States that agriculture is the
backbone of the economy. Farm ownership, size and percent of land area in farms
has changed markedly and gives an insight into how our society has changed. In
1850 there were 1.5 million farms in the United States, 294 million acres in cul-
tivation with an average farm size of 196 acres. This represented only 15.6% of
our total land area.
In 1920 the number of farms had increased to 6.5 million, with a total acreage of
959 million acres. The average farm size, however, had decreased to 149 acres,
while precentage of land in farm use had risen to 42.2%.
There was a marked change from 1920 to the late 1950s. In 1959 the number of
farms had dropped to 3.7 million, but farm land area increased to 1,124 million
acres—165 million acres over the 1920 level. The average farm size had expanded
to 303 acres, while 49.5% of the United States' total land area was in farm use.
The trend has continued to fewer farms, with an increase in the average size.
The family farm ownership pattern changed as large corporations have found the
farming business more attractive.
With this shift in ownership, there has also been a shift in productivity. The
small non-commercial farms are 1/3 of total number, but account for only 5% of
total output, while the large commercial farms are only 10% of total number but
produce over 50% of total output.
Cropland was heavily exploited from the colonial period through the early 1900s.
"Exploitation of cropland continued unabated, perhaps increased, as settlement
spread across the country. Some lands were more easily eroded than others, and,
in some areas, wind was more of a threat than water. In nearly all areas, soils
when first cleared had fertility stored up through forest or prairie use over the
preceding centuries, which was quickly used up by cropping." *®
On the land we are currently using, "there are still millions of acres from which
soil losses are relatively great, and the steady erosion not only downgrades the
land but causes both immediate and long term damage to streams and other water
bodies. Wind also takes its toll."1*-
Even with our present intensity of agriculture we are not using all our best
available soils for agricultural purposes. The three top classes of soils are
defined: Class I—best soils; Class II—modest conservation practices needed;
Class III—more intensive conservation practices needed.
In 1967 we were using only 75% of our Class I soils for agriculture, 60% of our
Class II soils and 50% of our Class III soils.
Marion Clawson, America's Land and Its Uses. (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins Press,
1972.) P. 101.
11
Ibid., p. 103
-------
Agricultural Chemicals—On agricultural lands, there has been increasing pressure to
increase productivity, which has led to agriculture becoming a primary source of
environmental deterioration. "The disturbing fact is that in terms of sheer volume
of waste output, America's ranches, loggers and farmers—with a mighty boost from
the manufacturers of agricultural chemicals—are far and away the worst polluters
in the entire nation. Taken together, they are now (and probably always have been)
responsible for more water pollution than either the cities considered as a whole
or the rest of private industry combined."12
Agricultural chemicals (pesticides, insecticides, herbicides) are main contributors.
These synthetic organic pesticides have the distinction of concentrating in fatty
tissues as they move up the food chain. In one instance in Clear Lake, California,
DDT residues were concentrated 100,000 times in the plankton-fish-bird food chain.
Synthetic organic pesticides are classified in four main groups:
1. Non-persistent (parathion, EPN) - last from a few days to several weeks
before breaking down.
2. Moderately persistent (2, 4-D, atrazine) - last from one to 18 months be-
fore breakdown occurs; more dangerous.
3. Persistent (most chlorinated hydrocarbons - DDT, aldrin, dieldrin) -
persist in environment up to 5 years.
4. Permanent - these are based on toxic inorganic elements such as mercury
and lead; persist in the environment indefinitely.
The effect of these chemicals on the ecosystem is not completely known; certainly
some are much more dangerous than others. However, it is known that some "pesti-
cides have killed fresh and salt-water fish, contaminated marine invertebrates and
threatened whole species of animals, including the bald eagle. That is only the
beginning. Under laboratory conditions, some pesticides have been shown to pro-
duce cancers, birth defects and genetic mutation among rats, mice, hamsters, dogs
and monkeys."13
It is difficult to say exactly how much (in total volume) pesticide, insecticide
and herbicide is being used for agricultural purposes, but in 1968 the United
States produced 1.2 billion pounds of synthetic organic pesticides. Eighty per-
cent were used domestically, with agriculture being the heaviest user. The use
of pesticides in our country is still growing at the rate of 15% per year. At
this time there are approximately 900 types of pesticide in use in the United
States.
Agricultural chemicals can enter an ecosystem in a number of ways. When applica-
tion is by air, wind currents spread the chemical over a larger area than origi-
nally intended. The chemical then settles into streams and other bodies of water,
as well as on land used for nonagricultural purposes, and are transported even
further. In tests made in Antarctica, pesticide residues were found in animal
populations where there had never been any direct application.
When chemicals are applied by ground-level machinery there is still some disper-
sion by air currents, but the heaviest concentrations are absorbed by the soil.
In this case the chemicals are: (1) being absorbed by soil particles and washed
into streams by rain or irrigation; (2) being leaked down through the soil and
contaminating the ground water; and (3) persisting in the soil itself.
With the increase in the size of farms there has also been an increase in the acre-
age devoted to specific crops. Many large farms specialize in only one crop,
rather than varied crops. Economically this may be desirable, but ecologically
*•* David Zwick and Marcy Benstock, Water Wasteland. (New York: Bantam Books, 1971.) P. 94.
13 Philip Nobile and John Deddy, The Complete Ecology Fact Book. (Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday
& Co., 1972.) P. 293.
10
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it can be quite dangerous. When the ecosystem is simplified in this way it is
much less stable than normal. In diversity is stability. "The introduction of
pesticides into the system simplifies it further by eliminating many competing
species, often including those which prey on pests. With the natural system of
control of numbers so completely disturbed, pest control becomes dependent on
the use of chemicals. We become addicted to them."1^
This leads us into a very dangerous cycle. Over time, as insect strains mutate
and become resistant to the concentration of the chemicals being used, the farmer
is forced to either increase the concentration, increase the frequency and amount
of application or use a chemical that is more toxic (and many times more persis-
tent) . These alternatives all are very dangerous for the ecosystem.
There is also an added pressure on the farmer. American consumers have become
accustomed to "perfect" food (e.g., no brown spots, insect damage, etc.) and this
leads the farmer to pour more and more chemicals onto his land.
There has also been an increase in the use of nitrogen and phosphate fertilizer
in recent years. Fertilizer can greatly increase yield per acre in many areas,
but, in great quantities, can also cause problems. As the fertilizer is washed
from the lands into the lakes and waterways it increases the nutrient level of the
water, thus leading to a higher rate of eutrophication, higher turbidity level and
a decrease in water quality. There have also been accusations raised recently
that high levels of fertilizer act to destroy the bacteria that fix nitrogen,
thus leading to the degradation of the natural fertility of the soil. This point
is yet unproven.
The United States government has moved to control the use of some chemicals in
the environment. The Department of Agriculture has banned the use of DDT, aldrin
and dieldrin in aquatic environments. The Department of Interior has ceased using
aldrin, dieldrin and 2,4,5-T on 356 million acres of Federal land. However, this
represents only a fraction of the land on which chemicals are used today, and the
list of banned chemicals is very short.
Other Environmental Problems—There are other environmental problems associated
with agriculture of which many people are unaware. Agriculture is directly re-
sponsible for over 4 billion tons of sediment each year. For example, sediment
losses from row-type farming has been as high as 70,000 tons per square mile per
year. "Heavy siltation destroys aquatic life, damages industrial equipment (tur-
bine blades, for example), and can more than triple drinking water treatment costs.
When these solids settle, they clog harbors and shipping channels, and use up
reservoir storage capacity. (It has been estimated that 20% of the nation's water
supply reservoirs, numbering around 2,700, will have a useful life of less than
50 years at the present rate of siltation.) In some river basins—Washington, D.
D.C.'s Potomac River, for example—sediment dwarfs the impact of all other pol-
lutants combined."15
Soil particles are often saturated with pesticides, insecticides, herbicides and
fertilizers, thus adding to the water contamination problem. It is interesting
to note that it is projected that with present methods of soil conservation the
sediment loss from our agricultural lands could be cut by up to 95%.
With the change in ownership and size patterns of farms and ranches, animal waste
has become an alarming problem in the United States. In the past when cattle were
on the open range and density was low, manure fell to the ground, decayed and
wasn't a significant problem. With the shift toward holding pens and smaller and
smaller land areas used for holding livestock, the problem has greatly increased.
^ Sterling Brubakes, To Live on Earth. (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins Press, 1972.) p. Ill
15 David Zwick, Water Wasteland, p. 95.
11
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In the United States today, there are 107 million cattle, 3 million horses, 53 mil-
lion hogs, 26 million sheep and 490 million chickens. Together they produce over
1.7 billion tons of fecal waste. Unlike human sewage disposal, at the present time
there is little or no treatment of animal wastes. The Interstate Commission Report
on the Potomac River Basin in 1966 said, "Every time it rains. . . enormous amounts
of animal wastes are washed from farmyards into the river, rendering it unsafe for
swimming. . . . Although only a quarter-of-a-million people live in the river basin
above Great Falls (just a few miles above Washington, D.C.), it has been estimated
that the number of farmyard animals. ... is the (waste) equivalent of a human
population of 3.5 million. While most of the human population is served by some
sort of sewage treatment plant, there is no comparable treatment for animal wastes.1
As we are putting so much emphasis on controlling human sewage problems, it seems
ludicrous to be doing nothing about the environmental problems of animal waste.
Water is the major limiting factor in agriculture, especially in the western United
States. In the west there is a potential of 60-160 million acres of land that
could be used for agricultural purposes. At the present time the United States
Bureau of Reclamation has planned for 20 million acres of this land to be irrigat-
ed.
Though irrigation can vastly increase our agricultural production, there are also
environmental problems associated with the use of water. The problems of sedimen-
tation and pesticide contamination have already been mentioned, but there is
another major environmental problem associated with agriculture—water salinity.
As land is irrigated, the water percolates through the soil taking with it some
solids (mostly salts). "Salinity, the most important water pollution problem in
the Southwest, has been greatly aggravated by irrigation. . . . Once a river turns
salty, the surrounding area ceases to be attractive to industry, since saline
water is too corrosive to be used in industrial processes."16
Agriculture, of course, is vital to the United States. However, the health of the
environment in our agriculture areas is equally important.
Timber Production
Importance—The forest resource is one of the most important to the economic and en-
vironmental stability of the United States.
It acts as a regulator of stream flow and water quality in that it greatly affects
the amount of water runoff during times of heavy precipitation. In this way it
minimizes soil erosion and moderates stream flow by acting to decrease peak flow
during storm periods and increase flow during dry periods.
Forests also have an effect on climate, tending to deflect wind upward and influen-
cing air temperatures inside the forest area. Temperatures have a tendency to
have lower maximums and higher minimums inside the forest than outside.
Forage and cover for wildlife are also a function of the forest cover. The forest
understory is of great importance as a provider of browse and cover for animals of
all sizes.
Our timber lands, since World War II, have become a prime place for outdoor recrea-
tion. As population has increased, the amenity values provided by the forest have
become more important and, thus, use has increased dramatically.
Wood products have also played a major role in the economic well-being of our
country. Demand for wood products has risen steadily since World War II. By the
early 1960s economic activities related to the timber industry accounted for over
6% of the gross national product. This increasing demand, of course, has profound
effects on the way our timber lands are used.
16 Ibid., p. 99.
12
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Development of the Forest Resource—When the colonists arrived in the New World, forest
covered about one-half of the land area of the United States. It was the most tan-
gible resource to the colonists, but the sheer vastness of its quantity led them to
believe its supply would be inexhaustable. Since it was a renewable resource, the
concept of inexhaustability flourished leading to the widespread destruction of
large forested areas, especially in the eastern United States. Since there was no
market for the resource, what the colonists didn't use in their houses or farms
they simply burned.
As settlement moved west, and our country began to grow, land speculators began to
realize the monetary benefit that the forests would bring and so "millions of acres
passed into the hands of cattle syndicates, mining nabobs and speculators. The
railroads were the real giants, receiving immense domains as 'encouragement' to fi-
nance construction. Something like half the nation's forests were plucked into
private ownership."17
As the destruction and ownership changes of the forest continued, there became a
growing concern about such practices in the late 1800s In 1897 the Organic Act
was passed, establishing the National Forests for public ownership. However, at
this time, no funds were set aside for administration and therefore the management
was basically custodial in nature, i.e., stopping trespass cutting, extinguishing
forest fires, etc.
Up and through World War II most of the timber produced in the United States was
from private lands. Even in the late 1940s and early 1950s it was still a com-
mon practice for large landowners to denude their land of the forest resource, aban-
don or sell it and buy more forest land from the federal government. Even at this
time the concept of inexhaustability was prevalent and forests were looked at only
in terms of the value in board feet they could produce.
Ownership and Management— In 1963 there were 743 million acres of forest land in the
United States; 508 million acres were classified as commercial forest land (capable
of producing a certain amount of cubic feet of wood per year). Non-commercial
forest land occupied 235 million acres, or approximately one-third of the Nation's
total. Three-fourths of America's timber land is in the east and correspondingly
one-fourth in the west (most commercial hardwood species are in east and soft-
wood species in west).
Private Ownership and Management. Private ownership in the United States today is quite
varied. Because of early settlement patterns, much of private forest lands are in
the east, however most of the large timber companies are located in the west.
Large Timber Company Ownership. Today approximately 73% of our forest land is in pri-
vate ownership. The large corporate timber companies own a sizeable amount of land
acreage, totaling about 65 million million acres, larger than the combined land
area in the states of New York, Connecticut, and Massachusetts (International
Paper Company, Weyerhauser and Georgia-Pacific being the largest owners of forest
land). Yet, this area is only about 13% of the total forest land.
Management. Large timber companies are, as any company in the United States, con-
cerned with making a profit. This is not to infer that they have no regard for
what happens to their land? with the advent of the professional forester in the
middle 1900s, these lands have been managed intensively for continuing production.
Silviaultural Systems. The key land use decision to be made in forest management is
the silvicultural system to be used. Today there are two basic systems: clear
cutting and selection cutting.
In the clear cutting method, various sized patches of land are denuded of their
vegetation in harvesting and then either planted or allowed to be seeded by natur-
al means. Some tree species (i.e., Douglas fir) need this kind of environment
(large amounts of direct sunlight and bare mineral soil) to regenerate and prosper.
The most important aspect is the size and location of the clear cut area.
17. Land Use in the United States, edited by Grant S. McClellan, p. 127.
13
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The other silviculture system is the selection system. The forest is managed for
the maintenance of usually three classes of trees; periodically the area is har-
vested when the trees reach a specific size.
Management on lands owned by large timber companies is intensive as cutting cycles,
silvicultural systems, application of fertilizers, pesticides and herbicides are
calculated by a cost/benefit analysis. Many of these companies are working on the
development of genetic "super trees" that will grow faster and yield better quali-
ty wood. Most have extensive seed bed systems for growing seedlings before trans-
planting. The intensity of management of management practices on these lands will
increase as demand for wood products increases.
The Small Private Owner. Sixty percent of forest land is owned by small landowners,
most of whom don't manage their lands for forest production at all.
Today there is a large number of owners (4 million) who own small areas of forest
land (less than 100 acres each), yet this total area represents 24% of all forest
land in the United States. Taken together, all the small landowners, of less than
5,000 acres each, own a total of 60% of the forest land in the U.S., yet they
account for a very low output of wood products.
In 1969 Albert Worrel of Yale found that the small owners had a good proportion of
better than average land quality and could produce up to 4 billion cubic feet of
softwood per year. This figure represents about 40% of the total consumption to-
day. On two-thirds of the small owners' land, timber is harvested occasionally
but there is not any provision for future crops.
The problem the small landowner faces is basically that he does not have the
background in forestry nor the time to pursue it as an economic objective. When
he feels there might be enough timber on his land to harvest, he contracts the work
out. More times than not he is taken advantage of by the harvester (interesting-
ly enough called "gyppo loggers") whose economic gain is larger (proportionately)
and logging practices questionable.
The low productivity from small privately owned timber lands puts more pressure on
the larger timber companies to increase their output and therefore further inten-
sifies their management practices.
Controls. Forest practices on private lands are strictly regulated in only a hand-
ful of states. In most areas they are subject only to federal and state water and
air quality standards.
California provides an interesting example in the control of private forest land.
In the 1940s the California Forest Practice Act established a committee to regu-
late management practices on private forest land. The act established a committee
made up mostly of individuals that represented the timber producer's point of view.
In 1972, the act was ruled unconstitutional by the California Supreme Court for
two reasons: (1) specific standards were not set by the state legislature in the
original act, and (2) the committee represented only one viewpoint. There are pres-
ently two bills in the legislature that rectify these two points. Even today, how-
ever, "there exists a feeling among some owners and operators that state regulation
is too stringent and violates traditional private property rights."18
Federal Timber Lands. Public forest lands are concentrated mostly in the western
United States and account for roughly 19% of all commercial forest land.
Management. Public forest lands have a different management orientation than private
lands. In 1960, the Multiple Use and Sustained Yield Act was passed by Congress
1 8
T. F. Arvola, "State vs. Local Forest Practice Regulations in California," Journal of
Forestry. Vol. 68, No. 11, November 1970.
14
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declaring that the national forests "shall be administered for outdoor recreation,
range, timber, watershed, and wildlife and fish purposes." It also directed the
Secretary of Agriculture to manage the national forests for sustained yield and
multiple use. The Multiple Use Act of 1964 gave the same direction to the Bureau
of Land Management.
Basically, sustained yield means that timber growth should equal or be greater than
timber cut. In 1962, the annual growth was 1.6 times the annual cut. It is pro-
jected by the year 1990 they will be equal.
The questions of dominant use versus multiple use is being raised more frequently
today. The Multiple Use Act calls for use of national forests for a diversity of
uses with no use precluding or being more important than another. In June of 1970,
the Public Land Law Review Commission called for "dominant use" management on pub-
lic lands: management of public lands should recognize the highest and best use
of particular areas of land as dominant over other authorized uses." This would
set aside particular areas of land for a primary use, and only allow other uses if
they were compatible with that specified dominant use. Up to this point, Congress
has made no move to call for a dominant use rather than a multiple use doctrine.
Since Wor-ld War II, timber has increased in importance on our public lands and,
correspondingly, its management has changed markedly. According to the public land
law reviews commission's report, One Third of the Nation's Land; "Timber management
on public lands has progressed over the past few decades from primarily fire pro-
tection to the point where a variety of techniques, including controlled fires,
pesticides, herbicides, fertilizers, and mechanical equipment is used."
When timber is mature for cutting the Forest Service opens the harvesting operation
for bid. They are, by law, required to accept the highest bidder, without taking
into account other criteria.
The silvicultural system used on public lands has caused heated debate in recent
years. Much of the public feels that the selection system should be used exclu-
sively, as clear-cutting may not be compatible with other uses public lands are
supposed to provide. In recent years the public has taken a new interest in the
uses to which the federal government puts its forest lands.
Counteracting the public pressure on federal government management methods is the
pressure the large timber companies are exerting. Some of these companies have
over-cut their lands in an effort to meet the rising demand for wood products and
are relying more heavily on public lands as a source of material. "In 1900 all the
lumber used in the United States was cut from private lands. By 1950 about 15% was
coining from public lands. Since then the ratio has steadily increased until now
about 40% is from public lands."19
The Chief of the Forest Service said, "The softwood resources in private ownership
are being overcut and any sustained increase in log harvest in the west must . . .
come from public lands."
It seems likely that the Forest Service (as the largest timber land agency manag-
ing federal lands) has succumbed to industry pressure and, in essence, taken wood
production as the dominant use on their lands. The University of Montana studied
Forest Service management on the Bitteroot National Forest in Montana and found:
(1) Multiple use and not the guiding factor; (2) consideration of values as water-
shed, soil, recreation and wildlife were secondary in priority; (3) present man-
agement practices for timber production could not be justified economically; (4)
present harvest level was not leading to sustained yield; (5) multiple-use planning
cannot be successfully undertaken because of budgetary limitations on staffing; and
(6) there is not enough public involvement in Forest Service planning.
Gordon Robinson, "Responsible Forestry," Sierra Club Bulletin. Vol. 56, No. 10,
December 1971.
15
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Controls. The Forest Service itself decides when, how and how much timber should
be cut on federal lands under their jurisdiction. "Operating under laws requir-
ing that sustained yield and multiple use values be maintained on national forest
lands, the agencies periodically measure the total inventory of timber in each of
their working circles, their administrative units for timber management. They de-
termine the amount, growth rates, and condition of timber; from their findings they
then determine the 'allowable cut1 for each working circle. Allowable cut is the
amount of timber that can be sold annually under a timber management plan. It may
be more or less than sustained yield."20
Essentially, the Forest Service establishes and controls its own management prac-
tices. However, it should be noted here that both public and private lands are
subject to air and water quality laws.
Environmental Consequences of Timber Production--Water Quality. As pressure mounts
to increase yield (as it has in agriculture) there is a turn to the increasing use
of chemicals on the forest environment. In this environment, the chemicals have
a tendency to find their ways into the water systems relatively quickly because of
the increased run off rate of mountainous forest terrain. Fertilizers, herbicides,
pesticides and insecticides are all being used on our forests today (both public
and private). Dr. William Lawrence, who works for Weyerhauser, testified before
a House Committee on Agriculture that his company needed to continue the use of
2,4,5-T (an herbicide) in their brush control program. This same herbicide has
been banned on some federal lands. The same kinds of chemicals are being used on
forest lands as agricultural lands, and thus can have the same results.
Clear cutting, if practiced in the wrong areas, can lead directly and indirectly
to water quality problems. Stream flows can be altered drastically and sediments
yields can increase markedly if clear cutting is not practiced with the utmost
caution.
Logging itself is an inefficient process; unfortunately a better way of extracting_
the timber resource has not yet been devised. With present logging practices,
limbs, tops and broken surrounding vegetation are left lying on the ground after
logging is complete (basically for economic reasons).
In areas of heavy rainfall, this can be dangerous. The Pacific northwest is such
a region. In an area owned by Weyerhauser, Crown-Zellerbach, Rayonier, and Geor-
gia-Pacific there was heavy flooding in January of 1968. Many people believed
that poor logging practices worsened the flooding. The rivers were blocked with
debris, causing them to overflow their banks. In the summer of 1972, "the Washing-
ton State Department of Fisheries fined the Company (Weyerhauser) for hydraulic
violations when masses of debris, left over from a logging operation on a tree
farm, choked up Goat Creek in the same area. According to a fisheries department
employee, "there were literally hundreds of similar violations all over the state,
but we've just been forced to let most of them go by unchallenged." 21
Logging roads have a tremendous impact on water quality. In their construction,
they are a direct source of sedimentation but, more importantly, continue to be a
constant source of sedimentation over time. The heavy precipitation in forest
areas acts to continually erode the dirt logging roads. Since there is no over-
story to intercept the rain and snow as it falls, the dirt roads receive heavy
concentrations of precipitation and, thus, have high erosion rates.
The milling of logs itself is a producer of water pollution as bits of pulp and
organic wastes are many times discarded directly into streams without any form
of treatment.
16
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Air Quality. Sawmills have been a source of air pollution for many years as wastes
from many sawmill operations are simply burned in large incinerators. This caused
heavy air pollution problems in the Williamette Valley in Oregon where timber pro-
duction is of major economic importance.
The application of fertilizers, pesticides and herbicides by air also causes air
quality problems. At present this application method is being used both on lands
owned by large timber companies and also on federal lands.
Aesthetics. Recreational use of our timber lands has increased greatly in the last
20 years and with this increase the public is more aware of the aesthetic value of
the forest resource. Clear-cutting has come under fire for its effect on the
aesthetic quality of the environment. Logging itself has come under attack for the
same reason.
The Future—The timber production industry and the public are heading on a collision
course. The industry sees increasing per capita demand, increasing population, de-
creasing land suitable for production and reacts with management techniques to
improve productivity (clear-cutting, fertilizers, pesticides, etc.) that many
times have detrimental effects on environmental quality. The public, because of
increasing pressures in the city and more leisure time, is spending more of its
time in the forest environment, becomina aware of the environmental problems
created by timber production and reacting strongly in its desire to limit what
the timber producer (both public and private) can do on and to the land.
Mining.
It was necessary that the new nation become established as a viable, on-
going colony before minerals could really play any role in colonial development.
For this reason, they played a much different role in our early history than other
resources.
As the discovery of new and different uses for mineral resources continued, so did
the exploitation. With the invention of the cotton gin in 1793, the United States
began its period of mechanization, and as the country became mechanized, exploita-
tion increased rapidly.
The real exploitation of minerals started in the mid-1800s. One example was
hydraulic mining for gold in California: "The result of the hydraulic mining was
the massive movement of soil into the rivers that drained the Sierra Nevada. For
every ounce of gold collected, tons of topsoil and gravel were washed into the
river courses below. With the spring floods, clear streams became a chaos of
debris, rocks and silt; communities downstream were inundated with muck, and fer-
tile bottom lands were blanketed with mud and gravel. The town of Marysville
along the Yuba River, was forced to build ever-larger levees that rose higher than
the city's rooftops. In 1875, a big storm sent the Yuba over the levels and filled
the city with silt."22
Oil was another mineral resource that was "raided." Large oil strikes occurred in
the 1960s, and small oil boom towns (much like the boom towns in the gold area of
the Sierra Nevada in California) sprouted up. Because drilling technology was not
well developed and oil was believed to be formed in the earth continuously, about
3,000 barrels a day were wasted when an oil field was found. "The gushers went un-
controlled because early oilmen did not understand geology. Gushers caught fire,
oil was allowed to evaporate in earthen dams, or to escape down creeks and gullies
in an orgy of waste."23 In Spindletop, Texas, a gusher flowed uncontrolled for
nine days and lost 110,000 barrels of oil each day.
There was a tremendous waste of natural gas during the same period. At that time
the oil men didn't know that it was the pressure of the natural gas that brought the
oil to the surface, so they allowed the gas to escape into the atmosphere. All
through this period, they believed both oil and natural gas were being formed con-
tinuously under the earth's surface.
22 Steward L. Udall, The Quiet Crisis, p. 71.
23 Ibid., p. 72.
17
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There were many early disputes over oil and gas rights. Since oil is found in res-
ervoirs under the surface usually one or two wells would be enough to bring it all
to the surface, but the courts ruled that the resource belonged to anyone who could
capture it. This further led to the exploitation and waste of the resource.
By the 1900s mineral resources were being developed to satisfy the increasing de-
mand by machinery. This in turn led to more machinery and thus more demand for
minerals. The spiral grew and continued. "The great increase in the use of min-
erals as compared with agricultural and forest products is related in part to mech-
anization. Not only in industry and transportation, but in the home as well,
power-driven machines and applications require(d) both metals and fuels in large
quantities to maintain our way of life."24 This exponential growth has continued
until the present day.
The standard of living and defense requirements rely heavily on our mineral re-
sources. Our fuel resources are nonrenewable—once they are used they are gone
forever. Our metal minerals can be recycled, but at the present time a very small
percentage of our metals are recycled. The fuel and nonfuel mineral industries
have risen in importance in the United States until now they represent at least
one-third of the value of all the raw materials in the United States today; fuel
minerals contribute about $15 billion to the gross national product while non-
fuel minerals contribute about $7.5 billion.
We face the problem of shortages. The demand for minerals is increasing (both per
capita demand and total demand from an increasing population). "It is clear,
therefore, that the modern economy must rest upon geologic processes of the past;
in almost every case, the geologic processes that form ore bodies are not rapid
enough to meet the needs of an industrial society requiring large quantities of
materials."'1-' Thus, as time goes on, we are importing more and more—now at least
one-third—of our minerals.
Ownership of minerals is unique in that an owner may own a piece of land, but not
the minerals found there; he may own both surface and minerals or he may own only
the mineral rights. This has created conflicts between parties that have land and
mineral claims to the same land.
The minerals found on public lands are open to lease to private industry. Today
in the United States there are about 11.5 million acres of land being mined by
surface and underground methods (this does not include the oil and gas industry).
About half of this land is in private ownership, the other half in public owner-
ship (with the land in public ownership being mined by private companies). It has
been estimated that one-half of America's gas and oil, 40% of coal, 80% of oil and
40% of uranium lies under federal land. In 1965, the western public lands ac-
counted for 90% of the nation's copper, 95% of mercury and silver, 100% of nickel,
molybdenum and potash and 50% of lead.
The oil industry not only owns, but leases, vast amounts of land. Because of the
availability of public lands for leasing of mineral rights, outright ownership of
land with mineral deposits is not as crucial as ownership of other resources.
The main thrust of the policy on public lands is to provide for the exploration
and extraction of mineral deposits. The report to the President and Congress by
the Public Land Law Review Commission stated that "While the federal government
today retains the right to manage surface values on unpatented mining claims to
the extent the locator does not need them in his bona fide mineral efforts, there -
are presently no adequate regulations defining the relative rights of the federal
government and the locator. Furthermore, it is questionable whether such regu-
lations could be adequately enforced, since present law does not require written
notice of claim locations to land management agencies."
Basically there are four categories of laws that pertain to the use of minerals:
(1) common law, (2) state and local legislative action, (3) federal laws pertain-
ing to public lands, and (4) federal and state laws pertaining to mining opera-
tions.
Guy-Harold Smith, Conservation of Natural Resources. (New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1971.) P. 374.
25
Ibid., p. 378.
18
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All operations are subject to federal water and air quality regulations, but more
specific regulations are rather vague and scattered. Eight states have statutes
regulating and controlling strip mining and only nine states have laws specifical-
ly regulating private mining practices. Locally, controls are sometimes enforced
in the form of zoning ordinances deciding whether mining operations should be per-
mitted and how. This pertains mostly to sand and gravel operations as they are
normally located near urban centers.
Even in federal and state water quality laws (which basically is the area in which
control could be enforced), strict control is lacking. "Pollution control laws
have never shed their point-source bias. Typically, the laws do not give control
authorities any right to intervene unless they can trace a pollutant in the river
back to the polluter who dumped it in. Many state laws prohibit dumping mine
wastes directly into a stream. But there is nothing illegal about just letting
them drain away."26 It is also true that water quality laws only pertain to ac-
tive mines and don't cover inactive or abandoned mines where the water pollution
problem is severe.
Environmental issues concerning mining practices have moved to the forefront in
recent years. There have been discussions in many areas concerning banning strip
mining completely, both on private and public lands. Before environmental issues
relating to mining can be dealt with effectively, it is imperative to understand
the very basis of the industry itself. The Department of the Interior, in its
report, "Surface Mining and Our Environment," said: "it was, and still is, ac-
cepted practice to mine as cheaply as possible the deposits that arc most access-
ible and provide the greatest profit to the producer. This preoccupation with
short-term gain too frequently has ignored the long-term social costs involved—
the silted streams, the acid-laden waters and the wasteland left by surface mining.
Thus, valuable mineral resources have already been lost and several million acres
of productive land and waters have been left derelict." The economics of the
operation is the guiding force in decisionmaking.
Surface mining methods have a tremendous impact on the environment and thus have
come under the heaviest attack. In the same report, the Department of the Inter-
ior went on to say that "Surface mining destroys the protective vegetative cover,
and the soil and rock overlying the mineral deposit is frequently left in massive
piles cast onto adjoining land. The result is a drastic reshaping of the surface,
an alteration of normal surface and sub-surface drainage patterns. Square miles
of land may be turned over to a depth of 100 feet or more and valleys rimmed by
mile after mile of contour benches. Massive landslides have blocked streams and
highways, waters have been polluted by acid and sediment, land areas isolated and
economic and aesthetic values seriously impaired."
Of the surface mining methods, open pit mining accounts for 35% of the total,
while strip mining methods account for 50%, and auger, dredging and hydraulic min-
ing make up the other 15%. In the open pit method when the overburden is piled
in waste areas it is a prime source of sedimentation. Since there is little or no
vegetative cover to block the rain or hold the soil in place, much of it is washed
into nearby streams. Many times the spoil banks also have a large amount of low
grade ore in them. These account for leaching of minerals that contaminate both
the groundwater supply and streams directly. Waste piles can also be a source of
air pollution with the dust and mineral particles being swept up with air currents.
Aesthetic considerations are also important. Over 60% of the surface mines in
operation are in full view of public use areas. In the Mesabi Range in Minnesota,
there is an iron ore formation approximately 120 miles long and three miles wide.
With present open pit methods it not only is an eyesore but may very well turn
into a mineral-laden lake or canal.
Strip mining also adversely affects the environment. Coal strip mining accounts
for about 41% of the land area disturbed by surface mining. "Spoil stacked at the
outer edge of a bench, unless properly drained, causes water to accumulate on the
bench between the spoil and the highwall. This accumulated water often becomes
polluted and may overflow at the lowest point along the shoulder of the spoil bank
26 David Zwick and Marcy Benstock, Water Wasteland, p. 114.
19
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during heavy storms, resulting in washout, erosion and stream pollution."
Area strip mining leaves spoil banks of 50 feet high and 50 to 100 feet apart.
Here again erosion and leaching are tremendous problems basically because of the
waste disposal system.
When coal is mined by surface methods it poses another type of water pollution
problem. Sulfur-bearing minerals are normally found associated with coal. When
they are exposed to air and water they form sulfuric acid which, in high concen-
trations, is toxic to all aquatic life. At the present time, 5,800 miles of
streams and 29,000 surface acres of lakes are affected by coal mining operations.
On coal mined in Appalachia by surface methods it has been found that sediment
yield is at least 100 times greater than it is normally.
Iron also causes heavy acid leaching and can be fatal to fish and other aquatic
life. Certain bacteria are able to obtain energy by changing iron from one ox-
idation state to another (ferrous to ferric). With an unlimited amount of iron
they multiply greatly, their by-product being an orange-red precipitate, the
acidity of which is caused by sulfuric acid.
Dredging in streams and shallow lakes results in the complete upheaval of the bed
and in tremendously large quantities of sediments. The effects of sedimentation
has been discussed earlier, but with the removal of sand and gravel in dredging,
there are further environmental considerations. The destruction of spawning
sites for fish and the widening of stream channels which changes stream velocity
and water temperature are two major effects.
Hydraulic mining also increases sediment load of rivers by washing tons of soil
from the hillsides directly into stream beds. Because of the use of hydraulic
mining in the Sierra Nevadas in California for gold, shoals have been created off
the Golden Gate at San Francisco due to the tremendous increase in sediments
carried by the rivers to the Bay and out the Gate.
The basic effects of surface mining are:
1. Air pollution in the form of dust from waste piles.
2. Land pollution; only 50% of the land used for strip mining is returned
to its original cover; 25% of the spoil material was fit for agricultural use.
Because reclamation of surface mined areas is not required in most states, large
areas still lay barren, even after deposits have been long exhausted. It has been
reported that about one-third of the abandoned surface mines have turned into make-
shift junkyards.
3. Water pollution in the form of sedimentation and acid drainage.
4. Aesthetic: surface mined areas are abominations to behold.
Underground mining operations are also a source of environmental problems. Acid
drainage is not unique to surface mining; this problem plagues underground mines
also. The major problem of acid drainage in underground mines comes from areas
that have been abandoned and not plugged. Abandoned underground mines today ac-
count for 60% to 80% of total acid drainage. Current operations are also a source:
"A study by the U. S. Bureau of Mines completed in 1969 showed that in two-thirds
of all active mines, water that has drained into the mine is pumped back up to
the surface and discharged directly into an adjacent stream. At the time of the
Bureau's investigation only 16% of this discharge water was being given treat-
ment. "28
There are, however, available techniques that could conceivably decrease mine
drainage by up to 70%: improved mine design, plugging holes in mine surfaces,
diverting underground and surface water courses around instead of through mines,
27 Ibid., p. 111.
28 Ibid., p. 111.
20
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pumping water out and neutralizing it with chemicals before disposal and pluggina
inactive mines. These techniques could be used but are not, basically because
they are not economic.
Processing, which many times takes place at the mine site, generates large amounts
of waste materials, uses tremendous amounts of water and chemical agents and pro-
duces about 3.5 million tons of sulfur dioxide each year (accounting for .2% of
total atmospheric sulfur pollution).
Subsistence is an effect of underground mining that is far reaching. After the
large amounts of minerals are extracted from beneath the surface, the earth has a
tendency to re-distribute itself and fill the cavities left by mining. Two million
of the eight million acres in underground mining have been affected by subsistence
(ninety-five percent of this two million acres is in coal production). This
change in the very structure of the land has adversely affected land values, dam-
aged crops and altered drainage patterns. In urban areas it has caused buildings
to cave in, pipelines to break and pavement to collapse.
Solid waste is a particular enigma. There have been a total of 18.5 billion tons
of material removed from underground mines that have been spread over 1.8 million
acres of surface area. The copper industry has been the biggest culprit as a
source of solid waste.
Air pollution from tailing piles can be dangerous, especially where radioactive
uranium is being mined. Air currents pick up dust and small mineral particles and
spread them for miles, falling on both urban and rural areas. Smoke from under-
ground mine fires is also a contributor to the air pollution problem.
Oil and natural gas production, though they take the least land space of all meth-
ods of extraction, are not without effects on the environment. "In the process of
oil drilling on land, between 10% and 90% of production will be brine. The salt
content of this fluid is so highly concentrated that it cannot be put into the
sewer or storm drain system or dumped into the ocean. It cannot be economically
treated for disposal because of its toxicity to the treatment process and inor-
ganic composition. Therefore the city (Los Angeles) requires that it be put back
into the ground."29
The brine is pumped back into the ground and contaminates ground water supplies
and finds its way into streams and other bodies of water.
Subsistence occurs with the extraction of large amounts of fluid and natural gas
in the oil drilling process. Other environmental effects of oil and gas extrac-
tion are: (1) spills from drilling, (2) seepage from oil bearing materials near
the surface when the area is disturbed, (3) air pollution from fires that occur
during drilling operations, (4) aesthetics concerning the number of wells placed
on the landscape (because of the reservoir structure one or two wells is usually
sufficient to drain a reservoir).
The transportation of oil and gas has recently been in the public view because of
oil spills in ocean waters and also because of the proposed Alaska pipeline. The
proposed pipeline would disrupt permafrost conditions and impede migrations of
certain wildlife species and thus has come under fire from many conservation
groups. Its future is unclear at the present time.
Mining and mineral extraction, by nature, is a disruptive process. As long as
economic considerations are the only guiding force, environmental problems associ-
ated with this use of land will multiply.
Outdoor Recreation
In the last 50 years outdoor recreation has become an important part of the Amer-
ican life-style. As the pace of living increases and the pressures of society
2' "An Environmental Conservation Element for the Los Angeles City General Plan,"
City of Los Angeles Planning Department, 1970, p. 98.
21
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mount, the American is finding greater and greater need for outdoor recreation.
"The term recreation implies that the participant is recreated in some aspect—
physically, psychologically, spiritually, or mentally; that he becomes revitalized
and more ready to cope with his trials. In order to qualify as recreation, an
activity must do something desirable to the participant. It must enrich him and
add joy and satisfaction to an otherwise routine day."30
Outdoor recreation is a different type of land use than has been previously dis-
cussed here. There are many different types of recreation activities—from ski-
ing to hiking, from sightseeing to pleasure driving. Because of its very nature
outdoor recreation can and does have far reaching environmental effects.
The effect on the environment of outdoor recreation as a land use depends greatly
on the intensity of use. There are a number of major factors that affect the lev-
el of outdoor recreation in the United States today:
Work Leisure--"While the prescription to work remains strong, changing values and
conditions increasingly challenge the work ethic. For needs unfulfilled by the
job, Americans look to their non-work lives. Outdoor recreation represents one of
the most popular uses of leisure time yet as millions of people seek enjoyment
from the outdoors, they affect their natural surroundings. Leisure, just as work,
can thus have environmental consequences."31
In 1850 the work week was 70 hours; in 1940 it had decreased to 40 hours; soon, it
is likely it will decrease again to a 36~hour week. This leaves a great deal of
time in which an individual can engage in outdoor recreation activities.
Paid holidays and longer paid vacations are having a profound effect on outdoor-
recreation. Longer paid vacations are allowing people to go farther and stay
longer.
Population Characteristics —The effect of increases in population on the physical envi-
ronment is obvious. The more people there are in a given area pursuing a certain
activity, the greater the effect on the environment. The population of the United
States has increased greatly since the turn of the century. Our population is
growing at the rate of about 2 or 3 million people per year. The United States
Commission on Population predicts that by 1975 there will be 235 million people
living in this country. This increase, considered by itself, would increase out-
door recreational activities and correspondingly have a greater degrading effect
on the environment.
Age breakdown also has an effect in that younger people and older, retired people
engage in outdoor recreation the most. In 1940, 25% of the population was 15 and
under; by 1969 it was 34%. In 1940, 10% of the population was 60 or older; by
1969 the percentage had risen to 15%. This change in age distribution coupled
with the increase in population has the effect of greatly increasing the demand for
outdoor recreation.
Disposable Income—As income rises, an individual will be able to spend a larger per-
centage on luxury items, or on items that are not directly needed for his daily
physical sustenance. Per capita (and disposable) income has risen in the last
forty years. In 1930, per capita income was $1224; by 1970 it had increased to
$2800. With higher income the population can afford to travel farther to reach
recreation areas that were before inaccessible to them for economic reasons.
They also can afford to purchase and spend more in pursuit of recreational activi-
ties. In 1967, Americans spent $9-6 billion on recreation equipment. In 1970,
they spent close to $18 billion.
30 Clayne R. Jensen, Outdoor Recreation in America. (Minneapolis: Burgess Publishing Com-
pany, 1970.) P. 9.
31 Lewis B. Kimmelman, "Introduction." In Outdoor Recreation and the Environment. Report for
Summer Fellows Program, Environmental Protection Agency, 1972, p. 4.
22
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Availability—Non-urban recreation areas are more available today because of the
increased mobility of the American people. More people own cars (1 car for every
2.8 people), there are more highways and freeways (up 30% since 1960) and more
money is being spent on travel (today $25 billion spent on travel). Thus, it is
easier and faster to get from one place to another today. For example, to get
from San Francisco to Lake Tahoe (a high-use non-urban recreation area for north-
ern California) used to take about 5 1/2 hours in the late 1950s. Today it takes
about 3 1/2 hours. Weekend trips of hundreds of miles are now a reality and natur-
ally the pressure on the far away non-urban recreation areas increased.
Urbanisation—There has been a mass migration to the city in recent years. In 1950,
64% of the population lived in urban areas; by 1980 about 80% of our people will
live in the cities. "In spite of many advantages enjoyed by city dwellers, there
is much criticism of the large cities as places to live and work. They are at-
tacked for their inherent ugliness, lack of order and unity, congestion, condi-
tions of poor sanitation and lack of open space."32 This pressure leads to more
weekend recreation activity and, for those who can afford it, two homes—one in
the city and one in the country.
Education—There is also a relationship between education and outdoor recreation,
which is basically two-fold: (1) the higher the education, the larger the income
and, thus, more money for recreation activities; (2) the higher the education, the
more a person is apt to appreciate the spiritual and philosophical value of "get-
ting back to nature."
Automation and Technology—"Needless to say, the new mode influences what we do for
outdoor recreation, where we go for it, and how much time we spend doing it. In
some cases, automation and technology have almost made outdoor living more conven-
ient than staying at home and have opened new avenues in recreation pursuits. For
example, some of the popular outdoor recreation activities now enhanced are speed
boating, water skiing, camping, hunting and fishing and snow skiing. Without the
modern devices our outdoor recreation patterns would be quite different from what
they are now."33 The "new conveniences" that we are using also have an effect on
the environment: off-road vehicles, new mobile homes, etc., have a tendency to
intensify the effect the individual has on the environment while he is pursuing
his outdoor recreation interests.
These factors together have led to an explosion of outdoor recreation activity
since World War II. A study in 1966 gave the breakdown of activity and man hours
as follows:
Activity
Million Man Hours
Travel for pleasure
Visits to public outdoor
recreation areas
Fishing in all areas
Hunting in all areas
Boating of all kinds
5,330
10,895
1,500
1,125
600
Each of these factors (population, income, availability, urbanization, education,
automation and technology), taken alone, would increase demand for outdoor recrea-
tion; taken together they have almost a multiplying effect. The demand for out-
door recreation has increased greatly since World War II. On public lands, the
demand for recreation, measured in total number of visits, looks like the follow-
ing table.
32
33
Clayne R. Jensen, Outdoor Recreation in America, p. 39.
Ibid., p. 52.
23
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Agency
Total Visits (in millions)
National Parks
State Parks
Corps of Engineer
Reservoirs
National Forests
TVA
1960
90
300
120
90
55
Projection for
50,000
52,000
800,000
800
7,400
2000
The private sector provides such recreation as resorts, dude ranches, campgrounds,
ski areas, vacation farms, boat and yacht clubs. A Bureau of Outdoor Recreation
study has shown that last year private recreation facilities had a total of
1,181,125,896 patrons. Of these people, 70,751,023 stayed overnight at the facil-
ities. In both the public and private sector we are facing a staggering increase
in the demand for outdoor recreation.
In non-urban areas, outdoor recreation areas have been classified by Marion
Clawson:3*
Item
Type of Recreation Area
General location
Major type of
activities
When major use occurs
Typical size
Common types of
agency responsi-
bility
Intermediate
Resource-Based
Must not be too remote from
users; on best resources
available within distance
limitation
Camping, picnicking, hiking,
swimming, hunting, fishing
Day outings and weekends
A hundred to several thou-
sand acres
State parks; private
Where outstanding resources
can be found; may be dis-
tant from most users
Major sightseeing; scienti-
fic and historical interest;
hiking and mountain climb-
ing; camping, fishing and
hunting
Vacations
Usually some thousands of
acres, perhaps many thou-
sands
National parks and national
forests primarily; state
parks in some cases; pri-
vate, especially for sea-
shore or major lakes
With increasing demand as it now stands, supply of intermediate and resource-based
areas is critical. "The rapid growth in outdoor participation has occurred upon
a supply of land and facilities which have not kept pace with demand . . . while
the supply is expandable, there are ultimate limits to the amount of seashore,
parks, and resort developments that can be established. Recreation will be compet-
ing with a host of other land uses for increasingly scarce open space. Thus,
34
Marion Clawson, America's Land and Its Uses, p. 72.
24
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existing lands and facilities must be preserved as a reusable resource, one that
satisfies each user's needs over years and even generations."35 A close look at
the total acreage in the public and private sector will give a premonition of the
effect that skyrocketing demand will have on the environment. The public recreation
land breakdown is:
Federal Agency
Millions of Acres
Bureau of Land Management
Forest Service
National Park Service
Fish and Wildlife
Other Agencies
Total
117.8
164.9
15.2
0.2
40.4
406.5
The total supply of state parks, state forests and county parks is about 25 million
acres, bringing total public recreation land area to about 432 million acres.
Two things must be pointed out here. First, nearly 96% of the land the Federal
government owns is located in the 17 western states, while our largest population
centers are located in the eastern part of the United States. While the state
park system will relieve some of this pressure, it represents only about 5.5% of
the total acreage of public land. Secondly, even with the vast acreage of public
land it must be remembered that recreation activity is very localized by the level
of recreation development. For instance of the 164.9 million acres of national
forests available for recreational use, the Forest Service has identified only
14 million acres for recreation; and only 70,000 acres are in improved sites.
When projections of demand for the year 2000 (800,000 million visitors) are exam-
ined against supply, the impact on the environment could indeed be awesome. The
national parks are in the same situation: a projected demand for the year 2000 of
50,000 million people and a total acreage of 15.2 million acres (with most of the
use concentrated on a much smaller area than that).
The Bureau of Outdoor Recreation study found that there are about 30,025,200 acres
in private recreation land, and it is safe to assume that the demand will be in-
creasing (although perhaps not as fast as for public land because of the price
structure). "Problems of maintenance of the outdoor recreation experience are not
limited to public areas. The operator of a private campground is under consider-
able temptation to squeeze in a few more campsites and to admit a few more campers,
for often his profits seem to lie in a little larger volume of business; his costs
do not rise as fast as his income, when intensity of use rises. Or he may be
tempted to erect advertising signs to draw in larger numbers of visitors, even
though these signs disfigure his landscape. In each case, he may achieve a short-
run monetary gain at the expense of a long-run loss in quality. Pressure to meet
his competition may also lead him to manage his recreation resource in ways that
he would otherwise not choose."36
The partial answer may seem to lie in the expansion of the intermediate areas that
are closer to the population centers. Another opportunity might be the opening up
of private forest and ranch land to the public.
There are certain types of controls over recreation land use. In the private sec-
tor there are zoning laws establishing where and what kinds of land use activities
can take place. Once a facility is established it is subject to federal, state
and local air and water quality laws. Basically, however, the private recreation
industry is one that, so far, has not been the focus of attention for legal land
use controls directly aimed at this kind of land use.
" T^wis B. Kimmelman, Outdoor Recreation and the Environment, p. 11.
3^ Marion Clawson, America's Land and Its Uses, p. 85.
25
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The public sector has a different framework. Recreation is one of the multiple
uses established in The Multiple Use and Sustained Yield Act of 1960. When the
recreation boom started to be felt by public agencies the answer was to meet de-
mand with an increasing supply—new campgrounds, new wilderness areas, new roads,
etc., hoping to keep up with the demand. Agencies have had some control over the
area where recreation activities would take place by their placing of improvements
and facilities. However, in recent years they have come to realize that it will
be impossible to build enough facilities to meet the increasing demands, so they
have been forced to consider controlling the number of people who use existing
facilities. Federal agencies are now using pricing in some areas, i. e., national
parks, national forest campgrounds, etc. There have been arguments with this
method because of its effect on low income families. Other controls that are being
considered and tried on a limited basis are rationing (certain number of visits
per year), reservations, first-come-first-served, permits, closing areas, etc.
The ultimate effect these types of controls will have on the demand and use of
facilities and the public reaction to them is uncertain.
As the use of outdoor recreational facilities has increased there has been a cor-
responding decrease in the quality of the environment. "The problem of deterio-
ration of both the environment and the recreation experience due to overcrowding
has reached crisis proportions in many recreational parks and is likely to occur
more frequently in wilderness areas in the future. Annual visits to Yosemite
National Park have risen from 640,000 in 1946 to 2.3 million in 1969- On Memorial
Day weekend in 1969, over 70,000 visitors and their vehicles entered the 7 square
miles of the Yosemite Valley floor. This kind of pressure destroys natural envi-
ronment and reduces the quality of a park visit for most people caught in the
traffic jam. Similarly, the impact of concentrated uses, carelessness, and lit-
tering are destroying the undisturbed character and the fragile ecosystems of some
portions of visits in the wilderness system."37
The major factor in the degradation of the environment is the intensity of use in
a limited area. Most outdoor recreation use is concentrated around water sources
and constructed facilities (campgrounds, trails, etc.) resulting in a heavy impact
on a small part of the total environment set apart for recreation purposes.
Air pollution as a problem in recreation areas is on the rise, especially in areas
that are located in pockets. Yosemite Valley is facing this problem from the
automobiles in the park and also from the smoke from thousands of campfires. As
recreation demand increases, more roads are built, allowing for more automobiles
which serves to increase the problem.
Water pollution is another problem that is related to outdoor recreation. Since
many recreation activities are water oriented, contamination of water supplies is
an ever increasing issue. In areas that do not have toilet facilities, the sewage
created by the human population is affecting water and ground water supplies.
There are many environmental consequences of water sports, including oil and gas
leakage from motorized boats, sewage, and litter.
Noise pollution also is a question that plagues many recreationists. With the
number of motorized vehicles, and the use of electric generators, portable radio
and stereo sets, etc., there seem to be very few places to turn for peace and
quiet, a valuable part of the recreation experience for many people.
Perhaps the biggest issue, however, is the effect of recreation on the land.
Campgrounds are faced with the removal of tremendous amounts of vegetation simply
from regular use by the recreationist. "Too many people can have serious phys-
ical impacts on an area—the human foot can be as destructive as the bulldozer
if there are too many feet. . . . There is grave danger that preoccupation with
37 One Third of a Nation's Land, a report to the President and the Congress by the U. S. Public
Land Law Review Commission, 1970, p. 207.
26
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rising number of visitors will obscure what is happening to the quality of the
area and of the recreation experience."38 Since so many campgrounds are located
on streams and lakes the sedimentation and erosion problems created by the loss
of vegetation are increasing at an alarming rate.
Many areas that are used for recreation have very fragile ecosystems. Wilderness
areas fall in this category. The Outdoor Recreation Resources Review Commission
in its report of 1962 said that "recreation misuse and overuse are most evident
along major trail systems and camping sites, and comprise a significant problem
at favorite campsites in nearly every wilderness area. The soil and vegetation in
many wilderness reservations are considerably more fragile and sensitive to human
use than lands having deep soils and long growing seasons. Adequate meadow acre-
age for saddle and pack stock grazing, or sufficient quantities of dead trees and
litter are not always available to sustain continuous camping use of a wilderness
site in a single season. . . . One important value of a wilderness tract derives
from its having never been seriously violated. Almost by definition, therefore,
wilderness cannot be restored to the point where it provides all values. . . . The
time required for restoration is considerable; the process cannot be forced. And
it varies with location of a tract, its indigenous flora and fauna, its micro- and
macro-climatic^conditions, its accessibility and the condition from which resto-
ration begins." It is evident, especially in areas with fragile ecosystems, we
are changing the face of the earth with our recreation patterns.
With the introduction of the off-road vehicle to recreation areas there have been
cries of protest. Not only are they sources of air, noise and land pollution,
they are also having a detrimental effect on the psychological experience of other
users. There is nothing as depressing to the backpacker than to see, hear and
smell the mini-bikes and tote goats as they speed up the trail. However, there
are moves now to limit the use of such vehicles to specific areas.
Degrading environmental effects are not limited only to public areas. Private
recreational enterprise, because of their economic view of recreation, also have
contributed. Ski areas have long been sources of erosion and sedimentation.
Aesthetic values have also been affected by the large barren areas that are seen
when snow is net on the ground. For years Heavenly Valley (a ski area on the
southern shore of Lake Tahoe, Nevada) has been one of the biggest sources of sedi-
mentation and erosion in the Lake Tahoe region.
Coastal Areas. Coastal areas, since the very beginning of our country, have been
places where people have congregated. In 1940, coastal states had roughly 81% of
the total population. In 1970, about 85% of our population lived in coastal
states. With the increasing number of people moving to coastal states, coastline
recreation has increased tremendously. National seashores have felt this in-
creasing pressure, as they are prime places for shoreline recreation.
In the 20 year period from 1934 to 1954, the Department of Interior found that use
had increased from 5,000,000 to 61,000,000 on New York public beaches. As in other
forms of recreation, demand is increasing rapidly, but shoreline areas are really
feeling the "crunch" because of their very close proximity to large metropolitan
areas.
Ownership patterns (and their accessibility to the public) play a major role on
the impact of this use. Federal, state and local governments own only about 14%
of the shoreline in the United States (excluding Alaska). Public recreational
use, therefore, is concentrated on a very small area of land.
Coastline areas suffer a high level of erosion. In a national assessment of
coastline erosion, the Corps of Engineers found that of the 84,240 miles of shore-
line (excluding Alaska), 20,500 miles showed significant erosion, 2,700 miles
showed critical erosion, 17,800 miles showed non-critical erosion while 63 740
miles were non-eroding.
38
Marion Clawson, America's Land and Its Uses, p. 83.
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The introduction of dune buggies has acted to alter the dune system, destroying
vegetation and changing the dune structure. Other recreational activities also
have a degrading effect.
As time goes on there is an increase in conflicting uses of coastline areas.
Industry, oil and power companies are finding the coastline more attractive for
the siting of their facilities. Second home developments are also rapidly in-
creasing in coastline areas. The increase in commercial, municipal and private
usage has two effects on recreation and the environment. First, access to the
seashore has been greatly reduced by the large amounts of land in private holdings.
Second, these uses are sources of environmental problems themselves. Municipal
areas are dumping their sewage into offshore areas creating water pollution prob-
lems. "Adding to this problem of human waste, chemical pollution from industry
as well as thermal pollution from power plants, it becomes evident that something
must be done. Thermal pollution, because it is still at a low level of damage and
because much research is being done on it, may not be too hard to control. How-
ever, nutrient pollution from domestic wastes and public chemical pollution have
the potential to damage much of the Bay and its tributaries."39 These factors
result in less coastline suitable for recreation purposes and thus, areas that are
suitable and pollution-free will face large demand from recreationists and, in
turn, suffer heavy environmental consequences.
There are very few controls on the use of land or on our nation's coast. However,
in November of 1972 California passed a Coastline Conservation Referendum estab-
lishing a number of coastline conservation and development commissions. Land from
high tide mark to.1000 feet inland will be subject to their planning and control.
Second Home Developments, Second home recreational developments have been an
increasing phenomenon in the last ten years. The same factors that have led to
the increase of outdoor recreation have also led to the increase in second home
recreational developments (indeed, owning and vacationing at a second home should
be considered a type of recreation itself).
The development process that land development companies themselves use gives a
good insight into the attitude toward the land and the environment. The first
thing a company does is to find a large section of land that is not zoned or not
zoned for high density use. They then buy up all the land in that area, usually
for a small percentage of what will be their sales price to prospective customers.
"Once the options are all in for the purchase of the land, the developer then
moves into more serious planning and preparations, investing in necessary prelim-
inary engineering, drawing of maps, borrowing of money, and preparing the local
community. First, there are discreet enquiries as to whether the local business
community wants such a development, usually coupled with glowing goldmine esti-
mates of the trade that will accrue to them. Then comes the assault on the local
planning commission or board of supervisors."^
Even at this point the local planning commissions rarely have the expertise, staff
or money to make a complete study of the proposed development. Meanwhile, the
developer brings in his battery of experts assuring the planning commission that
the proposal is a good one economically and environmentally. In order to get the
development approved, the land has to be re-zoned for density development, the job
of the local planning authorities.
One of the main arguments used by developers is, of course, economic. They say
that with the expanded tax revenue base the community will be much better off
economically. But, if the development is not successful, the local community is
3" Keith Bildstein, "Coastline Recreation." In Outdoor Recreation and the Environment. Report
for Summer Fellows Program, Environmental Protection Agency, 1972, p. 20.
40 Power and Land in California; The Ralph Nader Task Force Report on Land Use in the State of
California. (Washington, D.C.: Center for the Study of Responsive Law, 1971.) p. IV-22.
28
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stuck paying for the new roads, new sewers and new water lines. In one northern
California county "there is a 28% delinquency rate in tax payments coupled with a
$2 million bill from repairs on roads, drainage, sewage, etc., installed by the
promoters to be paid by county tax payers."41
Local planning boards are very susceptible to pressure from the local business
community (indeed they are usually part of the business community themselves),
and the promise of economic gain by the developers brings much pressure to bear
by the business community itself.
The construction of the development itself has high environmental consequences.
"Erosion and siltation of streams is a serious problem. In Nevada County (Cali-
fornia) , an estimated 160 miles of streams (37% of the stream mileage in the
county) has already been damaged by siltation, stream bank alterations and domes-
tic waste discharge. ... In addition, five major reservoirs within the county
have been degraded by turbid waters from development run-off. At Lake Tahoe,
erosion from subdivision roads is the biggest source of sediment draining into
the lake (48%) . Such roads produce average annual sediment discharge into the
streams ranging from 40 to 165 cubic yards of material per mile. One result is
the reduction of stream flow to water supply needs. Poor design of mountain roads
is responsible for much of the erosion. Approximately one out of six acres per
square mile of the typical mountain subdivision will be occupied by roads and
structures once it is fully developed. This results in double or triple the
normal peak run-off following a heavy rainstorm which in turn results in great
amounts of bank erosion, channel scouring and consequent damage to fish habitat.
. . . Erosion may increase from as little as 50 tons to as much as 50,000 tons
per square mile."42
The developers are following all the rules when they propose and develop land.
The water quality laws concerning construction and sedimentation and erosion are
at best vague. So the development process continues unaltered as the environment
suffers the consequences.
A Concluding Comment on Non-Urban Land Use
Basically non-urban areas are the locations from which we extract raw materials
for our economic development and where we spend much of our leisure time. Regard-
less of the type of use we are considering, the natural environment will be dis-
rupted; it is inevitable. The questions to be considered are, "How much disrup-
tion is inevitable?" and "What part should environmental quality play in this
decision?"
This discussion has considered the various ramifications of our non-urban uses of
land on the environment. Basically the conclusions are:
(1) Private ownership of land in non-urban areas is in larger and larger holdings,
with conglomerate-type companies being the major owners. Especially in non-urban
areas, the ethic of "It's my land, I'll do what I want with it," still is preva-
lent.
(2) Both public and private management is primarily decided upon by an economic
cost/benefit analysis. Environmental considerations come into play when it re-
sults in an increased cost to the owner.
(3) Land use controls are aimed not at controlling the type of use, but rather
the effects of that use. These controls, as formulated now, have not been effec-
tive in dealing with and solving environmental problems created by the various
land uses.
(4) The quality of the environment is closely tied to land use patterns and is
rapidly deteriorating.
41 Ibid., p. IV-24.
42 Ibid., p. IV-12.
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The increasing concern for our environment has been aimed mostly at our urban and
suburban areas, simply because those are the places where people spend most of
their time. It is past time we took a hard look at the land use patterns and
practices and their environmental effects on our non-urban areas, for these are
the places we must save if we are to ourselves survive.
Urban Land Use
In an analysis of present urban land use, one must examine the past because of the
relationship of today's urbanization pattern and yesterday's urban land uses and
processes. For this reason, urban land use will be examined in the five eras that
brought about the greatest changes in the use of urban land, and which had the
greatest impact on urban land use patterns today. These eras are: (1) the early
colonial period, (2) 1830-1870, (3) 1900-1935, (4) 1950s and 1960s, and (5) the
1970s and the future.
Early Colonial Development—Cities have always played a major role in the social and
economic structure of any civilization. "The clustering of populations into com-
munities is one of the basic forms of human settlement. It arises from man's need
for cooperation in order to survive, from his gregarious instinct, from certain
external economies that may be obtained when his activities are centralized, and
from the fact that distance is a physical obstacle that can be overcome most ra-
tionally by centralizing certain functions within geographic space."43
In early settlements the colonists tended to stay close together for safety. As
more settlers arrived, they began to move away from the early settlements and
develop farms. Nevertheless, they still depended on the early cities for supplies
and other economic benefits. "America's oldest cities were mercantile outposts of
a resource area which was exploited by the developed metropolitan system of West-
ern Europe. The initial impulses for independent urban growth came at the end of
the eighteenth century, when towns were becoming both the outlets for capital
accumulated in commercial agriculture and the centers of colonial development of
the continental interior."
During the colonial period, location was the most important factor in city growth.
Those cities that located on major navigable waterways and on natural bays on the
East Coast played the major role in the growth and economic development of the
colonial United States.
The European idea of town planning played an important role in the physical struc-
ture of early American cities. In Europe, land was at a premium and planning for
existing space was intricate. The American colonists started using the European
methods of laying out towns (rectangular and gridiron methods), with one fundamen-
tal difference. "The chief and most obvious characteristic of American cities is
that they were planted in a wilderness—set down, so to speak, in a newly dis-
covered, 'history-less' country. European models were followed at first but, with
very few exceptions, these models had soon to be modified by the American environ-
ment."^
There were early examples of planned cities, Washington, D.C., and Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania, being two of the most prominent, but even in these early towns, spec-
ulation was evident. "Efforts in America to establish planned communities, whether
large or small, conflicted with the pressures created by an expansive, capital-
istic economy. In the struggle between the speculator and the architect, the plan-
ner»or the visionary, the speculator ordinarily won. The founding of the Nation's
43 Regional Development and Planning; A Reader, edited by John Friedman and William Alonso
(Cambridge, Mass.: The MIT Press, 1964.) P. 345.
44 The Quality of the Urban Environment, edited by Harvey S. Perloff. (Baltimore, The Johns
Hopkins Press, 1969.) p. 258-259.
45 The American City: A Documentary History, edited by Charles N. Glaab. (Homewood, Illinois-
The Dorsey Press, 1963.) P. 34.
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capital supplies a case in point. During the years in which Washington was being
built, real-estate holders in the District of Columbia were involved in decisions
and continually tried to alter the plan for the city made by the French engineer,
Pierre Charles L'Enfant."46 indeed, the speculators had a profound effect as they
were responsible for the Washington, D.C., plan being taken away from L'Enfant
because he would not succumb to their speculative interests.
William Penn wanted Philadelphia to be, in his words, "a green country town, which
will never be burnt, and always be wholesome," and it was for a time with its tree-
lined avenues and paved streets. But because the individual could do as he pleased
with his land, the eventual growth patterns and subsequent problems in Philadelphia
would make Penn's dream just that: a dream.
The gridiron method of planning was one of the early methods used for the struc-
turing of horizontal space in early cities. In his book, The City in History,
Lewis Mumford characterized the gridiron system in this way!"On strictly coiraner-
cial principles, the gridiron plan answered, as no other plan did, the shifting
values, the accelerated expansion, the multiplying population, required by the
capitalist regime. But the city planned on those principles was a failure for
other human purposes; and any attempt to improve it without changing those princi-
ples was doomed to defeat. Planning, by nature, is a comprehensive process, in-
volving the interplay of many needs, purposes and functions: whereas planning as
was done by the individual enterpriser was a piecemeal effort for his own limited
gain."
These early planning attempts accommodated rapid growth and speculation and, there-
fore, the building and expansion of our earliest cities was influenced primarily
by economic factors, both in terms of where they were located and how they grew.
This land use ethic not only was firmly entrenched in the American cities, it was
the very basis of the American cities.
1830-1870: The Rise of Industrialization and Rapid Expansion--^ the middle of the
1800s, the United States began to grow and expand very rapidly. "To a large extent,
this expansion rested on commerce, both foreign and domestic. The growth of both
seaboard cities and those located on the interior lakes and rivers was sustained by
the opening of the interior hinterlands and the expansion of trade brought about
by improvements in transportation, the introduction of the steamboat, the building
of canals, and in the 1840s, the large-scale development of railroads."47
Industrialization. Industrialization, which had its beginnings in the early 1800s,
now moved into full swing. Before the expansion of the railroad system, cities
could not efficiently transport goods over great distances, so they were limited
in the amount they could produce by the demand for goods and services in their
region. (They also, of course, had physical production limitations.) When the new
modes of transportation allowed cities to move their goods to other regions (there-
by increasing demand for their products), they could begin to grow independently
of their regional demand criteria. Thus, with the expansion of the railroads came
rapid industrialization, creating more jobs in the cities than ever before. This
began the first real migration to the cities. Interior cities began to grow
rapidly. In 1830, Chicago was a small village of 30 inhabitants. By 1860, it had
grown to a city of 100,000.
As more and more people moved to the cities to fill the available jobs, the city
structure, naturally, began to change also. There began an outward expansion as
both residential and industrial development flourished. How far they could expand
was limited by the mode of transportation of the city areas, the horse and buggy.
In 1800, 6% of the population of the United States lived in cities of more than
2,500 people; by 1860, this figure had increased to 20% and continued to rise. As
city population increased, so did the continued expansion of cities on a horizon-
tal plane. The rapid growth was a process occurring without control, as specu-
lators bought and developed land for the new city dwellers and businesses.
46 ibid., p. 34.
47 Ibid., p. 66.
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Early Environmental Problems. With the rapid rise in industrialization came the
birth of serious city related environmental pollution. Factories spewed smoke,
soot, and other particulate matter into the air and dumped raw wastes into the
streams. As the cities grew, so did water pollution problems related to human
sewage. Environmental consequences of these actions were not even considered, as
densities were still low and the environment was able to assimilate the wastes the
cities produced. The "right to pollute" became just as accepted as the "right to
own and develop land."
Industrialization and growth of cities continued through the late 1800s and into
the 1900s. This growth was accompanied by an expansion of the city perimeter
away from the central core. Land was still plentiful and the land ethic remained
unchanged.
1900-1935: The Rise of Techno logy--The events that took place during the period
of 1900-1935 eventually would have profound effects on the future of the structure
of the urban and surrounding fringe areas. By 1900, about 40% of the population
of the United States lived in city areas. By this time, "a significant number of
changes in the technology of transportation and communication began to appear.
The telephone had been demonstrated to be practicable and the new companies were
rapidly enlisting subscribers. Costs of transmitting electric power were being
reduced to the point where it was becoming a feasible household utility. Intracity
pipelines for water, sewage and gas were being extended from the inner to all
sections of urban centers. . . . The motor vehicle made its appearance on city
streets."48
These innovations allowed the city to spread out still further from the city center.
At first, the introduction of the automobile did not have a tremendous impact on
the spatial arrangement of activities, simply because the road system was not yet
highly developed. However, it did begin to give the individual more control over
his mobility, as well as to allow him to travel greater distances in shorter
periods of time. As the road system did develop, the automobile began to have an
increasing effect on the spatial patterns of the day, allowing individuals to live
farther away from the city and their jobs.
Before the full impact of the automobile was felt, the effects of the interurban
train system (developed in the early 1900s) would be tremendously important. In-
stead of serving the existing developments outside the immediate confines of the
city (and other cities located nearby), it acted as a catalyst for new developments
along its lines. For the first time, people could live miles from the city and
still work there. Speculation increased markedly as early suburbanization fol-
lowed the rail lines away from the city.
At this time, construction and structural technology did not allow the city to
grow very much in a vertical direction. As a result of the new methods of
transportation and the continuation of migration to the cities, outward city growth
continued.
Immigration. Social and health problems began to increase in the city with the
increase in immigration. When European immigrants arrived in America they found
low-paying jobs in the cities, and for this reason, their standard of living was
low and they were forced to live in tenements and slums. As the slums grew, the
white middle class was reacting by moving out to the urban fringe areas.
The Increase in Environmental Problems. Environmental problems began to worsen
in this era. Instances of heavy air pollution from city factories became more
and more evident. If an inversion layer happened to form over the city, the smoke
and particulate matter released by the factories remained near the ground, causing
sickness and sometimes death. However, these instances occurred seldom so that
city dwellers and governments did not react severely.
Water pollution increased also, as more industries were developed in urban areas.
The human waste problem began to increase at this time, especially with the in-
Amos H. Hawley, Urban Society; An Ecological Approach. (New York: The Ronald Press 1971 )
P. 146. ' "
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crease of high-density slum districts. But to most of the city inhabitants it
was an "invisible problem" and therefore not to be taken seriously.
Introduction of Land Vee Controls. As people moved to new areas in and around the
city, they became concerned with the kinds of activities that would be located
near their residences. This led, in 1916, to the adoption of the first zoning laws.
These laws, however, were developed for reasons other than alleviating major en-
vironmental problems: "The objectives of zoning were: (1) the protection of
property values by requiring uniformity in each district; (2) exclusion of danger-
ous and nuisance uses from residential districts; (3) prevention of the over-
exploitation of land and the reduction of building density; (4) fostering public
service efficiency-"49
Instead of dealing with the major cause of environmental pollution (basically the
industries), city dwellers were content to "deal with" the problem by moving away
from the source. New zoning laws would keep the industries in certain areas of
the cities where the inhabitants didn't live. This, of course, postponed dealing
with the issue of emission-source pollution.
In the mid-1930s, subdivision regulations were introduced that conceivably could
have controlled the location and the rapidity of new development; however, they
were used more for guiding growth, as growth, for its own sake, was considered
proper and desirable. America became firmly entrenched in this "Watch America
Grow" syndrome and subdivision ran rampant: "In Florida, enough land was sub-
divided to house the population of the entire United States. In northern
Westchester County in New York State and along the New Jersey coast, thousands of
twenty-foot lots were distributed by newspapers as free gifts to subscribers."50
America's land use controls were based solely on economic criteria and fostered
the ethic that land was a commodity, and a cheap one at that. The land use con-
trols led the rapid pace of growth that characterized this era.
The 1950s and 1960s: The Era of Technology--The post-World War II period to the
1960s had the greatest impact on today's city environment. Urban population had
increased to 60% of the total of the United States. The advent of new, faster
transportation systems, the rapid rise in building technology, the increase of
inner-city social and racial problems, the rise of urban environmental problems
and the migration to the suburbs played an important part in the change that
would occur in the structure and growth of America's cities.
Technology. During this period, there began a tremendous growth in highway build-
ing technology. A massive program of highway and freeway building was started
that would revolutionize the speed and ease of transportation by car.
As the highway system grew and moved away from the city, land developers and pri-
vate individuals found that it would be profitable to develop land at major
interchanges and key locations along the highway system. For the first time,
large developments evolved that were, in a sense, independent of the city. These
developments would depend on the new road system that would bring the people to
them.
At the same time these innovations were occurring outside the city, changes were
taking place in the inner-city structures. High-rise technology became a reality
as new materials and new engineering techniques were developed. Land owners
highly favored the development of the high-rise complex. The zoning and building
codes were of little use in controlling compatible development.
As air and water pollution problems increased in the city, emphasis was placed on
pollution abatement technology as an answer. Americans, as they looked back, were
49 Stephen Sussna, Land Use Controls. Urban Land Institute, Research Monograph No. 17, 1970,p. 6,
50 John Delafons, Land Use Controls in the United States. (Cambridge, Mass.: The MIT Press,
1969.) P. 28.
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in awe of technology and its accomplishments, and thus, there was a firm belief
that it would also solve the pollution problem that was becoming very serious.
This belief in technology, as an ultimate solution to the pollution problem, along
with the land use ethic, allowed America to effectively ignore the overall impli-
cations of rapid growth and development that were taking place.
Land Use Controls and Planning. Land use controls during this period were changing
little. However, master plans for urban and suburban growth began to develop.
This could have been a breakthrough in the maintenance of environmental quality
through land use planning, but, at that time, "most master plans manifested a cur-
sory treatment of the natural and man-made environments. With plans based on
projected growth and development objectives, the standard comprehensive planning
process showed little, if any, sensitivity to the impact of development on the
natural environment."51
Since "comprehensive" planning at this time was not environmentally conscious, de-
velopments and subdivisions began to appear on flood plains, earthquake faults,
areas of poor drainage, wetlands that had been reclaimed, etc. They also pushed
into land areas that were being used for other purposes. For example, the Santa
Clara Valley in California was one of the prime agricultural areas in the state,
but this period saw most of it converted to subdivision. There was still a feeling
that America was the land of plenty; growth took precedence over all else.
The Environment. Environmental problems became severe during the 1950s and 1960s.
An increasing number of cities began to control emissions from industrial sources,
but there were no controls of automobile emissions. Up until 1955, cars had not
been a significant source of air pollution, but with the increasing numbers of new
highways, suburbanization in full swing, and the rise in automobile ownership,
cities began to recognize air pollution problems resulting primarily from automo-
biles. Even after this fact was recognized, the move to control air pollution from
cars would not come for at least another ten years; the lag would prove to have far
reaching effects on the structure of the cities, as people began to move away from
air pollution problems.
Water pollution was increasing as industries continued to dump untreated wastes
directly into waterways. The increasing density of city and surrounding areas
served to overload the sewage treatment systems, adding to the water pollution
dilemma. At that time, water pollution received little attention, as it was not
perceived by the city inhabitants to be serious. There was still a belief that
water was the proper disposal medium for untreated industrial and human wastes.
The United States was still growing, and as productivity increased (with a corre-
sponding inability of the environment to absorb water-born wastes without detri-
mental effects), the quality of water in and around America's cities declined
sharply.
The important factor in the rapid increase in the degradation of the environment
was the tremendous increase in density of urban areas that our new innovations
(high-rises, ease of transportation by automobile, etc.) allowed.
Suburbanization. Suburbanization was now becoming an important pressure on land in
urban fringe areas. At the end of World War II, economic prosperity and standards
of living were on the rise, especially for the white middle class. Since the Amer-
ican heritage of land ownership was most deeply entrenched in this segment of the
population, there became a great demand for single family dwellings with "a front
yard, a back lawn and a garden." The urban areas were not structured for this type
of residential use so that large numbers of the white middle class moved to rural
fringe areas. With this rising demand, new housing developments grew rapidly, and
with increased ease of movement, suburbanization became the "land use of tomorrow."
As the white middle class was moving to the suburbs, there was an influx of blacks
to the cities, especially in the industrial northeast. They were in much the same
51 Promoting Environmental Quality Through Urban Planning and Controls, draft prepared by the
Center for Urban and Regional Studies, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, 1973. p. 11-4.
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position that the ethnic minorities were thirty years earlier, being forced to
take low paying jobs and live in poor housing. Slums continued to expand and be-
came commonplace in large cities. As the slums grew, so did the desire of many
to leave the city and its problems.
The Metropolis, With the rapid spread of the population around urban centers came
our present metropolitan structure. In Urban Society, An Ecological Approach,
Amos Hawley discussed the mechanism for metropolitan growth and structure:^Con-
centration at the point of convergence of local transportation lines develops a
pressure which forces activities outward more or less symmetrically. Growth of
the central business district pushes ahead of it a belt of obsolescence occupied
by light industries, warehouses, and slums. This transition zone, in turn, en-
croaches upon a zone of low income housing, causing the latter to shift outward
and to invade a belt of middle income residential properties. The latter finally
spills over into suburban territory and presses against a zone of high income hous-
ing. The occupants of each zone tend to succeed to the space occupied by those of
the next outer zone. At any moment in time, therefore, the distribution of land
use exhibits a ring-like appearance." This process would create the major land
use problem the United States would face in the early 1970s.
The 1970s and Beyond—With the spread of the metropolis came increases in popula-
tion density also. Today, roughly 75% of the population (168 million people) live
in a total land area slightly larger than the state of Colorado (68 million acres).
The Environmental Era. Density-associated environmental problems have also spread.
Instead of being confined to inner-city areas, as they were in the past, pollu-
tion now affects the entire metropolitan area.
Air Quality. In 1968, there were over 214 million tons of carbon dioxide, particu-
late matter, sulfur oxides, hydrocarbons and nitrogen oxides released into the air,
mostly in metropolitan areas, affecting health, vegetation, and property.
Water Quality. By 2000 it is projected that we will withdraw 900 billion gallons
of water from our rivers (80% of their total flow). If our treatment facilities
were totally effective, the problem would not be as severe, but they are not: to-
day less than one-third of the nation is served by adequate treatment facilities,
and one-third by no system at all. In some areas, industries continue to dump
untreated wastes into streams and rivers; in other areas treatment systems are
not reducing the biological oxygen demand of the sewage to a point where water
quality will not be adversely affected; yet water becomes more precious as time
goes on.
Solid Waste. In 1969, Americans produced over 250 million tons of solid waste, 146
million tons of which were disposed of in open dumps. Each American now produces
5.5 pounds of solid waste each day, and the rate of production is steadily rising.
Noise. The noise level of our metropolitan areas, especially the urban centers,
is almost deafening. City traffic noises are now as high as 90 decibels (a level
which causes hearing damage over extended periods of time).
Social. In the last ten years there has been a continued expansion of slum areas.
Crime is still increasing by leaps and bounds while overcrowding and lack of space
in metropolitan centers are creating both psychological and physiological prob-
lems . 52
flew Activity and Land Use Patterns. It has been clearly shown in the past that as
environmental and social problems continue to grow, there will be a tendency for
inhabitants to move outward, away from the source of concern. As today's popula-
tion moves farther away from the metropolitan centers, demand for goods and serv-
ices in the city is decreasing. We are now witnessing the rapid increase in the
"shopping center" development on the metropolitan fringe so that the new demand
can be met. The outward moving process discussed by Hawley is beginning to occur
at these developments as they are beginning to take on the characteristics of
"mini-cities."
CO
Environmental Quality: The First Annual Report of the Council on Environmental Quality.
(Washington, D. C.:CEQ, 1970.)P. 65.
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In our attempt to allevaite some pressing environmental problems, we are creating
others. Our new mass rapid transit systems are excellent examples: they are
helping to solve the automobile-created air pollution problem, but, as it was with
the inter-urban railroad system in the early 1900s and the new highway complex in
the 1950s, they may well cause further outward movement of people by starting new
developments around their lines.
Land Vee Controls. It is evident from this discussion that land use controls based
on environmental, as well as economic and social criteria are needed. Today, new
methods of control such as performance criteria, density regulations, special use
zones, planned unit developments, open space, and mini-max zoning are being used.
New land use controls will be totally ineffective if they don't take into account
their effect on the natural, as well as the economic and social environment. We
can no longer afford to let growth be haphazard. Land use controls can help to
prevent such growth.
The Future. As well as taking a regional, ecosystem approach, we must also closely
examine our present land and growth ethics. Inexhaustability of natural resources
was a myth of the past; the concept of growth for its own sake should have died
years ago. Just as important, we must fully realize that the quality of our
future environment rests on our land and how we use it.
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Carr, Donald E., Death of Sweet Waters, Berkeley Publishing Co., New York, 1966.
Center for Urban and Regional Studies, Promoting Environmental Quality Through Urban Planning and
Controls, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, 1973.
Chapin, F. Stuart, Jr., Urban Land Use Planning, University of Illinois Press, Urbana, Illinois,
1965.
Ciborowski, Adolf, Urban Growth and the Environment, United Nations Secretariat, New York, 1972.
Clawson, Marion, America's Land and Its Uses, The Johns Hopkins Press, Baltimore, Maryland, 1972.
Clawson, Marion, and Knetsch, Jack, Economics of Outdoor Recreation, The Johns Hopkins Press,
Baltimore, Maryland, 1966.
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Clawson, Marion, Suburban Land Conversion in the United States, The Johns Hopkins Press,
Baltimore, Maryland, 1971.
Clawson, Marion, The Land System of the United States, University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln,
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"Who Owns the Land," Clear Creek, December, 1972.
Commoner, Barry, The Closing Circle, Bantam Books, New York, 1971,
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Cowan, Petfer (Ed.), Developing Patterns of Urbanization, Sage Publications, Beverly Hills,
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Delafons, John, Land Use Controls in the United States, The M.I.T. Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts,
1969.
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Detwyler, Thomas R., Man's Impact on Environment, McGraw-Hill Book Co., New York, 1971.
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Ehrlich, Paul, and Ehrlich, Anne, Population Resources Environment, W. H. Freeman & Co.,
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Evans, Brock, "High Yield Forestry: A New Assault on Our Forests," Sierra Club Bulletin,
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Goodier, Leslie, "Protecting the Environment During Mining Operations," Oceanology, November,
1971.
Hannifan, Martin, "Merits of Open Pit vs. Underground Mining in Butte," Mining Congress Journal,
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Hansen, Roger, "A National Land Use Policy," Paper prepared for Council on Environmental Quality,
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1964.
Loewenstein, Louis (Ed.), Urban Studies, The Free Press, New York, 1971.
Macinko, George, Land Use and Urban Development, Address delivered April 13, 1971 to Traveler's
Research Center, Hartford, Connecticut.
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Massachusetts, 1969.
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Land Use Concepts
I conceived that land belongs to a vast family of
which many are dead, few are living, and countless
members are still unborn . ..
A Nigerian chief
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Toward a New Concept of Land
Fred Bosselman and David Callies
If one were to pinpoint any single predominant cause of the quiet revolution it is
a subtle but significant change in our very concept of the term "land," a concept
that underlies our whole philosophy of land use regulation. "Land" means some-
thing quite different to us now than it meant to our grandfather's generation. Its
new meaning is hard to define with precision, but it is not hard to illustrate the
direction of the change.
Basically, we are drawing away from the 19th century idea that land's only function
is to enable its owner to make money. One example of this change in attitude is
that wetlands, which were once characterized as "useless," are now thought of as
having "value." As we increasingly understand the science of ecology and the web
of connections between the use of any particular piece of land and the impact on
the environment as a whole we increasingly see the need to protect wetlands and
other areas that were formerly ignored.
This concern over the interrelatedness of land uses has led to a recognition of the
need to deal with entire ecological systems rather than small segments of them. San
Francisco Bay, Lake Tahoe, the Hackensack Meadowlands, Adirondack Park are now all
seen as single entities rather than as a collection of governmental units.
The new attitude toward land can also be seen reflected in the increasing concern
about its scarcity. Industries that in an earlier day seemed to have their choice
of an unlimited supply of land now see land as a limiting factor. With some, such
as the forest products industry, this recognition came early—with others, such as
agriculture, it is just beginning in states like Hawaii and California.
The economically productive users of land are not the only ones who are increas-
ingly recognizing its scarcity. Wilderness buffs have recognized this for some
time. But now the large segment of Americans who just want to live in the country,
and who once seemed to have a wide choice of location, now find their supply of
land limited. The jet plane, and particularly the interstate highway network, have
permitted millions of Americans to achieve their goal of "country living" on either
a permanent or temporary basis, but they are finding that there isn't as much"coun-
try" to live in as there used to be. Their annoyance is reflected in the new legis-
lation in Maine and Colorado.
The scarcity of land reflects both its increasing use and the increasing limita-
tions put on its use by local governments. The problems of inner city dwellers
seeking adequate housing seem impossible to solve unless we can overcome the scar-
city of suburban land on which low and moderate-income dwellings can be built,
The Massachusetts Zoning Appeals Act was passed in recognition of this scarcity.
Conservationists describe the changing attitude toward land by saying that land
should be considered a resource rather than a commodity. But while this correctly
indicates the direction of the change, it ignores the crucial importance of our
From The Quiet Revolution In Land Use Control; Summary Report, prepared for The Council on En-
vironmental Quality by Fred Bosselman and David Callies, 1971. Pp. 21-25.
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constitutional right to own land and to buy and sell it freely. It is essential
that land be treated as both a resource and a commodity. The right to move through-
out the country and buy and sell land in the process is an essential element in the
mobility and flexibility our society needs to adjust to the rapid changes of our
times. Conservationists who view land only as a resource are ignoring the social and
economic impact that would come with any massive restrictions on the free alienabil-
ity of land. But land speculators who view land only as a commodity are ignoring the
growing public realization that our finite supply of land can no longer be dealt with
in the freewheeling ways of our frontier heritage.
The idea that land is a resource as well as a commodity may appear self-evident, but
in the context of our traditions of land use regulation it is a highly novel concept.
Our existing systems of land use regulation were created by dealers in real estate
interested in maximizing the value of land as a commodity. Subdivision regulations
which encouraged uniform lots fronting on public streets enabled land to be divided
into tradable units. Traditional zoning ordinances with only a few use districts,
each governed by relatively nondiscretionary regulations, attempted to give these
lots some of the fungible qualities of corn futures or stock certificates, making
it possible to determine in advance the specific type of use permitted on the land
and providing quick shorthand labels for identifying various categories of land.
Bulk and yard regulations created an envelope on each single lot which enabled the
owner of that lot to build without further consideration of the relationship of his
land to the land of his neighbors, thus assuring potential buyers of the land's
usability. The highest goal of the system was to enable barkers to sell Florida lots
in Grand Central Station.
The promoters of these land use regulations in the 1920s made no attempt to conserve
land for particular purposes or to direct it into a specific use, but only sought to
prevent land from being used in a manner that would depreciate the value of neigh-
boring land. The traditional answer to the question, "Why regulate land use?" was
"to maximize land values." To achieve this purpose they sought to restrict those
uses of land that adversely affected the price of neighboring land by concentrating
them in specific parts of the city.
Where development would not harm property values it went unregulated. Zoning per-
mitted residential uses to be built in the most polluted industrial districts on the
theory that any development which did not reduce the value of the surrounding land
should not be prohibited. Land use regulation was limited to urban areas where the
close proximity of land uses made it likely that the particular use of one man's
land might reduce the value of another's, but there was no regulation of land outside
urban areas where such a reduction in value was not likely to take place.
In a dynamic and mobile society such as ours the ability to buy and sell land readily
is an essential ingredient in the operation of the system, and the extent to which
zoning and subdivision control have been adopted throughout the country testifies to
the usefulness of these original concepts. The last 20 years, however, has seen in-
creasing recognition that the purpose of land regulation should go beyond the protec-
tion of the commodity value of land. A realization is growing that important social
and environmental goals require more specific controls on the use that may be made of
scarce land resources.
This recognition is seen not only in the new state role in land use regulation, but
in the actions of many local governments. Modern zoning ordinances typically rely
less and less on pre-stated regulations and require developers to work with local
administrative officials in designing a type of development that fits more closely
into the specific circumstances of the surrounding neighborhood. Similarly, regu-
lations tend to encourage larger scale development in which the various land uses
are arranged and designed according to a comprehensive plan for the specific site,
as opposed to the traditional lot-by-lot development under which individual lots
were sold to individual purchasers who might develop each lot according to pre-
established rules. More specialized use districts, which permit only those uses
appropriate to a specific geographic area rather than some abstract category of
uses such as M-l or R-4, are also evidence of local governments' growing attempt
to tailor land use regulations to local needs.
Most importantly, perhaps, numerous systems of local land use regulation are begin-
ning to contain regulations that recognize land as a resource as well as a com-
modity. Exclusive agricultural and industrial zoning preserves land as a resource
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for these important uses. Regulations prohibiting topsoil removal or requiring com-
mon open space find their justification in the protection of land as a resource for
recreation and beauty. Regulations which require that a specified percentage of
dwelling units in each housing development be reserved for low-income groups are rec-
ognizing the importance of land as an essential resource for housing all elements of
our society.
Recent years have seen a rapid increase in local zoning and subdivision regulation
in relatively undeveloped areas. Here the concern is not that the use of land might
injure immediate neighbors, but that it might impair the possibility of more desir-
able long-range land use patterns. Increasingly the question being asked is not
only, "Will this use reduce the value of surrounding land?" but "Will this make the
best use of our land resources?"
The clearest evidence, however, that there has been a change in the attitude
toward why land should be regulated is in the legislation The
purposes sought to be achieved by the various bills are a far cry from the simple
value-maximization concepts of early real estate interests. Hawaii seeks to con-
serve the land for agriculture and to preserve scenic beauty. In Tahoe and San
Francisco the goal is to preserve the amenities of the area. Maine and Vermont are
trying to protect the rural atmosphere of their states. Massachusetts wants to pre-
serve some suburban land as a resource for low and moderate-income housing and to
preserve wetlands as a resource for wildlife and other ecological values. In the
Hackensack Meadows the goal of New Jersey is to utilize this centrally located land
for the ideal combination of development and conservation purposes.
But the recognition of new purposes for regulating land should not and does not
mean that the old concerns with land's value and salability should be ignored. On
the contrary, the longer-range view expressed in the new land regulatory systems
will enhance land values over the long run to a far greater degree than systems
motivated primarily by a desire to increase immediate salability. The preservation
of the amenities of San Francisco Bay is of tremendous economic value to all land-
owners in the Bay area. The preservation of the quality of Maine's lakes and
coastline will be of great value to owners of property in those areas, not just to-
day but for years to come. Today's broader view of land values recognizes that in
the long run land values will reflect our ability to maintain a society in which
people will want to own land, and this is the overall goal of the legislation now
being enacted by the states.
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Land in Our Daily Lives
Marion Clawson
From time immemorial, men have travelled the seas and made use of the lakes and
streams, but Man is essentially a land animal. At one time land was basic for
the personal income and security of all men everywhere, and even today it is the
mainstay of most of the people in most of the world. Land was and is both a means
of earning current livelihood and of providing for one's family. In many times
and places, land has meant social position and political power as well as economic
advantage. Tribes and nations have fought wars over land throughout history. So-
cial systems, laws, and customs have all been concerned with one or another as-
pect of land. Land permeates every society and economy—playing a somewhat dif-
ferent role in less-developed economies than in the more developed ones.
In the United States today, at one level of intellectual perception, we may seem
to have moved beyond this age-old concern over land. A man today may earn a liv-
ing, have ample economic security now and for his old age, have a secure and ad-
vanced social position, and have significant political power, all without owning
a foot of land. Our society and economy have developed in a different direction,
and these measures of personal well-being are attainable by means other than
landownership.
But this apparent freedom from dependence on land, or this apparent indifference
to land, is deceptive. All economic and social activity in the United States has
a place dimension; it all requires some land. True, a person need not own land;
he may rent it, or rent structures based on it, or obtain the use of land under
other arrangements. But the population as a whole is still closely dependent on
land for food, fiber, shelter, and the amenities; the ultimate source of food is
not the supermarket, but the land. The competition for use of land in the United
States is strong and rising; land policies are still important.
The total land area of the United States is fixed (with minor exceptions, such as
filling of swamps or bays) while the total population has grown and is growing.
With the numerator of the land/man ratio fixed while the denominator increases,
the laws of mathematics result in a smaller and smaller land area per person.
Does this somehow mean that we are "running out" of land or that the supply of
land is getting dangerously low?
Our concern, as individuals and as citizens, is not really with the acreage of
land, but with the products and services of land. These depend not only on the
area and the characteristics of the land, but also upon the inputs of labor, capi-
tal, management, and technology into various productive processes. The volume,
variety, and scope of these inputs has risen greatly over the years, and promises
to rise more in the decades ahead. As a result, the products and services of land
are not in danger of running out, and the total land situation of the United States
is relatively comfortable.
Nevertheless, there are problems in land use—problems about which every alert
citizen should be informed, since as a voter and as a participant in society he
This is taken from America's Land and Its Uses, chapters 1 and 9, published for Resources for
the Future, Inc., by the Johns Hopkins Press, 1972. Reprinted by permission.
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will have to take positions and actions about land. In particular, the supply of
desirable land in choice locations is no longer plentiful, and there are serious
problems of land degradation and misuse to be corrected.
The comfortable position on land in the United States today may not extend forever;
if population continues to rise at an unchecked rate, the day will come when sheer
space per person will be a stringently limiting factor. But that day lies a rela-
tively long way in the future. As a nation, we may, for various reasons, wish to
limit our population in the interests of the quality of life for those who do live
here, but it will be some time before sheer land area becomes the controlling
factor.
Land Supply per Person
In 1970 the average person in the United States had the products and the use of
about 11 acres of land. Some of this land is desert in the West, some is tundra
in Alaska, and some is nearly barren mountain tops; but some is fertile cropland
in the Corn Belt and elsewhere, some has magnificent forests, and some is the
highly valuable land of our towns and cities. This is the land on which we live,
work, and play, and from which we get our food and forest products. Some of it
is in highways, airports, and other necessary uses for modern living. This land
is owned by various persons and groups, but all of us benefit, in one way or anoth-
er, from its existence and from its productivity.
Many persons may be uncertain about how much land 11 acres is, and a few compari-
sons may be helpful. It is about three average-size city blocks; it is 22 or more
generous size suburban home lots. (An acre contains 43,560 square feet; the play-
ing area of a football field is 300 by 160 feet, or 48,000 square feet, or 1.1
acres.)
By world standards, the people of the United States are extremely fortunate in
their land heritage. Our total land surface per person is almost exactly the same
as the world average. But our land is on the average vastly more productive than
that for the world as a whole. Not more than 10 to 15 percent can reasonably be
classed as wasteland; even the deserts, tundra, and mountain tops often have some
value for wildlife, mineral production, watershed, or other purposes. Among the
other large countries of the world, Russia and Canada have a higher percentage of
their land in Arctic or near-Arctic lands with only the most limited productive
capabilities; Brazil has a vast Amazon jungle which is just beginning to be ex-
ploited; Australia has a vast "dead heart" of desert or near-desert; and China has
large areas of desert or near-desert.
The acreage of cropland presently used for crops and rotation pasture exceeds 2
acres per capita in the United States, and there is enough potential cropland for
a total of about 4 acres per capita if the need were acute. Few other urbanized
and industrialized nations have anything like such a generous endowment of good
cropland per person, and in many of the densely populated countries of Asia and
the Middle East the figure is well below an acre per person. A large part of our
favorable position is due to our relative youth as a nation. The early settlers
found a highly favorable environment on the North American continent, and their
technology and skills enabled them to exploit it.
Overall Land Use Situation in the United States
The "big three" of land use, on an area basis, are cropland, pasture and grazing
land, and forest and woodland; but the "important two" in terms of value of land
and relationship to the daily lives of many people, are urban and recreation....
There has never been a land use inventory in the United States that included every
tract of land classified according to a uniform system. Data on land area used
for various purposes come from censuses of agriculture, censuses of cities and
local governments, records of federal land managing agencies, and various other
sources. In spite of efforts to use comparable definitions, there is reason to
suspect that omissions and overlaps occur and that the reported figures for each
category are not always accurate. . . . Some of this "unaccounted for" land is idle
by any reasonable test. But there is idle land in other categories as well.
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Some cropland is idle, largely because its idleness has been paid for and encour-
aged as part of a federal program to reduce cropped area and thus reduce agricul-
tural output to market demand; some grazing and forest land is also largely idle,
producing little and being used little or not at all; but by far the most important
idle land is acreage near cities, and sometimes within their borders, held specula-
tively for increases in price.
A chart showing land use at 10-year intervals would show relatively constant land
use in the United States since 1920. When the data for 1969 are published in 1972
or 1973, they will show essentially the same picture, slightly modified by a trend
toward somewhat more urban and recreation land and somewhat less cropland. More-
over, the best estimates of land use for the decades ahead suggest a closely similar
picture until 2000 or later. This is simply another way of saying that the great
land use changes of the nineteenth century had largely run their course by about
1920. Since then, the overall statistics have shown only modest changes. However,
this picture of modest change is misleading in many respects. Some overall changes
have occurred: land used for cropland purposes has declined in the past decade,
recreation and urban areas have increased greatly in percentage terms but are still
small compared with the total land area of the nation, and other net changes have
taken place. In cases where changes on some land, in some places, have been offset
by opposite or different changes on other land in other locations, the "net" figure,
however, tells only a small part of the story.
A corollary of the relative constancy in land use is that when changes do come,
they often come hard. In the days of the frontier, a piece of land could be trans-
formed from forest or open prairie into cropland without disturbing anyone very
much; today, when a superhighway is built through an urban area, thousands of people
may be disturbed, and some may lose their homes; controversy is inevitable, however
beneficial the change may be overall. Land use changes in the future will general-
ly be still more difficult—upsetting to many people, hence resisted, while at the
same time beneficial to others and supported by them. A country, no less than a
person, encounters new problems as it sheds the old ones.
Size and Diversity
Visitors from other lands are often amazed to find that the United States is so big
and that its land types are so varied. Many Americans might experience the same
feeling if they were to drive across the country instead of flying across it so
high and so fast that they scarcely realize what lies beneath. Anyone who walks
along our seashores, or on our farms, or visits ranches, or hikes through some of
our better forests, or backpacks or canoes into the back country will soon begin
to get a better idea of the vast distances.
But diversity of physical land type is as striking as distance and area. In topog-
raphy and relief, our country varies from mountain ranges, especially in the East
and West, to great rolling plains, to swamps and river valleys. In climate, it
varies from deserts to very high rainfall in some areas, cold winters and permanent
underground ice in northern Alaska, and scores of variants between. Death Valley
lies below sea level, hot and nearly desolate, while less than 100 airline miles
away Mount Whitney stands cold and bare as the highest point in the 48 conterminous
states. As a result of climate and topography, soils development has been quite
different in different regions, varying from no true soils in much of the desert
and low-rainfall areas to deep well-developed soils with rich organic matter in
some of the prairies and erstwhile forests. Reflecting all of these factors and
more, the native vegetation ranged from magnificent forests of many types, to tall
and short grass prairies, to desert shrubs.
One could go on and on, reciting true and dramatic facts about our land. Even one
who has travelled widely for many years, and reads a great deal, is from time to
time amazed at some natural feature of some part of the United States. It is ut-
terly impossible to attempt to describe even the major parts of the United States
in adequate detail. One can only try to arouse the interest of the reader, to find
out for himself, by direct personal experience or by reading the experiences of
others, more about the land.
This matter of size and diversity of the United States has been introduced here
for a different reason. With such diversity in physical land type and in use, it
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is dangerous to generalize without warning the reader that large and significant
exceptions exist. It is necessary to consider land use on a broad basis. It is
entirely valid to use national statistics or talk about national totals and nation-
al averages, but generalizations must be appreciated for what they are. The state-
ment that there has been little change in land use in the United States does not
mean that there has been little change in every county in every state. For every
generalization, there are exceptions, and sometimes exact opposites.
Man Has Left His Mark
The early European settlers and those who came after them have left their mark on
present-day America. Extensive areas of forests were cleared, sometimes by burn-
ing magnificent trees merely to get rid of them; forest lands and prairies were
plowed, and left vulnerable to erosion. The grazing of domestic livestock on native
forage grasses and other plants often had serious effects upon the plant cover; and
some species of wild animals have nearly disappeared.
Man has built reservoirs to store water for his needs, and in so doing has brought
about major ecological changes in the reservoir areas. Through irrigation, he has
transformed some deserts and dry areas into farmland and others into salty areas
or swamps. He has built great cities, and he has polluted the air around them.
And the wastes from the cities and from industry and agriculture have led to the
pollution of many rivers, streams, and lakes. All in all, modern Man has drastic-
ally altered the natural scene that his colonial ancestors found in the United
States; he has also developed an economy and a society of high economic output and
of luxurious personal consumption.
The Indians whom the Europeans found on this continent—and who were themselves
immigrants whose forebears came from northern Asia many thousands of years earlier—
lived more nearly with the land, conforming their actions and lives to it, rather
than trying to change it as the Europeans did. Lest one credit the Indians with
more respect for Nature, it should be realized that they lacked many of the tools
for massive modification of the natural scene. Until the Spaniards introduced
horses, cattle, and sheep, the Indians lacked animal power and domestic grazing
livestock; they never had the wheel or the plow, to say nothing of the bulldozer.
They did have fire, and they used it as a conscious tool of resource management.
Extensive prairies are believed to owe their existence to repeated burning because
grasses were resistant to fire and trees were not. In other situations, forest
productivity was sometimes improved by fire.
The European colonists had the technical, physical, and economic power to produce
change in the natural landscape they found, and they used their power. The colo-
nial ax may seem a feeble tool compared with the modern bulldozer as a means of
clearing a forest, but in combination with fire it was the means whereby millions
of acres of forest were cleared. Wooden plows pulled by oxen may likewise seem a
feeble tool for land cultivation compared with modern tractors and plows, yet a
lot of land was first plowed by such tools. In scores of ways, modern Man has fur-
ther modified the natural environment—raped or ravaged it, some would say. But
he has made some land more fertile than it was when he first found it.
It is also true that modern Man has devised institutions and mechanisms for manag-
ing and preserving land that his colonial ancestor lacked. The rise of soil con-
servation as a social and resource movement, the development of the national forest
concept, and the establishment of national parks—the latter now imitated in many
countries throughout the world—were all manifestations of the desire to find ways
of managing the natural resources to meet the demands and challenges of the present
and of the future.
This brief overview of resource history in the United States shows that we do not
start with a clean slate today. Our task is somehow to reconcile the demands of
a large and growing population with the health and. condition of its natural resour-
ces. We cannot retreat to the natural environment that our colonial ancestors
found, even if we wished to do so. For better or worse, we have replaced nearly
all the buffalo with cattle, and our future management problem for the Great Plains
lies with the cattle. We cannot avoid stream pollution by keeping everyone out of
every watershed, for all land is watershed and there is no place else to live and
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work. The resource management problem of the future is by no means hopeless in my
judgment, but its solution lies in going forward, not in trying to retreat to a bu-
colic past that was probably a less happy situation than is sometimes idealized.
Land Use Is a Public Matter
Land use in the United States is controlled or influenced by public action to a
greater degree than most people realize.
About a third of our total land area is publicly owned. . . . Most of this public-
ly owned land is owned by the federal government, and some by states, counties,
cities, and special districts. There are good reasons to expect that the area of
publicly owned land in the United States will increase, not decrease, over the dec-
ades ahead, although the changes may be small on a percentage basis. Comparatively
little of the land now publicly owned will be disposed of to private owners; as a
nation, we have concluded that some types of land are more likely to be used wisely
if publicly owned than if privately owned. Some land now privately owned is almost
certain to come into public ownership to be used for highway rights-of-way, parks,
and reservoirs. If the nation gets into massive slum clearance and urban renewal,
there could be a sizable increase in the area of publicly owned land in the hearts
of our larger cities.
Most of the land in the United States is, and will remain, privately owned. How-
ever, government at all levels—federal, state, and local—has extensive powers
over the use of private land.
First, government can exercise its power of eminent domain to take private land
needed for public purposes. Prime examples of the use of this power arise with re-
spect to highways, slum clearance, and park additions. The government's power-is
nearly unlimited, subject to the requirement that the land is needed for a public
purpose. The courts have argued about "public purpose" many times in the past; and
some land uses—slum clearance, for example—are today acceptable when once they
would not have been. The private land so taken must be paid for, of course; and
the private landowner can always insist upon a court-determined price for his land,
which in practice has often meant a relatively generous price. What makes the
power of eminent domain so important is not the area of land taken, which has been
rather small and presumably will continue to be small, but the strategic nature of
the lands and the coercive nature of this power.
A second basic governmental power over land is taxation. In our American system of
government, taxes on land are not levied by the federal government and are not
levied by many states, but real estate taxes are often the mainstay of local govern-
ment. Every property owner pays taxes directly; every tenant helps to pay his
landlord's taxes. Thus taxes on land and its improvements affect almost everyone.
Taxes are also one of the largest costs of land ownership; they not infrequently
take a fourth, a third, or even a half of the income from the land. It is not only
their amount but also the way in which they are calculated and collected that may
affect the landowner. In suburban and urban areas, desired governmental services,
such as schools, libraries, and parks, can often be obtained only by use of real
estate taxes. The homeowner is often caught between his desire for better govern-
mental services of some kind and his dislike of paying more property taxes.
A third basic governmental power over land and landowners is the police power. The
most common use of this power is in zoning ordinances. These tell the landowner
what he may not do with his land, and thus by inference tell him what he may do
with it. A prime purpose of zoning ordinances is to protect landowners and users
from nuisances or other undesirable uses on the land in the locality. Zoning may
prohibit industrial or commercial activity within a prime residential neighborhood,
for instance. The value of any tract of land is in large degree determined by the
uses made of surrounding or nearby areas. Zoning has most often been applied to
present or potential urban and suburban areas, but it has also been applied to some
rural areas. Subdivision regulations are another use of police power. By establish-
ing minimum-size building lots, the unit of local government largely controls land
use. Police power is also used as the basis for building and health codes aimed at
protecting people from substandard residential structures.
The fourth, and by far the most important, basic governmental power with respect
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to land is the power of the public purse. "Both land use and landowners are mater-
ially affected by the way in which governments at all levels, but especially the
federal government, spend funds for various public purposes. The variety of such
programs is so great and their scope so large that they are perhaps the most in-
fluential single force affecting land use in the United States today.
Government finances a great deal of research, which is available to landowners and
others free, and which often greatly affects the decisions they make about use of
their land. Government carries on some resource-managing activities directly—
flood protection, irrigation, and others, which enable private landowners to carry
out activities that would otherwise be difficult or impossible. The federal gov-
ernment has heavily subsidized highway construction, airport construction, and,
especially in an earlier day, railroad construction. It has also subsidized elec-
tric power production and transmission, the latter especially into rural areas.
It has provided financial help for forest fire control and for some other forest
programs. And it has provided direct payments to millions of farmers to carry
out soil conservation measures, to reduce crop acreage, or to carry out other pro-
grams. As a result of some of the farm programs, millions of acres of cropland
have been taken out of active use and are largely idle today.
Changing Space and Land Use Relations
The enormous scientific, technological, social, economic, and political changes of
the past two generations have greatly altered the space relationships among land
tracts or areas, and the land demand-supply situations have accordingly been modi-
fied greatly. The one constant about land is its position with reference to the
North Pole, the equator, and other land and water masses. Other physical features
of the land may change—its forests may be cut, its soils may erode, or its sur-
face may be paved with impervious asphalt or concrete.
Over the centuries, a major revolution in communication and in transport has both
shrunk and expanded the world—shrunk it, in terms of permitting travel and freight
shipments over long distances, and expanded it in the sense of opening up new
areas for the use of people resident in any particular location. . . . Air travel
cut this time distance sharply, and jet planes reduced it further. These compari-
sons apply to cross-country travel only. . . .
The results of this shrinking of economic space have been considerable for nearly
all kinds of land uses. Distances, and costs based upon distance, are still impor-
tant factors affecting land use. But, to a substantial degree, we now have nation-
al and regional markets for land and its products, whereas formerly we had local
ones. Most agricultural products and many or most forest products move in a na-
tional market now. People seek outdoor recreation hundreds of miles from their
home. With nearly universal automobile ownership, even the corner grocery store
is exposed to competition on a wider basis. This reduction in travel times and
costs has greatly increased the effective supply of land; it has also greatly in-
creased the demand for land in the more remote locations. There are few sheltered
areas today; in a remote wilderness area, one can see planes and satellites go
overhead. Land problems of all kinds must increasingly be studied from a national
viewpoint; the environment of each area is determined in part by conditions in
other areas.
Quality of the Environment and Land Use
In the past decade or so, there has been a dramatically rising tide of popular
concern over the quality of our environment on this earth. Man has developed a
highly productive economy, which supports several billion people, some in luxury.
By and large, little attention has been given to the impact of this production
process upon the natural environment. The goal of the production process has been
to provide goods and services for the consumer; the production man has sought to
coax or beguile people into buying, and the economist has measured output in terms
of what reached the consumer. Very little attention has been paid to the uses the
consumer actually made of the product or service; there have been constant com-
plaints about the quality and cost of service for autos and household gadgets.
But still less attention has been paid to the wastes or the residuals from the con-
sumption process.
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This concentration on production for the consumer was misguided and incomplete.
Everything that reaches the consumer shows up again in some form as a residual—
waste, in more popular but less accurate terminology. The tonnages of inputs,
whether measured to the individual or to a city or other large area, must be
matched by the tonnages of the output. The latter may be gaseous, liquid, or solid,
and many residuals may be shifted from one form to another, as when household
paper wastes are burned to create added air pollution. The residuals from some
processes may be valuable inputs to others.
This matter of quality of environment goes far beyond land use, and cannot be ex-
plored fully. ... It seems highly probable that people will demand new approach-
es to environmental problems, although it is as yet far from clear that all the
protesters are willing to pay the costs, which may be considerable. In this
larger picture, land use cannot remain unaffected. Some land will be used for
landfill or for garbage dumps. But agricultural or suburban development practices
that dump a lot of sediment into streams may well be curbed; and the poultry pro-
ducer or beef cattle feeder, whose operations contribute to the mineral load of
waters and thus to the growth of algae there, may also feel some restrictive hand.
In scores of ways, an effective demand for a cleaner and more attractive natural
environment may affect land use.
The General Shape of the Future
Land use will undoubtedly be affected by a number of demographic, economic, and
technical trends that are now under way.
The United States will surely have more people in the future than it has today,
assuming no catastrophic war. The 1970 Census shows about 205 million people.
A few years ago, most population projections for 2000 included at least 300 million
people, some considerably more than that. Since 1960, the crude birthrate
(the number of births per 1,000 population of all ages and both sexes) has declined
by a fourth, and today most forecasters would probably estimate somewhat fewer
than 300 million people by 2000. If birthrates continue to decline, the number
at the end of the century could be considerably less than 300 million. However,
even if by some miracle the birthrate declined tomorrow to a point that would
ultimately mean a stationary population (and it would not have to decline so very
much further, to reach this level), the relatively large numbers of young people
in our population would ensure a continued population increase for at least two
or three decades. For our purposes, it does not matter what the exact population
figure will be in 2000 or—to put it differently--the exact date at which any
reasonable number will be realized. It seems almost certain that there will be
more Americans at the end of the next generation than there are now; and their
sheer numbers will put increased demand upon land resourses.
There is a widespread consensus among economists that real incomes per capita will
continue to rise in the future at more or less the rate of the recent past. Be-
tween 1970 and 2000 disposable personal income per capita in real (constant price)
terms (which is a measure of buying power) is likely to rise by more than half at
a pessimistic low to slightly more than double at an optimistic high. In terms
of 1970 prices, average family incomes might reach $20,000 by 2000. For our pur-
pose, it is not necessary to estimate precisely how large the increase will be.
The very fact that there are more people with more money will mean an increased
demand for a wide variety of goods and services, and some of this increased de-
mand will fall on products from the land. The category least affected by higher
average incomes will be cropland because the demand for so many agricultural
commodities is not sensitive to increases in consumer incomes. The demand for
outdoor recreation, in contrast, will almost surely continue to rise greatly;
more people with more money to spend spells greater attendance at many public parks.
Increasing affluence has meant—and probably will continue to mean—an increased
impact upon the natural environment. Greater output has required higher energy
consumption, for instance; and whether the energy came from coal, oil, gas, or
some other source, the additional energy has had impacts upon the environment,
both in the area of origin and in the area of consumption. One of the major prob-
lems of the future is to devise ways of achieving a high economic output for high
material standards of living, and at the same time minimizing the impact upon the
environment.
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The twentieth century may later be looked upon as the period of the knowledge ex-
plosion. Free public education was established as a principle during the nine-
teenth century, but the idea of universal attendance through high school is a
twentieth century phenomenon, and the idea of nearly universal college attendance
may well be established by the end of the century. Scientific and technological
research are now firmly entrenched in every branch of industry. All of these
trends will almost surely continue. We may have lost some of our naive faith, or
hope, that increased knowledge would solve all our personal or social problems;
but we are firmly committed to knowledge as a desirable means of solving problems.
A continued growth in knowledge will surely affect land use; the current forecast
that increased production per acre of cropland will meet all increased demands for
agricultural commodities for at least a generation ahead, for instance, is based
on the assumption that agricultural research will continue.
A greater degree of urbanization also seems highly probable, if not certain. The
trend has been strongly in that direction for a long time; it is accelerating, not
diminishing. There is indeed widespread criticism of the city as a form of human
settlement, and the large city in particular; but it is also true that people
continue to migrate to such cities. There might be a successful program to modify
the present population distribution between very large, large, and medium cities,
although even this would be an operation of heroic proportions; but it seems
unlikely that there will be a program to reverse the flow of people to cities.
But urbanization is more than a matter of people crowding into relatively compact
living patterns; it is also a style of life, or an attitude toward life. In this
sense, many American farmers today are urban; college-educated, well-informed,
travelled, they are no longer rural in the older sense of the term. Personal con-
sumption habits and personal life styles will almost surely grow more similar to
those of people in the larger cities.
All of this points to a society and an economy with greater interdependency among
its members in economic, social, and land use terms. Land use within an urban
complex today is highly interdependent—what is done on one tract is greatly in-
fluenced by what is done on other tracts, and in turn exerts its effects on still
other land. This type of interdependence will almost surely grow stronger over
the next generation. We may be able to find ways of reducing the negative exter-
nal effects and increasing the positive ones in a democratic manner. Planned
cooperation might produce a more desirable living environment than any individual
could achieve on his own. But increased interdependence almost certainly will
mean more public controls over private land. The development of zoning over the
past generation may have a parallel in the development of stronger and more diver-
sified controls in the future. With more people, larger population concentrations,
and a greater social and economic interdependence, it becomes more and more un-
likely that each individual will be able to pursue his own ends wholly in his own
way. The real issue is to find ways of exerting social control with a minimum of
stress and interference on the individual.
A major social attitude of the future is likely to be an increased concern over the
quality of the natural environment and a willingness to do something about it, even
at a cost. In the past, most people have been more concerned with obtaining the
products and services of technology and of the economic machine, and have shown
little or no interest in what the production of these goods and services was doing
to the natural environment. People wanted big automobiles, fine television sets,
a wide variety of household gadgets, enough electricity to run their machines, and
a great assortment or other consumption goods; only recently have they begun to
worry about what happened to these articles once they were no longer useful, and
about what happened to the environment during their production. In the past dec-
ade, more particularly in the past five years, there has been a great hue and cry
about pollution, waste, ugliness, impairment of the environment, and the like;
but it remains to be proved that the electorate as a whole will support effective
measures to do something about the problem. Are people really willing to pay
higher prices for articles they buy, or higher taxes, or both, to provide a better
environment? Surely, some people have not thought it inconsistent to scream for
a better environment while continuing personal consumption habits responsible for
environmental degradation.
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Probable Trends in Land Use
The most striking aspect of the outlook for land use is its overall stability for
a generation or more. (A chart showing land use in 2000 will almost surely look
very much like . . . how land was used in 1964.) Net changes from one use to
another will be too small to change the general picture. Should some book be
published in 2002 with two charts on land use, one for 1964 and the other for
2000, and should the printer reverse them, probably no one would notice. The
overall stability will apply to specific tracts of land also--downtown Manhattan
will remain urban; most good Iowa cropland will remain in crops; and so on.
The area of land used for some purposes will increase. This will be particularly
true for land in urban, recreation, water storage, and some miscellaneous uses.
The area used for these purposes may even double by 2000. While this is a rela-
tively large increase for these particular uses, it is still small in the overall
land picture. The exact increase in urban area will depend on total population
increase, upon the proportion of the increased population that locates in an ur-
ban setting, upon the pattern of settlement within the city (especially the lot
size and the use of apartments in suburbs), upon the amount of idle land within
the generally urbanized areas, upon the rebuilding of decadent older urban areas,
and upon other factors. For some purposes it is highly important to estimate
exactly how much land will be used by the cities or will be withdrawn by them
from other uses; but any reasonable estimate of these factors will not modify
the general picture of land use enough to invalidate the foregoing statements
about general stability in land use. The total area used for recreation will
also be determined by many factors; if the rising demand is met by increased land
area, the proportionate increase could be rather large, and yet not change the
general picture significantly.
The acreage used for cropland is likely to remain about as now until 2000 or later.
Some cropland will be lost to expanding cities, and some of the poorer cropland
will pass out of production. But some land will be brought into cropping by addi-
tional irrigation or by clearing of trees, and some by new technologies that in-
crease productivity to a profitable level. The net changes will be small; the
increased demand for agricultural commodities can be met more economically by in-
creasing output on present cropland. Indeed, the continuing problem will be ac-
tual or potential crop surpluses. Even the gross changes will not be large in
proportion to present cropland area.
There will be some net losses in grazing and forestry land areas because it is
only in rare cases that either of these uses can compete effectively for land
that is in demand for urban, recreation, or cropping use. Grazing is nearly al-
ways low man on the totem pole of land uses and gets its large area largely by
default. Forestry, on the whole, produces a larger annual economic output per
acre than grazing does, but has about the same competitive strength. Some of the
increased urban area over the next generation will come out of land now classi-
fied as used for forestry. But an area that represents a large percentage in-
crease for urban land use will be a very small loss for forestry; moreover, most
of the forest land so converted will be land that is not very productive now.
The inroads of recreation upon forestry and grazing may be more serious, and will
more frequently arouse opposition from the industries losing land, but a doubling
of recreation areas would still take a relatively small percentage of forestry
and grazing land.
Some Paradoxes in the Competition for Land
Overall stability in land use seems probable for the future; yet, paradoxically,
change in land use is likely to produce more controversy and general turmoil in
the future than in the past. The very forces that bring stability also bring a
degree of rigidity. The general picture that emerges from this book is one of
enough land to readily meet the demands on it for at least a generation—no at-
tempt is made to look further ahead. But this generally comfortable picture may
be somewhat misleading; there are already some problems, and they may grow more
serious. Merely to say that a person's general health is good does not prove
that he has no need of medical or dental attention.
Some of the land use problems were noted in earlier chapters: a lot of land with-
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drawn by cities from other uses, yet idle and unproductive; a lot of decadent
older urban areas; not enough recreation land in total, overcrowding of some rec-
reation areas, serious deficiencies in the supply of parks in the lower-income
parts of cities; some crop, grazing, and forestry land eroding or otherwise deter-
iorating, and some without adequate stands of grass or trees. One should not
minimize these problems; they demand and justify more attention and greater in-
vestment than they have received. But the United States is still generously sup-
plied with land; we can no longer use it so lavishly and with so little thought
for the future, as we once did.
Changes in land use will come with increasing difficulty in the future. The area
used for highways may be less than one percent of the total land area, yet for
each acre converted from residential to public highway use, the conversion is 100
percent. Even where the conversion is from one private owner to another (rather
than from a private to a public owner, as above), the repercussions of the land
use change may be considerable. In this day of interdependences in land use, it
is not uncommon for many persons to have an interest in a tract of land that they
neither own nor actively use. For instance, let there be a proposal that some of
the land surrounding an old house be rezoned to permit construction of an apart-
ment house; scores or hundreds of citizens, concerned with the effect of the pro-
posed construction on the general character of their neighborhood, or on street
traffic, or on crowding in their already full schools, or other aspects of com-
munity life, will turn out to oppose the rezoning action if a public hearing is
held. Or let there be a proposal to use a swamp or marsh as a landfill area for
disposal of solid wastes; again, there will be scores or hundreds of citizens who
do not own the land and may never have set foot on it who will feel that they have
an interest in the land use and will oppose the change. The electric power com-
panies have found it increasingly difficult to locate power stations and power
lines; too large a sector of the public has an interest in every possible location
for such plants to be located without objection.
The stability and the interdependencies in land use will increase the difficulty
of land use changes. Calculations of relative economic values may have some in-
fluence, but in many cases the people who will be disadvantaged by a land use
change will be unmoved by an economic calculation showing that the national or
community welfare will be increased by the change; they lose, and they oppose.
The losses may be hard to evaluate. For instance, what harm does the public or a
segment of it suffer if an old house with historic and architectural charm is
torn down and replaced by a filling station or a shopping center? Some people may
feel that they are worse off because they have lost something that enriched their
lives; others may consider that the change has left them better off.
We are likely to see increasing public controls over private land use; the exter-
nality relationship will increase in importance and will demand more concern for
the general public not directly involved in an existing land use or in a proposed
change in land use. The private market will still remain important, although in-
creasingly conditioned by public controls and public incentives. The political
process (using this term in a very broad sense) will determine or at least strongly
influence many land use decisions. One of the major tasks for social engineering
for the next generation is to find ways of bringing all interests to bear on land
use decisions and to reconcile opposing and mutually exclusive interests in a bet-
ter way than we do today.
Another interesting aspect of the present land use situation, and one related to
the stability of land use, is the rising competition for land, as measured by land
prices. The total value of farm real estate has doubled since 1954; the price of
good recreation land has risen at least as much; and the price of land in and
around growing suburbs has risen still faster.
Governmental action has, directly and indirectly, greatly stimulated these in-
creases in land value. An indirect influence has been the widespread conviction
that governmental policy will never permit a repetition of the 1930s or of earlier
great depressions. This has led to a confidence in future prosperity and in fu-
ture worth of property that has affected land values, although it is difficult to
express its importance in quantitative terms. More direct governmental actions
have been the agricultural programs under which farm owners received substantial
payments because they owned land, income tax provisions treating capital gains
more tenderly than ordinary income and permitting real estate taxes and interest
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paid on mortgages to be deducted from income, and guarantees to savers and to
lenders, which increased the flow of capital into real estate. Once land values
begin to rise, the process is self-fueling; as long as prices rise, ownership of
land is remunerative, irrespective of current income. In a great many situa-
tions in.the United States today, land prices have been bid up to a point where
the net income from the use of the land represents a very low return on the value
of the land. If the land were sold and the money invested elsewhere, the interest
on the investment would exceed the net income that is received from the use of the
land. However, a decline in land values is unlikely as long as general prosperity
continues.
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Nature in the Metropolis
Ian L. McHarg
The discussion on matter and cycles may have appeared as an unnecessary excursion
into biophysical science. Was it really necessary? Consider. The arguments that
are normally mobilized in plaintive bleeding-heartism are clearly inadequate to
arrest the spread of mindless destruction. Better arguments are necessary. The
accumulation of some evidence of the ways of the working world produces an effec-
tive starting point. In the remarkably unsuccessful early years of my battles
against the philistines I found that proffering my palpitating heart accomplished
little remedy but that the diagnostic and prescriptive powers of a rudimentary
ecology carried more weight, and had more value.
If we can assume that the reader has left the metaphorical space capsule with the
same understanding of some basic physical and biological laws as the astronaut,
we can assume that his interest in nature is not even remotely sentimental. We
can now assume his solicitude for these indispensable processes as intelligent
self-interest. We can also expect that the initial proposition now evokes a deeper
understanding and acceptance—nature can be considered as interacting process, re-
sponsive to laws, constituting a value system, offering intrinsic opportunities and
limitations to human uses. Now better armed, we can take our knowledge of nature
as process and apply this to a problem—to discern the place of nature in a metro-
politan region.
Some years ago I was asked to advise on which lands in the Philadelphia metropolitan
region should be selected for open space. It became clear at the onset that the
solution could only be obscured by limiting open space to the arena for organized
sweating; it seemed more productive to consider the place of nature in the metropolis.
In order to conclude on this place it appeared reasonable to suggest that nature per-
formed work for man without his investment and that such work did represent a value.
It also seemed reasonable to conclude that certain areas and natural processes were
inhospitable to man—earthquake areas, hurricane paths, floodplains and the like—
and that those should be prohibited or regulated to ensure public safety. This
might seem a reasonable and prudent approach, but let us recognize that it is a rare
one.
Consider that if you are required to design a flight of steps or a sidewalk there
are clear and stringent regulations; there are constraints against the sale of cigar-
ettes and alcohol to minors, society reacts sternly to the sale or use of narcotics
and there are strong laws to deter assault, rape and murder. And we should be thank-
ful indeed for these protections. But there is no comparable concern, reflected in
law, that ensures that your house is not built on a floodplain, on unconsolidated
From Design With Nature by Ian L. McHarg, published for the American Museum of
Natural History by Doubleday/Natural History Press, Doubleday and Company, Inc.,
Garden City, New York. Paperback edition, 1971. Pp.55-57.
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While great efforts are made to ensure that you do not break an ankle, there
are few deterrents to arrest the dumping of poisons into the sources of public
water supply or their injection into groundwater resources. You are clearly pro-
tected from assault by fist, knife or gun, but not from the equally dangerous
threats of hydrocarbons, lead, nitrous oxides, ozone or carbon monoxide in the
atmosphere. There is no protection from the assaults of noise, glare and stress.
So while a handrail may be provided for your safety and convenience by a con-
siderate government, you may drown in a floodplain, suffer loss of life and prop-
erty from inundation of coastal areas, from an earthquake or hurricane; the dam-
age or loss of life could be due to criminal negligence at worst and unpardonable
ignorance at best, without the protection of governmental regulation or of laws.
It clearly should be otherwise; there is a need for simple regulations, which en-
sure that society protects the values of natural processes and is itself protected.
Conceivably such lands wherein exist these intrinsic values and constraints would
provide the source of open space for metropolitan areas. If so, they would satis-
fy a double purpose: ensuring the operation of vital natural processes and em-
ploying lands unsuited to development in ways that would leave them unharmed by
these often violent processes. Presumably, too, development would occur in areas
that were intrinsically suitable, where dangers were absent and natural processes
unharmed.
The formulation of these regulations requires no new science; we need move no nearer
to the threshold of knowledge than the late 19th century. We can initially describe
the major natural processes and their interactions and thereafter establish the de-
gree to which these are permissive or prohibitive to certain land uses. This done,
it will remain with the government and the courts to ensure our protection through
the proper exercise of police power.
Before we move to this objective it is necessary to observe that there are two other
views. They must be examined if only to be dismissed. The first is the economist's
view of nature as a generally uniform commodity—appraised in terms of time distance,
cost of land and development and allocated in terms of acres per unit of population.
Nature, of course, is not uniform but varies as a function of historical geology,
climate, physiography, soils, plants, animals and—consequently—intrinsic resources
and land uses. Lakes, rivers, oceans and mountains are not where the economist
might want them to be, but are where they are for clear and comprehensible reasons.
Nature is -intrinsically variable.
The geometric planner offers another alternative, that the city be ringed with a
green circle in which green activities--agriculture, institutions and the like—are
preserved or even introduced. Such greenbelts, where enforced by law, do ensure
the perpetuation of open space and in the absence of an alternative they are success-
ful—but it appears that nature outside the belt is no different from that within,
that the greenbelt need not be the most suitable location for the green activities
of agriculture or recreation. The ecological method would suggest that the lands
reserved for open space in the metropolitan region be derived from natural-process
lands, intrinsically suitable for "green" purposes: that is the place of nature in
the metropolis.
A single drop of water in the uplands of a watershed may appear and reappear as
cloud, precipitation, surface water in creek and river, lake and pond or groundwater;
it can participate in plant and animal metabolism, transpiration, condensation, de-
composition, combustion, respiration and evaporation. This same drop of water may
appear in considerations of climate and microclimate, water supply, flood, drought
and erosion control, industry, commerce, agriculture, forestry, recreation, scenic
beauty, in cloud, snow, stream, river and sea. We conclude that nature is a single
interacting system and that changes to any part will affect the operation of the
whole.
If we use water as an indicator of the interaction of natural processes, we see that
the forests felled in the uplands may have an identical effect upon the incidence of
flood that is accomplished by filling estuarine marshes. Pollution of groundwater
may affect surface water resources and vice versa; urbanization will affect the rate
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of runoff, erosion and sedimentation, causing water turbidity, diminution of aquat-
ic organisms, and a reduction in natural water purification. These, in turn, will
result in channel dredging costs, increased water treatment costs and, possibly,
flood damages and drought costs.
So we can say that terrestrial processes require water and that freshwater processes
are indissoluble from the land. It then follows that land management will affect
water, water management will affect land processes. We cannot follow the path of
every drop of water, but we can select certain identifiable aspects—precipitation
and runoff, surface water in streams and rivers, marshes and floodplains, ground-
water resources in aquifers and the most critical phase of these—aquifer recharge.
We can now formulate some simple propositions. Simple they are indeed—almost to
the point of idiocy—but they are novelties of high sophistication to the planning
process and the bulk of local governmental agencies.
Water quality and quantity are related to both land and water management. Floods
are natural phenomena and reveal cyclical frequencies; healthy water bodies reduce
organic matter and this varies with seasons, turbidity, dissolved oxygen, alkalini-
ty, temperature, and the biotic population; erosion and sedimentation are natural
but are accelerated by almost all human adaptations—on a uniform soil, normally
the greater the slope, the more the erosion. Groundwater and surface water are
interacting—in periods of low precipitation the water in rivers and streams is
usually groundwater; soils vary in their productivity for agriculture as a function
of texture, organic matter, chemical composition, elevation, slope, and exposure.
Marshes are flood storage areas, often aquifer recharges, the homes of wildfowl and
both spawning and breeding grounds, the hinterland of a city is the source of the
clean air that replaces the pollutants discharged by the city. The rural hinter-
land also contributes to a more temperate summer climate. Can we use this informa-
tion to discriminate between lands that should remain in their natural condition,
lands that are permissive to certain uses but not to others and those lands that
are most tolerant to urbanization—free from danger, undamaging to other values?
But, first can we afford the indulgence of reserving natural-process lands and
regulating development on them in order to capture their value? Indeed we can:
land is abundant. According to the French urban geographer Jean Gottman, perhaps
only 1.8% of the United States is urbanized today. (Jean Gottman,Megalopolis, The Twen-
tieth Century Fund, New York, 1961, p.26.) Even within metropolitan regions, there is
plenty of land. In the Philadelphia Standard Metropolitan Statistical Area, 3,500
square miles—less than 20%—is urbanized today and even should the population
increase to 6,000,000, there would remain at that time 70% or 2,300 square miles
of open land.
If so, wherein lies the problem? Simply in the form of growth. Urbanization pro-
ceeds by increasing the density within and extending the periphery, always at the
expense of open space. As a result—unlike other facilities—open space is most
abundant where people are scarcest. This growth, we have seen, is totally unre-
sponsive to natural processes and their values. Optimally, one would wish for two
systems within the metropolitan region—one the pattern of natural processes pre-
served in open space, the other the pattern of urban development. If these were
interfused, one could satisfy the provision of open space for the population. The
present method of growth continuously preempts the edge, causing the open space to
recede from the population center. Geometrically, a solution is not unthinkable.
If the entire area of the Philadelphia region were represented in a circle it
would have a radius of 33 miles. Present urbanization can be encircled by a 15-
mile radius. If all the existing and proposed urbanization for a six-million pop-
ulation and one acre of open space for every thirty persons is encircled, then the
radius is 20 miles—only five miles more than the present.
But rather than propose a blanket standard of open space, we wish to find discrete
aspects of natural processes that carry their own values and prohibitions: it is from
these that open space should be selected, it is these that should provide the pat-
tern, not only of metropolitan open space, but also the positive pattern of develop-
ment . c
Later on we shall see that there are consistencies in land morphology, soils,
stream patterns, plant association, wildlife habitats, and even land use, and that
these can well be examined through the concept of the physiographic region. It is
premature to employ this concept now. It is enough for the moment to insist that
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nature performs work for man—in many cases this is best done in a natural condi-
tion—further that certain areas are intrinsically suitable for certain uses while
others are less so. We can begin with this simple proposition. Moreover, we can
codify it. If we select eight dominant aspects of natural process and rank them
in an order of both value and intolerance to human use and then reverse the order,
it will be seen as a gross hierarchy of urban suitability.
Natural-process Value; Intrinsic Suitability
Degree of Intolerance for Urban Use
Surface water Flat land
Marshes Forest, woodlands
Floodplains Steep slopes
Aquifer recharge areas Aquifers
Aquifers Aquifer recharge areas
Steep slopes Floodplains
Forests, woodlands Marshes
Flat land Surface water
However, there is an obvious conflict in this hierarchy. The flat land, so often
selected for urbanization, is often as suitable for agriculture: this category
will have to be looked at more carefully. So prime agricultural land will be
identified as intolerant to urbanization and constituting a high social value—
all other flat land will be assumed to have a low value in the natural-process
scale and a high value for urban suitability.
Within the metropolitan region natural features will vary, but it is possible to
select certain of these that exist throughout and determine the degree to which
they allow or discourage contemplated land uses. While these terms are relative,
optimally development should occur on valuable or perilous natural-process land
only when superior values are created or compensation can be awarded.
A complete study would involve identifying natural processes that performed work
for man, those which offered protection or were hostile, those which were unique
or especially precious and those values which were vulnerable. In the first
category fall natural water purification, atmospheric pollution dispersal,
climatic amelioration, water storage, flood, drought and erosion control, top-
soil accumulation, forest and wildlife inventory increase. Areas that provided
protection or were dangerous would include the estuarine marshes and the flood-
plains, among others. The important areas of geological, ecological and historic
interest would represent the next category, while beach dunes, spawning and breed-
ing grounds and water catchment areas would be included in the vulnerable areas.
No such elaborate examination has been attempted in this study. However, eight
ncitural processes have been identified and these have been mapped and measured.
Each one has been described with an eye to permissiveness and prohibition to
certain land uses. It is from this analysis that the place of nature in the
metropolis will be derived.
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Urban Population Expansion and
the Preservation of Nature
Edmund N. Bacon
The second part of my discussion deals with country communities and with man's rela-
tionship with nature. Here, I think that there is a kind of parallel in some curious
and very unfortunate ideas which produce a result exactly contrary to their supposed
intent. One of these, in my opinion, is the idea of low density. In his avowed
determination to relate to nature, a man rushes out into the countryside and seizes
a tiny fragment of nature for himself, in the process destroying the very things he
seeks, and, as one of many doing the same thing, he deprives the whole city popula-
tion of the advantages of easy and pleasant access to examples of the phenomenon of
nature. There is a kind of ghastly lack of awareness of what nature actually is:
that it is, in fact, a phenomenon, and not an absolute commodity that can be bought
and sold; that its survival depends on an interlocking series of interdependent
functional systems; and that to fragment the terrain, to slash it up in pieces, and
to change the grading and drainage systems upsets the ecological balance and simply
destroys the product as nature.
The monumental paradox is that the stereotype which exists in most people's minds,
and is enshrined in planning documents and in the law, is the one which is best
calculated, when carried out on a large scale, to destroy nature—and that is the
notion of the large lot. Under present zoning procedures and court decisions, the
largest lot that is usually permitted to be required as a minimum under zoning is
in the vicinity of, perhaps, two acres. The zoning of most of the areas around
cities—into which the future population expansion must go—into two-acre lots
simply assures that the natural attributes of the countryside will be destroyed and
that the total area so destroyed will be many times that which would occur if the
people lived on smaller lots. Thus, when viewed from a fragmented point of view,
the idea of large lots seems sensible, but when viewed from a total point of view,
it is the most destructive policy that could possibly occur, and the area so de-
stroyed will be many times that which would occur if the same population were
housed closer together and if some really natural areas were preserved between the
more closely knit communities.
The approach here would be that the possession of nature imposes a discipline. It
would impose on anybody wishing to possess nature the responsibility for possessing
a large enough continuous piece of the terrain so that there is a reasonable chance
for the natural processes to hold together. The natural and biological sciences
could do a study to determine what the critical dimensions would be. As a rough
working figure, I shall use the figure of ten acres as a minimum which would have
to be under single ownership to ensure anything like the natural product. This
would lead to the idea that anyone seeking to possess nature would be required under
the zoning law to acquire at least ten acres as a minimum to achieve his objective
and to discharge the responsibility which his objective entailed. Next, we shall
introduce the concept, which, as far as I know, is totally unknown in zoning litera-
ture, of setting a minimum lot size, not a maximum lot size; therefore, if you
wanted to buy a natural setting, you would be required to have a minimum of ten
acres, and more than that if you wanted.
This article originally appeared in the Annals of the American Society of Political and Social
Science, July 1968, and was reprinted in Land-Use Controls: A Quarterly Review, Vol. 2, No. 3
Summer 1968.
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For the part of the population that did not care to undertake the responsibility of
ownership of such a tract, the critical elements are the general scarcity of space
—a problem which, as a nation, we have not faced—and the necessity of using space
around large cities economically, of so distributing the population that the great-
est number of people have the most ready access to natural areas. Here, there would
be a ceiling set in the zoning ordinance on the amount of space which any family may
have, recognizing that it does not choose to assume the responsibility of really own-
ing nature, but wishes to benefit from nature which is owned by other people.
A functional analysis of the actual space needs of a family would soon reveal that
the outdoor space required for the various functions of a family is very small in
reality. Then this would serve as a basis for a ceiling on the amount that could
be occupied by those living in a close-knit community.
The Maximum-Minimum Lot-Size Zoning Concept
This leads to the new concept of maximum-minimum lot-size zoning, and would provide
the regional planner, at last, with a tool which could be used to do something about
the outward march of the cities, which, up to now, has been allowed, virtually un-
controlled, to sweep all natural amenities before it and to destroy the setting and
the hinterland of cities. The planning problem then becomes that of so interweav-
ing the large-lot open areas and the close-knit residential communities that the
residents of the latter have easy access to the former. The dimensioning of the
residential communities—for example, planning them to be of such a size that one
could walk from the center to the edge in ten minutes, or, conversely, could drive
in five minutes—becomes a key planning matter. In essence, this is the texturing
of human settlement in the outreach of cities.
The planning of the interaction of these two clearly different kinds of areas is
deeply influenced by the nature of the topography and natural ecological develop-
ment. In fairly rolling areas, it might be logical for the government to buy strips
of land along the stream valleys which would protect the streams and provide public
footpaths, and to strengthen the narrow strips of public ownership by areas of
large-lot zoning adjacent to them which would reenforce their natural setting and
provide areas for enjoyment of the residents of the close-knit communities beyond.
In broad, flat areas, quite a different pattern may be logical, and the special
habits and cultural traditions of each section of the country can be expressed in
the regional plan.
So far, most effort dealing with the problem of urban extension has been expended,
and has expired, in polemics about how bad the situation is. Almost nothing has
been said or written about positive steps that could be taken to channel urban
growth into more constructive forms. For that reason, I think that this concept of
maximum-minimum lot-size zoning should be given careful study as to its feasibility
to be carried out.
From a legal point of view, I think that the court cases which have thrown out mini-
mum-lot zoning for large areas, say, five acres, on the ground that this is "snob
zoning," designed to keep out the poor, could be seen in quite a new light if the
minimum lot size is demonstratedly related to the small-lot adjacent community, and
is clearly designed to carry out a major social purpose.
To make the zoning effective in actually controlling the development which takes
jxlace, the whole question of the public health and of sanitation and drainage could
be brought into play. In essence, if there were a strong and enforceable state law
that no house could be built on a lot of less than a given acreage unless it is con-
nected to a public sewer system leading to a sewage-treatment plant, then the ever
growing problem of the cumulative effect of septic tanks too close together would
be removed, and the systematic coordination of the planning of minimum-maximum lot
areas related to the construction of public water supply and sewage systems would
actually control the location of the vast majority of new urban developments. The
drainage systems could then be developed logically and systematically on a natural
drainage basin basis—the health and sanitation aspect fitting in logically with the
minimum-maximum lot-size concept. Federal assistance in the construction of the
trunk sewers and sewage-disposal plants would help to supply the positive push to a
rational development of the region, the prevention of stream pollution, and guidance
for the outward push of cities into a countryside that would not be totally destroyed
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You will note that the objective of the city home, that of rich experience for the
children, is not totally unconnected with the objective of the home on the outskirts,
for, here also, most families would be reasonably close together. The form of de-
velopment would not, of itself, guarantee variety of backgrounds of families in the
close-knit areas, but would make interaction possible if means could be brought to
bear actually to achieve integration in these areas also.
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The Relationship Between Land Use
and Environmental Quality:
Institutions, Processes, Techniques
Individual thinkers since the days of Ezekiel and
Isaiah have asserted that the despoliation of land is
not only inexpedient but wrong. Society, however,
has not yet affirmed their belief. I regard the present
conservation movement as the embryo of such an
affirmation.
AI Jo Leopold
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The Relationship Between Land Use
and Environmental Protection
E. J.Croke, K. G. Croke,
A. S. Kennedy, and L. J. Hoover
Introduction
In the past five years, the term "environmental protection" has been transformed
from a concept existing in the minds of a select group of specialists and con-
cerned citizens groups to a national issue of the highest priority. In response
to this development, it became necessary to review the processes by which goods
are produced, consumed, and ultimately disposed of in the United States, with re-
spect to the environmental consequences of these activities.
In order to accomplish this, the federal government initiated a comprehensive
series of programs. Numerous studies were conducted to identify the environmental
damages resulting from industrial, commercial, residential, agricultural, and
transportation activities which constitute the prime sources of pollution. Federal,
state, and local legislative programs giving broad powers to regulatory and enforce-
ment agencies were enacted, and enforcement actions have taken place at every level of
government.
One of the more significant steps forward occurred when the Federal Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA) was established within the executive branch of the govern-
ment. Simply stated, the mandate of the EPA is to define environmental quality
standards and to provide leadership and assistance to state and local governments
in establishing programs designed to achieve and enforce these standards. In par-
ticular, The Clean Air Act as amended in 1970 and the Federal Water Pollution Con-
trol Act provide the EPA with the authority and responsibility to restore and main-
tain the quality of our air and water resources.
Under this mandate, environmental quality standards have been established, and the
guidelines and framework within which state and local governments must plan and im-
plement programs designed to achieve these standards have been developed. As part
of this program, the EPA has engaged in and promoted surveillance, enforcement and
monitoring activities; provided financial and technical assistance to state and
local governments; and supported research, planning and technological assessment
programs at the federal level.
This effort has, until now, emphasized the abatement and control of pollutant dis-
charges through the application of appropriate control technology to individual
sources of pollution. This emphasis occurred because of the acute need for prompt
and effective control of existing pollution sources and the current availability,
at the state and local levels, of institutions geared to the administration of
traditional, technology-oriented regulatory activities.
The initial focus on source control technology represented an essential first major
stage of the national environmental protection program.
Prepared by the Argonne National Laboratory Center For Environmental Studies as a Briefing Document
for the Joint Meeting of the President's Water Pollution Control Advisory Board and Air Quality Ad-
visory Board, March 27-31, 1972.
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Although tne installation of air pollution emission control devices, completion
of fuel and process conversion programs, construction and upgrading of waste
water treatment facilities, etc., which occur as a result of this program, will
have a significant effect on the control of environmental pollution; in many in-
stances such controls may not be sufficient to achieve and maintain environmental
quality standards. Even in many areas where currently available pollution control
technology can temporarily achieve environmental quality standards, rapid develop-
ment may render present control regulations and programs ineffective within a few
years. A prime case in point is Illinois' modern Hanover sewage treatment plant,
which two years ago was regarded as one of the most advanced in the nation. Ex-
plosive development of the surrounding area served by the plant has saturated its
capacity, caused it to become an environmental nuisance and forced a moratorium
on further sewer connections.
Since technology-oriented pollution control programs, however effective, cannot
fully ensure that environmental quality standards will be achieved and maintained,
it is necessary to explore and evaluate the need for the national environmental
protection program to enter a second stage in which environmental protection is
viewed within the broader perspective of urban and regional development. For the
most part, the more sophisticated pollution control plans developed to date are
dominated by traditional, technology-oriented regulatory practices and do not take
account of the economic and population development trends which have led to environ-
mental degradation. The pressures of economic growth and development, prolifera-
tion of transportation systems, increasing population densities and rapid expansion
in housing developments may pose both actual and potential threats to the mainten-
ance of environmental standards.
The real or potential environmental dangers of past and present land use decisions
raise many difficult policy questions regarding the future of the environmental
protection program. These include:
(1) Is an orderly process of monitoring and controlling the changes in land use and
development needed to reflect the natural assimilative capacity of the land?
(2) if such a process is needed, how can environmental protection programs deter-
mine the fact that certain areas are not capable, from an environmental point of
view, of tolerating certain types of development?
(3) How can such programs monitor efficient economic growth in environmentally
suitable areas within the constraints imposed by the capability of pollution con-
trol technology to allow for such growth? . . .
The Impact of Land Development on Environmental Quality
The full impact of past and present land use decisions on environmental quality is
still not fully understood or documented. From a preliminary examination of indi-
vidual instances when past land use or developmental decisions have generated a
significant degree of environmental degradation, four conclusions may be drawn:
(1) The environmental impact of land use development is pervasive in that almost
all forms of economic activities—residential, industrial, transportation, recrea-
tion, etc.—have contributed to some instances of environmental degradation.
(2) The environmental impact of present economic developmental decisions will be
of a prolonged nature and may be irreversible.
(3) The environmental problems posed by past land use or developmental processes
are not always susceptible to solutions involving the application of a control
technology.
(4) The environmental consequences of land development decisions are not fully per-
ceived when these decisions are made.
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The Pervasive Nature of Environmental Impacts Caused by Past Land Use Decisions
The extent of environmental impacts caused by past developmental decisions can be
graphically illustrated by documenting several examples drawn from the area of
transportation planning, industrial and residential development, and recreational
and agricultural activities.
In the area of transportation planning and development, many instances of severe
environmental consequences caused by the introduction of new transportation sys-
tems can be cited. For example, as of January 15, 1972, it appears that many
major urban areas will be unable to attain current air quality standards for the
vehicular pollutants unless current emission control technology is supplemented
by transportation system controls. The urban areas which may require such environ-
mental land use control are not limited to any specific geographical area of the
United States. . . .
Increased air transportation has caused a trend toward industrial location and
housing developments near major airports. Problems of air pollution, water pollu-
tion, noise nuisance, and potential accident hazard to the resident population have
resulted, even though the airport was initially located in an isolated area. . . .
Urban expressways generate noise which has proved to be a serious handicap to school
activities. Among the growing number of suits filed against state highway depart-
ments is an award of $165,000 to the Elizabeth, New Jersey, Board of Education for
damages arising due to noise from Interstate 278,
Rapid or excessively intensive residential development is also causing environ-
mental problems in various regions of the United States. In Fairfax County, Vir-
ginia and Du Page County, Illinois moratoria were placed on sewage connections
because the capacity of local waste water treatment facilities has been saturated
as a result of rapid development. In effect, these actions constitute a moratorium
on land development. . . .
Failure to take account of the fact that some intensively developed areas are par-
ticularly susceptible to environmental pollution as a result of meteorological
conditions, topographical features, soil structure, etc., often leads to environmental
degradation. . . .
Lastly, the pursuit of recreational activities has also had adverse effects on our
national forest and scenic areas. Burgeoning second-home and resort development
has caused considerable alarm in states such as Vermont, Maine, Colorado, and Hawaii.
These states are moving to protect their natural areas by developing strict land use
regulatory programs to be administered by state agencies.
The Irreversibility of Environmental Problems Caused by Land Use Practices
We may distinguish two cases of irreversibility—physical irreversibility and socio-
economic irreversibility. Physical irreversibility implies that even if we ceased
to pollute or degrade the environment, natural regeneration would not restore the
resource to an acceptable or desirable quality. Such is not the case with air con-
taminants that would be washed out, for the most part, in a short period of time
if all emissions were to stop. Water resource regeneration, however, generally
will take much longer; indeed, certain lakes may become essentially irreversibly
polluted. Reforestation, strip mine reclamation, and shoreline dunes regeneration
are other examples where regeneration by natural processes may take many years to
accomplish.
In the absence of a land management program, the use of unsuitable land disposal
methods for liquid and solid wastes may result in nearly irreversible contamina-
tion of groundwater supplies and surface receiving waters. . . .
A second form of environmental irreversibility has to do with the workings of our
socioeconomic system. Our large urban complexes have evolved over several decades
and some have been in existence for centuries. Buildings, transportation systems,
and public services are designed for long economic lifetimes. Decisions to en-
courage and even subsidize private automotive transport systems have evolved a cer-
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tain urban form and life-style. Although strict controls on automotive emissions
have been promulgated and will have a significant effect on the amount of these
pollutants, the continued rise in vehicular miles in large urban areas, such as
Los Angeles, may again threaten the air quality of that city regardless of the
control technology employed.
The investment in new town development and urban renewal throughout the nation has
been quite substantial in the past few years. The consequences of these large
scale public and private investment programs are also likely to be difficult to re-
verse. Decisions being made now with regard to the location, type, and quantity of
such housing developments may have an effect upon the localized environment within
the area of these projects for long periods to come.
The interlocking urban system that has evolved because of these transportation and
development decisions cannot be rearranged easily- Many years must be spent be-
fore such areas can be restored to environmental balance, if indeed this is pos-
sible.
The Capability of Pollution Control Technology to Lessen the Environmental Impact
of Land Use Decisions
The effectiveness of the application of control technology to environmental prob-
lems caused by past land use decisions is often severely limited. Reference has
already been made to the projected failure of automotive emission controls to at-
tain certain air quality standards in some major American cities. Other serious
pollution problems regarding the use of land have also arisen which do not seem
susceptible to the application of control technology or the alteration of present
techniques. For instance, although some states are currently considering restric-
tions on the amount of nitrogenous fertilizer that can be applied per acre, such
controls may not be effective unless they are applied in conjunction with the es-
tablishment of buffer zones between agricultural areas and natural receiving
waters. Buffer zoning may also be the only effective means of preventing silting
and sedimentation of streams as a result of erosion due to farming, earthmoving,
and strip mining activities.
In many instances, land use regulation may be the only feasible strategy of pollu-
tion control available. This is particularly the case for area-wide sources of
pollution, such as agricultural activities, strip mining, and indiscriminate dump-
ing of liquid and solid wastes on land disposal sites. . . .
Recognition of the fact that control technology alone may be insufficient to
protect natural receiving waters adjacent to developing areas has resulted in
such shoreline land use regulatory programs as those adopted for San Francisco
Bay, Lake Tahoe, and the coastal areas of Maine, Vermont, Wisconsin, and Hawaii.
Land Development and Unknown Environmental Impacts
The long-range environmental effects of past land development decisions were not
always perceived or known when development decisions were made. Even when adverse
effects were perceived, they may have been discounted in the face of economic
growth incentives.
Public capital expansion programs provide excellent examples of this phenomenon.
Airports sited in rural areas almost inevitably cause rapid economic expansion
that compounds environmental problems. Sewer facility construction encourages
growth and residential development in open space and scenic areas. New or im-
proved road systems induce congestion and sprawl and are saturated in a short
time. Water treatment facilities improve riverside property and may subsequently
lead to development which overloads the capacity of the treatment facilities and
returns the water to its polluted state. . . .
Our economic system, in the past, has been geared to allow questionable facilities
to locate and operate before all the environmental rists have been evaluated.
These examples indicate a need for a unified system of projection, evaluation, and
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information dissemination before environmentally hazardous or degrading facilities
are constructed.
Historical Perspective of Land Use Planning and Development Practices
The process by which the public effects changes in land use patterns can be thought
of as a matrix of interacting institutions and techniques. The process is a com-
plex and frequently confusing one consisting of the formulation by planning insti-
tutions of land guidance policies whose adoption and execution ultimately depend
upon the diverse political, social and economic constraints affecting land use.
Thus, although planning institutions and techniques cannot be considered as in-
dependently functioning systems of land use guidance, these institutions and tech-
niques do represent a potential source of policy guidance in assessing the environ-
mental impact of land use decisions.
Land Guidance Institutions
The public institutions most concerned with guiding land use are primarily plan-
ning agencies. . . .
The traditional concern of local (city and county) planning agencies has been with
land use as exemplified by their research and plans, and the land use controls
they frequently administer. Land use remains their principal concern, although
many have broadened their activities to include social and environmental issues. . .
Planning agencies at the local government level essentially consist of city,
county, and combined city-county agencies. . . . Local planning agencies have
traditionally been concerned largely with land use, and have assisted in admin-
istering such controls as zoning and subdivision regulation. State enabling
legislation in all fifty states has delegated the powers of land use regulation
to local city and/or county governments.
Planning at the metropolitan and regional level has undergone dramatic change in
the last few years with the enormous increase in the number of councils of govern-
ments (COGs) governed by local elected officials, many of which replaced existing
metropolitan or regional lay planning commissions. . . .
The rapid increase in the number of COGs (from 19 in 1966 to 328 in 1971) and the
regional planning agencies in general is directly attributable to their favored
treatment by the federal government. Starting with the initial funding authori-
zation in the 1965 Housing Act, federal matching funds have been available to
regional councils for an increasing number of programs, including planning for
housing, criminal justice, and water and sewer systems.
Much of their strength derives from the Department of Housing and Urban Develop-
ment requirement that there be a "certified" regional planning activity in every
metropolitan area in order to qualify communities for receipt of bonus grants for
water supply and sewage system construction and for open space purchase. The 1966
Demonstration Cities and Metropolitan Development Act added additional strength
by empowering such agencies to review applications for federal grants from public
and private bodies. Among documents requiring their review are environmental
impact statements prepared in conjunction with any federal or federally-assisted
project or program. As of April 1971, the federal Office of Management and Budget
had designated 403 metropolitan and regional bodies, commonly called "clearing-
houses," to conduct such reviews. The eventual result of this program will be to
set up the machinery for an orderly review of the environmental impact of federal
grant projects on a regional level.
From their initial concern with public works in the 1930s state planning agen-
cies have also grown in numbers and have changed their activities substantially.
There are now planning agencies in all 50 states, many of which perform statewide
physical, social, economic, and environmental planning. Much of the impetus again
comes from the federal government in the form of planning funds (since 1961) and
federal program review responsibilities. A few state planning agencies continue
to focus on economic development or the administration of local planning assis-
tance funds. . , .
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When located at the governor's office, state planning agencies are used as staff
support to the governor in making government-wide policy decisions. There exists
a general trend toward bringing state planning agencies into the central decision-
making arena and out of the special purpose functions of the past. However, some
states have yet to regard planning as having an important role in central policy-
making. Some state planning agencies serve as mere "data-banks" or carry out other
specific support functions, such as federal grantsmanship or providing planning
assistance to local governments. State planning is often not supported by state
legislatures, many of which are not convinced of the need for planning at the state
level. . . .
Many other public bodies influence or guide land use. These include state and
local highway and public works departments as well as environmental control agen-
cies (e.g., California's pollution control districts) and special districts for
transportation (e.g., Bay Area Rapid Transit District; New York's Metropolitan
Transit Authority) and utilities (e.g., The Metropolitan Sanitary District of
Greater Chicago). These agencies, unlike the planning agencies, have not been
given direct responsibility over land use, yet their decisions have a significant
and lasting influence over the pattern and character of land use. Frequently,
their decisions are at odds with the objectives of the planning agencies.
Land Guidance Tools and Techniques
The system of land use guidance techniques used by planning agencies may be di-
vided into five categories: advice, controls, inducements, development, and ac-
quisition.
Advice is the oldest and most frequently used device. Planning agencies give
advice to governmental departments and officials, to other governments, to private
organizations, and to individuals. They may do this in response to requests for
assistance, because of a state or federal review requirement, or at their own ini-
tiative. The most common form of planning advice is the comprehensive plan itself,
which sets forth policies and guidelines for future development, usually based on
a set of objectives and future projections. Such plans seldom carry any legal
authority except to commit a legislative body to a general course of action and,
when used effectively, to establish the framework for the laws and ordinances
which control private development decisions. Many planning agencies also pre-
pare capital improvement programs which set forth the community's intended capital
expenses over the next 5 to 7 years.
Controls, especially land use controls, have been the major tools used by local
governments to implement their plans. Such controls include zoning, which sepa-
rates land use activities into districts and establishes density, height, bulk,
and related provisions; subdivision regulations, which set standards for land
conversion and new development; and the less commonly used official map, which
delineates and reserves sites for future parks, schools, streets, and other public
uses. Related to these are housing and building codes which set standards' for
new building construction and dwelling maintenance. Although zoning has tradi-
tionally been oriented to the separation of different land use activities, it may
take other forms, such as: the setting of performance standards under which zoning
districts are established, based upon the allowable external nuisance impact of
an operation, the regulation of the location of special sources of pollution such
as power plants, or the establishment of special buffer zones to protect areas
from environmental contamination.
Inducements or incentives have been used to attract particular land uses and de-
velopment which contribute to certain objectives. Land use programs, for example,
have begun to offer incentives through (a) planned unit development provisions
which encourage improved subdivision design and greater retention of open spaces,
and (b) density bonuses for buildings which provide such amenities as open plazas,
direct access to public transportation, and enclosed walkways.
Such other devices as low-interest loans, tax exemptions, aids in land assembly,
and direct subsidy payments have been used to attract activities deemed especially
desirable.
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Public land development or public works had a great effect on shaping and directing
urban growth through construction of transportation systems, public institutions
(e.g., state colleges and hospitals), and utilities. In the past, public works
have usually been constructed in response to development or market pressures; re-
cent years have brought an increasing awareness of the impact of public investment
decision on establishing an infrastructure for private decisions. The role of a
new highway or a sewer system in influencing development direction has clearly
been recognized, although not fully utilized.
Finally, acquisition involves the direct purchase of lands for the purpose of con-
serving their present recreational characteristics. The purchase of land for
forest preserves, parks or green belts would fall under this category.
The Effectiveness of the Land-Guidance System
Overall, the land-guidance "system" does not operate very systematically. The
failings of the system—or nonsystem—have been well documented. The more funda-
mental problems with the system include the following:
(1) A far more extensive history of applying controls than using preventive or
incentive devices;
(2) The balkanization of guidance techniques among numerous local governments
(balkanization presents a special problem since environmental issues almost always
are regional in scale);
(3) The lack of effective techniques to resolve competition among jurisdictions
for high tax ratables—usually industry—which underlies all other land use deci-
sions;
(4) The fact that most decisions remain private, reflecting the feeling that land
is a private commodity rather than a community resource;
(5) The weakness of enforcement power and its susceptibility to political and
economic pressures;
(6) The lack of relation between—and occassional conflict among—the various
techniques, and their sponsoring governments;
(7) The frequent lack of relation of the system to a generally-accepted plan.
The lack of a single institution with total responsibility for guiding or directing
land use, and the occasional lack of cohesiveness among the techniques, does not
mean that the system itself is ineffectual or a failure; it simply means that it
is not "comprehensive." It is not surprising that the system is not systematic
or complete, given our attitudes concerning land as a private commodity and our
desire to interfere in land use decision-making as little as possible in meeting
public interest objectives. The essential point, however, is not that the system
is less than perfect, but that the system can and does achieve limited purpose
objectives. For example, techniques and institutions are available to assure the
provision of adequate streets in subdivisions, to separate so-called "incompati-
ble" uses, to guarantee that new homes are not built in the right-of-way of a
proposed road extension, and so on. By the same token, there are many land use
objectives for which there exist no adequate institutions or techniques.
Introducing Environmental Objectives into the Land-Guidance System
When asking whether environmental objectives can become an integral part of the
present land-guidance system, the answer, as usual, depends on the particular ob-
jective. If, for example, the objective is to guarantee that all future develop-
ment in a metropolitan area is located so as to achieve air quality standards,
then the answer would have to be no. Metropolitan and regional planning agencies
simply don't have the expertise or resources to make this kind of guarantee, and
there is no way of assuring that each of the individual jurisdictions which make
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up the metropolitan area would voluntarily submit to the fulfillment of this metro-
politan-wide objective.
If different environmental objectives are advanced, then the system could respond
by internalizing those objectives with little or no difficulty. And, in fact,
discussion need not be hypothetical, since environmental objectives are already
incorporated into many of the techniques now in use, including:
(1) Performance standards have been designed to classify industries by their en-
vironmental impact, i.e., to separate the heavy polluters from cleaner industry
and other residential and commercial activities.
(2) In recent years, flood-plain zoning has been used both to protect life and
property from the ravages of floods and to maintain the carrying capacity of
streams in periods of high water flow to minimize downstream damage. The Federal
Flood Insurance Program has provided an incentive for the use of this type of
zoning.
(3) Most subdivision regulations which permit septic tank sewage disposal re-
quire percolation tests to determine the ability of the soil to handle on-site
disposal; in fact, many subdivision regulations prohibit on-site disposal entirely.
(4) Hillside development or grading regulations have been used to preserve the
integrity of slopes and reduce erosion and sedimentation.
(5) The purchasing of easements or development rights has been used to preserve
open space and other scenic areas. •
(6) Agricultural zoning and preferential assessment of farm land have helped to
preserve prime agricultural land, although these techniques have not proven to
be as effective in practice as might have been expected.
(7) Special preservation districts in zoning ordinances have been designated as
conservation zones to protect historically or architecturally significant areas.
Thus, while the existing system has some significant weaknesses, there does exist
a broad array of techniques and institutions with the experience and potential
capacity to aid in dealing with environmental questions.
Historical Perspective of Environmental Control Programs
The preceding chapter presented a brief historical perspective of urban and re-
gional planning in terms of the feasibility of integrating environmental protec-
tion considerations into the present land use planning process. This chapter
is concerned with the other side of the question, in that it provides a historical
perspective of environmental control programs and addresses the question of
whether land use guidance and control can be integrated into the traditional en-
vironmental protection process.
The evolution of the present environmental control program can be described by
the history of enabling legislation which authorized these programs, the creation
of institutions to execute the provisions of this legislation and the process by
which these institutions created environmental control procedures. Since the
problems encountered in establishing air quality, water quality and solid waste
disposal programs differ significantly, the legislative history, institutional
response and planning procedures have also varied. The nature of these legisla-
tive, institutional and planning programs will, to a large degree, determine the
ease with which environmental protection agencies can incorporate land use plan-
ning and control objectives into their present programs.
Environmental Protection Legislation
The development of environmental protection and enhancement measures in the United
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States has been determined to a considerable extent by federal legislation. This
has been determined to a considerable extent by federal legislation. This has en-
compassed the whole range of environmental insults from air pollutants to solid
waste, but has, for the most part, been formulated as an array of single-purpose
legislative instruments, each directed toward some specific pollution problem.
Water Quality Legislation--The modern legislative approach to the problems of en-
vironment began with the Water Pollution Control Act of 1948. With the amendment
of this Act in 1956, an enforcement procedure, consisting of a conference hearing/
court action process, was provided for water pollution abatement. Financial aid
in the form of grants and loans were also provided under the Act. The federal
Water Pollution Control Act of 1961 strengthened federal enforcement procedures.
The Water Quality Act of 1965 required the states to establish and submit water
quality standards for all interstate waters and a plan for the rapid achievement
of the standards. These standards became the basis for most actions under the fed-
eral Water Pollution Control Act, including planning activities, the awarding of
construction grants and enforcement practices.
The 1966 Clean Water Restoration Act provided for expanded research in advanced
waste treatment and provided a grant system to support the establishment and
maintenance of river basin planning based on water quality standards. The Act
also vastly increased authorized expenditures for municipal waste treatment works
construction.
In late 1970, the President announced a new program to control water pollution
through the permit authority of the Refuse Act of 1899. The Refuse Act outlaws
discharges and deposits into navigable waters without a permit from the Secretary
of the Army. The program makes a permit mandatory for all industrial discharges
into navigable waters of the United States. Violators of standards—including
standards imposed by the EPA when federal-state or state standards do not apply
or are clearly deficient—are ineligible for permits and liable to enforcement
proceedings. The Water Quality Improvement Act of 1970 further provides that
any federally regulated activity must have state certification that it will not
violate water quality standards.
Air Quality Legislation--Federal legislation related to air pollution began in
July 1955 when Congress authorized a federal program of research on air pollution
and technical assistance to state and local governments. The Clean Air Act of
1963 and the Motor Vehicle Act of 1965, augmented by the Air Quality Act of 1967
and culminating in the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1970, represent the most
significant federal legislation regarding air quality. The 1970 Amendments, as
the strongest air pollution control legislation, authorize the regulation of
both mobile and stationary sources of pollution. The most important sections
of these programs deal with establishing national air quality standards, describ-
ing a framework for the states to meet these standards, and improving procedures
for federal enforcement. The EPA has thus far set national air quality standards
for particulate matter, sulfur oxides, carbon monoxide, photochemical oxidants,
hydrocarbons, and nitrogen dioxide. Federal Guidelines have been published by
the EPA requiring that states submit implementation plans for the attainment and
maintenance of these standards.
The 1970 Amendments also provide for more effective federal enforcement by
providing the EPA authority to issue compliance orders to any person violating
applicable implementation plans or to bring civil suit against any person in
violation of implementation plans, and authorize citizen suits to enforce the
provisions of the Clean Air Amendments.
The Clean Air Amendments are an example of a recent shift in the burden of proof
in pollution control. When the EPA now specifies that an air pollutant is a
health hazard, industry must either comply with the emission standard or prove
that the health hazard does not exist.
Solid Waste Disposal Legislation—The Solid Waste Disposal Act of 1965, the first
legislation aimed at solid waste management, is directed primarily at the loss of
natural resources which solid waste represents. This Act authorized a research
and development program with respect to solid waste to promote the demonstration,
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construction, and application of solid waste management and resource recovery sys-
tems. In addition, the Act provides financial and technical assistance to states
and local governments and interstate agencies in the planning and development of
resource recovery and solid waste disposal programs, and promotes a national re-
search and development program for improved solid waste management programs.
The Resource Recovery Act of 1970 put a new emphasis on recycling and reusing
waste materials by authorizing funds for demonstration grants for recycling sys-
tems and for studies of methods to encourage resource recovery. This Act also re-
quires the EPA to publish guidelines for construction and operation of solid waste
disposal systems.
In a further move to institutionalize the concern for the protection of the en-
vironment, the Congress passed the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969
(NEPA) establishing a national policy for the environment and providing for the
Council on Environmental Quality. In recognizing the effect of man's activities
on the environment, NEPA laid down the environmental impact statement requirements
for federal agencies which propose to undertake activities that are likely to
affect environmental quality.
Environmental Protection Institutions
The recent environmental protection legislation has required the organization or
reorganization of environmental programs at the federal, state and local levels
in order to cope with the increased regulatory requirements of these legislative
programs. An interacting set of federal, state and local environmental institu-
tions has been established as a consequence of the reorganizations.
Federal Activities—Pursuant to Reorganization Plan 3 of 1970, the Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA) was established on December 2, 1970. The EPA was crea'ted
to permit coordinated and effective government action to insure the protection of
the environment. EPA's mission is to define, achieve, and maintain environmental
quality by abating and controlling pollution from point sources by utilizing a
wide range of intervention strategies. . . .The reorganization consolidated into
one agency the federal programs dealing with air pollution, water pollution, solid
waste disposal, pesticide regulation and environmental radiation. . . .
Although the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) and the EPA work closely,
their responsibilities differ significantly. The CEQ, as a staff agency in the
Executive Office of the President, provides policy advice, and reviews and com-
ments on the environmental impact control activities of federal agencies. The
concern of CEQ is with the broad spectrum of environmental matters, while the
EPA is a line agency with responsibility to administer and conduct federal pol-
lution control programs.
Local and State Environmental Protection Agencies—This discussion focuses on state
rather than local activities because federal legislation has put more and more re-
sponsibility at the state level. In the past, environmental programs in most
states were fragmented or scattered throughout many state agencies, boards and
commissions. In many cases, air and water pollution control programs were lodged
in a state health department. Water pollution control programs were often in-
corporated into water resource management or public water supply programs. Pes-
ticide regulation was frequently under the health department or the agriculture
department; solid waste management was frequently a responsibility of the health
department.
Some states have reorganized to cope with the broad scope of environmental issues.
New York, Washington, and Illinois enacted legislation which consolidates pollu-
tion control programs and streamlines pollution control authority. .
The performance of various states in regard to elements of air quality programs are
shown in the following table. The elements listed refer to requirements of state
implementation plans as specified in the Clean Air Amendments.
•'•This section summarizes discussions contained in the CEQ 2nd Annual Report, Chapters 2 and 3.
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State Air Quality Program Elements
Legislative Authority
1. Adopt emission standards and promul-
gate other regulations
2. Require information on processes
and potential emissions from sources
of air pollution
3. Issue permits for construction of
new sources of air pollution
4. Inspect facilities causing pollution
5. Require emission information from
polluters and make it available to
public
6. Require monitoring of emmission by
polluters
7. Issue and enforce compliance orders
8. Enjoin standards violators
9. Take special, prompt action in case
of air pollution emergencies
10. Regulate land use and transportation
to meet air quality standards
11. Inspect automotive pollution control
devices
States with
Authority
54
39
38
52
20
13
51
52
44
5
16
States without
Authority
0
15
16
2
34
41
3
2
10
49
38
Source: EPA, Office of Air Programs.
The status of development of state water quality programs in summarized in the
following table:
State Water Quality Program Elements
Program Element
No. of States
1. Water Quality Standards
Interstate (full federal approval with antidegradation)
Interstate (full federal approval without antidegradation)
Interstate (federal approval with exceptions with antidegradation)
Interstate (federal approval with exceptions without antidegradation)
2. Planning (based on water quality standards)
3. Permit System
Municipal
Industrial
4. State Matching Grants
5. Routine Treatment Plant Inspection
6. State Monitoring System
46
1
4
3
23
46
47
34
46
49
Source: EPA, Office of Water Programs.
The "permit system" in the preceding table refers to the existence of enabling
legislation to grant permits for discharges. "State Matching" refers to the
availability of state funds to assist municipalities in building sewage treat-
ment facilities. "Treatment Plant Inspection" refers to surveillance of the
operation and maintenance of facilities at least once a year.
Solid waste management practices are also becoming increasingly regulated and
less fragmented. As a result of the Solid Waste Disposal Act, as amended,
statewide and regionwide solid waste management plans are being formulated.
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Aside from these reorganizations and activities, many states have introduced innova-
tion by providing new approaches to citizen involvement, waste management and its
financing, pollution charges, and applications of new technologies. In addition,
some states have increased control over types of land use in order to protect impor-
tant geographic areas, such as wetlands, from environmental degradation, to re-
strict potentially harmful development, and facilitate desired developments. It may
be noted that only five states have authority to regulate land use to meet air
quality standards and only twenty-three states have initiated comprehensive planning
programs based on water quality standards.
Environmental Protection Planning Procedures
The process by which environmental control programs are being established by environ-
mental protection agencies is becoming more and more associated with the creation of
comprehensive "implementation plans" usually developed by state and local govern-
ments and reviewed by federal agencies. (This trend reflects the growing recogni-
tion that environmental control programs must have clearly defined objectives and
explicitly designate the legislation, administration, and resources required to
carry out these programs.)
Air Quality Implementation Planning--The air quality implementation planning process
typically involves a systems analysis approach to air resource management. The
nature of the air pollution problem is first determined by extensive monitoring and
sampling of air quality. The comparison of observed air quality levels with Na-
tional Ambient Air Quality Standards defines the magnitude of the problem. These
observed air quality levels are the result of the stationary and mobile source emis-
sions of the region under various local meteorological and topographic conditions.
Mathematical models, such as atmospheric dispersion models, are then employed to
evaluate alternative emission controls and to select a set of control regulations
which both achieve and maintain the National Ambient Air Quality Standards. These
emission control regulations define the emissions of a given pollutant permitted
from a particular source type; for instance, different particulate emission con-
trol regulations may be designed for fuel combustion sources, process sources and
solid waste incineration systems. In developing control regulations, consideration
must be given to pollution control technology, fuel resources, and the economics
of pollution control. Additional consideration must be given to the impact of growth
on achieving and maintaining National Ambient Air Quality Standards. Besides
emission controls, land use and transportation controls may also be instituted as
part of the array of control regulations.
In addition to an evaluation of control regulations, the plan typically contains the
following elements: air quality and emission data, legal enabling authority, com-
pliance schedules for emission sources, emergency episode plans, air quality sur-
veillance network description, permit system description, intergovernmental coopera-
tion between adjoining states and the state and local agencies, and, lastly, the
fiscal and manpower resources required to implement the program.
To assist in implementation planning, a comprehensive set of analytic tools has been
developed. These tools include Rapid Survey Emission Inventory techniques for obtain-
ing regionwide emission inventories; atmospheric dispersion models for estimating long-
term and short-term air quality levels; growth trend projection models for determining
the impact of economic development on emissions and air quality; transportation models
from which mobile emission inventories can be generated; and, finally, system manage-
ment techniques for determining the manpower and fiscal resources required to imple-
ment the plan.
Water Quality Planning Procedures—A similar unified planning requirements approach is
developing in regard to water pollution programs through the EPA Waste Water Treatment
Works Construction Grant Program and the HUD Water and Sewer Facilities Grant Program.
The primary emphasis of these programs and the basis and rationale for all of the
water pollution control activities which take place under their auspices is the at-
tainment of established water quality standards. To promote the achievement of this
key objective, planning guidelines have been published which describe the basic con-
siderations to be addressed in meeting the EPA and HUD requirements. Grants for a
water pollution control project shall not be made unless the project is an integral
part of an effective basin and metropolitan or regional water pollution control plan.
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The pollution abatement plan must take into account anticipated growth of popula-
tion and economic activity; present and future use and value of the waters within
the planning area for water supplies, propagation of fish and wildlife, recreation,
agriculture, industrial, and other uses; adequacy of the waste collection system in
the planning area,- etc. The major objective is to establish a systematic water
quality management planning procedure which includes land and water planning as
well as the organizational and financial arrangements for executing the plan.
An array of analytic techniques and data is necessary in developing these implemen-
tation plans. Central to water quality management is data on water flows, pollutant
discharges, and data required for forecasting future conditions and in-stream water
quality. Water quality and treatment cost modeling is also required. In addition,
demographic and economic development projections are required in order to determine
the need for and scale of new waste water treatment facilities.
Solid Waste Disposal Planning—As a result of the Solid Waste Disposal Act of 1965
and the Resource Recovery Act of 1970, a comprehensive solid waste management plan-
ning process is developing. State solid waste management plans, funded under the
Solid Waste Disposal Act, must include an inventory of waste disposal systems and
a survey of problems and practices which can be used as a data base for planning.
Under the provisions of the Resource Recovery Act, state solid waste management
plans must include, wherever possible, provisions for recovery and recycling of
solid wastes.' . . .
Alternative Institutional Arrangements
To Combine Land Use Planning with Environmental Control
The previous chapters have outlined the history and procedures of land use planning
and environmental control programs. To a considerable extent, the development of
these programs at all levels of government has been distinct and separate. Recent-
ly, however, two types of institutional arrangements have been employed which seek,
in the first case, to integrate land use planning and environmental control into
one agency and, in the second case, to bring together opposing environmental and
developmental viewpoints into an adversary-type confrontation to resolve environ-
mental-land use issues. Since both methods of resolving such issues are still
somewhat rare in practice, the evaluation of the effectiveness of these alternative
arrangements is still difficult.
New Institutions Which Combine Environmental Protection and Land Use Management
In recent years, some states have given themselves new powers and have created new
regional bodies which combine the interests and techniques of land use planning and
environmental concerns. Some of these were significant modifications of existing
powers and institutions, while others have been entirely new creations designed to
respond directly and uniquely to the issues surrounding the relationships betwen
environmental quality and land use. In general, these new institutions have dif-
ferent structures and functions; they respond to different and occasionally unique
issues, and, in some cases, they have had little opportunity to prove their suc-
cess or failure. . . .
These institutions are not yet numerous, but they exemplify the potential effec-
tiveness of this approach when used in conjunction with more traditional technologi-
cal pollution controls.
Hawaii: Statewide Zoning to Balance Conservation and Development Objectives--
Hawaii's 1961 Land Use Law was a bold attempt at accommodating a rapid rate of de-
velopment while maintaining the unique natural beauty of the islands. The law
created the Land Use Commission and charged it with dividing the entire state into
four districts: conservation, agricultural, rural, and urban. . . .
Maine: A State's Response to Critical Environmental and Land Use Jsswes--Recogniz-
ing both the inadequacy of local land use regulations to guide development and the
state's interest in certain critical areas, the state responded with several meas-
ures, including the Site Location Law and Coastal Conveyance of Petroleum Law.
Under such Acts, the Environmental Improvement Commission may exercise the police
power of the state to control the location of those developments substantially af-
fecting local environment in order to ensure that such developments will be located
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in a manner which will have the minimal adverse effect impact on the natural envi-
ronment of their surroundings. A development must meet four loosely-defined criteria
related to pollutant control standards, traffic facilities, compatability with nat-
ural environment and soil suitability. . . .
Vermont Environmental Control Law—The Vermont Legislature saw that the combination
of two interstate highways and a sharp increase in the number of second homes and
ski resorts were certain to undo the state's rural character and its environmental
heritage. To meet that threat, state officials in 1970 adopted the Environmental
Control Law, which created an Environmental Board and seven Regional Commissions to
see to it that most developments meet ten general environmental standards. . . .
Tahoe Regional Planning Agency - -Created in 1969 under a joint compact between
California and Nevada and ratified by Congress, the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency
is required not only to provide for orderly development in the Lake Tahoe Basin,
but also to preserve the Basin's environment.
The compact calls for a plan to be enforced by minimum standards incorporated into
19 ordinances, including land use, subdivisions, grading, shoreline and tree cut-
ting. . . . The standards are binding on the five counties and one city in the
Basin.
San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission--In 1965, the California
Legislature recognized that if the many local governments surrounding San Francisco
Bay continued to permit shoreline developments without regard for the Bay as a
whole, the Bay would be ruined. As a result, the Bay Conservation and Development
Commission was formed and was given authority to grant or withhold approval of
shoreline development proposals on the basis of health, safety and welfare of the
public in the region and of a plan which it was instructed to complete by 1969.
Hackensack Meadowlands Development Commission—The State of New Jersey in 1969
established the Hackensack Meadowlands Development Commission with jurisdiction
over the 21,000 acres of largely undeveloped wetlands across the Hudson River
from Manhattan. Although local governments can review the work and decisions of
the Commission, it has final authority over planning and land use control over
the region. In addition, the Commission can issue bonds, levy assessments, col-
lect fees, buy land, and exercise Eminent Domain. It is authorized to use these
instruments in furthering sound development and protecting the region from air
and water pollution.
Metropolitan Council of the Twin Cities—Recycled sewage in a substantial portion
of the wells, with other deficiencies, compelled the Minnesota Legislature in
1967 to transform a routine regional planning commission into the Metropolitan
Council of the Twin Cities area, for its time the boldest experiment in metropolitan
planning and development in the nation. The council's metropolitan perspective is
made specific in its plan, the Development Guide, which is binding upon various
agencies required to submit their plans to the Council and is advisory to local
governments....
Although several public work systems—highways, airports, transit, and housing—
remained outside of the Council's direct authority, its responsibility for plan-
ning and development of the metropolitan sewer and park systems does give it an
important influence over regional land use issues. . . .
In 1971, the Legislature passed a law intended to relieve fiscal disparities in
the region by requiring that each local government therein must contribute 40%
of the net growth of commercial and industrial property tax valuations to the
Council for redistribution to various local governmental units according to
population and need. Fiscal measures such as this, similar in intent to the one
in the Hackensack Meadowlands, are essential if regional resources are to be
used effectively to resolve regional problems.
Separate Environmental and Development Agencies:
An Alternative to Functional Integration
In theory and practice, there is an alternative organizational approach to addres-
sing the relationship between planning effectively for land use development and for
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environmental quality, which avoids the integration of these historically distinct
activities. The governing body at the local, regional, state and federal levels
could create two governmental units—one to represent orderly and efficient develop-
ment, and another improvement in the quality of the environment. In practice, a
department like Planning, or Planning and Economic Development, or Economic Develop-
ment, would espouse the goals, principles, standards, and procedures for the best
kind of land use and economic development. And a governmental unit such as an
Environmental Protection Agency, Department of Conservation and Natural Resources,
or Conservation Commission would be an advocate for protecting the ecological/
environmental system.
The premise behind this organizational form is that the relationship between
orderly development and environment quality can best be understood and dealt with
by building into the government system a strong proponent for conservation and
another for development. Then the elected public officials can take from both of
their strategies to mold the best public policy bearing on that relationship. This
adversary technique, of course, has been the central rationale and means for ob-
taining justice in our court system. . . .
The Need for Analytical Tools To Evaluate the Relationship
Between Land Use and Environmental Quality
The need for a better understanding of the relationship between land use and en-
vironmental quality is reflected in the legislative and administrative program of
land use guidance and environmental protection described in the preceding chapter.
The basic premise which underlies such programs is that an institutional framework
is necessary to allocate or regulate the use of land, beyond the present land
market mechanisms, in order to avoid undesirable environmental impacts.
Ideally, the policies adopted by such institutions would be based on an extensive body
of knowledge regarding the nature of these impacts and the alternative methods of
controlling environmental damage due to present land use practices. In point of
fact, this relationship is not, at present, well understood. Analytical and plan-
ning tools have, however, been developed which can be used to assess certain land
use policy options and evaluate some of the aspects of the land use-environmental
quality relationship. . . .
Land Use and Environmental Quality: The Federal Role
In addition to its traditional role in the management of public lands, the federal
government currently engages in a broad range of land use-oriented activities con-
ducted by a diversity of federal agencies. With the passage of the National En-
vironmental Policy Act and the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency,
the stage has been set for the integration of land use regulation and environ-
mental protection. Current trends in national policy with regard to growth, land
use and the environment enhance the likelihood that such a program will develop.
The Role of the Federal Government in Land Development, Regulation and Utilization
A number of federal agencies are currently engaged in activities which, in one way or
another have an impact on land development and utilization, though not necessarily in
the context of environmental protection or natural resource conservation. It is
convenient to categorize these agencies in terms of whether their activities in-
volve dealing with land as a natural resource, a location of functional activities,
or a medium for the disposal of waste.
Agencies which have the responsibility of monitoring the use of land as a resource
are primarily concerned with its capacity to supply various natural resources or
to support different forms of economic activity. These agencies view land in terms
of such characteristics as its mineral resources, soil structure, agricultural
potential, forestation, natural scenic value, historical significance and open
space capacity.
On the other hand, those agencies which consider land as a site of some functional
activity are more concerned with the actual or potential activities which may take
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place on the land. This perspective is reflected in any federal regulation or
agency which is concerned with recreational, residential, commercial, industrial,
agricultural, transportation, utility or public service activities. (Note that
these activity classifications are based on demographic-economic characteristics.
No environmentally-oriented land use taxonomic system yet exists.)
Agencies which view land as a medium for the disposal of waste focus on its natural
capacity to assimilate the various forms of waste which are generated as a byproduct
of the economic activities which take place on the land. These include such con-
siderations as air pollution fallout, contamination of natural receiving waters
due to surface runoff, pollution of ground water resources as a result of land
disposal practices, acid mine drainage, etc.
Other than the EPA, the key federal agencies which currently have responsibilities
in one or more of these areas include the departments of Commerce, Defense, In-
terior, Agriculture, HEW, HUD and Transportation, as well as the Atomic Energy
Commission, the Federal Power Commission, and the Office of Economic Opportunity.
Since the alternative ways of considering land are closely related, it is natural
that in many cases, the same agencies play a significant role in all three of the
categories suggested above.
As a result of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), all of these agencies
are now required to assess the environmental impact of their activities. To this
extent, land use management and environmental protection have been legally, if not
organizationally, integrated at the federal level. . . .
Federal Authority To Establish Environmental Land Use Controls
Although EPA now has the legal authority to establish land use controls, this
authority is at present limited, indirect, and in some areas, implicit rather than
explicitly defined. This is attributable, in part, to the fact that land use has
traditionally been viewed in the context of natural resource management, regional
economic development or social welfare planning. Thus EPA currently shares the
responsibility for land use planning and management with a number of other federal
agencies having widely divergent missions. Foremost among these are the depart-
ments of Interior, Agriculture, Transportation and Housing and Urban Development.
The statutory authority for EPA to utilize land use as a pollution control mode
is, at present, defined in terms of a number of enabling instruments which focus
on specific elements of the National environmental protection program. These are
summarized below:
Water Pollution <7o«£roZ.--Section 18 CFR 601, 32-33, which derive their authority
from Sections 8 and 22 of the Federal Water Pollution Control Act, as amended,
prohibit EPA from making a construction grant unless a project is included in an
effective current basin-wide plan for pollution abatement consistent with applicable
water quality standards. The Office of Water Programs has promulgated Guidelines
for Water Quality Management Planning, which define an acceptable plan. f"Ee
Guidelines specifically require, in several sections, the employment of land use
analysis as a tool of management planning and encourage the utilization of land
use control devices as one of several methods of water quality management.
The Refuse Act permit program also has potential for the control of land use.
Where a permit application is for an existing discharge, the impact of the action
may affect only water quality. However, where the application is for a new dis-
charge, action on the permit has a definite impact on land use because it approves,
alters or disapproves location of an industrial discharge. Disapproval may often
discourage industry (unless 100% treatment in envisioned) from locating in a
particular area.
A number of bills that are intended to provide additional statutory authority for
the control of water pollution are now before the Congress. . . .
Air Pollution Control--Section. 110 of the Clean Air Act specifies a number of
factors the Administrator of the EPA must consider before approving an implementa-
tion plan. Two of these are:
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(1) whether the plan includes land use and transportation controls as may be neces-
sary, and (2) whether it includes a procedure for the review of the location of
certain types of stationary sources of pollution.
Solid Waste Management--The EPA authority to regulate or promote land use planning
as a solid waste management strategy is limited to federal facilities and to con-
tingency agreements exacted through federal grant programs. Executive Order 11514
requires environmental impact statements on proposed federal activities accompanied
by provision for public information, hearings, etc. This order allows EPA to con-
trol waste management activities and systems, prior to their establishment, at fed-
eral installations. Waste management requirements at federal facilities are also
governed by Executive Order 11507; however, EPA's extramural responsibility in this
regard consists mainly of providing technical assistance where requested.
Other EPA solid waste management programs related to land use controls are authorized
under the Solid Waste Disposal Act of 1965 and the Resource Recovery Act of 1970.
Planning and demonstration grants are provided only if recipients agree to carry out
certain commitments such as abandoning open burning and dumping, having an existing
comprehensive solid waste plan (demonstration criteria), or accepting a commitment to
implement a solid waste planning program (planning grant criteria). EPA has no
power to close open dumps, override local zoning, or establish solid waste facilities
where local communities fail to do so.
Pesticide Control—The Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act of 1947,
as amended, conveys no indirect statutory jurisdiction for environmental land use
regulation. It focuses on testing and labeling of pesticides. The Federal Environ-
mental Pesticide Control Act of 1971 makes the label directions binding and en-
forceable.
Radiation Program—The current EPA legal mandate for utilization of land use con-
trols is very indirect. The Office of Radiation has authority (Section 274h of the
Atomic Energy Act of 1954) to determine standards for atmospheric radiation concen-
trations beyond the boundaries of AEC licensed nuclear facilities. On that basis,
AEC defines facility characteristics and specifications to achieve the results
desired by EPA, as well as to substantially preclude nuclear accidents. Under this
arrangement, EPA could specify proper zoning of the area around a facility as one
of the design conditions for a nuclear power plant, nuclear fuel fabrication plants,
nuclear fuel reprocessing plants and radioactive waste disposal site. However, direct
authority (10 CFR 100) for establishing site criteria remains a function of the AEC.
Noise Program—The general provisions of the NEPA, Section 402C of the Clean Air
Act, as amended, requires all federal agencies to consult with EPA regarding any
proposed programs or activities which may create an environmental problem. This
provision can be interpreted to include noise nuisances. Since the activities of
other agencies, particularly DOT, HUD, and Department of the Interior, frequently
involve land use oriented programs, EPA therefore now has, at least in principle,
indirect responsibilities with regard to the control of noise sources through land
guidance programs. . . .
The Organisation of Present EPA Land Use Programs—The EPA thus has a limited mandate
to incorporate land use management into its environmental protection activities.
Responsibility for this mode of pollution control has thus far been dispersed
throughout its various media and categorical programs or treated within the con-
text of EPA relationships with other federal agencies. The dispersed and, as yet,
limited use made by EPA of land management as a pollution control mode reflects
the somewhat disaggregated character of its statutory authority.
The Office of Water Programs sponsors research relating land use and water quality.
Since it evaluates basin and regional water quality management plans, the Office of
Water Programs maintains a direct relationship with the Department of HUD with
which it shares responsibility for the disbursement of federal waste water facility
construction grant funds. This relationship represents the first, and as yet the
only, formal channel of communication, other than the A-95 review process, be-
tween the agency responsible for the national environmental protection program
and local and regional planning agencies. This joint EPA-HUD activity represents
the nearest approach to date to the realization of a land use oriented interagency
environmental protection program.
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The EPA Office of Air Programs currently conducts and sponsors a number of research
and planning projects which are directly or indirectly oriented toward land use
planning and control. These include the development of traffic control strategies
for six major cities which will be unable to meet carbon monoxide standards, the New
Jersey Hackensack Meadowlands land use planning project, and the Argonne National
Laboratory air pollution land use planning technique development program. The Of-
fice of Air Programs also provides technical assistance and advice relating to such
land use oriented activities as the impact of chemical spraying on agricultural
land management and the feasibility of open burning as a tool for forest management.
The Office of Solid Waste Management Programs administers demonstration grant pro-
grams which are concerned with the use of land fill for halting erosion, reclaiming
strip mines and wetlands. This office provides regional and interstate solid waste
planning grants and promotes programs such as Mission 5000, which aims to eliminate
and/or convert to sanitary landfills a total of 5000 of the more than 15,000 open
dumps in the U.S. during the period FY 1971 to FY 1972.
The Office of Pesticide Programs has no activity studying or involving land use con-
trols.
The Office of Radiation Programs reviews applications to the AEC for the construc-
tion of nuclear facilities to insure that these facilities will not violate atmos-
pheric radiation standards. Although in the past the EPA reviewers have generally
recommended design modification rather than expansion of the land buffer, the lat-
ter approach is a potential option.
The EPA Office of Federal Activities is currently investigating a wide variety of
land management practices at federal installations and on public lands. It has re-
viewed environmental impact statements for Department of Transportation highway
projects, nuclear power plant sites, Corps of Engineers dredging and fill permits,
and HUD new community proposals.
Trends in National Policy with Regard To Growth,
Land Use and the Environment
Alternative Institutional and Organizational Systems for Environmental Land Use
Planning and Management
The national policy legislation described in the preceding section could result in
the creation of new governmental institutions, but it is equally possible that the
integration of land use planning and environmental protection might be realized
through alterations in present jurisdictional responsibilities among existing Fed-
eral, State, regional, and local agencies. The following discussion suggests some
of the possibilities.
Centralised Federal Response
The relationships between equivalent agencies in Federal, State, and local systems
of government have generally been fostered through a combination of: (1) enabling
legislation which defines the jurisdictional authority of related agencies at dif-
ferent levels of government, and (2) Federal and State grants-in-aid programs de-
signed to subsidize socially desirable courses of action.
Such systems of complementary agencies, which discharge similar responsibilities at
different levels of government, have proliferated in recent years. It is character-
istic of these systems that a single Federal agency at the top of the hierarchy
will promote research, formulate Federal regulations and disburse Federal grant
funds to agencies at a lower level of government, for example, State or regional
regulatory or planning agencies. Corresponding State agencies implement programs,
develop State regulations and disburse state funds to regional and municipal agen-
cies, etc. Such a relationship of Federal, State, and local interactions has de-
veloped in the National environmental protection program, where Federal EPA grants
for implementation planning, State and local control agency development, and waste
treatment facility construction have provided an incentive for the development of
desirable pollution control programs.
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This general pattern of a hierarchy of mission-oriented complementary agencies is
repeated in many other departments of government, and it suggests one possible ap-
proach to the problem of integrating land use planning with environmental protec-
tion. That is, a single Federal agency could be assigned the responsibility and
jurisdictional authority to develop and promote environmental land use regulatory
activities at the State, regional and local levels. The states would be required
to develop appropriate environmentally-oriented land use implementation plans, sup-
ported by adequate legal authority and administered by suitably equipped State and
local agencies. A Federal grant program to induce appropriate planning activities
and partially subsidize control programs could be established and administered by
the designated Federal agency.
Decentralized Federal Response
It does not follow that the approach described above is the only, or even the most
desirable, means of achieving environmentally-oriented land use regulation at the
State and local levels. The joint EPA-HUD wastewater facility construction grant
program suggests a somewhat less centralized alternative. Through the medium of
the jointly administered grant program, a formal linkage between the EPA and its
complementary agencies at lower levels of government and the HUD has been estab-
lished. (Wastewater facility grant applications from municipalities must be inte-
grated within the context of basin and regional water quality management plans
certified by both the State environmental protection agencies, which are comple-
mentary to the EPA, and by HUD—designated Area Planning Offices—the latter are
the regional planning agencies which are complementary to HUD.) Detailed planning
guidelines were jointly prepared by EPA and HUD, and some of the analytical tech-
niques required are supplied by EPA.
This approach could serve as a model for a more broadly based land use-oriented
environmental protection program in which similar liaisons are established between
the EPA and its complementary Federal agencies. For example, an analogous ar-
rangement between EPA and the Federal Department of Transportation (DOT) might be
established for the disbursement of Federal transportation system construction
funds. Not only would Federal construction grants be contingent on the prepara-
tion of environmental impact statements as is now the case, but it would also be
necessary to demonstrate that proposed construction projects were integrated with-
in environmentally-oriented regional land use plans jointly prepared by State en-
vironmental protection agencies, regional planning agencies and the transportation
planning agencies.
A less structured organizational response would involve the establishment of a
series of joint interagency programs as described above, but within the context
of the present disaggregated organizational structure that now exists in the Fed-
eral agencies. For example, instead of establishing a single EPA environmental
land use planning office which would have responsibility for all waste management
activities insofar as they are susceptible to abatement and control through land-
use regulation, the responsibility for the establishment of interagency programs
could be dispersed among the EPA Office of Air Programs, Office of Water Programs,
Office of Solid Waste Management Programs, etc. In effect, the precedent estab-
lished by the EPA-HUD wastewater facility construction program would be repeated
for each of the media and categorical programs individually, and similar liaisons
would be established between EPA offices and other Federal land use-oriented agen-
cies. Sets of guidelines, a planning grant mechanism and programs to develop and
disseminate information concerning techniques and procedures for environmental
land use planning and regulation would be required.
Local and State Response
The alternatives described above are all characterized by what has become a classi-
cal pattern of Federal intervention in, or promotion of, State, regional, and local
activities in order to induce a socially beneficial result. Land use regulation
presents special problems in this regard, since, with the exception of Federal con-
trol of the use of public lands, it has traditionally been implemented at the local
levels of government by municipal zoning boards and building departments, or as a
result of the construction of highways, airports, wastewater collection systems,
etc. The localized character of land use regulation might be preserved but aug-
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mented to include environmental protection features if, instead of reproducing the
classical Federal-State-regional-local heirarchy outlined above, the Federal pos-
ture were more analogous to that of the Atomic Energy Commission or the Federal
Power Commission, which function in a regulatory capacity. In order to ensure that
the local and regional institutions which directly or indirectly regulate land use
employ appropriate environmental impact assessment techniques and conduct effec-
tive regulatory activities, the Federal Government could develop and disseminate
guidelines, techniques and environmental reporting procedures. Once these were
implemented at the local level, the Federal role would involve comparatively
passive regulatory activities rather than active land management program adminis-
tration.
Summary
This document has outlined the case for integrating land use planning and regula-
tion with environmental protection and has indicated some of the legal, institu-
tional, organizational, and technical aspects of this approach to the preservation
of environmental quality. The conclusions which can be drawn from it and from the
present state of environmental land use planning can only be of the most general
nature, but from the examination of this issue it is clear that:
(1) There is a growing recognition of the need to subject public and private de-
cisions regarding land use to a much closer scrutiny with regard to their environ-
mental implications.
(2) A great deal of legislative and organizational activity has taken place in the
past few years regarding this issue.
(3) An array of evaluative techniques now used either for land use planning or for
environmental planning may be of potential use in formulating environmental land
use policies.
(4) if land use guidance and environmental protection objectives are to be inte-
grated, programs for merging the procedures and practices of groups involved in
these functions must be developed.
(5) The feasibility of employing land use as a means of environmental protection,
as well as its eventual effectiveness, will depend very heavily on how effectively
appropriate liaisons can be established between responsible agencies at the Feder-
al, State and Local levels.
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Statement on the Relationship Between
Environmental Quality and Land Use
I. Relationship of Environmental Quality with Land Use Planning and Implementation
The Boards find that there is a significant but complex and poorly understood re-
lationship between land use decisions and environmental quality. Public and pri-
vate activities and determinations as to the use that will be made of a given area
of land can make it difficult for us to reach desirable or even acceptable levels
of environmental quality either now or at any time in the foreseeable future.
This situation will almost certainly continue to be true unless the implications
on overall environmental quality are made an important factor in decisions as to
uses of land.
Re commendations
The Boards believe that means should be developed to bridge the gap between cur-
rent land use decisionmaking and the national efforts to enhance and protect our
environment.
II. Attitudes Toward Land Use
As a result of the deterioration of the environment in such areas as air, water,
solid waste, and noise, and in view of the inherent relationship between these
concerns and land use, there is a growing realization that a joint commitment by
certain public and private interests recognizing land as a resource as well as a
commodity is required if we are to ensure environmental enhancement.
Recormendations
The need to maintain proper land use requires a reappraisal of private and public
land as a resource, as well as a commodity.
III. Coordination of and Between Federal Agencies
A number of Federal agencies have statutory responsibility and decisions which in
certain cases may affect our ability to achieve environmental quality. Decisions
on management and use of Federal lands, on the issuance of Federal licenses or
permits, or on the awarding of grants or contracts can have significant impacts on
land use decisions affecting environmental quality. Although the National Environ-
mental Policy Act, and court decisions interpreting that Act, have generally broad-
ened the range of land use issues considered by Federal agencies in their decision-
making processes, it appears that in many cases these important decisions are made
without sufficient interagency coordination. This can often result in inadequate
consideration of environmental values affected by these decisions.
From The Relationship Between Environmental Quality and Land Use, a report of meetings held by the
President's Water Pollution Control Advisory Board and the President's Air Quality Advisory Board,
March 27-31, 1972. (Environmental Protection Agency) Appendix 2.
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Recommendations
The Boards recommend that coordination be improved between Federal agencies mak-
ing land use decisions, and other Federal agencies, especially the Environmental
Protection Agency in its role as the Federal agency responsible for laws and
standards in the area of air quality, water quality, solid waste management, and
noise. One method of accomplishing these ends is through formal interagency
agreements between Federal entities involved in environmental issues.
IV. Role of Federal-State-Regional-Local Government
in Land Planning and Implementation
With various notable exceptions, government organizations at all levels have not
adequately developed and carried out comprehensive land use plans that properly
protect the environment. The Boards have concluded that there is an inescapable
relationship between land use and environmental quality that requires close co-
operation, coordination, and assistance between governmental agencies at all
levels.
Recommendations
The Boards recommend that the Federal government provide:
1. Land use guidelines including attention to:
a. Environmental needs in the large, built-up metropolitan areas.
b. The differential costs and benefits for different sectors of the
population.
c. Standards to guide State decisionmaking in an equitable treatment
of those costs and benefits.
d. The implementation of effective controls.
2. Financial assistance to State and/or regional and local governments
for developing and implementing comprehensive land use plans.
3. Sanctions applied to States unwilling to carry out effective land use
programming.
The States should provide criteria as well as financial and technical assistance
to regional and local governments in their land management efforts.
V. The Environmental Protection Agency's Role in Land Use Planning
The Environmental Protection Agency has an important influence in determining how
land is used by virtue of the standard setting process associated with the air
and water pollution control legislation. Through the standard setting mechanism,
environmental constraints are imposed upon land use. Consequently, States and
local governments are affected as are Federal programs and actions.
Recommendations
1. That the Environmental Protection Agency move purposefully to improve coor-
dination with other Federal agencies whose activities affect or are affected by
air and water quality standards; provide more environmental planning guidance
to Federal, State, and local agencies together with close coordination and
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cooperation with local, regional, and State land use planners and policy makers;
and make full use of present authority to affect land use decisions with respect
to all environmental quality.
2. That the President's Air and Water Quality Advisory Boards continue to assess
and evaluate the complex relationships between land use and overall environmental
quality, and define the role of the Environmental Protection Agency with respect
to present land use planning and future possible regional land use policy.
VI. Socio-Economic Considerations
Speakers appearing before the Boards and discussions among the Board members evi-
denced general agreement that land use planning and control for environmental pro-
tection at Federal, State, and local levels should involve appropriate considera-
tion of socio-economic policies as well as physical and technological measures.
Some of these socio-economic policy factors as alternatives to the application of
control technology are population movements, resource distribution, and location
of sources of pollution.
Recommendations
1. That Federal policies and programs on standard setting, grants, contracts,
public works, regulation of and investments in Federally owned or controlled
lands, and preparation and review of environmental impact statements require the
consideration of the effects upon population concentration, distribution of re-
sources such as inter-basin water diversions, energy production and distribution,
transportation systems, and locations of industrial plants and employment oppor-
tunities.
2. That a socio-economic impact statement covering the above considerations be
required as a companion to and equal in importance to present environmental impact
statements. In this connection the Federal agencies concerned should conduct
studies of the cost-benefit advantages of such socio-economic planning and control
devices as contrasted to the cost-effectiveness of the installation of "end of the
pipe" control technology.
VII. Pending Legislation Concerning a National Land Use Policy
The Boards recognize that several legislative proposals to establish a National
Land Use Policy are presently under consideration by the Congress. While differ-
ing significantly in the manner in which they would accomplish their purposes,
bills which are now receiving serious consideration generally reflect the view
that although the primary responsibility for land use planning must be placed at
the State level, the Federal government should exercise leadership in this area
by providing funds to assist the States in their planning efforts, by establish-
ing criteria to guide them in planning, and by invoking sanctions if necessary to
ensure that these criteria are followed.
Recommendations
The Boards commend the President and the Administrator for their support of early
enactment of legislation to establish a national land use policy. We believe it
imperative that any such legislation be so structured as to require land use plans
at all levels of government to be developed from the outset in a manner which will,
as a minimum, ensure compliance with applicable environmental laws and standards,
including air and water quality standards and implementation plans. In connection
with such legislation, the Boards urge that consideration be given to means for di-
rect support of land use planning by those large metropolitan areas that request
such support providing that the requesting agencies can demonstrate an ability to
work within general guidelines consistent with national policies which are pro-
vided by the Federal government. If such legislation is enacted, we recommend
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that the Administrator make the resources of the Environmental Protection Agency
available to States and local governments to assist in the formulation of land
use plans to meet environmental objectives, and in the review of plans for con-
sistency with applicable laws prior to Federal approval.
VIII. Information and Education
The availability and exchange of valid information regarding the interactions of
land use and environmental protection must be increased to land use planners and
decision makers and the public at large. If the importance of environmental
problems is not recognized, they cannot be adequately addressed. A more informed
public, participating in both planning and political decisions, could raise the
visibility of the issues and strengthen the prospects for implementation of land
use decisions.
Recommendations
1. The importance of environmental considerations as a part of the planning pro-
cess be brought to the attention of appropriate officials at all levels of govern-
ment.
2. An information program be directed toward the general public.
3. Methods be developed that will aid the planner in quantifying the environmen-
tal impact of his plan.
4. Better institutional arrangements are needed for decision makers to partici-
pate in the planning process.
IX. Development of Required Scientific Knowledge
A consistent theme running through the presentation of many witnesses that ap-
peared before the Boards was the absolute necessity for the development of new
knowledge in many fields if satisfactory land use and environmental planning is
to be accomplished now and in the future.
Reoonmendations
The Boards recommend that the Federal government and in particular the Administra-
tor of the Environmental Protection Agency take those steps necessary to assure
the development of plans for and the funding necessary to obtain the new scientific
knowledge required to determine strategies for dealing with the preservation of
our environment.
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Environmental Performance Criteria
for Land Use Planning
The public interest in the environment is far more than the issue of pollution
control. With the interrelationships between social, economic, and natural en-
vironments becoming more apparent and better understood, it is becoming equally
clear that continued concentration on higher forms of technology to abate pollu-
tion at its source is a necessary but not a sufficient method of protecting the
environment. An effective public program will be one that addresses the causes
of environmental degradation rather than merely the effects, and one that is
preventive rather than remedial. The need is for a comprehensive environmental
management program at all levels of government.
Constructing such a program will be difficult and complex. Fortunately many ele-
ments now being produced will contribute to a full scale effort. This proposal
is concerned with one of the numerous elements that will fit within the larger
program.
Land resource management appears to be the next major subject for the public
environmental agenda. Land, like air and water, is a resource. There is a finite
amount of it, and it is essential to our survival. There are, however, two im-
portant differences between the air and water resources on the one hand, and land
on the other: (1) land is privately owned while air and water are generally consi-
dered in the public domain; and (2) the primary value of air and water is in their
response to natural laws of transport while the primary value of land is largely
derived from man-made transportation and other systems, making land as much a
cultural phenomenon as a natural one. In the case of air and water we degrade its
quality by putting things into it that limit its usefulness. In the case of land,
we diminish its utility by extracting resources from it and by limiting its capa-
city to serve society by the decisions we make about how it should be used.
Historically, land use planning and control has been largely concerned with land
as an economic and cultural phenomenon. The prevailing view of land was that of
economic, two-dimensional space. There was little concern for the features and
processes of the natural environment which serve to differentiate one parcel of
land from another. The plans and regulations were (and are) primarily based on its
economic and social utility and were concerned with accommodating man-made struc-
tures and uses.
This limited approach to land use planning is no longer satisfactory. The natu-
ral characteristics of the land will have to be considered as much as its economic
and social value. A new kind of land use planning is needed which goes beyond the
task of allocating space for economic activities. As part of a larger environmen-
tal management program land use planning will have to consider ways to:
1. Prevent or minimise air and water pollution. The location of both area and
point pollution sources can significantly affect local concentrations of pollution
The above ±s taken from the project narrative statement of a proposal by the American Society of Plan-
ning Officials to the Environmental Protection Agency for funding of a research project.
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and the dilution capacity of the air and water. Similarly, the form and general
design of cities and location and types of transportation routes may increase or
decrease air and water pollution directly, and through the effect on energy con-
sumption .
2. Reduce threats to life and property. While planning has considered the hazards
created by ignoring natural environmental conditions, even this attention has been
uneven and insufficient. Construction of dwellings in flood plains has increased
the frequency and severity of floods; homes built on weak or excessive slopes
creates land slippage, erosion, runoff and other serious problems; whole communi-
ties are constructed atop and adjacent to major fault lines; waterfront develop-
ment and filling for intensive uses pollutes rivers, lakes, and estuaries. The
list of ways that man himself suffers as a result of his mismanagement of the
natural environment is long and serves as a serious indictment of the way he has
used the land resource.
3. Preserve and protect soil and mineral resources. The process of creating geo-
logic resources is measured in the eons of geologic time; its destruction and mis-
management is measured in months and years. Strip mining, clearcutting, excessive
use of pesticides, construction on prime agricultural land, the loss of extractive
sites through urbanization, wasteful use of resources, and so on, are examples of
issues that environmentally conscious land use planning needs to address.
4. Protect unique and fragile environments. Land use planning has given only off-
hand attention to the need for protecting fragile environments. Wetlands have been
viewed as sources of cheap land rather than in terms of their wildlife habitat
and water storage functions; the remaining prairies in the great plains give way
to development; coastal dunes are seen as sources of sand and potential resort
communities; wilderness areas are ideal for all-terrain vehicle use; even historic
sites and buildings are levelled in the name of progress. The scientific, hi&to-
ric, recreational, aesthetic, and other heretofore nonquantifiable values are
being lost due to lack of consideration in the planning process.
Partly as a result of the passage of the National Environmental Protection Act with
its attendant requirement for environmental impact statements, there has been an
awakening of interest in the relationship between land use and the environment.
By now, virtually every federal agency has developed procedures for assessing
environmental impact. Conferences and workshops have been held on the subject,
and monographs of all types have been written. Older research efforts on the sub-
ject are being reviewed, and new research programs are underway. Past practice
is being evaluated.
The environmental impact statement, however, and the methods developed to prepare
it are responsive; they come into play only after the project or proposal has
reached the final stages of development, at a point when the initiating agency has
already committed time, energy, money, and manpower to the effort and is psycholo-
gically committed to the proposal in its present form. The environmental impact
statement is an attempt to inject environmental sensitivity into the decision-
making machinery. It is, however, a tactical approach rather than a strategic one.
It suggests that environmental quality as a public policy has not been institution-
alized into the decision-making framework, and, until it is, proposals will have
to be reviewed for their effect on the environment.
An effective environmental management program would have no need for impact state-
ments. Environmental concerns, just like economic, social, and political concerns,
would be an integral part of the total decision-making effort. The environment
would no longer be an afterthought.
.The individuals and institutions with public responsibility for land use planning
and control are concerned about the environment, but their concern has not been
translated into the specific actions needed to internalize environmental quality
within the planning/decision-making process. The land use planner and policy mak-
er needs facts and figures, sources of information, access to expertise, and tech-
nical assistance if the traditional ways of planning are to be changed.
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Integrating Promising Approaches in a
Guidance Systems Framework
Edward J. Kaiser, Karl Elfers, Sidney Cohn, Peggy A. Reichert,
Maynard M. Hufschmidt, and Raymond E. Stanland
Local governments have a sense of commitment and responsibility but they have not
received much support, credit, or glory for their efforts. Nevertheless, a portion
of the agencies in this critical link in our societal commitment to the environment
have been innovative on their own. They, as well as other planning agencies search-
ing for better ways, need support and a better intergovernmental framework within
which to develop an effective local urban governmental guidance system.
As our survey suggests, however, there is a need for increasing levels of expertise
at the local level if this link in the intergovernmental chain is to be strengthened.
This need might be fulfilled through increasing the environmental dimension of
curriculums in planning schools, in-service training programs for planners in the
field, and professional development programs. . . . The survey further indicates
that planners believe there is a need for programs to increase the awareness of
the public, local officials, and other professional bureaucrats in local government.
In addition to the need for coordination among the various levels of government,
there is a need for more coordination among local units at a regional scale and
especially among various public agencies within the local unit. The decision-
making and implementation responsibility for the action instruments tends to be dif-
fused and often conflicting at the local level among many different agencies, e.g.,
city manager's office, planning department, public works department, health depart-
ment, tax office, and in some cases, a separate environmental protection agency.
This suggests the need for a framework for coordinating the planning and implemen-
tation of the various action instruments. This leads to a recommendation.
Recommended:
The Urban Environmental Guidance System as a Framework for Integrating Promising Approaches to
Planning and Implementation
Primarily the purpose of this recommendation is to highlight a conceptual framework
for general urban environmental planning. The local of metropolitan planner can
use this framework to organize a strategy of more specific cutting edge approaches
appropriate to the current problems within his agency's jurisdiction. . . .
The environmental guidance system planning process . . . consists of a series of
successive planning activities and corresponding outputs which evolve from one
another in a cumulative and nested fashion. The ultimate purpose of the guidance
system is to establish a rationally derived framework of conditions and rules which
will ensure that urbanization respects environmental goals and objectives Urbani-
zation here includes both urban development processes and day-to-day processes of
From Promoting Environmental Quality Through Urban Planning and Controls by Edward J. Kaiser,
Karl Elfers, Sidney Cohn, Peggy A. Reichert, Maynard M. Hufschmidt and Raymond E. Stanland, Vol.
IV, chapter IX, pp. 5-23. An Environmental Agency report, review draft, subject to revision.
Not to be cited or quoted.
95
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THEORETICAL
RATIONAL
PLANNING
PROCESS
URBAN
ENVIRONMENTAL
PLANNING
ACTIVITIES
OUTPUTS
OF
PLANNING
ACTIVITIES
and
POLITICAL
ACTIVITY
CONSEQUENCES
STAGE I
Problem
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Problem
analysis
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Formulation of
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Formulating
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Specific
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Strategies Regulations
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Effectiveness Indirect Actions:
and 1 Regulations
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STAGE V
Feedback
Monitoring the
Urban Environmental
System and Performance
Action Instruments
•*•
Monitoring
Environmental
Indicators
Public Surveys
^^^^^^^^^^^^jjgjjjjjjmj^
Quality
Political Activities
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. /
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The Urbanization Process and Urban Environmental Quality /
FIGURE IX-I
ENVIRONMENTAL GUIDANCE SYSTEM PLANNING PROCESS
-------
operating an urban society. The planning activities include data inventorying and
problem analysis; formulation of general decision guides in the form of goals, ob-
jectives, and decision criteria; formulation of alternative specific plans, poli-
cies, programs, and projects; the testing of these alternatives; and the selection
and implementation of action instruments. The accumulation of the corresponding
outputs of these planning activities leads to the implementation of the local gov-
ernment's course of action for promoting environmental quality. The outputs which
impact most strongly on the course of action and consequently on the urbanization
process are the deicsion guides and action instruments, particularly the action
instruments. Hence the impact on urban environmental quality, directly as well as
indirectly through influencing the urbanization process, increases through the
various stages of the guidance system planning process.
The significant finding of our investigation of the cutting edge approaches is
that, with respect to environmental quality goals, the guidance system planning
process need not be viewed as simply an abstract planning concept. The conditions
necessary for initiating such a planning process are beginning to be fulfilled by
the efforts of numerous planners across the country. The guidance system concept
merely argues the desirability and feasibility of bringing together these indepen-
dent innovations in planning methodology and implementation devices. It attempts
to organize them into a coordinated local level course of action for promoting
urban environmental quality.
An effective guidance system planning process is dependent upon planners and the
community possessing a certain viewpoint as much as new planning methods and con-
trols. This viewpoint is characterized by:
(1) an understanding that environmental planning must be process oriented—rec-
ognizing that urban and environmental systems are constantly evolving processes—
and not simply planning product oriented. Master plans and individual public
projects and regulations are not sufficient to an effective planning and action
strategy.
(2) a recognition that a multitude of individual decisions made over time within
the urban development system and the political system affect the form and function
of the urban system and thereby the environmental quality of that system. Planning
activity must be geared to infuse an understanding of the environmental implica-
tions into these decisions.
(3) a realization that most decisions which define the nature of the urbanization
process are private decisions, but that there are points of public intervention
which must be used in a systematic and coordinated fashion if there maximum impact
is to be effected.
These viewpoints or attitudes must be infused into each stage of the guidance sys-
tem planning process.
Stage I: Identification of the Environmental Problem and Definition of Goals, Objectives, and
Choice Criteria
Identification of the environmental problem. The guidance system planner begins by
recognizing that the urban environment is composed of a complex set of interdepen-
dent natural and man-made elements and processes. Both the natural and man-made
subsystems have internal orders of logic of their own. The natural logic or balance
must not be disrupted by man's activity nor should the orderly functioning of the
man-made urban environment be unduly interrupted by natural processes. Planning
must seek to define and promote the most productive balance between urban man and
the environment on which de depends.
This recognition provides the basis for an appropriate environmental information
system for modeling the urban environmental problem. Such a system should include
data, statements of relationships and a capacity for appropriate interpretation of
the data. The information system may be used at various stages in the planning
process: for example, to monitor environmental trends, predict future conflicts,
suggest patterns of urban development from an environmental quality perspective,
and determine environmental impact.
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To develop an adequate capacity to define environmental problems it is suggested
that planners:
(1) include two fundamentally contrasting objectives for which the environmental
information system is developed: first, to protect urban processes by identifying
environmental constraints to urban development to avoid later interruption of ur-
ban processes and second, to protect critical environmental features and processes
from being disrupted by urban development. Local urban planners have long devel-
oped information systems for the former objective, usually in map form. More recent
approaches tend to emphasize the second objective, heavily discounting the former.
Few have attempted to encompass both objectives, and that is what must be done in
order to fully meet the definition of environmental planning selected by our sample
of respondents—"integrating man-made and natural systems."
(2) develop information and an interpretation approach that will be useful at
several geographic scales of urban environmental planning problems. It should be
useful in locating potential conflicts between development and natural dynamics
at the urban regional scale. Such a capacity would address the task of allocating
the general location and timing of urban development at the urban region-wide
scale. But the information system should also be applicable to environmental plan-
ning and action at the scale of the individual site, i.e., at the project scale.
Such an information system suggests data and models that are more truly ecological,
including attention to biological processes as well as energy and nutrient flows.
(3) seek better data and the participation of environmental experts in creating
and applying the information system. A task force approach might be considered
to involve the disciplines necessary to inventory adequately environmental resources,
monitor natural system trends, and predict possible conflicts between urban system
demands and natural system demands.
Establishing Goals and Objectives. Environmental quality should be viewed as one
element of the quality of life itself. This implies that environmental objectives
should be established openly with public involvement and that planners should
strive to delineate the implications of various types of urbanization to the envi-
ronmental system as well as the implications of various environmental quality goals
to other community goals including economic growth and acceptable standards of liv-
ing. To delineate such implications, it is suggested that planners:
(1) Approach environmental planning as well as all other sector planning with an
eye to the multiple objectives of society.
(2) Seek ways to involve the public in a continuous dialogue on community goals.
Although much of the environmental planning effort in the near future will be char-
acterized by attempts to achieve goals established at the national level in terms of
standards, it will most likely be the responsibility of local planners to relay to
the public information on the long term impact of local urbanization on the local en-
vironment. Status reports on environmental quality should be circulated to the pub-
lic at large as well as to public officials via the media, and feedback from the
public should be solicited through the use of surveys, public meetings, and repre-
sentative citizen advisory groups.
(3) Formulate optimum land use plans having an explicit environmental base of in-
formation and goals, where land use allocation is based among other things on land
capability, compatibility of land use to land as well as land use to land use, and
an assessment of potential adverse environmental consequences. These criteria are
in turn based on surficial geology, current levels of air, water and noise pollution,
hydrology, vegetation, wildlife and physiographic features such as surface water,
marshes, flood plains, acquifer recharge areas and slopes.
(4) Formulate separate policy plans for a range of environmental problems and areas
which suggest some variation in strategy. For example, remedial action or redevelop-
ment areas might be delineated and applied to both the man-made urban environment
and urban infrastructure investments to restore ecological equilibrium. These areas
might be distinguished from resource preservation or protection areas. In another
approach, area classifications might be based primarily on the basis of differences
in development pressures, again suggesting variation in guidance strategies. One
recommended classification scheme consists of urban built-up areas, developing areas
(where growth pressures are intense), and holding areas where much of the land is in
non-urban use and development pressures are not so intense. (Critical resource pro-
tection areas which cut across these three categories such as acquifer recharge
areas might constitute a fourth type of district.)
98
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The general goal plans, statements of design principles and choice criteria, and
policy statements or districts serve as preliminary solution strategy proposals
to the key problems identified at the local level. Several steps remain before
these strategies have a significant impact on the local government's course of
action. While some planners might argue that this is the end point of the com-
prehensive planning process, the emphasis on implementation in guidance system
planning extends planning activity into the realm of more discrete day-to-day de-
cision-making regarding the action instruments and their implementation.
Stage II: Formulating Specific Alternative Actions
General goals, policies and strategies must be converted to specific action pro-
posals in order to take on real meaning as a part of the government's course of
action. Quite often alternative specific proposals are discussed internally with-
in the planning agency, but rarely are they formally published or presented to the
decision-making body as a range of alternatives. In the ideal guidance system pro-
cess, however, these alternative actions would be discussed openly with and among
the decision makers and the evaluation criteria on which a final decision was based
would be made explicit. One way to do this would be to involve decision-makers in
specifying and ranking the objectives they seek to effect by a given plan, policy,
project, or regulation. The planner could then present the decision-makers with a
range of alternatives and evaluate each with respect to the objectives. After
viewing the alternatives and assessing the implications of each, the decision-makers
may desire to reorder their priority on objectives.
The guidance system planning process would also stress an integrated approach to
specific action proposals. Single instruments would be considered as part of an
integrated system of regulations, incentives and public investments. Combinations
of action instruments would be proposed as packages. The concept to be stressed
here is that an action proposal is not limited to a single instrument. Every pro-
posal must be considered as part of an incremental change in the context of an
already existing course of action or as part of a more comprehensive proposal of
changes. Each component is designed to complement the effect of other instruments
in the course of action and reinforce, not contradict them.
Stage III: Testing of Alternative Specific Decision Guides^ Action Instruments^ and Predictions
The third stage in a capacity for guidance system planning is the testing of alter-
natives. The alternative may be a specific plan, policy, program or other specific
decision guide of local government; it may be an action instrument or a set of such
instruments, proposed or existing; or it may be a forecast based on trends or the
introduction of a private or higher level governmental action into the local urban-
ization process, e.g., the location of a large new industry. This third stage,
testing alternatives, is intimately related to the second, formulating alternatives,
to the extent that testing may often lead back to a reformulation of alternatives.
Hence, these two stages may be repeated in a loop fashion several times before a
choice can be made.
Alternatives may be tested for two purposes: first to determine the general effec-
tiveness of the proposal in achieving primary objectives and, second to determine
the environmental impact of the proposed action. This latter purpose is particular-
ly relevant to testing private development proposals as well as public plans or
projects not primarily aimed at environmental quality goals, e.g., alternative high-
way routings.
Testing should make explicit the evaluation criteria, including the priority given
to each criterion in the evaluation. The testing capacity may also include explic-
it models of the urban processes and environmental processes being affected and a
model of the alternative under consideration in the context of those processes.
An information display matrix appears to be a useful approach until acceptable
models become available to aggregate the several environmental subsystems effects
across several objectives. Furthermore, relative importance of the several en-
vironmental objectives will vary among communities. Given this relativity, method-
ologies for evaluating environmental impact focus on describing the relationships
and interactions in a manner such that the decision-maker can infuse his own per-
99
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ception of relative importance of each impact type into the final analysis.
Stage IV: Selecting and Implementing Action Instruments
The fourth stage of guidance system planning involves a choice among alterna-
tive action instruments. Choice is also applicable to general and specific
decision guides. Nevertheless, a basic premise of the guidance system approach
is that planning must eventually come to the action instrument stage if in fact
environmental quality is to be affected. The choice of a combination of action
instruments is perhaps the most crucial stage in the guidance system planning
process.
It is recommended that the action instruments being considered include both the
direct and the indirect. Direct action instruments to achieve environmental qual-
ity goals are those public investments, such as sewer systems, water supply sys-
tems, transportation systems, acquisition of open space, and acquisition of cul-
tural resource areas or structures, which impact directly upon the environment.
Indirect action instruments are those regulations and incentives, such as zoning,
subdivisions and building codes and taxation policies, which establish a frame-
work of rules and conditions for private, and also public development. Some di-
rect public investments, however, also have an indirect impact, e.g., a sewer sys-
tem or highway will encourage further urban development nearby and these develop-
ments will have an environmental impact. Thus, many public investments exert both
a direct effect on environmental quality and an indirect effect by providing the
conditions which encourage urban development. Most action instruments for promot-
ing environmental quality available to local government are simply reassessments
of rather traditional guidance instruments resulting in their modification, ex-
pansion, redirection, or more intensive application. None may be effective in and
by itself. The essence of guidance system planning is the design of a series of
action instruments which, operating in concert, create an appropriate and adequate
set of conditions and rules for urban development and urban activities such as in-
dustrial processes and transportation systems to proceed in harmony with public
goals.
Action instruments recommended for consideration in controlling location and tim-
ing of development for environmental goals are agricultural and conservation zoning,
historic district zoning, taxation policies closely related to special district
zoning, and, potentially, public investments. Development district zoning or de-
velopment timing ordinances should be considered as mechanisms for coordinating
regulations, taxation, and public investments to control location and timing of
development.
Action instruments recommended for controlling the spatial design characteristics
of development at the site include density zoning, planned unit development, clus-
ter zoning, inclusion of critical environmental provision in zoning, subdivision,
building and health ordinances, special use permits for construction in environ-
mentally sensitive areas or for types of development with a high impact potential,
and the requirement of environmental impact analysis on proposed development as a
prerequisite to the granting of a rezoning, subdivision plot approval, or building
permit. Although these are rather traditional implementation devices, they have
seldom been directed towards environmental quality objectives. Furthermore, their
enforcement record in the past has been somewhat weak.
Stage V: Monitoring and Feedback
The final stage, monitoring and feedback, brings the guidance system planning pro-
cess full circle. This stage and the inventory activities of Stage I are excel-
lent points for regional and state contribution to the local program.
In summary, we recommend an emphasis on the formulation of a guidance system plan-
ning approach by localiand metropolitan planning agencies. The rapidity and in-
genuity with which local planners have responded to the rather recent emphasis on
a quality urban environment even during the brief course of this study may indi-
cate that specific innovations will become standard, if not dated, practice in
future years. The necessity to continually revise and improve the elements of
the local environmental guidance system will remain a constant in a field of ever-
changing variables. But the guidance system concept may provide the mechanism to
100
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coordinate new planning approaches in each of the necessary stages and new action
instruments for effective environmental guidance.
Specific Recommendations:
The Water Re source-Land Use Interface Planning Activities
In the area of planning for water resource management the key concepts for the
1970s and beyond are closely related to the six criteria for metropolitan water
resource management. . . . These criteria include (1) planning for multiple
objectives based on the needs of the local jurisdictions and the region, (2)
using and considering a wide range of alternative courses of action and multiple
purpose projects, (3) coordinating public and private action, particularly to
encourage private input at objectives and criteria formulation stages, (4) the
use of research and monitoring to better understand the relationships involved in
water resource-land use interfaces, (5) the integration of water resource planning
into the total planning process of the area, and (6)the coordination or integra-
tion of all the local and regional agencies involved in water resource and related
land use functions.
In addition to the criteria themselves there are some important concepts and trends
that cut across these criteria or are inherent in them. First, regional and river
basin water resource planning is becoming, as it must, more urban oriented. That
is, specific local urban problems and needs must be given a greater priority in
overall river basin and watershed planning. Second, urban or municipal water
resource planning must become broader in focus to consider not only relations
among water resource functions (e.g., water supply, wastewater disposal, storm
water drainage) but relations to other planning sectors (e.g., land use, recrea-
tion, transportation) and to other jurisdictions within the metropolitan area.
Thus, there is great potential for and some movement toward areawide, integrated
water resource management, particularly at the planning level. This is related
to the trend toward "systems approaches" in planning and management. Third,
planning and management of water resources ought to be (and has been in a few
cases) more oriented to formulating strategies and flexible packages of alterna-
tives and policies rather than the production of a single best plan to meet a
projected demand. This is particularly true in complex urban areas where growth,
demands, and politics are highly uncertain. Finally, there is a need for and
a trend toward a more open and clear planning process. Such processes include
the detailed data on key environmental factors, the logical formulation of alter-
natives (via publicized objectives, criteria, principles, data, etc.), and the
presentation of alternative solutions with statements of implications for public
reaction and evaluation. This is along the line of the trend toward more public
disclosure of proposed projects and impacts as required by NEPA.
Decision Guides
A key element in the implementation of the "strategy approach" to planning and
management is the use of decision guides. These guides can take several forms
but in general they set a framework within which public and private action can
be better coordinated and more informed. Some of the main types of useful deci-
sion guides follow:
(1) development guide reports - these might take the form of a shoreland develop-
ment guide or a general watershed development plan illustrated by the approaches
of the Southeastern Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission. . . . They explain
and define the problems and critical areas, set forth development principles and
model ordinances, and offer alternative plans for development; their particular
strength (in the case of SEWRPC at least) is in their great store of detailed
data (e.g., soils, floodplain) and detailed engineering oriented analysis and
design;
(2) strategy plans - these "plans" are less concrete and detailed but offer a
wide range of usually quite imaginative alternatives and combinations thereof;
they emphasize intergovernmental powers and relations, non-structural measures,
and flexibility. ... In particular they might offer several examples of prototype
projects in which multiple means were used to achieve multiple objectives or local
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needs through public and private cooperation and at local, state, and federal
levels;
(3) policy statements - on the basis of planning efforts, governments or govern-
mental agencies can make public policy statements to establish a framework for
both public and private decisions and action; the policies may be at a general
level and include broad issues such as economic development vs. ecologic preserva-
tion, or at the specific level of where and when utilities should be extended;
however, these policies have varying effects depending upon the nature of the
policy-making body; in the Twin Cities, where the Metro Council had control over
the sewerage system, policies on the extension of lines and location of plants
are the potential for guiding private decisions is quite significant;
(4) environmental information - this can take many forms; one is the environ-
mental information directory of Santa Clara County which discusses environmental
problems, lists all public and private agencies responsible or interested in them,
and defines their powers and relationships; this might also include precise
delineation of wetlands or floodplains for public information.
Action Instruments
With the trend toward greater environmental interest, better informed and compre-
hensive planning, and coordinated management strategies and guidelines, there are
a growing number of promising instruments for implementation. Many of these have
existed or been advocated for a long time but are now on the verge of much more
meaningful use. Some of the more promising instruments follow:
Indirect:
(1) state laws requiring local governments to enact envrionmental regulations,
else the states will, e.g., floodplain zoning in California and Illinois; shore-
land ordinances in Wisconsin
(2) state and local moratoriums (e.g., Oregon) on development until planning can
be done
(3) tax policies to preserve critical areas, e.g., Greenway tax law in Wisconsin
(proposed)
(4) effluent changes, especially on industry
(5) permit systems for altering or developing sensitive areas, e.g., wetlands,
shorelands
(6) special floodplain regulations in the normal zoning ordinance zones
Direct:
(I) integrated utility systems (especially planning and management), e.g., regional
service agency (Maryland)
(2) blue-green development and dual drainage systems (e.g., Denver, Chicago)
water is detained on site for multi-purpose use and natural drainage ways are used
when possible
(3) wastewater reclamation (Los Angeles, Muskegon) use for irrigation, lakes
(4) low flow augmentation and wastewater diversions (San Francisco Bay)
(5) planned community development and major redevelopment, e.g., railroad on
waterfronts (Spokane)
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Land Use Planning: The Cornerstone of
Local Environmental Planning and Control
Edward J. Kaiser, Karl Elfers, Sidney Cohn, Peggy A. Reichert,
Maynard M. Hufschmidt, and Raymond E. Stanland
Land use planning viewed within the framework of the overall urban planning process
is only that sector of planning concerned with the location and intensity of var-
ious urban activities. Yet, insofar as land use creates the physical setting for
economic and social system activities and is the physical expression of these sys-
tems within the environment, its impact is complex and far reaching. Moreover,
land use planning should serve as the basis for other physical development planning:
open space, transportation, public utilities, public facilities, etc. Because of
the fundamental and permeating impact of land use throughout the entire urban arena,
land use planning must be comprehensive in terms of the objectives it seeks to
further. Land use planning which focusses entirely on the objective of preserva-
tion of pristine natural areas is as irrational as that which focusses entirely
on minimizing journey time from residential to work areas. The necessity to plan
land use within the context of multiple objectives cannot be overemphasized at this
time when environmental concerns are presently riding the public opinion tidalwave.
Similarly, the cry was heard in recent years for urban freeways to alleviate con-
gestion and rapid suburbanization to alleviate housing shortages. Freeways and
suburbs have not solved the transportation and housing problems; moreover, solutions
generated within a single objective context may often create as many new problems
as they solve. Today's suburbs and freeways, the solutions to yesterday's defini-
tion of the urban problem, are viewed by many as the root of today's environmental
crisis.
Land use decisions, once enacted into physical development, remain within the urban
system for many years. Unless massive urban and suburban renewal every few years
is' to become the rule of thumb (as in fact some urban observers have proclaimed to
be the only option), land use decisions must be made with an eye to placing all
objectives within a comprehensive and systematic framework.
The Limits of Land Use Planning
It should be noted that land use planning is only one approach to planning for en-
vironmental quality and an approach more appropriate to certain types of urban
environmental problems as well as certain types of urban areas. For instance, pol-
lution, which may be viewed as the residual of the overall urban production process,
may be abated in three basic ways: through modification of residuals after produc-
tion (e.g., sewage treatment), through modification of the production process it-
self to reduce the amount or change the character of the residuals generated (e.g.,
altering the basic industrial process), or through utilization of the assimilative
capacity of the environment to reduce the degradational impact of the residuals
generated (e. g., locating industries along the river into which they discharge
at sufficient intervals to allow the river to "recover" or assimilate the residuals
before receiving another load). The latter approach, utilizing the assimilative
From Promoting Environmental Quality Through Urban Planning and Controls by Edward J. Kaiser, Karl
Elfers, Sidney Cohn, Peggy A. Reichert, Maynard M. Hufschmidt, and Raymond E. Stanland, Vol.11,
chapter V, pp. V1-V11. An Environmental Protection Agency report, review draft, subject to revision.
Not to be cited or quoted.
103
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capacity, involves land use planning in its generic sense. Implementation devices
such as performance standards, erosion control regulations, open space dedication
requirements, etc., may also be founded on this concept. Nevertheless, some type/s
of environmental problems are of such character, intensity, or common prolifera-
tion that land use planning cannot cope with them. This is often the case in in»-
tensely developed urban areas where land use is not subject to easy change and
ing conditions make it impossible to plan within the assimilative capacity con-
straints. Rather, the approach which must be taken is to maintain and enhanc^ the
environment wherever possible through pollution control, urban design, urban/ renew-
al, historic preservation, and the provision of open space pockets. . . . ]>and use
planning as here discussed, therefore, is a means for promoting environmental
quality most appropriate to developing urban areas.
The Purpose of Comprehensive Land Use Planning: The Control of Exter/ialities
When analyzing the process of land use planning in terms of environmental quality
objectives, it is useful to define the process in an economic sensor. Thus, the
planning of land uses is an attempt to interject the notion of the general public
welfare into the market interaction between land supply and demanqi. The objective
of this intervention through planning is to maximize the positive externalities
resulting from the market allocation of land use and to minimize the negative
externalities.
"An externality in economic values arises when the actions of on^ person or group
brings costs or values to another, costs which the person initialing the actions
does not have to bear or values which he is unable to capture."1 -Externalities oc-
cur in urban land uses because of their interdependent nature. Th<^ value of a
given land parcel in an urban area is not only a function of the inherent quality
of the land in terms of soil type, mineral content, or water resources, but is
strongly determined by the locational characteristics of a land parce.1 in relation
to the entire system of urban activities. The value which accrues to the owner of
one parcel, whether it is measured in terms of dollars or various types of amenity,
is in large part the result of his capturing the external values created by other
land owners, both private and public, through their development decisions.
Urbanization, historically, has occurred because of the positive values, or exter-
nalities, which could be created in a society by grouping together geographically.
The modern urban setting, however, is sufficiently complex in terms of im^erdepen-
dent activities that an activity may be located and conducted so as to takfe advan-
tage of the positive external values associated with a given location in tlSe urban
system, yet in so doing, create its own external effects, some of which may be
positive and others negative.
A simplified example may explicate this point. An industry may locate in one area
of the city because of accessibility to highways, railroads, and public utilities
as well as the appropriate physical characteristics of the site for development
(i.e., flat and adequate in size). In so doing, it may reinforce this network of
support systems to the extent that they are maintained in good working order or
even improved, e.g., the highway is widened because of the demand created by the
industry.
This, in turn, makes adjacent land to the industry attractive for additional in-
dustrial use or other uses which may benefit from locating near the industry
itself or the support system it has strengthened: the opportunity exists to cap-
ture the external values created by the industry and public investments which are
now associated with a land parcel heretofore valued perhaps only as farm land.
Suppose, however, that at the same time, previous decisions were made to build
houses in a nearby area because of the locational proximity to the open farm land,
another example of an attempt to capture the external value (in this case perhaps
amenity values) created by another land use. A conflict may thus arise between
home owners in the area who wish to retain the farm land in its present use and
industrialists who view the site as prime for development. Meanwhile, suppose
Marion Clawson, Suburban Land Conversion in the United States: Economic and Governmental
Processes (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press, 1971), p. 166.
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that the city, pressured by the need to expand its employment opportunities, rezones
the land from agricultural to industrial use and the tax assessor's office, follow-
ing the city's suit and conscious of its tax base, decides to reassess the value of
the land for tax purposes according to its "highest and best use"—in this case, as
industrial land. To further complicate the drama, suppose that the land in ques-
tion ^may be valuable not only for agricultural use as a point of fresh produce pro-
duction for the community but is also important to the regional water supply system
because a tributary stream to the major river flows through the site. Erosion
during construction and the ultimate conversion of natural ground cover to asphalt
for a parking area could create runoff problems. If industrial waste were dis-
charged into the stream at this point, even if treated, it could change the flow
and temperature characteristics of the river. The change in character of the
stream might not be significant in terms of its impact on the quality of drinking
water, since it will be treated again later,but suppose the stream runs through a
park area presently used for recreational purposes. Suppose that the present farm
has located on its grounds one of the original water powered mills in the area and
the local historical society has been planning to designate it an historic land-
mark for preservation. Suppose that the industry which is planning to locate on
the site emits some air pollutants, not above that which is allowed by federal law,
but which, in conjunction with the emissions from the nearby existing industry, could
create a localized air quality problem. The industry also happens to transport
materials in heavy duty trucks which must travel through the residential area and
are considered noisy by the homeowners.
The external effects created by the use of the parcel in question, whether as a farm
or industry, could be postulated almost ad infinitum. The various objectives of in-
dividuals, groups, and the public at large come into conflict over the use of the
land, not simply because of the internal effects on the given site created by the
activity, but because of external effects of the land use on other land uses and
the subsequent impact on the social, economic, and environmental status of the
urban area.
When the conflicts created by this one instance are added to those conflicts aris-
ing at various points throughout the developing and redeveloping urban area, the
question of land use begins to take on enormous significance. To a certain extent,
these conflicts result from the myriad of independent decisions both by private in-
dividuals and public agencies concerning land use—independent decisions which are
aimed at capturing the positive externalities created by the complex and interdepen-
dent urban system but which give little regard to the subsequent externalities, es-
pecially the negative ones, created by them. Public agency land use planning is
the process of orchestrating these independent decisions in order to encourage and
strengthen the positive externalities naturally arising from urbanization while
identifying and discouraging if not eradicating the external negative effects.
The Evolution of Land Use Planning
The traditional approach to land use planning begins with a projection of future
economic growth in the urban area.2 This projection is based on trends in both the
national and regional economy. It reflects the potential of the given urban area
to capture a part of this total growth and in some cases the hope of the community
to do so as well. Given the projection in amount and type of economic activity,
future population is estimated. These two projections are then translated into
estimates of future land demand for industrial, commercial, residential, and public
activities. Land supply is evaluated according to suitability and capacity for
these various activities. The suitability and capacity of a land parcel is defined
in terms of its location or accessibility, size, and general physical quality.
Quality denotes environmental characteristics to a varying degree. Some tradition-
al land use plans define quality only insofar as slope and soil characteristics
are important cost constraints to development. Flat land and good bearing soil are
viewed as prime for intense use regardless of whether the site is located in a flood
plain, possesses prime agricultural soil, or is presently a natural forest or wild-
life preserve. The basic assumption of this approach is that economic growth will
2See, for example: F. Stuart Chapin, Jr., Urban Land Use Planning (Urbana: The University of
Illinois Press, 1966); Ira S. Lowry, Model of Metropolis (Santa Monica, Calif.: Rand, 1964).
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bring positive benefits to the community and that such growth can be best fostered
by designing the land use pattern to maximize accessibility within the system of
economic activity. Further related assumptions include: (1) an unlimited supply of
land suitable for urbanization exists,(2) a city is essentially an economic produc-
tion unit and should be organized in a manner most efficient for such production,
and(3) the negative effects of spatially organizing land use according to economic
activity criteria can be assuaged through technological solutions after they are
discovered, solutions which an economically productive society will be able to
afford.
These assumptions began to come under scrutiny in the 1960s when the effect of the
emphasis in land use planning on economic system efficiency became more fully dis-
closed. Pollution in urban areas was high and the cost of reducing it, where it
was still possible through technology alone, was extreme. Many forms of environ-
mental degradation, however, appeared more permanent. For example, rich natural
areas and farm lands, long accessible points of amenity to urbanities and neces-
sary ingredients to the American definition of the quality of life, were rapidly
disappearing as cities expanded through haphazard suburban sprawl across the rural
fringe. Furthermore, the very effectiveness of planning characterized by long
range master plans to be implemented primarily through zoning came under question.
In response to these criticisms, the land use planning process has evolved in re-
cent years along three distinct yet intimately related axes. First, there has
been a continual redefinition of the entire comprehensive planning process of
which land use is so integral a part. Secondly, there has been an expanding search
for the appropriate criteria on which an optimum allocation of urban space using
activities to land should be made, or, as some would phrase it, of land to space
using activities. While the more traditional approach stressed criteria which
would maximize the efficiency of the urban activity system, the more recent approach
emphasizes criteria which will allow for the natural efficiency of environmental
systems. The orientation of each approach reflects a basic assumption as to which
sub-system, social, economic, or environmental, is most fundamental and crucial to
the health of the total system. In part, the two approaches also reflect different
values, or priorities, among the many objectives operating in the urban context.
While the perfect criteria is subject to debate, it obviously must represent some
balance among the various sub-system demands. Thirdly, the emphasis in land use
planning has shifted away from simply the design of a long range visionary master
plan towards a stress on implementation. Environmental problems have intensified
the urgency to make planning more action-oriented.
Together, the trends along these three axes point to the evolution of a planning
process aimed at interjecting public objectives, including most recently an environ-
mental thrust, into the urbanization process. We have termed this new planning
process "Guidance System Planning."
There is no consensus at present on the most appropriate approach to guidance sys-
tem planning for environmental quality. There is no inherently correct way in
which community goals and objectives should be established, no absolute definition
of the type of information necessary for land use-environmental relationship plan-
ning, nor is there any one accepted interpretation of information. Furthermore,
there is no agreement on the optimal mix and type of decision guides and action
instruments which may be generated through this planning process. Yet, it is
highly unlikely that there can or even should be such consensus. The appropriate
character of guidance system planning for a given urban area should depend on prob-
lems encountered, the goals of the community, the needs of the decision-making body,
the degree to which public intervention in land development is accepted, and the
general level of planning resources available.
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National Land Use Policy
Conservation.. . can be defined as the wise use of
our natural environment: it is, in the final analysis,
the highest form of national thrift—the prevention of
waste and despoilment while preserving, improving,
and renewing the quality and usefulness of all our
resources.
John F. Kennedy
Conservation Message to
Congress, 1962
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President's Message to the Congress
of the United States, August 1970
Richard M. Nixon
This first report to the Congress on the state of the Nation's environment is an
historic milestone. It represents the first time in the history of nations that
a people has paused, consciously and systematically, to take comprehensive stock
of the quality of its surroundings.
It comes not a moment too soon. The recent upsurge of public concern over environ-
mental questions reflects a belated recognition that man has been too cavalier in
his relations with nature. Unless we arrest the depredations that have been in-
flicted so carelessly on our natural systems—which exist in an intricate set of
balances—we face the prospect of ecological disaster.
The hopeful side is that such a prospect can be avoided. Although recognition of
the danger has come late, it has come forcefully. There still are large gaps in
our environmental knowledge, but a great deal of what needs to be done can be
identified. Much of this has already been begun, and much more can be started
quickly if we act now.
Toward a Land Use Policy
Lately, our attention as a people has repeatedly and insistently been seized by
urgent concerns and immediate crises: by the sudden blanketing of cities or even
whole regions with dense clouds of smog, for example, or the discovery of mercury
pollution in rivers. But as we take the longer view, we find another challenge
looming large: the mounting pressures of population. Both the size and the
distribution of our population have critical relevance to the quality of our
environment and thus to the quality of our lives.
Population growth poses an urgent problem of global dimensions. If the United
States is to have an effective voice in world population policies, it must demon-
strate willingness to face its own population problems at home.
The particular impact of any given level of population growth depends in large
measure on patterns of land use. Three quarters of our people now live in urban
areas, and if present trends continue most of them in the future will live in a
few mammoth urban concentrations. These concentrations put enormous pressure on
transportation, sanitation and other public services. They sometimes create
demands that exceed the resource capacity of the region, as in the case of water
supply. They can aggravate pollution, overcrowd recreation facilities, limit
open space, and make the restorative world of nature ever more remote from every-
day life. Yet we would be blind not to recognize that for the most part the move-
ment of people to the cities has been the result neither of perversity nor of
happenstance, but rather of natural human aspirations for the better jobs,
schools, medical services, cultural opportunities and excitement that have
traditionally been associated with urban life.
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If the aspirations which have drawn Americans to the city in the first instance
and subsequently from the city core to the suburbs are often proving illusory,
the solution does not lie in seeking escape from urban life. Our challenge is
to find ways to promote the amenities of life in the midst of urban development:
in short, to make urban life fulfilling rather than frustrating. Along with the
essentials of jobs and housing, we must also provide open spaces and outdoor
recreation opportunities, maintain acceptable levels of air and water quality,
reduce noise and litter, and develop cityscapes that delight the eye and uplift
the spirit.
By the same token, it is essential that we also make rural life itself more at-
tractive, thus encouraging orderly growth in rural areas. The creation of greater
economic, social, cultural, and recreational opportunities in rural parts of the
country will lead to the strengthening of small cities and towns, contributing
to the establishment of new growth centers in the nation's heartland region.
Throughout the nation there is a critical need for more effective land use plan-
ning, and for better controls over use of the land and the living systems that
depend on it. Throughout our history, our greatest resource has been our land—
forests and plains, mountains and marshlands, rivers and lakes. Our land has
sustained us. It has given us a love of freedom, a sense of security, and courage
to test the unknown.
We have treated our land as if it were a limitless resource. Traditionally,
Americans have felt that what they do with their own land is their own business.
This attitude has been a natural outgrowth of the pioneer spirit. Today, we are
coming to realize that our land is finite, while our population is growing. The
uses to which our generation puts the land can either expand or severely limit the
choices our children will have. The time has come when we must accept the idea
that none of us has a right to abuse the land, and that on the contrary society
as a whole has a legitimate interest in proper land use. There is a national in-
terest in effective land use planning all across the nation.
I believe that the problems of urbanization which I have described, of resource
management, and of land and water use generally can only be met by comprehensive
approaches which take into account the widest range of social, economic, and
ecological concerns. I believe we must work toward development of a National
Land Use Policy to be carried out by an effective partnership of Federal, State
and local governments together, and, where appropriate, with new regional insti-
tutional arrangements.
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Environmental Protection Permit Legislation
Senator Edmund S. Muskie
One of the areas of public policy which demands attention we have not given is the
development and protection of the Nation's limited land resources. It is true that
the Senate has considered and passed legislation to require the States to develop
land use policies; but, once again, this legislation would have delegated almost
unlimited discretion to the executive and to the States to decide what was good
land use and what was bad land use. Once again, the Congress would have passed the
buck—with no instructions on what to do with it.
The task of creating policies to regulate land use decisions cannot be left solely
to the States or to the executive. The buck stops here—in the Congress. Only
here can the Federal interest in the public health and welfare be balanced against
private decisions regarding property use. Only here can land use regulatory poli-
cies be set that take into account all the conflicting interests and make the ap-
propriate tradeoffs from a national perspective.
There is no question of the need for such a policy and for regulation of land
development decisions based on such a policy. In fact, such a regulatory mechanism
is required in both the Clean Air Act and the Water Pollution Control Act. Imple-
mentation plans and programs under both acts must include, where necessary, land
use controls. Uncertain land use policies regarding the development of land re-
sources and the need for effective regulatory procedures also lie at the root of
our difficulties in solving the energy crisis, in dealing with transportation
problems, and in preserving biologically productive land areas.
Just as Congress has recognized that the problems of air and water pollution re-
spect no State boundaries and demand national solutions, so, too, we are now realiz-
ing the national scope of our energy and transportation crises. It is time, how-
ever, that we also recognized the national scope of other problems which result
directly from our lack of a national policy to regulate our use of limited land
resources:
The quality of rural life is increasingly threatened as local citizens are crowded
off the land and out of their houses by wealthy vacationers seeking recreational
property and rural homes.
Highway construction and urban renewal programs devised without respect for people's
lives and communities have robbed city dwellers of open space, recreational oppor-
tunities, pleasant surroundings and often their homes.
Commercial and industrial site selection decisions have transformed and often
permanently degraded large areas of land, simply because inadequate consideration
was given to the effects of the attendant transportation, energy, housing, and
waste treatment needs of the people who would come with the development.
Senator Muskie made these remarks in introducing his Environmental Protection Permit Legislation
to the Senate, February 7, 1973. The "Environmental Protection Criteria" are taken from Sec-
tion 602 of the proposed amendment.
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Unplanned development and land use has destroyed flood plains, valuable wetlands,
timber-lands, and farmlands.
These are national problems; and until we set basic regulatory policy on a nation-
al level, these problems will continue to plague us. It is not enough for Congress
to say that land use planning is good public policy—though land use planning is
essential; and it is not enough to require the States to develop land use plans of
their own—though they must act expeditiously to develop such plans. Those kinds
of decisions are not really decisions at all; they merely are new applications of
the same old, bad habits in failing to cope with yet another pressing issue. Pro-
nouncements of rhetoric have never constituted effective, substantive policy. No-
where is this truth plainer than in our experiences under the National Environmen-
tal Policy Act; although that law has provided some valuable procedural protections,
it offers no relief from bad decisions which are a product of good procedure—be-
cause it contains no enforceable standards and guidelines against which to measure
those decisions.
We should not make the same mistakes in developing national land use regulatory
legislation that we have made in other areas; we cannot afford to. We must not sit
still and allow the States or the Federal bureaucracy to create fragmented, dis-
oriented, and often contradictory regulatory policies and programs which will per-
mit private, selfish decisions to exacerbate critical national problems and over-
ride the public interest.
The bill which I introduce today, the Environmental Protection Permit Act, would
require the establishment of regulatory mechanisms at the State level to review
private land development decisions, and it would establish in law specific criteria
against which to assess those State programs and to permit or deny them to take
effect.
Under the provisions of this bill, which would become title VI of the Water Pollu-
tion Control Act, the Environmental Protection Agency would be prohibited from
making grants for the construction of waste treatment facilities under the Water
Pollution Control Act, delegating control of water pollution permit programs to
States, or granting extensions of deadlines for meeting air quality standards under
the Clean Air Act in any State which does not have an approved program for granting
environmental protection permits. This enforcement provision is, of course, sub-
ject to refinement, but it recognizes the fact that effective air and water pollu-
tion control requires the effective regulation of our limited land resources.
The specific land use policy criteria set forth in this bill are clear statements
of the elements of good land use. They are the product of lessons the Subcommittee
on Air and Water Pollution has learned from hearings in Machiasport, Maine, and
Lake Tahoe, from the development and implementation of the Clean Air Act and the
Water Pollution Control Act, and from years of hearings on the economic and social
roots of environmental pollution. They are by no means complete in setting forth
all the necessary guidelines, but they are a set of criteria from which we can re-
fine an effective set of final guidelines.
The provisions of this bill also reflect beginning efforts which have been made to
regulate land use in several States, particularly the State of Maine. In establish-
ing the land use regulation commission in 1969, Maine assumed a position of nation-
al leadership in resource analysis and mapping, comprehensive planning, establish-
ment of land use standards and land use districts, and enforcement. The Maine
Land Use Regulation Commission establishes standards for and restraints upon the
use of land in the unorganized townships of the State, 49 percent of Maine's total
land area and more than 10 million acres.
Coupled with the site selection permit program administered by the State's environ-
mental improvement commission, the LURC has given the people of Maine an opportunity
to protect their public property rights against private waste.
Nothing is more central to the development of a national growth policy and to the
preservation of a livable environment than effective land use planning and regula-
tion. As Dr. George Wald has said:
There is nothing more valuable in the Cosmos than an acre of land on earth.
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Unless we in Congress understand and act on our responsibility to make the hard,
tough policy decisions which we were elected to make, we and our children will be
witnesses to the defenseless waste of that land. . . .
Environmental Protection Criteria from the Bill
"(c) The Administrator shall not approve a State environmental protection permit
program which does not assure compliance with the following environmental protec-
tion criteria:
"(A) public or private development will be permitted only if in the process of
development, and in the completed project, the development will not result in
violation of emission or effluent limitations, standards or other requirements of
the Clean Air Act and this Act;
"(B) industrial, residential or commercial development will not occur on agricul-
tural land of high productivity, as determined on a regional basis by the Secretary
of Agriculture, unless specifically approved by the Governor as necessary to pro-
vide adequate housing for year-round residents that would not otherwise be avail-
able;
"(C) industrial, residential or commercial development will not occur where it
would exceed the capacity of existing systems for power and water supply, waste
water collection and treatment, solid waste disposal and resource recovery, or
transportation, unless such systems are planned for expansion and have adequate fi-
nancing to support operation and expansion as necessary to meet the demands of the
new development without violation of the emission or effluent limitations, standards
or other requirements of the Clean Air Act or this Act at any place where such ex-
pansion of such systems or any activities relating thereto may occur;
"(D) redevelopment and improvement of existing communities and other developed
areas is favored over industrial, commercial, or residential development which will
utilize existing agricultural lands, wild areas, woodlands, and other undeveloped
areas, and that development contrary to these principles shall be allowed only
where specifically approved by the Governor as necessary to provide significant and
permanent jobs, year-round housing, and educational opportunities for low and mid-
dle-income families;
"(E) no industrial or commercial development shall occur only where there exist
adequate housing opportunities, on a non-discriminatory basis and within a reason-
able distance of any such development, for all persons who are or may be employed
in the operation of such development;
"(F) no development shall occur on water-saturated lands such as marshlands,
swamps, bogs, estuaries, salt marshes, and other wetlands without replacement of
the ecological values provided by such lands;
"(G) there shall be no further commercial, residential or industrial development
of the flood plans of the navigable waterways in the state;
"(H) those responsible for making less permeable or impermeable any portion of
the landscape will be required to hold or store runoff water or otherwise control
runoff from such lands so that it does not reach natural waterways during storm
conditions or times of snow-melt;
"(I) to the extent possible, upland watersheds will be maintained for maximum
natural water retention;
"(J) utilities, in locating utility lines, shall make maximum possible multiple
use of utility right-of-way; and
"(K) any major residential development will include open space areas sufficient
to provide recreational opportunities for all residents of the proposed
development.
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"(d) A State may exempt fron the requirements of an environmental protection per-
mit program any single family residential building constructed by a person on land
owned by such person and intended to be his principal residence on a year-round ba-
sis, where sc^h person has not, within the previous five-year period, constructed
another such residential building which was or would have been eligible for exemp-
tion in accorde ice w'.th the provisions of this sub-section. ..."
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Land Use Policy and Planning
Assistance Act of 1973
Senator Henry Jackson
The Land Use Policy and Planning Assistance Act of 1973 is of critical importance
if this Nation is to meet the increasing pressures of industrialization, techno-
logical advances, population growth, and rapid urbanization, and to attain our
economic, social, and environmental goals. As land use increasingly becomes the
focal point for conflicts over national, State, and regional goals, public offi-
cials and private citizens alike view with dismay the chaotic, ad hoc, short-term,
crisis-by-crisis, case-by-case land use decisionmaking employed all too frequently
today.
Sobering statistics suggest that, unless our land use decisionmaking processes are
vastly improved at all levels of government—local, State, and Federal—the United
States will be unable to meet the emerging land use crisis. Over the next 30
years, the pressures upon our finite land resource will result in the dedication
of an additional 18 million acres or 28,000 square miles of undeveloped land to
urban use. Urban sprawl will consume an area of land approximately equal to all
the urbanized land now within the 228 standard metropolitan statistical areas—the
equivalent of the total area of the States of New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts,
and Rhode Island. Each decade, new urban growth will absorb an area greater than
the entire State of New Jersey. The equivalent of 2-1/2 times the Oakland-San
Francisco metropolitan region must be built each year to meet the Nation's housing
goals. In the next two decades, one industry alone—the energy industry—will re-
quire vast areas of land: New high-voltage transmission lines will consume 3 mil-
lion acres of new rights-of-way, while at least 225 new major generating stations
will require hundreds of thousands of acres of prime industrial sites.
In short, between now and the year 2000, we must build again all that we have built
before. We must build as many homes, schools, and hospitals in the next three
decades as we built in the previous three centuries. In the past, many land use
decisions were the exclusive province of those whose interests were selfish, short-
term and private. In the future—in the face of immense pressures on our limited
land resource—these land use decisions must be long-term and public.
These and other statistics made it strikingly evident that, to avoid a national
land use crisis and to advance a design calculated to meet, without dictating,
national goals, values, and requirements, we must enact legislation to assist
State and local governments to improve their land use planning and management cap-
ability. . . .
Russel Train, Chairman of the Council on Environmental Quality, stated:
It is a matter of urgency that we develop more effective nationwide land use policies and regula-
tions . . . Land use is the single most important element affecting the quality of our environ-
ment which remains substantially unaddressed as a matter of national policy. Land is our most
valuable resource. There will never be any more of it.
Senator Jackson made these remarks in introducing his Land Use Policy and Planning Assistance
Act of 1973 to the Senate, January 9, 1973.
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Not only is land finite, but unlike air, water, and many minerals and materials,
land too often cannot be "recycled." Mountains carved by strip mines, wetlands
dredged and filled, or streams channelized frequently cannot be returned to their
former use or beauty. Land, once committed to a use today, be it social, economic,
or environmental, may be unable to support uses which our children will find pref-
erable in the future. As President Nixon noted in a letter to me—Congressional
Record, September 14, 1972, pages S 14935-6:
As a Nation we have taken our land resources for granted too long. We have allowed ill-planned or un-
wise development practices to destroy the beauty and productivity of our American earth . . . The
country needs this (legislation) urgently.
Future land use decisionmaking, however, should serve more than environmental
values alone. It should not be viewed as mission-oriented either in the narrow
sense of fostering a specific set of functional activities or in the larger sense
of pursuing exclusively a specific goal, be it protecting the environment, improv-
ing social services, or increasing economic benefits. Rather, it must balance
competing environmental, economic, and social requirements and values to avoid
the costly mistakes of both thoughtless, precipitate development and unwarranted,
dilatory opposition to beneficial development.
Many of the most crucial problems and conflicts facing all levels of government in
the areas of protection of environmental quality, siting of energy facilities and
industrial plants, design of transportation systems, provision of recreational op-
portunities, and development of natural resources are the direct result of past
failures to anticipate public requirements for land and to plan for its use. The
economic loss, the delays, the resource misallocations, and the social and environ-
mental costs which this failure to plan has cost the Nation are in large measure
unnecessary expenses which could have been avoided had appropriate planning been
undertaken earlier. The adoption of the Land Use Policy and Planning Assistance
Act of 1973 and a good faith effort by the States to exercise responsibility for
the planning and management of land use activities which are of more than local
concern will greatly reduce needless conflicts, will avoid misallocations of scarce
resources, will save public and private funds, will insure that public facilities
and utilities—powerplants, highways, airports, and recreational areas—are avail-
able when needed, and will improve State-Federal relations in all areas of mutual
concern. . . .
The central purpose of the proposal is to provide Federal technical and financial
assistance to the States to encourage them to exercise States' rights and improve
their knowledge, institutions, procedures and methods for land use planning and
management. The measure also provides important new authority designed to improve
coordination between the planning efforts of the Federal Government and Sta,te
governments.
The grant-in-aid program to the States was reduced by amendment on the floor from
$800 million over 8 years to $170 million over 5 years. The grant funds cover up
to 66-2/3 percent of the cost of developing the State land use programs for the
first 2 years and 50 percent of the cost thereafter—reduced from 90 percent for
5 years and 66-2/3 percent thereafter by amendment.
The State is required to develop a statewide planning process within 3 years. The
process must include a data and information base, adequate funding, competent
staff, and an appropriate agency to coordinate planning at the State level.
The State is then required to develop, within 5 years of enactment, a land use
program which focuses on four categories of critical areas and uses of more than
local concern. These areas and uses are considered to be of State interest be-
cause decisions concerning them have impacts on citizens, the environment, and
the economy totally out of proportion to the jurisdiction and the interests of the
local zoning body or land use regulatory entity. These four categories of areas
and uses of more than local concern are: first, areas of critical environmental
concern—for example, beaches, flood plains, wetlands, historic areas; second,
key facilities—for example, major airports, highway interchanges and frontage
access highways, recreational lands and facilities, and facilities for the devel-
opment, generation and transmission of energy; third, development and land use
of regional benefit; and fourth, large-scale development—for example, major
subdivisions or industrial parks.
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I wish to make clear that the act does not contemplate sweeping changes in the
traditional responsibility of local government for land use management. Decisions
of local concern will continue to be made by local government. However, for land
use decisions which would have significant impacts beyond the jurisdiction of the
local public or private decisionmakers, the act provides for wider public partici-
pation and review by the States, as representative of the large constituency af-
fected by those decisions.
The procedure for, and the nature of, State involvement in land use decisions are
left largely to the determination of the individual States. Two alternative but
not mutually exclusive techniques of implementation of State land use programs
are given: local implementation pursuant to State guidelines and direct State
planning. However, the act contains language endorsed by the League of Cities-
Conference of Mayors which expresses a preference for the former alternative.
The more innovative State land use laws of recent years support this local govern-
ments-State Government partnership. The authority of local governments—the level
of Government closest to the people—to conduct land use planning and management
is in fact bolstered in the great majority of laws of some 40 States concerning
areas and uses of more than local concern—wetlands, coastal zone, flood plain,
powerplant siting, open space, and strip mining laws. The localities are encour-
aged to employ fully their land use controls. State administration review is pro-
vided only in accordance with flexible State guidelines relating only to those
decisions on areas and uses that are clearly of more than local concern. And even
should disapproval of a local government action result from such a review, State
preemption of the decisionmaking authority would not necessarily occur; rather, in
most cases, the local government would be provided full opportunity to take any
of numerous actions which would comply with the State's guidelines.
The proposal would not preclude direct State implementation through State land use
planning and regulation. Hawaii and Vermont have already enacted legislation
which in part calls for such direct State implementation. Other States are direct-
ly engaged in land use planning for unincorporated areas. However, embodied in
the measure is the expectation that direct State implementation, preempting local
land use planning controls, will continue to be the exception rather than become
the rule and that joint local-State government land use decisionmaking and imple-
mentation will prevail.
Another point which should be emphasized is that the Federal review of State land
use programs is to focus not on the substance of each program, but on whether each
State has authority to develop and implement its program and whether it is making
good faith efforts to do so. This is in keeping with the proposal's purpose to
encourage better and effective land use decisionmaking at the State and local
levels, and not to provide substantial new land use decisionmaking authority on
the Federal level.
Guidelines for the act are to be promulgated through an interagency process with
the principal responsibility of formulating those guidelines residing in the Exec-
utive Office of the President. As the proposal provides for a grant-in-aid
program of major dimensions which requires administration by line agency personnel,
daily administrative responsibility is given to the Department of the Interior.
To insure the absence of the mission-oriented bias of any existing office or
bureau in the administration of the proposal, the proposal creates a new Office of
Land Use Policy Administration within the Department, separate from any such of-
fice or bureau.
Certainly, the land use impacts of Federal and federally assisted programs exert
the most profound influences upon local, State, and National land use patterns.
Yet these programs either have conflicting land use implications or the Federal
officials administering them are not fully cognizant of their land use impact. My
proposal requires the Federal Government to "put its own house in order" at the
same time that it asks the States to do likewise. The Secretary of the Interior is
directed to consult with heads of other agencies and to form a national advisory
board on land use policy to provide interagency communication concerning the land
use impacts of and policies embodied in Federal and federally assisted programs.
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The act also encourages coordinated planning and management of Federal lands and
adjacent non-Federal lands. Both the Federal Government and the State and local
governments are required to provide for compatible land uses on adjoining lands
under their respective jurisdictions. In addition, short-term ad hoc joint Fede-
ral-State committees, composed of representatives of affected Federal agencies,
State agencies, local governments, and user groups, may be established by the
Secretary of the Interior to study general or specific conflicts between uses of
Federal lands and uses of adjacent non-Federal lands. The Secretary is directed
to resolve such conflicts or, where he lacks the requisite authority, to recom-
mend legislative solutions to Congress.
Finally, what is this measure's relationship to other land use legislation which
may be introduced this Congress? Approximately 200 land-use policy bills were re-
ferred to 13 committees in the 92d Congress. The most important of these measures
were: the public lands, the surface mining, the powerplant siting, and the coastal
zone management proposals. Virtually all of these bills focused on individual
uses or areas of critical concern and more than local significance, and encouraged
the States to assume a degree of control over them. In addition, the Congress is
giving increasing attention to national growth policy, in general, and various as-
pects of growth policy such as rural revitalization. In relation to the myriad of
land use and growth policy considerations and legislative proposals which Congress
may consider, the Land Use Policy and Planning Assistance Act is expected to serve
as an umbrella measure or an "enabling act" which would encourage the States to
develop the financial, institutional, and human resources, and require of the
States legislation to establish the necessary machinery and procedures to insure
that, first, the States will be receptive to any of those considerations or pro-
posals which become law, and second, the many planning tasks which such laws will
require will be conducted effectively and not in isolation one from another.
Mr. President, the chaotic land use decisionmaking of today will insure an unsight-
ly, unproductive, and unrewarding land resource for future generations of Americans,
To avoid this unfortunate tomorrow, we must improve our land use policy, proce-
dures and institutions. I commend the Land Use Policy and Planning Assistance
Act of 1973 to the Senate as the best vehicle to achieve this improvement.
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A National Land Use Policy:
Toward a New Land Ethic
Roger P. Hansen
"We abuse land because we regard it as a commodity
belonging to us. When we see land as a community
to which we belong, we may begin to use it with
love and respect."
Aldo Leopold
A Sand County Almanac
Introduction
Ecologically1 irresponsible land use practice arising from generally ineffective
land use control—aside from the "growth ethic"—is the basic environmental prob-
lem facing America. Land use patterns are the generators, the root causes, of
the environmental degradation symptoms of polluted air, polluted waters, and
other problems to which we have given infinitely more attention.
Vast areas of the American landscape, including sparsely populated and seemingly
environmentally virgin areas of the West and Alaska, are under a state of siege
from an army of diverse forces. Triggering factors cannot be overstated: rapidity
of change, absence of adequate laws and institutions, a general apathy and una-
wareness on the part of the public, and accelerating population mobility. The
Frontier Ethic—that every man has a right to use his own property as he pleases
—still pervades the American Dream.
The basic land use problem might be stated briefly in this manner: Tremendous and
unprecedented pressures, originating from a variety of sources, are producing through careless-
ness, lack of planning, and lack of awareness, manmade environments and physical changes which
are neither sensitive to nor integrated with the delicate character and carrying capacity of
the varying ecosystems of the American landscape. Bather than designing with nature, man
obliterates it.
While we have been structuring elaborate institutional arrangements and legal
devices to deal with what most people think are THE environmental problems—air
quality and water quality—the deterioration of the American landscape continues
relatively unchecked: rivers of neon; forests of billboards; tentacles of road-
side strip development; acres of sprawling, tasteless subdivisions; strip mines
gutting the valleys and scarring the mountainsides. In the state of Colorado,
2 million acres split into tiny lots have in the last two years been put on the
television markets of Chicago, Akron, and Los Angeles.
Land use is the most difficult of all environmental problems even to approach,
let alone solve. It is guarded by the great, bawling, sacred cow called "private
property"; land use planning is an inflammatory phrase in many parts of the country,
and land use controls are still considered by many to be some sort of communist
plot. Pure air and clean water are becoming recognized as common community property,
The above is extracted from a paper originally prepared for the National Oil and Gas Institute of
the Southwestern Legal Foundation, Dallas, Texas, February 7, 1973.
!The term "ecology" or "ecological" as used in this paper refers solely to the scientific study of
the interrelationships between organisms (including man), their environment and each other; a
branch of biological science. It is nowhere to be construed as a synonym for environment, con-
servation, aesthetics, or anti-pollution efforts.
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subject to regulation, while land use control is held by many to run counter to
the "free enterprise system." Many lawyers still challenge the constitutionality
of zoning and subdivision regulations although it has been almost 47 years since
the U.S. Supreme Court decided Euclid v. Ambler Realty!2
Blackstone wrote: "Regard for the law for private property is so great. . . that
it will not authorize the least violation of it, not even for the general good of
the whole community." And in England in the 18th century, the Elder Pitt said
that "the poorest man in his cottage could defy the King." All that has changed
radically, by the cases and by legislative enactments, local, state, and federal.
The King has more than entered the cottage; he has taken a lease and has set up
permanent housekeeping.
The Conventional Legal Wisdom
Many lawyers forget something they were supposed to have learned in law school:
that the law is a sword as well as a shield. The law is being rigged as a shield
against effective land use control with increasing frequency. For example, the
apparent abandonment of police power regulation of signs and billboards in favor
of compensation arrangements the public cannot possibly afford is a giant step
backwards in legal doctrine.
The conventional legal wisdom dares not venture beyond time-worn traditional devices
for land use control.3 Land use planning under traditional legal devices has re-
volved around the "master plan" and the "official map."1* Judicial controls have
largely been confined to the doctrines of waste and nuisance which concentrate on
extreme or unusually obnoxious or offensive land use interferences but are inef-
fective to protect aesthetics, wildlife, scenic views, and other more esoteric uses.
Legislative land use controls, with certain protections for the billboard lobby,
still rest largely on the police power of the state to protect the public welfare,
health, and safety. No compensation need be paid to those regulated so long as
the regulation is "reasonable" in meeting the desired ends. Zoning, subdivision
regulations, and building codes are prime examples.5
tillage of Euclid V. Ambler Realty Company 272 U.S. 365, 71 L ed. 303 (1926).
'Between private parties, these are: unrestricted transfer of fee simple title; title transfer in
trust; creation of an easement; transfer of a leasehold interest; transfer subject to conditions
and limitations; and restrictive or protective convenants under contract theory.
''Master Plan(Comprehensive Plan): a broad survey, a comprehensive look at an area, long range; usu-
ally contains: (1) Research and Survey—e.g., physical setting and history, present land use, exist-
ing roads and utilities, economic base study and forecast; (2) Plans for Improvement—e.g., economic
development program, future land use, circulation plan, community facilities plan, background for re-
newal; and (3) Plan for Action—e.g., capital improvement and financing program, zoning regulations,
subdivision regulations; Strength: can give a whole area a sense of direction and purpose: Weakness:
easy to put on the shelf and forget. Official Map: device used to fix building lines, plat future as
well as existing streets; subdividers must conform to the layout; Strength-more detailed than master
plan but still gives direction to future development; city knows where to put utilities; Weakness:
many municipalities that have one ignore it.
5Zoning: device whereby land is mapped into areas or "zones" where only a specified use, or lesser-
included uses, is allowed (e.g., single family residences, light industrial). Strength: clusters
uses so as to promote orderly and controlled development without unnecessarily interfering with
other uses. Weakness: has become a political device, agency responsible may grant rezonings or exces-
sive variances (exceptions to the mapped zones). Subdivision Regulation: device that requires one
to get the approval of a government agency when he is going to divide his land into lots for sale;
the community requires this approval because they want to assure permanence of development, future
services, accurate records, safety, health and fiscal consideration; the home buyer and mortgage
lender want to protect their investment; the subdivider himself gets protection from excessive plat-
ting of lots and the fly-by-night operator. Strength: as mentioned above. Weakness: soft require-
ments, poor enforcement by the approving agency. Building Codes: device used to insure that proper
materials and procedures are used in construction so as to safeguard community health and safety.
Strength: widespread acceptance by the public; good results in achieving higher quality construction.
Weakness: enforcement difficult, expensive.
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Traditional administrative land use controls include: agency management perogatives
over the nation's public lands; exercise of the power of eminent domain; regulation
of sanitation by health boards or pollution commissions; and urban renewal author-
ities' power to condemn and develop. It should be noted that although land use is
described in this paper as a generator of most other environmental problems, any
significant jurisdiction of the Environmental Protection Agency over land use is
notably absent.
Lawyers generally occupy the caboose of the land use control train. The old tradi-
tional devices, well-guarded by dusty precedent, are not particularly applicable to
today's land use and urban problems: zoning"s balkanization of the urban ghetto;
tax policies that force a land development spiral; conscienceless fast-buck real
estate artists who drain public and private purses; the paucity of legal ideas for
new towns and imaginative new development approaches; subdivision regulations that
guarantee urban sprawl; and "master planning" procedures that are used primarily
as a device for greater growth and economic development.
A National Land Use Policy
Clearly, land use as a leading environmental issue is at the place where air and
water pollution were three years ago. Land quality acts are now going to quickly
follow air and water quality acts. Congressmen will jockey for positions and head-
lines as the leading "land use" legislators. As with air and water quality legis-
lation, the states will be forced to come up to some federal standard of performance.
Federal funds will be employed as both carrot and stick. Environmentalists, who
have never before been concerned with land use planning, will be going to court on
the theory that some contemplated action will "degrade the quality of the landscape."
A. Current Proposals
Current legislative trends are merely old wine in new bottles. While it is not
particularly efficient to comment specifically, bill by bill, on rapidly evolving
proposals for a Federal land use policy, all of the major proposals—Jackson's,
Aspinall's, and the Administration's—have notable omissions and weaknesses:
* The bills fail to clearly set forth national land use policy objectives;
* The bills fail to enunciate even broad federal guidelines for ecologically sane
land use planning and decision-making;
* No bill recognizes explicitly that there are certain limitations on the right
of private property for the benefit of society and future generations;
* No bill clearly defines federal, state, and local roles in planning and land
use decision-making;
* No bill outlines or even suggests guidelines or ingredients for ecologically
responsible planning methodologies and procedures;
* No bill outlines specific environmental criteria for land use planning and deci-
sion-making;
* All bills are resoundingly silent on the "growth ethic," or the need to limit
as well as enhance growth in certain areas as a matter of national prerogative;
* No bill suggests the variety of land use control devices that might be employed,
let alone require them to be implemented by state or local governments;
* All bills maximize attention to land use planning and minimize attention to land
use controls necessary to implement the plans;
* Out of ignorance apparently, no bill recognizes that neither the Department of
the Interior not any other federal agency has the present capability to implement
a national land use policy, and that such an institutional capability must be
created;
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* all bills concentrate on planning grants, advisory groups, information exchanges,
and technical assistance programs which have little to do with land use decision-
making processes;
* No bill recognizes the necessity of preserving the nation's agricultural produc-
tivity from irretrievable commitments to development; and
* No bill provides any powers or procedures for exercising emergancy measures to
halt land use decisions that will result in irretrievable commitments of irreplace-
able national natural resources.
B. Policy Objectives
Recognizing the deficiencies of current proposals, statement of national land use
policy objectives might read as follows:
1. Coordination—within precise federal guidelines—of federal, state, local,
and private land use decision-making;
2. Protection of the national interest in ecologically sound land use planning and
decision-making;
3. Establishment of a land use decision-making system that is consistent with the
ecological carrying capacity of the land;
4. Protection of the biophysical environment from continuing degradation and
provision of every opportunity for environmental quality enhancement;
5. Immediate protection of significant ecological, cultural, wildlife, historic,
scenic, and open space resources threetened with irretrievable loss or damage;
6. Protection of human, animal, and plant life, and property, from significant
environmental hazard;
7. Avoidance or mitigation of air, water, noise, radiation, solid waste, pesti-
cides, and other environmental pollutants;
8. Provision for every American of a healthful environment with aesthetically
pleasing surroundings;
9. Provision of a comprehensive, integrated national system of open space, in-
cluding both developed and undeveloped lands; and
10. Establishment of criteria and a workable program for redistribution of human
population, based on the carrying capacity of the land.
The objectives and policies expressed in the National Environmental Policy Act are
of course considered to be incorporated in any statement of land use policy objec-
tives.
C. Guidelines for Implementation of Objectives
Guidelines for some reason are frequently confused with "standards" and each are
further confused with "criteria." The following suggested guidelines are not
criteria and they are far from being standards. Rather, they serve merely as a
checklist of actions that should be taken if the above national land use policy
objectives are to be implemented.
1. Planning by natural ecosystem units, including river basins, as well as by
geographical or political subdivision boundaries;
2. Preparation of state, regional, and national inventories of environmental
resources;
3. Establishment of Regional Land Use Coordination offices (perhaps by river basin);
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4. Development of reliable information systems for all ecological, economic, and
land use information;
5. Requirement for establishment of an interdisciplinary staff for all federal
and any federally assisted state planning program, including at least the following
disciplines: regional planning, architecture, landscape architecture, plant ecology,
animal ecology, fisheries biology, sociology, economics, and law. (The intent of
the NEPA with regard to interdisciplinary studies is not being fulfilled.);
6. Development of an ecologically valid land use classification system based on
the carrying capacity of the land for certain uses (agriculture, urbanization,
transportation corridor, industrial facility, etc.);
7. Utilization and creation of a wide variety of private and public land use
control devices: zoning, subdivision regulations, scenic easements, eminent domain,
taxing policy, leasehold arrangements, purchase of less than fee, etc. Encourage
flexibility;
8. Structuring of new and more responsive devices for public participation in the
land use decision-making process;
9. Creation, integrating existing techniques, of a new "land use planning technology"
of regionally compatible planning methodologies and procedures (e.g., environmental
resource inventory, land use classification, carrying capacity determination, etc.);
and
10. Development of procedures to integrate land use planning with land use deci-
sion-making; land use planning and land use decisions are frequently unrelated.
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Statement before the Senate Committee
on Interior and Insular Affairs
Russell E. Train
Mr. Chairman, and members of the Committee, I welcome the opportunity to testify in
support of the President's proposal for a national land use policy. In my view, it
is a matter of urgency that we develop more effective nationwide land use policies
and regulations. Land use is the single most important element affecting the qual-
ity of our environment which remains substantially unaddressed as a matter of na-
tional policy. Land is our most valuable resource. There will never be any more
of it. Rapidly rising human numbers and expectations place rapidly rising pres-
sures on the land. It is imperative that we act now to adopt a national land use
policy which will both protect our heritage of irreplaceable land values and provide
guidance for future development and growth.
Before discussing the legislative proposals before us, it might be useful first to
examine land use policy in historical perspective, for while we often speak of'the
need for better land use planning, at the heart of the present dilemma is our regu-
latory system and it is in this area where the President's legislation would have
most immediate impact.
Modern American land use regulation began in New York City in 1916 when Fifth Avenue
merchants became alarmed at the pace of encroaching industrial development on the
downtown shopping area. As orginally conceived, zoning was a radical departure from
traditional notions about private property use, which previously had been circum-
scribed by little more than the law of nuisance. Ours was a society struggling for
order in the midst of dynamic growth, which quickly recognized the need to segregate
activities according to compatible uses in order to protect certain established
patterns of neighborhood organization.
By 1922, the reformers had won over the Federal government and Herbert Hoover's De-
partment of Commerce issued a Standard Zoning Enabling Act to guide the States in
adopting laws to encourage zoning. States responded quickly by enacting laws on the
order of that proposed by the Commerce Department, which authorized municipalities,
counties and other local governments to classify and control land uses according to
a comprehensive plan. The overriding concern of these laws was to make possible
local regulation with virtually no State oversight. The constitutionality of the
new technique was tested and upheld in 1926 by the U.S. Supreme Court in the histor-
ic case of Village of Euelid v. Ambler Realty Co., 272 U.S. 365.
During the ensuing forty years the techniques of land use planning and regulation
have become more sophisticated4 The original system of strict classification and
segregation of use has been refined in many areas to permit "floating zones" and
some forms of planned unit development which permit mixed uses and variable densi-
ties. The static land use plan with colored areas indicating which activities are
permitted where has tended to yield to more flexible porcedures which give planning
authorities discretion to permit variable uses, densities and designs subject to
site plan reviews, performance standards and satisfaction of stated community objec-
tives .
No plan is ever any better than the regulatory apparatus upon which its implementa-
tion depends. Zoning is nothing more than a tool with which a group of people, gen-
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erally in a small area, determine what land uses are to be allowed. The land use
control or "zoning" process is seldom really based on planning, but rather on what
public officials may think significant at a given moment. Plans, even when they
are prepared by a State with respect to broad areas, cannot work unless States also
control the regulations which give effect to the plans.
However useful new land use control techniques may be, it is impossible to ignore
the evidence of poor land use planning and regulation in the United States. There
is something clearly wrong with a process which indiscriminately slices up land for
development on the urban fringe without regard to its natural characteristics or
needs. A system which encourages the steady destruction of coastal wetlands vital
to the continued existence of waterfowl and marine life must be reformed while
there are still wetlands to save. Land use practices around our metropolitan areas,
which are often designed to exclude multi-family housing, privately sponsored edu-
cational and charitable activities and even some public enterprises such as sanitary
landfills, waste land by obstructing logical patterns of growth, burden those who
must travel longer distances to work, and often help perpetuate unsatisfactory con-
ditions of life in the inner city.
We need no new studies to describe the problems. A number of studies considering
land use from various points of view have concluded that the difficulty of small
units of government to act in concert or to pursue regional objectives is a serious
obstacle in the way of an orderly, equitable allocation of land resources. This
was the explicit conclusion of the Douglas Commission, whose focus was primarily on
the impediments to meeting the demand for housing, and it underlay the conclusions
of the National Estuarine Pollution Study, which was concerned with the conservation
of coastal wetlands. The fragmented localism that characterizes land use regulation
has frustrated both housing goals and conservation objectives.
First, small units of government are inherently limited by the confines of their
jurisdiction. Scenic or important natural areas are rarely viewed by a locality in
terms of their regional importance. Even when one locality acts wisely to fit de-
velopment to the capacity of the land, it may not be able to affect the adjoining
town's land use control practices. The limits of local jurisdiction are simply not
adequate to encompass regional ecological or development systems without some poli-
cy guidance from larger units of governments.
The second reason for the inadequacy of local solutions to regional land use manage-
ment problems derives from the dependency of many local governments upon develop-
ment-related property tax revenues. Whatever may be in the best interests of the
region must confront powerful economic incentives. American cities find it very
difficult to act in concert in planning and controlling land use, partly because
neighboring communities compete economically.
A third reason for the inadequacy of our current approach to land use regulation has
to do with the changing character of the United States. Once it could be said that
if one community allowed one wetland to be filled or one woodland to be developed
there was always another. This is no longer true. The frontier has long since been
closed, but the myth of inexhaustible land resources has survived into an era when
it has become clear that our supply of land, especially of lands we refer to in
S.992 as "areas of critical environmental concern," is finite.
As a consequence of problems largely beyond the control of local governments, the
current locally oriented land use regulatory system is doing very poorly at dealing
with three kinds of issues: protecting lands which serve vital natural or aesthetic
purposes for a regional population; accepting and siting development which the larg-
er area may badly need but which may represent net tax costs or pose social problems;
and controlling growth which is induced on such a scale by certain magnetic develop-
ments that it altogether changes the ground rules of the conventional planning and
zoning game.
The objectives of a national policy for land use must be to reform the institutions
of government in such a way that important conservation areas are protected, vital
developmental needs are accommodated, and major developments and facilities are
controlled.
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In devising its program, the Administration is nevertheless sensitive to the
strengths of our existing approach to land use management. The vast majority of
zoning decisions are indisputably local in nature and they should probably remain
subject to local direction. There is no substitute for local control over local
problems, and the President has clearly shown that he is sensitive to the deeply
felt wish of people everywhere to have closer to home the governmental machinery
that controls their lives. Quite precisely, the Administration's proposal seeks to
avoid disturbing present arrangements over regulating land use decisions which are
essentially local in character by defining and attending to those problems which
are inherently regional and Statewide in impact. Locating the local filling station
is by no means a matter on which we would encourage State involvement.
An effort to broaden State authority is timely, for during the past several years
a number of States have undertaken promising initiatives in land use regulation.
State laws designed to protect coastal wetlands from draining and filling began in
Massachusetts in 1963 and now exist in a number of coastal States. State controls
on large-scale development have been established during the past two years in Maine
and Vermont. Laws to control the development of shorelands are in effect in Wis-
consj.n, Minnesota and a part of California, and similar laws are being considered
by the Washington legislature. Laws to establish special "areas of critical State
or regional concern" have been passed in New Jersey and Colorado and are being con-
sidered in New York. Ohio recently passed a Statewide building code designed to
encourage industrialized housing. New York and Massachusetts have enacted legisla-
tion designed to assure that local regulations accommodate development needed by a
larger region. During the 1960s the number of States with planning offices in-
creased from 39 to 50, and this quantitative increase has coincided with a marked
improvement in the quality of State planning.
The time is ripe to ask more, and reasonably to expect more, of the States. Cer-
tainly some observers are reluctant to see certain functions transferred from munic-
ipal to State control, given the early record of States' treatment of their cities,
blemished by officious intrusions on the one hand, and by neglect on the other.
But this era is largely past. This is not to suggest that local governments should
relax their concern with land use, but that many land use problems are too big for
local governments to handle. These larger problems require the concern of an agen-
cy whose responsibilities are Statewide.
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State Land Use
Environmental
The air nimbly and sweetly recommends itself unto
our gentle senses.
Sbakespear, Macbeth
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Toward a State Land Use Policy:
Harmonizing Development and Conservation
Richard H. Slavin
Every state is currently involved in an environmental crisis. This crisis indi-
cates a need for state government to develop methods to resolve the constant con-
flicts that arise between development processes and the needs for environmental
preservation and resource conservation.
Rapidly increasing populations are escalating demands on space for housing, indus-
try, commerce, transportation, recreation, agriculture, forestry, mining, water,
power and waste disposal. Continuation of present development processes will re-
sult in further deterioration of our land, air and water resources to such a point
that we may be courting major natural disasters jeopardizing human life itself.
Presently, state land-use policy is an aggregate of thousands of unrelated deci-
sions made by single-purpose agencies, local governments and private developers
without regard for each other or regional, state and national concerns.
The goal, therefore, should be to evolve and promote development policies and pro-
grams taking into account both people's and nature's needs for the purpose of mini-
mizing the areas of conflict and discovering and enhancing the areas of harmony.
Environmental Preservation and Resource Conservation Issues
Some natural resources are limited, and once used are no longer available. It is,
therefore, prudent that these be placed under a management system that seeks the
most efficient use of the resource while protecting reserves for the future.
Some resources are renewable if properly managed and, therefore, are considered
permanently available if not overused. We are most familiar with the plants and
animals used for food, fibre, building, medicines and so forth. Of equal impor-
tance because they support the processes that support human life are the smaller
animals, plants and organisms—the mosses, lichens, soil bacteria, insects and
plankton. Management of the renewable species requires the knowledge of and care
for the entire related world of resources.
Natural geological processes generally operate at such a glacial pace that man
tends to ignore them—frequently to his consternation and disadvantage. These are
the erosion of hills and mountains and the building of valley plains and delta
lands, the building of beaches and dunes and wearing away of lands along oceans,
and the uplifting and gradual subsidence of lands. Rapid geological changes are
volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, landslides, floods and tidal waves. Respect for
earthquakes has brought improved structural standards into building codes. Re-
spect for floods and tidal waves has brought special use zones into being. Re-
spect for landslides and severe erosion has brought special hillside development
requirements into being. Lack of sufficient respect for these natural processes,
however, results in enormous losses, some of which are measured quickly when a
landslide kills a family or blocks a highway or a flood wipes out a town. Some
losses are more difficult to measure, such as the loss of beaches due to the
damming of rivers or the damage to a city because of its gradual subsidence.
This article originally appeared in State Government: The Journal of State Affairs, Vol, XLIV,
No. 1, Winter, 1971, pp. 2-11.
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All of these problems are of a collective nature requiring collective action.
However, government typically reacts to situations after the fact. It has not
been able to anticipate and respond to potential problems and gives little Con-
sideration to gradual changes which man is effecting. The crux of the environ-
mental crisis is that it may now be too late to continue a policy of reacting
only. Government should escalate its position in relation to the environment and
natural resources.
Some of the areas demanding continued or new attention are the State's water and
air; its seacoast and tidelands; its rivers; its forests and agricultural lands;
its wetlands, swamps and estuaries; its fisheries; and its mineral extraction
areas.
Public concern has resulted in new legislation dealing with air and water pollu-
tion, but has yet to link up its concern on these subjects to land-use issues.
Urban Development Issues and Problems
Characteristic of the last few decades has been the decline of rural areas, de-
terioration of central city cores and thriving growth of city suburbs in the
Nation. It has been a period of gross social and economic inequity, degrading
poverty, a crisis in race relations, alienation of youth, enormous environmental
pollution, high taxes, high spending, and tremendous industrial and building ac-
tivity.
An in-city migration of the rural poor with an out-city migration of high- and
moderate-income people together with business and industry has resulted in social
polarization; inequity in job, educational and recreational opportunities; and a
phenomenon called the urban crisis. Lack of job and housing opportunities in the
suburbs for the unskilled poor and minorities reinforce the polarization. Land-
use controls, specifically exclusionary zoning, have helped to direct the division
of society into ghettos and moderately well-off suburbs.
Old city residential, commercial and industrial centers deteriorate into slums
and blighted areas far faster than they can be rehabilitated by public or private
institutions. Reliance on the automobile and removal of transportation services
have created hardening of traffic arteries. Population pressures on inadequately
designed sewerage facilities and gaseous wastes pollute streams, lakes, oceans
and the air. In the city fringe areas vegetation is stripped, topsoil is buried,
streams are channeled into culverts, hills are leveled, valleys and marshes are
filled and whole new communities occupy areas which were formerly forested or
farmed. The adverse impact of these phenomena on human and natural life and re-
sources is what we call the environmental crisis.
The urban and environmental crises are part of a general crisis involving the
economic and social conditions and values of the entire society. Efforts to deal
with either part of the crisis inevitably involve the other.
Problems of Urban Growth
The way in which cities have grown of late has been characterized in various ways,
but "leap-frogging" is one of the most descriptive phrases for the sprawling pat-
tern resulting from the private ownership of land and the "bundle of rights"
which goes with that ownership. Many attribute urban sprawl to speculative acti-
vity, but the root cause of urban sprawl is the right to buy and sell land and de-
velop it, for all intents and purposes at will, for lack of other public goals for
development. Local governments, under their present planning and zoning regula-
tions, have been unable to cope with sprawl. So, if more reasonable urban de-
velopment patterns are to be encouraged, it is essential to control the timing
and location of growth.
A brief summary of the problems of urban sprawl follows.
* Premature characterization of an area by the prior development of housing, fac-
tories or commercial development which subsequently make the area unfavorable for
anything but compatible uses. Such characterization is done quite unintentionally
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by those trying to avoid high land prices or restrictive regulations in other areas.
* The high costs or poor quality of public services; costly and wasteful extensions
of or lack of sewer, water, gas and electric services; similar wastful costs of or
inadequate transportation, educational, fire, police and other community services.
* Unregulated growth of poor quality rural subdivisions and trailer courts in
areas where public agencies are not prepared or able to regulate decent subdivision,
housing, building and health codes.
* Waste of land resources in bypassed areas suitable for no economically productive
use, either for housing, industry or farming, nor for public recreation.
* Monotony, lack of community identity and inadequate social and cultural oppor-
tunities.
Problems of Established Communities
The following is a list of major problems facing many established communities. They
appear to stem in large part from lack of sufficient municipal revenues, overcom-
petitiveness in the exercise of local powers, lack of mechanisms for dealing with
problems that do not recognize jurisdiction boundaries (regional problems), and
inability to forecast and act on emerging issues.
1. Deterioration of older residential neighborhoods with subsequent loss of tax
base, loss of purchasing power, social and economic segregation and need for in-
creased health, welfare and safety services.
2. Lack of community facilities such as park and recreation areas where they are
needed and public transportation facilities to serve the needs of the young, aged
and poor.
3. Deterioration of central industrial and commercial districts with resultant
erosion of tax base because of competition from new outlying areas.
4. Exclusionary zoning practices on the part of some communities for the purpose
of social control and protection of property values resulting in forcing the poor
and minorities into older sections.
5. Proliferation of special improvement districts for a multitude of single pur-
poses. These districts operate without coordination, each with its own taxing
power and administrative mechanisms. They are not publicly "visible" or respon-
sive and frequently outlive their original purpose because there is no public
check on their usefulness.
Land Development Practices
The development process has four general phases: programming (planning), design,
construction, and maintenance. From a policy standpoint, the programming phase is
the most important because that is where locational decisions are made. In general,
economics takes precedence in this phase, but political-legal constraints such as
deed restrictions, zoning, building and subdivision codes, and varying taxes have
been effective in directing and timing growth as well. If new objectives could be
agreed upon, and if these could be translated into new policy levels, our old polit-
ical-legal institutions could be improved upon and new ones developed to help both
public and private sectors structure better communities.
Private Sector
The private development sector initiates and carries out the bulk of our urbaniza-
tion in thousands of relatively independent actions. It has an enormous capacity
for discovering opportunities for profitable effort. Its goal is legitimately and
necessarily making profits, but while profits are essential, the profit motive has
provided the basis for a simplistic measurement of values.
In this system, the cost-benefit analysis and the making of money have resulted in
a distortion of values wherein we have allowed profit making to become equated with
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social benefit. As a result, there are great efforts being made to translate social
costs and benefits into dollar terms to help measure the real impact of alternative
developments.
The hue and cry for social considerations comes from one sector, while others call
for increased concern for aesthetics, others call for increased concern for natural
factors, and others point out the need to be concerned with economic, political and
legal factors. Arising from the need for comprehensive understanding of all issues,
it has become obvious to many development companies, industries, and government
agencies that an "interdisciplinary approach" should be used in solving complex
problems.
The "interdisciplinary approach" brings to bear on the planning and design of a
project—whether it be an industry, freeway or community—the knowledge and skills
necessary to assure that the planned results meet the cross section of needs of its
time, place and purpose. Almost any project has both local and regional impact and
should be inspected from these aspects. Once considered the exclusive bailiwick of
the engineer, the urban freeway now also employs in its planning and design: plan-
ners, sociologists, economists, architects and landscape architects. A community
development plan can employ planners, lawyers, sociologists, foresters, zoologists,
geologists, hydrologists and economists in addition to experts in architectural and
landscape design and a host of engineering specialists, to name but a few.
This approach to planning is becoming "standard" with state highway commissions,
advanced land developers, large industries and federal agencies. It is the only
way to insure that all important phases of a problem will receive the attention they
deserve and that the final solution will be affected by consideration of them.
The general factors requiring attention in any project of major importance can be
briefly listed.
1. Social-cultural
2. Political-legal
3. Economic—that is, the economic feasibility of the development itself as well
as the public costs and benefits
4. Natural—air, water, land, fish and wildlife
5. Physical—man-made factors such as existing structures, systems and services
6. Aesthetic—mass,form, color and texture.
Each of these factors has within it sub-factors generally known only to experts in
their fields. It is almost impossible for one administrator to know which consid-
erations should be studied in depth because of their importance to the project and
which can be set aside as relatively unrelated. This is why it is so important to
get a broad perspective of all facets at the beginning of planning. A legislative
mandate requiring an interdisciplinary approach to urban development and review
processes would go far toward changing the face of urban environments.
Public Sector
Federal, state and local agencies, as well as the private sector, initiate and fi-
nance enormous amounts of construction. The public sector plays two roles, that
of developer and that of controller of private development.
In the role of developer, all public agencies should be subject to the same disci-
plinary methods as the private sector. In fact, they should play leading roles
that the private sector would emulate. The National Environmental Policy Act of
1969 requires that federal agencies "utilize a systematic, interdisciplinary ap-
proach ."
State governments should do no less; but they, as well as the federal and local
levels, also have other opportunities. One< of these is to use investment programs
to guide better development. The State, for instance, is involved in an investment
program including state highways and transportation, urban arterials, public schools,
colleges and universities, sewer lines and treatment plants, state parks and rec-
reation lands, local facilities and open space, institutions, land reclamation, air-
port subsidy, trust lands, bridges and ferries, and nuclear siting.
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Obviously all of these expenditures have land-use implications, but rarely, if ever,
are these programs administered with concern for coordinated land use as such. The
State should develop an urbanization policy as a good business practice so that
state investments are used to assist in directing more orderly development, rather
than following the uncoordinated development we now have.
By the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution, States have authority for management of
state and private lands within their territory. However, they have distributed
much of this responsibility to city and county governments in the form of powers
for planning and zoning so that land-use decisions are made in the localities af-
fected by them.
In the last few decades a very large gap has appeared in this land-use control
mechanism with respect to multijurisdictional issues that do not coincide with city
and county boundaries. Decisions of small communities adversely affect the envi-
ronment, economies and social conditions of entire regions and no way has been
found to deal with them effectively. The solution to this problem requires that
the State realign its development planning and control mechanisms and those of city
and county governments. This realignment appears to require the State to increase
its policy-making role and provide higher standards for public agencies' performance.
Areas of Critical Concern
State government should take the responsibility for identifying areas of critical
concern and monitoring land uses within them.
Specifically, the State should develop:
* An overall land-use policy and plan for environmental preservation and resource
conservation including the living natural systems and state-owned lands, uplands,
forests, watersheds, shorelands, arid lands, agricultural lands, geologically or
otherwise unique areas, water-use and development, air quality and mineral develop-
ment.
* An urbanization policy and plan covering areas of state investment and grants-in-
aid.
* Performance standards and guidelines for local government of delegated responsi-
bilities for land-use planning and control.
* A method for coordination and review of local plans and development legislation
to insure that they relate to state and regional goals.
Planning, Design and Review
In the land and water areas of critical concern, land-use guidelines covering de-
velopment principles should be developed by the State. These should be administered
by the local government having jurisdiction over the particular area of concern
under methods to be designated by the State. In order to surmount the inflexibility
of present zoning techniques, it is proposed that land developers, local regulatory
agencies and state government be involved in a comprehensive planning, design and
review system. The interdisciplinary approach previously discussed should be made
a mandatory part of the system at both planning and review phases.
Once areas of critical concern are identified by the State, these concerns and land-
use guidelines would be forwarded to local governments. Counties and cities of jur-
isdiction would prepare plans and regulations within a set time period. These would
be reviewed, approved or rejected by the State as dictated by state objectives.
Once plans and regulations are approved, local government would administer all land
uses, except extraordinary ones. Extraordinary land-use proposals would have to
receive both local government and state approval since they would not be covered by
the original plan.
In the case of state projects it is recommended that local government act in areas
of critical concern in an advisory capacity to the State.
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Technical assistance and financial support to local governments should be a part of
the new planning, design and review process in order to assist in the extra-adminis-
trative operations required as well as in various other ways that may be necessary
to make the new control mechanisms more effective,
A State Policy
State land use policy might be defined in the following terms:
1. The social and economic well-being of the people of the State is closely related
to the condition of the environment and to resource management. It is therefore
urgent, in the face of rapidly increasing demands on the environment, that the State
develop a land use policy for protection of the environment and conservation of its
resources, and develop an urbanization policy related to it.
2. The people of the State have a fundamental interest in the orderly development of
the entire State consistent with the protection and enhancement of its natural land,
air and water resources. Therefore, there should be a legislative declaration of
state environmental policy modeled after the National Environmental Policy Act of
1969. Such policy should require state and state-chartered agencies to conform to
the standards established to effectively, with proper monitoring, head all agencies
in the same direction and to unify federal and state policy.
3. Although state government has constitutional authority and responsibility to
manage its land resources, it should be its policy to depend upon local government
and private landowners to exercise state objectives toward preservation and conserva-
tion of land resources insofar as is possible, and the State should assist local
government and private landowners in the pursuit of these objectives.
4. Each level of government should be responsible for those areas under its juris-
diction which are primarily the concern of its own citizens. In areas of concern
to citizens of multi-city or multi-county jurisdictions, or the State at large, the
State should take the primary responsibility unless the cities and counties do so
under joint powers agreements. In order for there to be a consistent policy and
direction, the State should provide guidance, authority where needed, and financial
assistance to help overcome local deficiencies and disparities.
5. At the earliest possible moment, state, county and city governments should
identify areas to be preserved and take positive actions toward preserving them
in accordance with local objectives and state policy.
6. The actions of all agencies, in order to be consistent with these objectives,
should be subject to statewide review and coordinating procedures.
7. It should be the policy of state government to take direct remedial action when
local government and private landowners are powerless or reluctant to act in behalf of
objectives.
8. State and local tax policies should be designed to support these environmental
protection and resource conservation objectives.
Legislative Alternatives
The following alternatives demonstrate directions that might be taken. The first
alternative is little more than doing as we always have. The last three alterna-
tives propose to insert state or regional policy-making into land use decision
processes more than in the past, but in varying degrees. All alternatives depend
upon local government taking increased land use planning and control responsibil-
ities and all alternatives could be modified to contain certain elements of the others.
Alternate I: Information and Individual Issues
This alternate presents the possibility of continuing to act on one issue at a time
in a relatively unrelated way.
There is no doubt that there are many important issues competing for legislative
action. All those listed will meet some requirement and, even if more comprehen-
sive legislation is adopted, some would still be desirable for their stated purposes.
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--An extensive inventory and research program into the actual extent and scope of en-
vironmental deterioration and future needs should be undertaken. This would draw
attention on areas not now known and would lead to solutions based upon more know-
ledge than now exists. However, it would be prudent to combine this level of research
with an action program so that it does not go to waste.
--There appears to be a need for better special district and local agency formation
control and review of need for continued existence.
—A number of beneficial improvements should be made to assist local government in
exercising its present zoning ordinances, such as (a) compensable regulations, (b)
a provision that local governments could enter into development contracts with pri-
vate owners in "planned development zones," and (c) a provision permitting local
government to charge for up-zoning (English method).
—Mandatory dedication of park, open space and school sites or the payment of in-
lieu fees to help resolve local agencies' fiscal needs should be required.
—Provision should be made for use of the "official map" technique for open space
and other public facilities space acquisitions.
—A requirement should stipulate that local governments include conservations and
open space elements in their general plans.
—Provision should be made for a state or regional development agency to buy, plan
and sell land to developers so as to control the location, timing and development
of it.
—A significant emergency rotating fund should be established to buy already im-
pacted areas and otherwise assist local government in exercising land-use controls
through compensable regulations.
—Adjustment of tax programs should be undertaken to provide more equity among lo-
cal agencies.
Alternate II: State or Regional Review
Place new responsibilities for land-use planning and control on local governments together with a
new state \.or regional} review lor approval] system.
As can be seen by the above use of brackets this proposal contains some interior
alternatives of its own.
The State (or the State together with regional agencies that might be established
in the same legislation) should establish state and regional objectives, policies,
priorities and guidelines for local governments' use in preparing conservation and
development plans which would be new mandatory elements of their general plans.
They would be given a deadline for completing these plans. If they could not or
chose not to prepare the plans for themselves, the state or regional agency could
be authorized to prepare the plans for them.
The plans prepared by the local agencies would then be submitted to the state or re-
gional planning agency for review and approval, request for modification, or rejec-
tion if unsuitable. Two alternative courses lie open at this point.
Alternate A. It would be possible to give the regional or the state agency only an
advisory and persuasive role in which case the state or regional agency could only
recommend to local governments. This power to recommend could have considerable
influence, particularly if the regional or state agency is required to evaluate
and make recommendations to federal and state agencies being petitioned for aid
funds.
Alternate B. The state or regional agency could be given very strong powers for re-
view and approval of plans and implementation programs. In this case, in the ab-
sence of an approved plan, the local agency would not be eligible for state or fed-
eral grant funds or loans related to the elements of the conservation and develop-
ment plan.
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Implementation of the plan in either of the above cases would be entirely in the
hands of the local agency. However, deviations from its requirements would be by
special permit only. Special permits would have to receive the approval of the
local and review agencies where the state or regional agency had been given strong
review powers.
Alternate III: State Guidelines
Require the State to establish areas of critical concern together with guidelines for land uses
within them. Local government to plan and administer land uses in areas of critical concern but
plans to be subject to a state review system before becoming effective.
In this case the State would prepare plans and policies showing areas of critical
concern (dealt with in more detail elsewhere). The reasons for, and guidelines
governing the kinds of land uses permitted in, the various areas of critical con-
cern would be forwarded to the local government. Plans and development regulations
would be prepared by the local government having jurisdiction. The plans and regu-
lations would then be forwarded to the State for approval or modification. Once
they were approved, local governments would administer land uses in the areas of
critical concern in compliance with the regulations applying to them. Any unusual
developments not covered by the plans would be treated as special permits and would
require the State's approval. All applications including those of special districts
for development within the areas of critical concern would be processed by the lo-
cal government having territorial jurisdiction. No development permits would be
issued until the state review body approval was received by the local government and
no state agency could take any action within the area of critical concern unless the
state review body approval was given.
It is recommended that the state review body consist of the Governor and prinqipal
agency administrators. The Governor, with agency support, would define the areas of
critical concern and guidelines.
Alternate IV: State Land-Use Commission
A proposal to establish a State Land-Use Commission which would designate settlement, conservation
and agricultural districts.
This alternative is to establish a Land-Use Commission much along the lines of that
established by Hawaii about ten years ago. Because the Hawaii system would have
certain shortcomings in some States with a much more complicated system of govern-
ment, certain differences can be recommended. Basically these would be (1) to es-
tablish a state land development and settlement policy as a basis for planning and
districting, (2) to provide for a different number of districts than the four in
the State of Hawaii, (3) to simplify the administrative procedures, and (4) to pro-
vide for yearly review.
This is a statewide zoning system based upon a state "plan" which would be updated
yearly in accordance with a review and with policy changes that may be enunciated
by the Governor. The State Land-Use Commission would develop regulations governing
land uses within the conservation and agriculture districts. Local government
would retain its land-use regulatory powers within the settlement districts and
would administer land uses within the conservation and agriculture districts on a
special permit basis subject to State Land-Use Commission approval. (This is dif-
ferent from Hawaii where the State Department of Land and Natural Resources regu-
lates land uses within the Conservation District.)
The Hawaii system has acted as a restraint on leapfrogging and scatteration and thus
has provided protection to its important agricultural districts and natural and
scenic resources.
This is an excellent state land-use control mechanism. It has an advantage in hav-
ing been successfully tested. Although in Hawaii it has certain built-in problems
that are difficult to change, it can be observed in operation and improved upon for
other States' applications. The review processes, regional planning and other con-
cepts herein discussed under separate sections could all be included in a comprehen-
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sive Land-Use Law along these lines.
There is also the possibility of avoiding the lay commission aspect by having the
Governor and principal department heads act instead.
Summary
Almost constant conflict exists between urban development and conservation prin-
ciples. The profit goals of private enterprise and the requirements for economy
placed on public agencies have caused developments of all kinds to take an un-
necessarily contradictory position toward environmental preservation and enhance-
ment .
Municipal and county governments make land-use decisions adversely affecting areas
far beyond their borders because no other mechanisms exist for making these de-
cisions. They also find themselves unable to be fully objective because, under
the present tax laws/ revenues from property taxes accruing from development are
essential to their fiscal well-being.
The use of land as a relatively unregulated commodity, the desires of owners to
realize maximum economic benefit from its sale, use or development, and the eco-
nomic penalties if they do not, generate intense demands on land resources. The
dilemmas caused by these problems and the lack of mechanisms for adequately deal-
ing with them have resulted in serious environmental deterioration with prospects
for continuation if remedies are not forthcoming.
Because cities and counties receive their authority from state government, studies
conducted throughout the Nation are calling for States to develop urbanization
policies giving priority to conservation, social and aesthetic requirements. Pub-
lic reaction to air and water pollution has resulted in legislative action to
correct those problems. The next targets are the problems connected with environ-
mental deterioration related to uncoordinated, ill-conceived, poorly planned and
wasteful land-use practices.
While more equitable public financing methods will go far toward mollifying the
problems of established communities, and while a change in public attitudes to-
ward land ownership may make land-use controls easier to accommodate, most urban
developments fail because they are shortsightedly measured only in economic terms.
They are, therefore, incapable of fulfilling social, aesthetic and natural needs
no matter what reforms might be made in the tax and landownership patterns.
For these reasons, a comprehensive, inter-disciplinary approach to planning, de-
sign and review of developments should be required of all public and private
builders. This approach is already gaining favor among the private sector, has
been used successfully many times by public agencies, and is required of all
federal agencies under the Environmental Policy Act of 1969. Such an approach by
the State Legislature would make it mandatory to consider social, legal, economic,
natural and aesthetic factors in the planning and review of public works and de-
velopments .
State government's goal, therefore, should be to develop urbanization policies
and programs that take into account both people's and nature's needs for the pur-
pose of minimizing the areas of conflict and discovering and enhancing the areas
of harmony.
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Toward a State Land Use Policy,
The Maine Experience
Philip M. Savage
The State of Maine, at least in the area of state level land use legislation, is
one of the leading states in the "Quiet Revolution in Land Use Control." This Rev-
olution includes three major pieces of legislation passed and expanded during a two
year period, 1970 and 1971.
First is the Site Selection Bill passed by the Special Session of the 104th Maine
Legislature early in 1970 and amended in 1971. The Site Selection Bill now requires
a license for any commercial, residential or industrial development which occupies
a land area in excess of 20 acres, or which contemplates drilling for or excavating
natural resources, or which occupies on a single parcel a structure or structures
in excess of a ground area of 60,000 square feet.
The Act is administered by the state's new Department of Environmental Protection
which applies the following four criteria to any proposal covered under this Act:
1. Financial capacity. The proposed development has the financial capacity and
technical ability to meet state air and water pollution control standards, has made
adequate provision for solid waste disposal, the control of offensive odors, and
the securing and maintenance of sufficient and healthful water supplies.
2. Traffic movement. The proposed development has made adequate provision for
loading, parking and traffic movement from the development area onto public roads.
3. No adverse affect on natural environment. The proposed development has made
adequate provision for fitting itself harmoniously into the existing natural envi-
ronment and will not adversely affect existing uses, scenic character, natural re-
sources or property values in the municipality or in adjoining municipalities.
4. Soil types. The proposed development will be built on soil types which are
suitable to the nature of the undertaking.
Two Acts passed in June 1971 are a bill providing for State Level Land Use Controls-
the Mandatory Zoning and Subdivision Control for Shoreland Areas, and an Act extend-
ing the jurisdiction of the Maine Land Use Regulation Commission.
The Act revising the Maine Land Use Regulation Commission extends planning, zoning
and subdivision controls to all unorganized and deorganized areas of the state
except Indian Reservations. The total area under jurisdiction of this Commission is
51% of the state's land area. The seven-man commission, of which I am secretary as
State Planning Director, will classify lands into protection, management, develop-
ment and holding districts.
We are now in the process of setting standards for determining the districts; we also
may subdivide the major districts and establish regulations and land use guidance
standards for each district. An interesting provision of the law provides that if an
This paper was originally presented at the Confer-In '72, American Institute of Planners Annual Con-
ference, Boston, Massachusetts, October 8, 1972.
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area becomes organized or incorporated as a municipality it continues to be r g
lated by the existing standards until new regulations not less protective tnau
the existing regulations are enacted. The boundaries and regulations can ce a
mended, public hearings are provided for, and a comprehensive review of tne "tV.
tricts will be made every five years. All development requires Commission review
and approval except those approved by the Department of Environmental Protection
under the Site Selection Act.
The main purpose of the Mandatory Zoning and Subdivision Control Act is stated as
follows:
"To aid in the fulfillment of the state's role as trustee of its navigable waters
and to promote public health, safety and the general welfare, it is declared to
be in the public interest that shoreland areas defined as those land areas any
part of which are within 250 feet of the normal high water mark of any navigable
pond, lake, river or salt water body be subjected to zoning and subdivision con-
trols. The purposes of such controls shall be to further the maintenance of safe
and healthful conditions; prevent and control water pollution; protect spawning
grounds, fish, aquatic life, bird and other wildlife habitat; control building
sites, placement of structures and land uses; and conserve shore cover, visual as
well as actual points of access to inland and coastal waters and natural beauty.
"If any municipality fails to adopt zoning and subdivision control ordinances for
shoreland areas as defined in section 4811 by June 30, 1973 or if the Department
of Environmental Protection and the Maine Land Use Regulation Commission determine
that particular municipal ordinances because of their laxity and permissiveness
fail to accomplish the purposes outlined in section 4811, the Department of Envi-
ronmental Protection and the Maine Land Use Regulation Commission, shall, follow-
ing consultation with the State Planning Office with respect to these shoreland
areas, adopt suitable ordinances for these municipalities, which ordinances the
respective municipalities shall then administer and enforce.
"The Department of Environmental Protection, the Maine Land Use Regulation Com-
mission, municipalities and all state agencies shall mutually cooperate to accom-
plish the objectives of this chapter. To that end, these commissions shall
consult with the governing bodies of municipalities and to whatever extent nec-
essary with other state agencies to secure voluntary uniformity of regulations,
so far as practicable, and shall extend all possible assistance therefor."
As a result of these three major pieces of state legislation, the State of Maine
now has great authority for the control of land use. As policy statements, they
indicate that the state will assume final and complete authority for the guidance
and control of the use of land and water within its boundaries. I should also
add that in my view we are not properly organized or funded to adequately carry
out these responsibilities. Furthermore, we do not have a comprehensive state
land use plan which should guide the implementation of these Acts, and our first
task is to establish a complete and definitive policy for land and water use in
the state.
A Subcommittee of the Governor's new Cabinet, including all Commissioners and
staff assistants from the Governor's Office with major interests in the use of
land, was established at a Cabinet meeting on May 26, 1972. The purpose of this
Committee will be to develop and maintain a comprehensive policy for land and
water use throughout the state.
The State Planning Office serves as staff assistant to the Subcommittee to pro-
vide assistance on the first task which will be to identify and define the many
ongoing activities related to land and water use in the state. These activities
will be brought together and related in a series of major policy statements that
will serve as a guide to consistent, coordinated and rational public and private
decisions in the use, regulation and development of land in Maine. . . .
There is an urgent need to bring together the many ongoing studies and activities
such as the present work of the Public Lands Committee, the Governor's Task Force
on Energy, Heavy Industry and the Maine Coast, taxation of land, the activities and
programs of local and regional planning commissions, and the development aspects of
land, such as a proposed Maine Land Development Authority, so that these activities
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will not conflict or duplicate and will work together in the same direction.
This work is especially timely in that a major federal bill on state level land use
controls is expected to be passed at this session of Congress. The bills would
place responsibility for implementation of land use policy on the state, with pro-
vision for delegation of responsibilities to regional and local government agencies.
The definition and implementation of land and water use policy will attempt to deal
in a more comprehensive and systematic way with the many and varied problems of
conservation, economic development, regulation and pollution by providing a better
informational base for both public and private investment decisions. It will define
relationships, identify problems and purposes, and alternative programs aimed at
providing the greatest long-term benefits for all the people in the state.
A major objective of this Subcommittee and state policy will be to resolve the pre-
sent paralyzing economic versus environmental crisis. This crisis indicates an ur-
gent need for the state through its policy-making mechanism to develop information,
criteria and procedures to resolve the constant conflicts that arise between the
need for economic growth and development processes on the one hand, and the equally
important need for environmental preservation and resource conservation on the
other.
Elements of a State Land Use Policy
In formulating an acceptable policy for the State of Maine on land use management
and programs, we should begin by asking ourselves what state actions to improve and
regulate land use would be acceptable in light of the current attitudes and behavior
of Maine people. Do enough Maine people really want improved land use management
when such programs will involve expert instead of individual judgment? And, when
such programs will mean the substitution of collective goals in place of individual
judgments?
Most residents of Maine have exhibited a low tolerance for bureaucracy and central-
ized regulations, whether in large-scale government programs or other large-scale
activities such as the State University system. In light of the fact that over
four hundred units of local government in Maine still lack effective land use manage-
ment controls at the local level, they also seem to resist collective action at the
local level. Nevertheless, the people of Maine through action of the last two
sessions of the Maine Legislature have authorized three major pieces of state level
land use regulation. . . . Although it is difficult to speculate on future attitudes,
it seems safe to assume that if some of our present bureaucratic structures would
become less bureaucratic and less centralized the people of Maine would be more
willing to accept certain kinds of central planning and collective judgments on the
control of land in this state.
An acceptable state policy and program for land use control should be decentralized
and as simple and direct as possible so that it will be easier for Maine people to
adjust both their attitudes and behavior to these new conditions. But if bureaucrat-
ic structures become more instrusive in their everday lives, if there are more re-
strictions and more delays in getting things done, Maine citizens will probably
have a negative reaction by rejecting such controls and try to hold on more tightly
to what they believe are their last few remaining areas of privacy and individual
freedom. They obviously prefer to keep local government decisions close to them-
selves and will oppose distant sanctions or centralized coercion.
Although the increased state concern with the consequences of development is urgent-
ly needed, it is vitally important to channel this concern into areas where it will
be effective in dealing with important problems without unnecessarily increasing the
cost or time in the land development process. A time-consuming and inefficient pro-
cedure requiring the approval of many state or federal agencies for land use deci-
sions of minor importance could have serious social and political consequences.
For this reason it is important to recognize that a great number of the land use
decisions that should be made by Maine local governments have no major effect on
state, regional or national interests. Furthermore, most of these decisions can be
made intelligently only by people familiar with the local social, environmental and
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economic conditions. The decision on the use of a small parcel of land located at
the corner of Main and Elm Streets in Waterville can only be made intelligently in
Waterville, not in Augusta or in Washington.
The first task is to balance the need for expanded state participation in the con-
trol of land use with the objective of limiting this participation to those land
use decisions which involve only state or regional interests while retaining local
control over the smaller, community issues of only local concern. The problem of
defining state interests and local interests is not an easy one, but it has been
done in the Site Selection Act, the Mandatory Shoreline Zoning and Subdivision Act
and the extension of the jurisdiction and powers of the Maine Land Use Regulation
Commission. These legislative acts authorize the state to control certain large-
scale developments, to manage a critical area and to protect an uncontrolled area.
The first major element in a state land use policy, on the basis of recent experi-
ence, is that the State government should take the responsibility for identifying
areas of critical concern and to regulate those areas In the public interesTITo
identify such areas, the state may establish four guidelines for the selection of
such areas:
First, the state may designate portions of the state which because of their natural
resources characteristics or other considerations become areas of statewide concern.
The shoreline areas of the Mandatory Zoning and Subdivision Act of 1971, wetlands,
an area surrounding a major highway interchange and approaches to major airports
are examples of areas of state concern.
Second, some types of development may have only local impact if undertaken on a
small scale, but may be of state or regional significance when undertaken on a large
scale. This applies to commercial, residential and industrial development of large
size as specified in the Site Selection Act.
Third, some types of development by their very nature and impact almost invariably
become matters of state or regional concern. This would include major airports,
public utility transmission lines, power plants and major highways.
Fourth, areas that cannot be supervised or controlled by local governments or other
regulatory authorities must become the responsibility of the state. The planning,
zoning and subdivision controls over the unorganized and deorganized areas of the
state by the Maine Land Use Regulation Commission is an example of this type of sit-
uation. This may also include areas where local governments refuse or are unable
to act over a certain period of time in the organized areas.
The second major element in the State Land Use Policy is the need to formulate and
implement policy and programs for the urban areas and local communities of Maine.
An essential element of this policy is that areawide, regional planning serve as a
framework for local government activities. The manageable aspects of our environ-
ment and economy now come in regional packages. Furthermore, in a state as large
and diverse as Maine, regional planning agencies are better able to respond to sec-
tional peculiarities necessary for the development, acceptance and implementation
of water and land use plans.
This regional approach was made official by order of Governor Curtis on January 26,
1972, when he issued an Executive Order establishing a system of official planning
and development districts for the entire state. The eight major drainage basins
in Maine served as the framework for the designation of the districts. Effective
land and water use planning w&* the major criteria used in delineating the boundaries
of these districts; they are large in size but small in number so that they can deal
with and coordinate the many issues and relationships involved in proper land man-
agement.
The success of the river basin approach, while not utilized extensively in this na-
tion, is apparent in many European situations such as the Ruhr Valley. It has the
ecologically sensitive total land use view of a drainage system in that it allows
for a comprehensive approach to environmental degradation from all sources rather
than the usual approach of a site-by-site abatement program.
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The estuaries of our state, where the complicated interactions between fresh and
salt water occur, are prime examples where the regional implications--defined as
watershed areas—are especially noticeable. If the estuaries of Maine are to be
reestablished and maintained as something more than open sewers, effective planning
and programs must provide for the management of entire watersheds.
Environmental, economic, social and political problems are so interrelated in the
design and implementation of land use controls that we must integrate the functional
with the geographic and administrative aspects of government on a consistent area
basis. The proliferation of land development review and approval bodies at the lo-
cal government level will increase both construction and government costs. The
long run objective of a well-planned, livable environment requires that planning
and project review be carried out on a regional basis.
We must, in the future, avoid the growth and multiplication of a great number of
conflicting and overlapping special agencies, boards or commissions to handle in
isolation one problem after another and in the end seriously diminish our capacity
to deal with complete ecosystems in a coordinated, comprehensive and continuing
manner.
This policy should also clearly define the local decisions that will be left to
local communities based on information developed in consultation and cooperation
with communities in Maine. The state may explore the option of developing a tem-
porary system of land controls for these communities not ready or willing to exer-
cise such controls until such time as local controls are* enacted or brought up to
state standards.
Technical assistance and financial support to the regions and local units must be
expanded to have a workable program. Much of this additional support may become
available from the state level land use bills introduced to both Houses of
the 92nd Qongress in 1971 and expected to pass this year. All bills would place
responsibility for implementation on the states with provision for delegation of
some responsibilities to regional agencies and local governments. There are also
explicit or implied requirements in all bills for methods for inventorying, desig-
nating and exercising state control over critical areas.
It should be the policy of the state government to take direct, remedial action
when local government and private landowners are powerless or reluctant to act in
the interests of land management. So that there be consistent policy and direction,
the state should provide guidance, authority when needed, and financial assistance
to help overcome local deficiencies and disparities.
The third major element is the need to establish clear and coordinated policy, per-
formance standards and criteria at the state level for the guidance of state, fed-
eral and local governments and private developers for effective implementation and
coordinated land use planning and control.
The State of Maine may want to consider its own version of the landmark National
Environmental Policy Act of 1969 to provide a general declaration of land use con-
trol and environmental policy and establish general criteria now scattered and
fragmented among many state agencies, and add the definition of critical areas des-
cribed in the first element of land use policy.
The development of more sophisticated impact statements at the state level can
serve to assemble all relevant technical information, discover potentially irrevers-
ible effects, help evaluate planning alternatives and define public concerns. It
is an extremely valuable evaluation tool and, if used in conjunction with overall
land and water use planning, individual projects could be implemented with more
complete knowledge of their long-term effects.
The only analysis that existed before the advent of environmental impact statements
was the practice of assessing dollar values as the sole basis of weighing or justi-
fying all elements in a complex situation, the cost-benefit analysis. The limita-
tions of this approach are now widely recognized in that they attempt to force all
elements of a resource situation into a dollar framework. Such calculations have
been generally used to justify a choice made rather than to determine which choice
is best.
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It is desirable for the state to coordinate and integrate much of the major exist-
ing laws, add new policy and criteria to provide in one law and policy the guide
lines for state and local agencies. Such law and policy would require all state
and local agencies to conform to the policy and standards to effectively head all
agencies in the same direction and to unify federal, state and local policy on land
use. Each regional agency could also determine more specifically refined standards,
based upon minimum requirements and guidelines prepared at the state level for
application within that particular region.
The fourth major element is a method of review and coordination of land acquisition
plans and proposals of all state agencies. The recent work of the new Interdepart-
mental Committee on Public Lands and other recent developments points out the need
for more effective coordination of land acquisition programs within state govern-
ment. This could be accomplished by expanding the present project notification and
review system carried out under the A-95 procedure. It would briefly provide a
central clearinghouse for: (A) all land holdings of state agencies, and (B) all
land acquisition proposals of state agencies. Like the A-95 process, approval or
recommendations of the clearinghouse and other relevant state agencies, plus con-
formance to state land policy, standards or criteria would be a prerequisite for
land acquisition or disposal by the state.
In addition to federal projects, state projects should also be added to the A-95
review process to aid in the coordination of the state public improvements program
and also set up a method to assess their overall impact on state land use, their
environmental impact and economic consequences.
The fifth element in a state land use policy is to encourage the use of taxation at
both the state and local level to reinforce and support land management goals and
objectives.In general, this means that the state and local tax system should
support the highest and best use of land as defined in state policy, laws, standards
and criteria. In 1965, for example, the Hawaii legislature applied a tax deferral
technique by allowing tax exemptions on land in their urban zones dedicated for
open space, public recreation and landscaping. The negative effect of the property
tax on land use and development in all communities is well known.
It is expected that this element will be a major concern of the seven-member special
committee now studying Maine's tax structure. It is a major concern of the present
study now being conducted by the Governor's Office on alternative methods of state
financing and state revenue.
The sixth element in a state land use policy is that of providing up-to-date insti-
tutions and organizations to effectively plan and control water and land use in the
state. The State Planning Office has in the last three years been developing a
state planning and management system which attempts to provide for the participation
of those affected for continuous planning so that plans may be revised and updated
and for coordination so that all components are properly related at four levels of
planning—federal, state, regional and local.
This system includes the following four major components: (1) state government re-
organization; (2) official planning and development districts; (3) a state compre-
hensive policies plan; (4) a state information system.
None of the four components are completely developed. Early in March 1972 a Special
Session of the 106th Maine Legislature approved 10 out of 13 proposals for new de-
partments. Although the establishment of ten new major departments is a signifi-
cant and unprecedented accomplishment, it did not deal effectively with the major
environmental and natural resource functions of the state.
The continued fragmentation of functions and scattering of responsibilities in these
areas makes it difficult—if not impossible—for the chief elected official of this
state and the legislature to develop a comprehensive strategy and launch a coordi-
nated attack on the complex problems in these vital functions of state responsibil-
ity.
Many agencies in these areas will continue to represent narrow, parochial interests.
One agency may easily duplicate the work of another or all may work at cross pur-
poses. The Governor will continue to devote a substantial part of his valuable
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time to resolving conflicts and dealing with details that these department heads
could handle themselves if the Executive Branch were better organized.
In constructing a model for such institutions and organizations, we must avoid
giving overall land and water use planning to agencies with a narrow mission or
built-in bias. We should also learn from the experience of federal agencies with
this problem. The following statement by Charles R. Goldman, Director of Environ-
mental Studies, University of California, summarizes the views of most qualified
observers on this issue:
"Since the two major federal agencies responsible for planning water developments
are also responsible for construction (the Corps of Engineers and the Bureau of
Reclamation), it is unreasonable to expect them as a general practice to consider
alternatives which would mean non-development. Further, it is unlikely that their
plans necessarily reflect a wide range of interests. At the same time, despite
current enthusiasm, the environmental interests are still not really well enough
organized nor well enough financed to undertake their own studies of large water
projects.
"It»is uncertain whether new governmental agencies such as the Environmental Pro-
tection Agency and the Water Resources Council can effectively represent the range
of environmental interests. There can be no doubt that governmental agencies at
all levels are earnestly attempting to accommodate environmental interests in
their planning. Fox [Professor Irving K. Fox, University of British Columbia]
believes that this 'in house1 process of developing a concensus might leave the
more committed environmental groups embittered and the decision-making process at
a stalemate. He concludes that the federal government should have a separate
environmental Resource Planning Agency which would actually take the lead in
developing regional environmental resource plans. ... In such an organization
it would be wise to include such resource agencies as the U. S. Fish and Wildlife
Service who have a clear environmental involvement but not such developmental
and construction agencies as the Bureau of Reclamation and the Corps of Engineers.
Finally, it would be unwise for such an agency to possess any regulatory
responsibility."
Comprehensive, overall planning for state water and land use should not, therefore,
be located in a promotional, construction or regulatory agency.
Both water and land use planning and policy are essential as a guide for long-term
regulatory activities. This was pointed out in a recent comprehensive report on
innovative land use laws and programs of several states for the Council on Envi-
ronmental Quality. In this report, "The Quiet Revolution in Land Use Control" by
Bosselman and Callies, the following paragraph completed their analysis of Maine's
site location laws:
"In the long run the Site Location Law may be seen as more of a stopgap remedy than
a permanent solution. The absence of any overall state planning process that pro-
vides a rational basis for regulation, and the reliance on clearly inadequate
criteria for decision-making, must eventually weaken the program's effectiveness.
The major question for the future is whether the state can expand the Site Loca-
tion Law into a more comprehensive land regulatory system that leaves the local
issues to local governments but deals with major development proposals in the
framework of a broader conception of state planning than the current law
contains."
In a broader sense, the need for a state land use policy also grows out of an
increasing awareness of the many interrelated issues, activities and problems that
confront this state. No doubt other concerns in addition to the elements listed
here should be included as we proceed to provide a framework within which urban
and rural development and the quality of our environment can be assessed. To
provide proper perspective a state land use policy is not just a natural resource
policy, it must also be concerned with the problems of economic growth, the provi-
sion of public services and regulation at all levels of government, the allocation
of public resources and the very structure of our federal system of government.
Historically, the control of land has been a local function in our federal system
of government, but in recent years local units have been unable to deal with large-
scale projects or handle involved proposals which require expertise more likely to
be available at the state levels.
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All the legislative proposals being considered by Congress recognize this trend.
It now seems that there will be some form of federal land use bill and the respon-
sibility for implementation will be on the states. State governments will be called
upon to assume new responsibilities in land use management. Because of these
developments, Maine must be prepared to use this opportunity and accept responsibil-
ities for the management of its water and land resources.
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Applications
Conservation is a state of harmony between man and
land.
Aldo Leopold
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Incentives and Controls for Open Space
Ann Louise Strong
Regulation as Distinguished from Zoning and Subdivision Controls
Within the open space framework, zoning and subdivision controls are regulation,
but not all regulation is zoning or subdivision control. Since the distinction
between the terms leads to differences in their applicability, it is important
to define them carefully at the outset and to state that they will be used as de-
fined throughout this chapter.
Regulation is defined as uncompensated control of activities for the public health,
safety, morals, and welfare; in this context it is control of land use for open
space purposes. Zoning and subdivision controls are defined as one form of regula-
tion, included within the overall definition but with two qualifications:
(1) they encompass the entire geographic area of the enacting unit of government,
and (2) the public for whose benefit they are enacted are the residents of that
unit of gqvernment, not people at large. Regulation of the flood plain of a
stream throughout its course, enacted for the benefit of people at large, irrespec-
tive of their place of residence, would not be termed zoning under this definition.
The distinction made here is of importance in order to clarify the limitations in
the grant of zoning and subdivision control powers to local governments. For
instance, it would be improper for a local government, acting under zoning powers,
to prohibit cutting and development of forest land on the ground that increased
runoff would add to flood damages of an entire watershed. Similarly, the local
government would lack authority to prohibit development of an aquifer recharge
area for the purpose of maximizing the quantity of flow to an aquifer serving a
nearby metropolitan area. These regulatory powers might be specifically delegated
by a state, possibly to local governments, but more probably and more logically
to a regional public agency charged with resource management.
State Regulatory Power Is Possible
The states have broad powers to regulate man's use of his resources. Power to
regulate through use of zoning and subdivision controls customarily has been
granted by the states to local governments and has been widely used by them, in
part for resource objectives. The retained power of the state to use zoning
and subdivision controls often has been neglected. In fact, to date, only Hawaii
has chosen to exercise the state zoning power. Other regulatory powers granted
by the states to local governments are restricted to protection of persons within
the boundaries of the local government. It remains for the states to employ their
general regulatory power to control use of resource areas for the benefit of the
public at large, not just the public in the areas regulated.
This article, extracted from "Incentives and Controls for Open Space," originally appeared in
Metropolitan Open Space and Natural Process, edited by David A. Wallace (Philadelphia: University
of Pennsylvania Press, 1970). Reprint by permission.
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Dedicated Open Space Must Be Directly of Benefit to Users
As an illustration of what has just been said, to be sustained as reasonable, sub-
division requirements for the dedication of land for open space or payment of a
money equivalent should be tied, for acreage standards, to population density in
each subdivision and, for facility standards, to total population in the subdivision.
The open space, if not within the subdivision, must be easily accessible to the
residents. If too far away, regulations requiring it may be challenged successfully
by the developers.
No Taking Without Just Compensation
The above, or any kind of land use regulation, will be held unconstitutional as a
taking without just compensation, if it causes too great a drop in the market value
of land when applied. Already it is accepted that landowners, through regulation,
may be deprived of some portion of their land's value; the need is to quantify and
standardize the permissible percent of loss. To date, there has been no presump-
tion of unconstitutionality based on a given percent of loss attributable to regu-
latioti. Here it is later proposed, for open land, that all losses in excess of
25 percent attributable to regulation be presumed unconstitutional. Therefore,
uncompensated regulation would be used only for land use restrictions causing a
drop in market value of 25 percent or less.
While regulations deprive landowners of varying percentages of land value, land-
owners receiving compensation for land use controls are paid the full value of
their loss. For example, zoning might reduce a parcel's value 15 percent, while
the owner of a similar parcel, reduced in value 15 percent by a utility line,
would be paid the full value of that right-of-way. This is an inconsistency in
present public policy that quite possibly should be eliminated so that all land-
owners subjected to land use controls would bear the same proportionate cost of
these public controls. Such an approach is defensible for owners whose land is
subject to public less-than-fee interests, but it is arguable that, because of
the inconvenience and dispossession accompanying fee acquisition, full loss com-
pensation should continue to accompany fee acquisition.
Validity of Controls over Time
Controls customarily are chosen for their cheapness and efficacy at the time of
selection. Regulations, valid when enacted, could become unreasonable because of
lack of compensation, and thus invalid, as a result of rising land values. Should
an estimate of future rise in value be one factor used in selecting land use con-
trols? Alternatively, should future increase in value be rejected, by law, as a
ground for invalidation of controls?
Planning Controls to Establish Assessed Values
Preferential assessment of open space violates the ad valorem tax principles in-
cluded in most state consititutions. If preferential assessment of open space is
authorized by law or constitutional amendment, this action weakens the real property.
tax structure and encourages subsequent breaches in it. Lower taxes on open
space can be achieved instead by use of planning controls which restrict land to
open space uses and thus cause assessment to be based on land value for these
uses only.
A State Capital Gains Tax
A state capital gains tax could be imposed on all land sales in which there had
been an increase in intensity of residential use since the last prior sale.
Revenues from this tax would be allocated to support of open space land use con-
trols. A capital gains tax of this character would pose a uniformity problem under
state constitutions but might be sustained as a reasonable classification for
purposes of taxation.
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Controls for Open Space
Present powers for open space control are, if properly applied, sufficient for
preserving far more open space than has resulted so far. Public concern and sup-
port is necessary to increase and enlarge their use. The following discussion of
controls for open space is divided into the three major purposes considered earlier:
(1) the concern for natural process concentrating on balancing the water regimen;
(2) provision of areas, largely coincident with those necessary for (1), but for
recreation purposes; and (3) amenity. It is, of course, the hypothesis of the
study that these three purposes can all be served best by following the methods
outlined in the study.
Controls for Natural Process
Each of the physiographic phenomena distinguished previously is here considered in
terms of the nature of the controls required to keep it in a natural or near natural
state, and to limit development to varying degrees. Then the most appropriate agen-
cies for such control are suggested.
Controls for Surface Water
Surface water and its adjacent, or riparian, lands and banks should be subject to
controls in order to reduce flooding, to regulate the supply, and to maintain flow
and quality. Natural flow patterns e.re frequently altered through construction of
dams, reservoirs, and channel works.
Pollution of surface water can be controlled by regulation so as to sustain adequate
water quality for domestic and industrial consumption, for healthy fish and shell-
fish, and for recreation. However, for pollution regulations to be adequate in a
densely settled area such as the Philadelphia SMSA, they should be based on basin-
wide plans for pollution control. Here, the Delaware River Basin Commission can
be expected to develop the plan and to share with other levels of government in its
enforcement.
Several units of government, from the Commission to municipalities, plan to con-
struct dams and reservoirs which will minimize flooding and husband the area's
water supply. If recreation use of surface water is contemplated, rights of access
and shoreline acquisition will be necessary. In some instances, scenic easements
protecting the view of water from highways may provide sufficient recreation bene-
fits. Control of riparian lands comes, to some extent, under flood plain control,
but not entirely. Where it can be demonstrated that the character of adjacent
vegetation and banks are important to the water regimen, shoreline control will
also be necessary. It is often this adjacent land that provides the greatest
amenity and potential for recreation as well as control of water quality.
Marsh Controls
To fill the resource functions of water storage, water absorption, water purification,
and provision of habitat for fish and wildlife, marshes must not be drained or filled.
The choice of controls to preserve marshes in their natural state will depend on the
extent to which these functions are to be preserved and on the market value of the
marshes for other uses.
If public action to preserve marshes will not markedly reduce their market value,
uncompensated regulation can be used. If compensation is called for, it can be in
the form of compensatory regulations, leases, covenants, or easements. Each has
its special role. Fee acquisition would be called for only when heavy public recrea-
tion use is desired or when restriction of uses would severely reduce market value.
In the Philadelphia area, most of the marshes are adjacent to the Delaware River.
Many have high potential market value for port uses. Where marsh functions are to
be preserved, fee acquisition often will be necessary. Here, planning for marsh use
should be carried out principally by the Delaware River Basin Commission. Plan
implementation is principally a function of the states and local governments.
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Aquifer and Aquifer Recharge Controls
The quality and quantity of the water needed for withdrawal from an aquifer will
affect the uses which can be permitted in the area which recharges the aquifer.
The aquifer itself need be controlled only as to permitted withdrawal, or penetra-
tion by canals, injection wells, etc.
To protect water quality in the aquifer, both salinization and pollution must be
controlled, the former by maintaining sufficient fresh water flow through the
aquifer from the recharge areas and the latter by limiting unsewered land use in
recharge areas. Farms, forests, and recreation areas, as well as fully sewered
urban development, will be appropriate uses in many recharge areas and over most
aquifers. In some, however, where there is a direct connection from surface to
aquifer, even sewered development should be restricted because of the inevitable
tendency of sewers to leak.
On the other hand, some unsewered uses may be acceptable, depending on the char-
acter of the strata and the distance between the recharge area and the aquifer.
Controls to protect water quality in the aquifer can take the form of regulation
of land use in the recharge areas, with the regulation enacted under the public
power to protect health. Whether the regulations should embody performance
standards or, instead, fix a range of permissible uses related to various land
conditions will depend on detailed knowledge of the relationship between the
recharge areas and the aquifers to be protected.
The justification for controlling use of recharge areas to augment the quantity
of the flow to and from aquifers rests principally on the power to promote the
general welfare. Regulation relying on this power probably will fail as an
uncompensated taking far sooner than regulation enacted under the public health
power. In other words, it is suggested that a greater loss in vlaue of private
land can be imposed by regulation when the regulation is enacted for the public
health than when it is enacted for the public welfare. To achieve minimum
runoff and maximum percolation of water to aquifers, the use of the recharge areas
may have to be restricted severely. Limitation of use to open space activities
or to sewered development with a 15 percent site coverage has been recommended
in this study as a means of maintaining the quantity of flow. Where land
values are low, the necessary use restrictions can be enacted through regulation.
Elsewhere in urban areas landowners must be compensated; this can be accomplished
by imposing the use restrictions either through compensatory regulations or
easements. . . .
Flood Plain Controls
Preservation of flood plains in their natural state, providing flood waters a place
to spread out, lose their momentum, and be stored, is one way of reducing flood
damage and of retaining some of the flood flow to recharge aquifers. Uses com-
patible with fulfillment of the flood plain's water resource functions are those
which do not.impede flooding, which do not constrict stream flow at flood peaks,
and which in turn are not injured seriously by flooding.
Virtually all uses which leave the flood plain land open would be appropriate,
including development lots so long as structures and on-site sewage disposal
systems were located outside of the flood plain. Of course, for any given flood
frequency the contribution of the flood plain to reduced flood damages, the
probable costs of flood damages, and the value to the community of permitting
various forms of development in the flood plain must be weighed. In many areas,
if land use is limited to those uses compatible with preservation of the flood
plain's water regimen functions, the restrictions may have a severe impact on
market value of urban land.
Because the combination of uses permitted, flood dangers posed, and existing
market value will vary from flood plain to flood plain, the land use controls will
also vary from regulation to fee acquisition. Regulation might be used where flood
plain development would pose a threat to the health or safety of flood plain
occupants or to the community at large; it might also be used where land values
are low. Compensatory regulations, easements, restrictive covenants, and leases
can be used where compensation of landowners is necessary but no public use of the
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land is contemplated. Fee acquisition may be necessary where land values are very
high or where extensive public use of the flood plain is planned. . . .
Forests and Woodlands
Tree cover is maintained to slow water runoff. Trees also have an important effect
on microclimate. Some development can be permitted within forested areas without
seriously impairing their ability to slow runoff, so long as the site coverage of
the development and tree cutting are restricted. Ten percent site coverage has
been suggested as a maximum including structures, roads, and parking areas.
Limitation on coverage should be accompanied by restrictions on clearance and
cutting of tree cover. For all practical purposes this translates into a density
of about one unit to the acre.
Land use controls to preserve tree cover should be enacted as part of the imple-
mentation of a river basin plan for regulation of runoff and recharge of aquifers.
Regulation may prove adequate for forested uplands far from development pressure.
Forested flood plains and marshes often are located in high value areas; where
this is so, their preservation will require compensation, through use of compensa-
tory regulations, covenants, easements, leases, and, sometimes, fee acquisition.
Where development is permitted in conjunction with tree preservation, the controls
would govern site coverage, tree cutting, and alteration of natural contours by
grading and filling. If public recreation use of forested land is intended, ease-
ments or rights-of-way may be acquired or, of course, the land may be purchased
in fee.
In the Philadelphia SMSA, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania could control use of
forested uplands, all of which are located in Pennsylvania, while public agencies
at all levels could share responsibility for the forested flood plains and marshes
located in both states, and the counties and municipalities could regulate site
improvements accompanying development through subdivision regulations.
Steep Slopes
Steep slopes are subject to erosion unless water runoff is checked. Tree cover, or
agriculture which incorporates terracing, strip cropping, contour cultivation, and
controlled grazing are ways of maintaining such slopes. Rapid runoff from steep
slopes also contributes to flood hazards.
Slopes in excess of 25 percent may best be kept undeveloped, and forested with
adequate tree cover to check erosion and runoff. Uses should be limited to recrea-
tion and controlled timber cutting. Slopes between 15 and 25 percent are of
course very developable, but site coverage should be limited to ten percent. This
restricts it to either low density development, or high density with low coverage.
Such slopes are also usable for agriculture, subject to land management restric-
tions .
If use restrictions for steep slopes are enacted, not only for water resource
management but also to protect would-be occupants from health and safety hazards,
then zoning or other regulatory measures can be used. Where the controls are
employed to protect the community at large from flood hazards and soil runoff,
the type of control may range from regulation to fee acquisition, depending on
changes in the market value of the land prior and subsequent to imposition of
the land use restrictions. On the slopes in excess of 25 percent it may be
necessary to plant trees in order to assure an adequate tree cover. Owners may
voluntarily agree to a public forestation program for their land, but, if they
do not, the public must acquire either the fee, and follow up by planting and
resale or lease, or an easement for access and planting.
Choice of levels of government control use of steep slopes will depend on the size
and regional importance of the areas to be controlled. Hopefully, a river basin
plan would determine the importance of maintaining natural cover on steep slopes
and would fix standards and specifications for their use. Every level of govern-
ment from the municipal to the state or regional agency might have a role in
implementing this plan.
155
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Prime Agricultural Land Controls
Prime agricultural lands adjacent to urban areas are becoming a relatively scarce
resource. Their value for agriculture has declined in the face of agricultural
surpluses, and their value as urban building sites has increased, in many instances
dramatically. They are perhaps the most vulnerable of the eight classes of land
types, but in the present concept of natural process, are less directly significant
to the water regimen than the other seven.
Where prime agricultural land does not coincide with and depend for protection on
any of the other phenomena, its retention must largely depend on a general con-
sensus as to its amenity value or upon value for agriculture. Where such a case
can be made, compensation to owners is very likely required. Conservation dis-
tricts might be formed to take action for the special purpose of acquiring the
fee and selling or leasing back the farmland for farm purposes. State and local
governments might act in this way, if appropriate enabling legislation were
passed.
For purposes of setting limits on development, examination of existing urban
fringes suggests 25 acres as the minimum tract size which will ensure the open
quality of the farmland.
156
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Reducing Air Pollution Through
Land Use and Public Facility Planning
Land use and public facility planning can be used to reduce air pollution. The
methods range from large to small scale, from long-range to short-range, and from
theoretical to applied.
Strategies are broad policies that define a course of action. Techniques are the
legal, organizational, functional, and financial tools and processes through which
strategies are implemented. Table 2.1 is an overview of the strategies and tech-
niques that are discussed.
Large scale, long-range, theoretical methods are discussed first, under the heading
"Regional Development Strategies." These are goal-oriented, and treat air pollu-
tion as one criterion for reshaping the. land use pattern of an entire region. Small
scale, short-range, applied methods are discussed last, under the heading "Location
and Design Strategies." These are geared to solving immediate problems without
departing substantially from current land development trends. The evaluation of
primary and secondary techniques is based on the authors' experience and judgement.
Regional Development Strategies
On the regional and metropolitan scale, urban planners have responsibility for pre-
paring long range plans (20 to 50 years) for producing a more rational and more
humanly satisfying environment. The achievement of this objective requires the
sensitive consideration of alternative arrangements of the region's physical struc-
ture, including: the shape, density and organization of settlement areas; the orien-
tation and composition of subareas; the pattern and type of transportation system;
and, the shape and location of major open space. . . .
Alternative Regional Forms
There exist numerous strategies for urban form and growth which entail specific
land use arrangements. These strategies may have particular importance for air
pollution control. In selecting from a variety of urban growth concepts, there-
fore, the planner should be conscious of their relative significance for air
pollution control, particularly with regard to potentials for improving air pol-
lution dispersion efficiency and reducing automobile travel (and thus auto emis-
sions) .
The following discussion of studies conducted in Hartford, Chicago, Seattle, and
Prince George's-Montgomery Counties, Maryland, demonstrates the relationship be-
tween land development patterns and air pollution.
From A Guide for Reducing Air Pollution Through Urban Planning, prepared for the Office of Air
Programs, The Environmental Protection Agency, by Allan M. Voorhees and Associates, Inc., and
Ryckman, Edgerley, Tomlinson and Associates, December 1971, pp. 2-1 to 2-36.
157
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LEGEND
• PRIMARY
TECHNIQUES
• SECONDARY
TECHNIQUES
TECHNIQUES
| STRATEGIES |
Comprehensive &
Project Planning
Localized Zoning
(Location & Density)
Regional Zoning
(Location & Density)
Performance Zoning
Non-Conforming
Use Laws
Zoning Regulations
for Site Use
Air Zoning &
Smokeless Zones
Subdivision
Regulations
Land Dedication
Regulations
Planned Unit
Development Regulations
Building & Housing
Codes
Urban Renewal
Land Acquisition
Programs
Open Space Tax
Incentives
Location & Re-
location Incentives
Speculative Public
Investment
Tax Equalization or
Gov't Consolidation
A-95 Review
Direct Urban Design
A. REGIONAL
DEVELOPMENT
8
o
'$
QC
1
«-»
§ u
>I
<£•
-'
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Balanced Communities and
/Subregions
CM
•
•
•
•
•
1 Low Density Development
rtt.
•
•
•
•
•
Regional Open Space
Patterns
TT
•
•
•
B. LOCATION & DESIGN
Location of Stationary Sources
r-
•
•
•
•
•
•
1 Relocation of Stationary Sources
CM
•
•
•
•
Control of Land Use Around
Sources
M
•
•
Location of
Sensitive Receptors
•a-
P
•
•
•
•
•
Location & Design Control
of New Towns
in
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
| Planned Unit Developments
tD
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
8
a
W
C
a
o
"(5
in
r**
•
•
•
•
•
•
Table 2.1 Urban Planning Strategies and Techniques for Reducing Air Pollution
-------
Hartford Studies--^ comprehensive analysis of the relationship between air pollu-
tion and land use was undertaken for Hartford, Connecticut, by Yocum and others.1
This study showed clearly that the distribution of air pollution concentrations
was related to the arrangement of land development. Emission inventory maps were
developed, based on the predicted geographical distribution of land development
and population, as well as on assumptions about control technology. The land use
development pattern for the year 2000, approved by the Capital Region Planning
Agency, was used as a basis for estimating future air quality.
An alternate plan for the Capital Region would terminate all further development
in the Connecticut Valley and concentrate all future development along two high-
ways to the northwest and the southeast. This arrangement would produce a developed
area elongated in a direction perpendicular to the prevailing winds in the region.
This scheme would produce by the year 2000 an air quality pattern with the total
area of unacceptable air quality somewhat less than the approved plan but with the
area of questionable air quality somewhat larger.
Another study for the Hartford region has looked into the interrelationships be-
tween land use and trip length.2 The study considered five alternative land use
plans. . . for the year 2000. These land use plans represent the development
pattern required by present zoning regulations and four alternative arrangements
of land use that might be selected as desirable goals for the region's growth.
In each case, the population and number of jobs are the same but the distribution
and intensity vary. . . .
The difference between the trip lengths, and hence in automotive air pollution,
produced by the Balanced Community and the Single Center Concepts could be as high
as 22 percent. Land use plans can have significant effect on trip lengths, and
consequently on automobile-produced air pollution.
Chicago Study--In Chicago, the air pollution implications of three alternative
metropolitan plans were analyzed on the basis of emission estimates for two pollu-
tants: oxides of nitrogen emissions and suspended particulate emissions from cer-
tain industry groups.3 The alternative plans investigated consisted of a Finger
Plan (high-density corridors), a Multi-Town Plan, and a Satellite Cities Plan.
For these two pollutants, it was found that the Finger Plan and Satellite Cities
Plan were equivalent with respect to particulates, and both were about 30 percent
lower than the Multi-Town Plan;the Finger Plan, however, produced fewer oxides
of nitrogen than the other two plans.
On the basis of these tests, it was concluded that the Finger Plan was the best
alternative for air quality. Although this plan had fairly high residential and
industrial concentrations, it also provided dilution potential for pollutants.
This was true because the development corridors were elongated and bordered on
either side by large green areas. Thus, the presence of green areas adjacent to
pollutant sources is an important land use factor in pollution reduction. In both
cases, the land use option providing the greatest opportunity for pollutant disper-
sion over green areas resulted in lower apparent pollutant concentration.
Seattle Study--In Seattle, Washington, two alternative transportation networks,
based on two different land use systems, were evaluated for their effect on air-
pollution.'* The two plans were: Plan A, continuation of the existing trends in
land development; and Plan B, development patterned into a "Cities and Corridors"
concept. Total emissions associated with Plan A were about 12 percent higher than
*J. E. Yocum, D. A. Chisholm, and G. F. Collins. Mr Pollution Study of the Capital Region.
Capital Region Planning Agency, Hartford, Connecticut, December 1967.
2A. M. Voorhees, C. F. Barnes, Jr., and F. E. Coleman. Traffic Patterns and Land Use Alterna-
tives. Highway Research Board Meeting, Washington, B.C., January 1962.
'Northeastern Illinois Planning Commission. Managing the Air Resource in Northeastern Illinois,
Technical Report No. 6. August 1967.
''J. A. Kurtzweg and D. W. Weig. Determining Air Pollution Emission from Transportation Systems.
National Air Pollution Control Administration.
159
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those associated with Plan B. The analysis concluded, however, that the land use
configuration preferable for air pollution reduction cannot be determined until
total area emissions and, more importantly, total ambient pollutant concentrations
are estimated and compared.
Maryland (Montgomery-Prince George's Counties) Study--1he effect of alternative land
use plans, transportation networks, and operational characteristics in reducing air
pollution were also evaluated for Montgomery and Prince George's Counties in Mary-
land.5 In order to quantify the effect of alternative land use plans and highway
networks on air pollution, a measure of the amount of air pollutants generated by
automobile travel associated with each land use plan was required. Relationships
were developed between vehicle miles of travel, emissions of pollutants, and speed.
On the basis of curves relating emissions to auto speeds, air pollution produced by
the alternative plans was calculated based on congested and average operating
speeds. ... In comparing the alternatives an index of the weighted average of
pollutants produced per vehicle mile was calculated. This index was used to choose
the plan that contributed the least air pollution as a result of less overall con-
gestion in the network and the arrangement of the transportation system and urban
development.
Conclusions—As indicated by research that has been done to date, improved regional
development patterns should reduce auto emissions and the number of persons ex-
posed to pollutants from both vehicles and stationary sources. However, as was
concluded in the Seattle study, the determination of preferable land use patterns
cannot be made until total area emissions and, more importantly, total ambient
pollutant concentrations are estimated and compared. Two basic conclusions can
be drawn regarding the effect of regional development concepts:
a. Models for simulating the air pollution impacts of alterna-
tive development forms need to be made more comprehensive in their
capacity to accommodate corridor variables (i.e., trip length,
travel speed, population density, ambient air conditions, station-
ary source emissions, etc.). None of the studies reviewed for this
project, for instance, evaluated development plans from the stand-
point of both auto and stationary emissions.
b. Even when such multi-variable models are developed, it will
be difficult to make generalizations about optimal development
forms. Localized investigations will be required due to signifi-
cant variations in regional ambient air quality levels, the loca-
tion of major stationary sources, the climatological conditions,
and the travel behavior of residents.
With regard to trip lengths, it remains for the planner to consider the effect of
various land use concepts upon trip length in a given metropolitan area. Minimum
travel distance should be incorporated into the land use plan selection criteria.
It must be understood, however, that shortening trip lengths is not a universal
panacea for improving air quality. ... It is important to give equal attention
to increasing traffic speed and population density reductions, both of which can
be incongruous with the minimum travel distance criterion.
Balanced Communities and Subregions
By taking a small area approach to regional and metropolitan development it is
possible to increase opportunity, accessibility, and convenience. The net result
of creating subregions, each having a balanced supply of employment facilities,
retail and service centers, and housing types and prices, can be a significant
reduction in peak-hour auto travel. One study6 concluded that travel could be
5 A. M. Vorhees, and Associates, Inc. A Transportation Study for Montgomery and Prince George's
Counties, Maryland. The Maryland National Capital Park and Planning Commission, June 1970.
6 Supra 2.
160
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minimized through creation of defined subareas. The key factors in this type of
development are:
a. Populations should range in the order of 100,000 to 200,000. . . .
b. Subregions should be as distinct and isolated from one another
as the natural topography and existing development pattern will permit.
c. Street and highway systems should be laid out to focus on the
subregional center(s).
d. High density residential development should be located within 10
minutes travel time of high density commercial and employment areas.
e. Housing must provide a wide range of types that will attract a
diversity of social and economic groups.
The reduction of trip lengths and the increased potential for non-auto trips
(transit and walking) caused by implementing this balanced subregional concept. . .
results in a reduction of auto pollution emissions comparable to the reduction
of auto travel.7 Furthermore, this type of development pattern is also highly
compatible with other planning objectives (i.e., wider housing opportunities,
reduced sprawl, more economical public service delivery, revitalization of central
business district, etc.).
The subregionalization concept could be applied in a number of ways:
a. Guiding the establishment and design of new towns which are
currently being considered, planned, or developed in a number of
metropolitan areas.
b. Providing a framework for new suburban development.
c. Restructuring and renewal of built-up sections of metro-
politan regions, including "new towns-intown."
Low Density Development
The potential impact which population density variations have upon automobile
pollution concentrations has been demonstrated by Rydell and Collins in a simula-
tion study.8 Application of the Rydell-Collins density equation over the range
of population densities (gross residential density) occurring in the simulated
city revealed that automobile pollutant concentrations decreased as density
decreased. Thus, it could be concluded from this study that land use policies
which are designed to achieve lower overall population densities will, all
other things being equal, improve ambient air quality.
Obviously, this raises a number of difficult questions about the effect of residen-
tial density. As pointed out previously, lower densities stimulate trips of con-
sistently greater length, thereby causing an increase in overall travel of 10 to
20 percent. The Rydell-Collins study would seem to conclude that the dispersion
of people and automobiles over a larger area creates a condition of lower pollutant
concentration which compensates for the added pollution due to increased vehicular
miles of travel.
In fact, however, this pioneering study has only proven the need for additional
research. Such research would have to be more sensitive to: (a) trip length
factors as well as trip generation rates; (b) lost potential for transit travel
caused by the lower densities; (c) the fact that in most cases the trip genera-
tion rates for low density development are higher than for medium and higher
density development.
For the time being, density changes on a broad scale appear to be somewhat neutral
in effect. On a smaller scale, however, density reduction can have a significant
7For example see: Alan M. Moorhees & Associates, Inc. Factors and Trends in Trip Lengths.
National Cooperative Highway Research Program, Report 89, 1960.
8C. P. Rydell and D. Collins. Air Pollution and Optimal Urban Forms. National Center for
Air Pollution Control, June 1967.
161
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effect. For example, reducing density of development around major stationary
sources of aerial wastes, such as industries or power plants, will, depending
upon climatological and topographic conditions, tend to reduce the number of
people affected by emissions from such sources.
Regional Open Space Patterns
The use of open space or buffer zones to separate aerial waste sources from resi-
dences has long been a technique employed by planners. In addition, open spaces
can be used to shape the community into the desired growth pattern; more recently,
it has become known that open space can provide better dispersion of air pollutants.
Some research ha been done on this subject and much more is underway and needed,
but there are some known techniques which are relevant.
Effective dispersion of air pollutants does occur over open space and is increased
if the land is planted. By absorbing moisture and then cooling by evaporation,
greenery creates a cooler, more humid surface which keeps dust and other pollu-
tants on the surface.9
The location and size of open spaces are important. Wind direction, type of pollu-
tants, etc., are all relevant. Generally the width must be much wider than the
narrow buffer strips common today.
A variety of open space systems, some of them empirically derived, has been pro-
posed on the basis of potential diluting, absorbing, and settling effects of
buffer space. Hilberseimer has suggested10 that when winds blow from a single
direction there should be rows of built-up areas separated by green zones, with
the industries on the leeward side of the development. The green zones should
be broad enough to reduce air pollution to acceptable levels before the winds
reach each succeeding residential strip. When the wind direction varies over
a range of less than 180 degrees, Hilberseimer has concluded that diamond-shaped
arrays of industrial and residential locations are best; and .over a range of
more than 180 degrees, triangular arrays are best.
In certain geographical areas, however, the green bands strategy may be very
difficult to implement. For example, because of the dispersed wind pattern
and source locations in the Chicago area, it would serve little purpose to
plan land use according to wind direction. Generally speaking, the area's wind
patterns pose a threat to people in all directions from major sources. In such
a case, buffer zones would have to completely surround these sources. The 5,000
acre greenbelt being preserved around Yellow Springs, Ohio, as well as circum-
ferential park systems (the Emerald Necklace) around Cleveland, Ohio, are
examples of this pattern of buffering.
Perhaps more effective is the creation of open wedges or corridors radiating
from penetrating toward the center of the metropolitan area. In this system
almost all development is only minutes away from open areas. Such proximity
to open space helps in the diffusion of aerial wastes. This was well supported
in the Chicago tests on alternative development forms in which the Finger Plan
(i.e., a concept based upon corridors of development and wedges of open space)
proved to generate the least air pollution impacts in spite of the proximity
of several of the fingers to high concentrations of stationary pollution
sources.
While the research is still inadequate, it does appear that the use of regional
open space systems to help disperse pollutants can be of significant value.
Furthermore, when its dispersion potential is added to all the other benefits
of open space preservation, the case for implementation of land preservation
programs becomes quite convincing.
C. P. Rydell and G. Schwarz. Air Pollution and Urban Form: A review of Current Literature.
AIP Journal, March 1968.
L. Hilberseimer. The New City. Chicago: Paul Theobole, 1944.
162
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Implementation of Regional Development Strategies
To accomplish the restructuring of metropolitan areas according to the strategies
described above would call for every tool planners have in their kit, plus some
that have yet to be developed. Regional zoning would be a most effective tool
but only a few areas such as the Jacksonville, Indianapolis, and Nashville con-
solidated governments are currently able to exercise such power. In absence of
such centralized public land control in most areas, a high degree of voluntary
coordination, review, and referral must suffice. Furthermore, implementation
will call for a very carefully executed program of reclassifying vacant land to
buildable zoning districts. If intensification of land use, redevelopment of
built-up sections, and preservation of open space are to occur, land must be made
a scarce resource so developers, builders, employers, and politicians will be
deterred from current "spread city" development patterns. Some alternative tools
which might convince development interests to follow new development strategies
include:
a. Massive open space preservation programs which tend to
define and channel development opportunities (techniques could
include fee simple or easement acquisition, new tougher conser-
vation zones, and tax deferrals).
b. Restrictive public sewer and water extension policies in
concert with tight regulation of on-site sewer and. water systems.
c. Tax incentives for developments which follow the "plan."
d. Entry of local and state governments in the business of
development and redevelopment. (New York's Urban Development
Corporation is one of the best examples of "public interest"
developers.)
e. Control of new town locations and designs through metro-
politan and state clearing houses in their exercise of A-95
review powers.
f. Decentralization of low and moderate income housing from
congested cities to all sections of the metropolis so that
employment facilities can be closer to the total range of
needed occupational skills. (A-95 review power over all
federally assisted housing, presently limited to single-
family housing developments of more than 50 units and multi-
family developments of more than 100 units, would be the
tool for promoting such housing goals.)
g. Selection of urban renewal projects which would encourage
concentration of jobs and people in close proximity. However,
judging from the difficulty many renewal programs have had in
attracting developers, additional incentives may be required.
h. Selective placement of public facilities and services so
that they serve as positive "development shapers." In other
words, through capital improvement programs, model cities
programs, A-95 review of federally assisted facilities, and
the planning and programming of improvements of highway and
utility systems, development can be stimulated, shaped, in-
tensified, or modified. This kind of public entrepreneur-
ship departs from the standard "supply follows demand" phi-
losophy, but it is being done more and more frequently by
local governments. Furthermore, denial of public service and
facility improvements can maintain clarity and definition of
the subregional cluster boundaries.
Location and Design Strategies
While modifications of regional and metropolitan form can apparently provide pol-
lution-reduction payoffs for relatively large numbers of metropolitan dwellers,
the facts remain that those payoffs are long-range and that we currently lack some
of the more important land use tools required to implement them. Through selective
application of location and design strategies, however, it is possible to generate
some shorter range effects which fall essentially within the current range of
planning powers. The following discussion describes and evaluates some of these
strategies.
163
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Location of Stationary Sources
In formulating comprehensive plans, the planner should attempt to locate large in-
dustries and industrial areas so as to minimize their effects on residential and
commercial air quality. Hazardous air quality conditions which exist today can
often be traced to poorly located industry. For example, many industrial areas
historically developed in river valleys in order to benefit from cheap transpor-
tation. 1J Depending on the surrounding topography, such valleys are often the
worst locations for sources of harmful emissions.
The impact of pollution from industrial land uses can be reduced not only by
source control technology, but also by careful location planning of such areas with
respect to the local dispersion characteristics and with respect to residential
development location and densities. Because it is always desirable to ensure that
aerial wastes are discharged away from residential areas, the planner must make in-
creasingly comprehensive studies of local meteorology, climatology,, and topography
in order to improve spatial arrangements of industrial, commercial; and residential
areas. In fact, these considerations should become fundamental determinants of
industrial location decision-making along with such criteria as amount of existing
vacant land, land cost, accessibility, demand for existing industrial activity,
and compatibility with adjacent land uses.
In general, the ideal site for industrial sources of aerial waste is comparatively
level terrain in a region where the average wind velocity is ten miles per hour or
more, and where deep temperature inversions rarely occur.12 However, because, dis-
persion characteristics vary among regions, the planner is urged to investigate
the relevant conditions of specific areas and to assess land uses accordingly.
Following are two examples, illustrating the significance of local dispersion
characteristics in land use planning.
When rebuilding Volgograd (formerly Stalingrad) after World War II, its planners
recognized that the wind almost always blows from the same direction. They de-
signed the city in major land use strips perpendicular to the wind. The wind does
not pass over the industrial area until it has passed all of the other uses.
Placing the industrial area on the leeward side of the city is not always the solu-
tion, however. In Linz, Austria,13 located in a mountain valley, industrial sour-
ces were sited on the eastern side of the city to take advantage of the prevailing
westerly winds. On occasions when the more mild easterly wind is in effect the
pollution is banked against the mountains and the residential area is often
blanketed by smoke.
The problem at Linz was caused by the effect of low velocity winds on air pollution
concentrations. While high velocity winds disperse air borne pollutants, low
velocity winds may prevent dispersion. Wind frequencies and speed must be consi-
dered in the planning process prior to locating industrial areas to keep emissions
away from residents.
Zoning--The implementation of such plans for new industrial locations is normally
carried out through zoning regulations, which generally have between one and five
categories of industrial land. . . . The consideration of air pollution and other
obnoxious effects attributable to industry has taken place for a number of years.
However, the regulatory process has been only partially effective because:
a. Community leaders are increasingly anxious to strengthen the tax base
with industrial development and often will amend zoning regulations to
allow industries to locate wherever they desire.
11 Urban Land Institute. Land Use Control, Research Monograph No. 17, 1970.
12 St. Louis Area Council of Governments. Report and Recommendation of East-West Gateway
Coordination Council as a Coordinated Air Pollution Abatement Program for the St. Louis
Metropolitan Area.
1 3
Supra 9.
164
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b. Zoning power is decentralized to many local jurisdictions within a
region, and inter-community air pollution effects are often not considered.
c. Almost every city (particularly large central cities) has its share
of improperly located heavy industry which was built prior to the adoption
of zoning. Non-conforming use provisions have not had the enforcement
procedures necessary to relocate those industries which are in conflict
with surrounding uses.
In spite of these drawbacks to use of the zoning power, it remains the best tool
available and has been used with increasing effectiveness in locating suburban in-
dustrial areas. Zoning regulations, in order to promote further reduction of air
pollution concentration, must be reexamined in light of the effect that metropoli-
tan meterological and topographic characteristics have upon pollutant dispersal.
Performance Zoning—Consideration ought to be given to the performance zoning approach.
Performance standards are a method, usually limited to industrial classifications,
under which zoning districts are established not by a detailed catalog of specific
permitted uses, but by scientific measurement of the external nuisance impact of
the operation. Any use may be located in any industrial district if it can comply
with measurable standards for noise, glare, odor, vibration, fire safety, smoke
and toxic matter. . . .
The use of performance standards has much in its favor, but it does have some
drawbacks which have not yet been overcome:
a. Performance zoning requires extra enforcement personnel with high
technical ability. (One suggested solution is to shift the measurement
and enforcement costs to the industry.)
b. Some industries are reportedly unwilling to locate in areas where they
cannot determine compliance with the standards until after their plants
are built.
c. If, after the plant is built, it is concluded that the emission stan-
dards cannot be met, local governments are going to be quite reluctant to
tell that industry to relocate.
d. The emission standards are usually limited to particulates and toxic
matter when, in fact, carbon monoxide, sulfur oxides, oxides of nitrogen,
and hydrocarbons may be equally harmful to the health of surrounding
households.
e. Since meteorological conditions are not taken into account in setting
standards, the actual air pollution impact may vary from plant to plant.
Another important factor is the relationship between performance standards, which
are usually administered by planners, and emission codes, which are usually admin-
istered by health departments or air pollution authorities. Obviously, a conflict
of standards is undesirable. Because source control is so important, it is sug-
gested that planners encourage the proper local authorities to adopt comprehensive
emission codes and enforcement programs. If this happens, then the zoning per-
formance standards relating to stationary source emi ssions should be made compati-
ble or deleted from the ordinance.
For example, under the 1967 Clean Air Act passed by the State of Washington, per-
formance standards are superseded by the rules and standards promulgated by county,
multi-county, or regional air pollution control authorities unless the zoning
performance standards are more stringent. Furthermore, agreements should be drawn
up to describe the mutually supportive roles to be performed by each agency. The
most logical approach would be for the health department or air pollution authority
to concentrate on obtaining compliance from existing industries while the planning
agency concentrates on trying to avoid new problems.
If there is no county or regional air pollution authority or if emission regula-
tions have not been developed, it is suggested that the planning agency amend the
zoning regulations to include measurable air emission standards governing the per-
formance of source operation. Such standards should cover all major types of
pollutants (i.e., gaseous as well as particulate emission) and should be backed by
a well staffed enforcement program. However, if the jurisdiction's inspection of-
fice is understaffed or is not able to obtain the expertise required to develop
and enforce such standards, it is probably wiser not to venture into this area
In such a case, the greatest contribution to be made by the planning agency is to
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build air pollution considerations into the location of industrial areas on the
zoning district map and to encourage development of a county or regional air pollu-
tion monitoring and enforcement program.
Air Zoning—Another variation of the zoning power would be to establish restricted
areas within which pollution producing industries would not be permitted. Such
restricted areas would be based upon evaluation of current ambient air quality,
topography, land use, population density, and the atmospheric dispersion character-
istics. In Britain, "smokeless zones" have been legislated in order to eventually
eliminate aerial wastes within designated areas. In practice this strategy has
suffered from highly subjective judgments and difficulties in enforcement. Further-
more, like performance zoning standards, only particulate emissions are regulated.
However, it would seem possible to modify the approach so as to broaden the range
of pollutants and to provide more objective measures and enforcement programs.
The primary value of this approach is that such zones could be imposed at the re-
gional level as an overlay district, without having to take all zoning powers away
from the localities. This makes it much more practical to implement than regional
or metropolitan zoning. It would, in most cases, require new state legislation to
create both the authority and the organizational machinery to establish, evaluate,
and enforce such air quality zones. In effect, this would result in the setting
of subregional ambient air standards for critical sections of a region, except that,
in this case, the standards would be attached to the authority to exercise the
"police power" as it relates to land use.
Even if not carried through to legislative action, the designation of such air
quality zones in regional and community comprehensive plans would be of service to
public officials. The zones would provide a valuable input to the consideration
of zoning amendments and the location of new public facilities.
Power Plants and Airports, Power generation plants and airports also have critical
impact upon air quality. Locational decisions regarding these two land uses are
required infrequently, but when they are it is important that the planner become
fully involved in the consideration of alternative sites.
Power plants are usually the largest single source of sulfur oxides; airports,
particularly the new regional jetports, are generators of particulates, carbon
monoxide, oxides of nitrogen, and hydrocarbons (concentrations of the latter are
being reduced through modification of jet engines).
The location of electrical power plants, which generally consume extraordinary
amounts of coal, can be best controlled by making them a "special permit use" or
"special exception" rather than by considering them a "use by right" within specif-
ic zoning districts. The "special use" approach allows more flexibility in de-
fining the best location and also provides the planning agency with greater control
over the location and site planning of such a major land use. Future power plants
apparently will be shifting to nuclear fuel but there are still problems of public
safety with regard to operation and disposal of nuclear wastes.
As with industry, locations should be determined on the basis of good atmospheric
and topographic diffusion characteristics and should be downwind from urban devel-
opment. Buffers are usually of little value due to the wide area affected by
power plant emissions. Strict control of new locations, plus public regulation of
existing source operations (i.e., fuel conversions, emergency production curtail-
ment, and emission codes) should produce the greatest improvement.
Airports and jetports are expanding rapidly and new locations are being considered
in several metropolitan areas. . . . The control which an urban planner has over
public airport location lies more in his planning role than in his administration
of zoning regulations. Since the airport is usually a public use, it is generally
permitted in any district. Although certain zoning regulations consider airports
as "special permit uses," there is often a provision which allows the legislative
body to exercise such locational decisions without review by, and recommendation
from, the planning or zoning board. Thus, the most important contribution of the
planner is in the evaluation of the air pollution aspects of various alternative
locations and/or expansions during the early stages of airport improvement
studies.
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Solid Waste Disposal. With regard to solid waste disposal, the first step is to
outlaw open burning. Most states have already done this, but the implementation
of these laws can be speeded up through the provision of alternative disposal sys-
tems (i.e., landfills and incinerators). Landfills, if well operated and managed,
offer only small problems in aerial waste generation (dustfall and blowing debris).
New incinerators, however, can be major sources and require the planner's attention
in considering rezonings and in preparing solid waste disposal plans. The best
solution is: (1) advance planning of future sites on the basis of minimizing en-
vironmental impact; and (2) promoting public acquisition of such sites in advance
of urbanization so they will be available when needed. Air pollution emissions
from incinerators can be reduced somewhat through the use of buffer zones. But
again, it must be emphasized that any planning strategy or technique must be
accompanied by controls at the source.
Relocation of Stationary Sources
Although the principles of industrial location have changed significantly since the
early 1900s, there are still large numbers of manufacturing plants located too
close to medium and high density residential areas and within low lying basins
which do not easily diffuse aerial wastes. Many of these plants also produce blight-
ing influences due to their traffic generation, noise, safety hazards, structural
deterioration, and water pollution. Most were constructed prior to the local
government's adoption of zoning regulations.
Within most metropolitan areas, these industrial plants expose between 20 and 50
percent of the current population to emissions of particulates, carbon monoxide,
sulfur oxides, and hydrocarbons. To complicate matters further, most of the
affected persons are in low and moderate income categories and can least afford
the cost of relocation, of medical bills for treating respiratory ailments, or
the loss of a few days' work.
Ideally, the solution would be to relocate these industrial operations to areas
where their pollutants would be more adequately dispersed and where there would be
few nearby receptors. When this option is approached practically, however, many
legal, financial, social, and physical issues arise. How will the neighborhood
residents travel to the plant's new location? Can the city afford the tax revenue
losses if the plant is relocated in another jurisdiction? Will the industry close
down if this additional economic burden is placed on its shoulders? Can the plant,
through enforcement of emission standards, be made to reduce emissions to standard
levels thus avoiding the need for a move? Does government have a clear legal right
to force relocation? All these questions must be answered for each community's
unique situation before relocation programs can be formulated and implemented.
Assuming for the moment that the answers to all these questions are positive, how
does one go about the task of implementing a relocation program for major station-
ary air pollution sources? Some combination of the following techniques would be
required for relocating major stationary sources:
a. Non-conforming use provisions have been contained in zoning ordinances for
years for the purpose of restricting the expansion and the extended exis-
tence of land or structural uses which are deemed incompatibly located.
Occasionally such provisions have incorporated amortization schedules in
order to set time limits for the cessation of non-conforming uses. This
is a "venturesome area with few guide-posts."** Some state courts have
expressed opposition to amortization techniques; where they have been
tried, "unpopular" uses such as bill-boards, gas stations, and auto wrecking
yards have received most of the attention. Non-conforming use provisions,
singularly, do not appear to offer great potential for relocation of sources.
b. Urban renewal projects and planning which precedes them (Community Renewal
Programs and Neighborhood Development Programs) could be used to remove
incompatible sources within blighted areas. Although most urban renewal
programs have chosen to concentrate on clearance of housing and marginal
llfRichard F. Babcock, Report on Contemporary Land Use Control Methods and Techniques. Dayton
Plan Board, 1966.
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commercial structures, some communities have used either spot clearance
or comprehensive redevelopment programs to eliminate small polluting
industries which are barriers to the redevelopment potential of the site.
c. Financial relocation incentives appear to be a necessary ingredient
in any program for the removal of waste producing industries, either in
combination with the zoning and renewal techniques or by themselves.
Many inner-city industries do not have the capital to absorb relocation
costs and, if incentives are not provided, they may be forced to go out
of business. Incentives could take the form of direct relocation allow-
ances or tax credits.
d. Tax equalization or governmental consolidation would be the most important
incentive to industrial relocation. Most communities are quite reluctant to
force an industry to move for fear that the industry will relocate outside
the political jurisdiction, thus causing a loss in property and income tax
revenue. It is doubtful then that any substantial relocation could occur
until local taxation systems are made less competitive and more responsive
to region-wide considerations.
In summary, although it would appear that a substantial portion of our population
would be affected by relocating major industrial air pollution sources, the issue
is far too interwoven with social, political, and economic factors to show any
near-term promise of contributing to air quality improvement.
Control of Land Use Around Sources
If it is not possible to locate or relocate stationary sources so that their
emissions are diverted from population concentrations (and this is often the case
either because of dispersed wind patterns or traditional development patterns),
certain actions can be taken to improve the situation through better control of
development around the sources.
The following actions could be taken by the urban planner on the basis of his
knowledge of ambient air conditions and dispersal characteristics of the areas
around such sources:
a. "Exclusive use" districting to prohibit housing and commercial
development within industrial zones.
b. Planning and zoning for low density development and limited build-
ing heights within the affected areas.
c. Providing buffers around sources in the form of open land (the best
filtering effects come from a combination of rows of trees, shrubbery,
and lawn).
d. Within industrial areas, providing for a gradation of pollution and
employment outward from the middle. Industries with the worst pollution
could be located in the center; "cleaner" industries could be located on
the outside.
e. Within developed areas where conflicts exist:
1. Preventing increases in population through zoning amendments; and
2. Conducting redevelopment and spot clearance programs in order to
remove dwelling units which are blighted by, among other things, the
presence of air pollution.
Concerning the value of buffers, around sources, it is important to recognize the
variability of their impact. Their value increases in direct proportion to the
amount of source control of pollution that is effected. For instance, a study was
conducted in Chicago which estimated diffusion effects on two gray iron foundries.
Diffusion effects from foliage and structures were ignored. Uncontrolled and 75
percent controls were calculated for both plants; 95 percent controls were also
calculated for the larger unit. (The smaller unit was rated at 10 tons per hour,
while the larger foundry was rated at 25 tons.)
At low or high wind speeds a buffer zone around an uncontrolled foundry would
have to be unrealistically large to satisfactorily reduce downwind ground con-
centrations of particulate matter. With 75 percent controls for the smaller
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(unit) a buffer 2,130 feet deep would bring concentrations outside the zone
below 100 micrograms per cubic meter. With an 82 foot stack, the plant
would have to be centered on a site totalling some 400 acres. With 95 per-
cent control of the large unit, concentrations at any point downwind would
not go above the 100 microgram mark.15
Through control of peripheral development around sources in a manner which more
sensitively incorporates air pollution considerations, a large part of the effect
of aerial wastes can be reduced for a large number of people. Furthermore, the
techniques described here, for the most part, are within the range of feasibility.
Location of Sensitive Receptors
In planning the land use patterns near emission sources, it is important to pay
special attention to areas to be used by sensitive receptors: the young, elderly,
and sick. Although no specific distance standards are available, the following
land uses should be kept remote from emission sources:
a. Elementary and secondary schools.
b. Intensely used recreational facilities, especially outdoor play areas.
c. Orphanages and children's home.
d. Elderly housing facilities, senior citizen centers, and nursing homes.
e. Hospitals, clinics, medical centers, and rehabilitation centers.
The techniques for properly locating these land uses include zoning regulation,
the A-95 review of federally assisted projects (health facilities and housing pro-
jects fall under this review), and close coordination with school administrators
and recreation officials regarding advance planning of their site acquisitions.
Where facilities within areas of poor air quality are impossible to avoid, either
because they are there now or because such facilities have to be in close prox-
imity to the neighborhood residents, improvements can perhaps be made to the site,
the buildings, or the facility's operation (i.e., installing central air-condition-
ing, scheduling outdoor activities at non-peak hours, providing landscaped buffers,
etc.).
Location and Design Control of New Towns
The Urban Growth and New Community Development Act of 1970 is now encouraging a
great deal of new town development activity. At last count, "public and private
developers from 23 states and territories have demonstrated substantial interest
in building new communities. . . ." 1 6 Several new town projects are already under
construction and indications are that the trend is just beginning to pick up
momentum. The National Committee on Urban Growth recommends the creation of 100
new communities with 100,000 persons each and ten new cities of at least one mil-
lion persons each. This would account for about 20 percent of this country's
urban growth between now and the year 2000, but the financing required to make this
happen is still a major obstacle.17 However, even looking at the town potential
with a more conservative eye, it would seem possible that between 5 and 10 percent
of metropolitan growth could be attracted to new towns built either as satellite
communities or as new towns in-town.
New town location and design will be important factors in improving the quality of
urban life; more specifically, they will offer the urban planner the opportunity
to deal more effectively with the air pollution problem.
15Supra 3.
16
'American City Corporation. Urban Life in New and Renewing Communities, No. 6, July 1971.
17D. Rockefeller, New Communities, A New Avenue for Social-Purpose Investing. Address before
New York Bond Club, April 1971.
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First, the location of new towns offers an opportunity to place an entire community
more carefully with regard to optimal diffusion characteristics. As was pointed
out in the discussion of open space strategies, the separation of communities or
subregions by large amounts of green space (as would be the case in many new towns)
is an effective strategy. Furthermore, a new town can be situated with better re-
gard for wind direction and speeds.
Second, through careful consideration of the new town's internal design it is
possible to reduce the effect of locally generated airborne wastes. This can be
accomplished through better location of stationary sources, the use of internal
open space, the design of traffic/land use relationships, and the reduction of
trip lengths and auto reliance.
Even if new towns are not successful in diverting large numbers of households away
from the more conventionally developed suburbs and central cities, they have a
large contribution to make in the area of experimentation and demonstration. New
techniques of reducing air pollution and its impacts can more easily be tested in
new developments and, if successful, then applied to the cities. For example, in
France, a new city, Vaudreuil, is being planned for the lower Seine region outside
Paris. The city will provide housing and employment for up to 150,000 residents.
The design will utilize new technology to eliminate as much noise and air pollution
as possible. Among the concepts under consideration are routing of traffic through
underground passages and tunnels, carrying smoke from factories in underground
conduits, burning gases off at the source, and processing refuse to supply part of
the city's central hearing. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development,
together with other U.S. agencies, will make technical contributions to the
French effort. The results of such innovative demonstrations will have great sig-
nificance for our existing cities.
Urban planners can exert influence on the location and design of new towns through
land use controls (zoning, subdivision regulations, special new community zoning
districts, etc.), the encouragement or discouragement of such developments through
the location and type of governmental capital facility investments, and the review
of new community applications for Federal financial assistance (guarantees, loans,
and grants). Professionals and lay boards at all levels of planning (state, re-
gional, county, and local) can play a role in encouraging and guiding new town
developments.
Planned Unit Developments
For many of the same reasons related above, except on a smaller scale, urban plan-
ners should encourage more innovative approaches to land development. In most
cases planners are already providing such encouragement and are revising land regu-
lations to allow more flexibility for development concepts such as planned unit
development, cluster subdivisions, and density zoning. Such development forms will
increase convenience and thus reduce trip length. Equally important, however, is
the fact that such concepts permit the preservation of buffers and open spaces
between emission sources (principally roads) and residences.
Most planned unit developments created thus far tend to be predominantly residen-
tial. However, the same concepts of design flexibility and mixing of land use
types apply to the development of multi-use centers. A multi-use center (MUC)
may be described as a concentration of living, working, and shopping land uses
that are physically integrated by internal pedestrian systems.18 The air pollution
abatement contribution which an MUC can make lies in the significant reduction
in trip lengths and the reduced need for automotive travel between the contained
activities.
The Twin Cities Area Metropolitan Development Guide calls for 20 "diversified
centers," essentially the same as MUC's, as part of the 1985 Constellation Cities
Plan. . . . The unified architectural complex would house commercial facilities,
offices, high-rise apartments, public facilities such as a hospital, and perhaps
1 8
P. W. Kwantes, General Transportation Aspects of Multi-Use Centers. Unpublished paper, 1971.
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a college with easy pedestrian access. A metropolitan transit line would feed
directly into the center, which would also be connected to the nearby freeway by
its own interchange. An industrial park would be located nearby to share in many
of the public facilities and services, such as mass transit, required by the
diversified center. Parking closest to thp. center's facilities is accommodated in
structures; more distant parking is accommodated on surface lots.
. . . The development of suburban regional shopping centers, however, appears to
be the greatest opportunity for creation of multi-use centers. Many shopping
centers stimulate an intense development pattern around them but, because the
surrounding land has not been planned and controlled comprehensively, they generally
fail to generate the advantages of an integrated MUC. Such centers should be
complementary to existing central business districts in large urban areas where
there is a need to accommodate growth. The techniques through which new, more
convenient land use forms can be created include:
a. Broadened planned unit development regulations which make all
large commercial, industrial, and residential developments
subject to site plan review and conditional approval agreements.
b. Urban renewal planning and project implementation.
c. Detailed planning studies, designed to pinpoint the best loca-
tions for multi-use centers, that define alternative ways of
stimulating their development
Small Open Spaces
The impact of open space upon air pollutants is ill defined and somewhat non-
quantifiable at this time. General consensus is that open spaces and buffers
must be quite large in order to perform an adequate diffusion function. How-
ever, . . . small buffer corridors along roadways could have a dissipating
effect on automotive carbon monoxide emissions. If developments were kept away
from the roadway edge a reduction could be obtained in carbon monoxide concentra-
tions. The placement of plant materials within that buffer could further increase
the dispersal of pollutants and the protection of nearby residences. Although
research has not been done in this area, the fact that trees and other forms of
vegetation create some air turbulence and produce more humidity which can trap
particulates appears to justify the creation of small open spaces.
The urban planner can contribute to the creation and preservation of these small
open spaces by:
a. Developing regulations for requiring developers to provide
land for parks or cash in lieu of the land.
b. Encouraging and guiding planned unit development.
c. Providing subdivision site plan reviews.
d. Expanding the right-of-way standards for thoroughfares.
e. Requiring larger setbacks.
f. Instituting beautification and roadside landscaping programs.
g. Developing tree preservation regulations.
19 The Joint Program (now the Twin Cities Metropolitan Council), Twin Cities Area Metropolitan
Development Guide, Report No. 5, April 1968.
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Outdoor Noise, Transportation,
and City Planning
Melville C. Branch, Jr.
The prospect of sonic booms from supersonic aircraft affecting corridors on the
ground 60 or more miles wide has alerted the public to the problem of outdoor
noise in the environment. Although for years safety standards have limited noise
from industrial operations inside buildings, outside noise has been largely ig-
nored until recently.1 Now, finally, city planning is awakening to noise pollu-
tion brought about by more numerous and powerful cars, busses, trucks, motor-
cycles, special vehicles, construction and other powered equipment, and more and
more aircraft overhead.2 As yet, however, none of these outdoor noise pollutions
has been faced squarely nor the abatement of any assured in the United States.
Dr. Vern Knudsen states the problem of noise pollution succinctly.
In 1954 on the occasion of the twenty-fifth anniversary of the founding of
the Acoustical Society of America, I reminded acousticians and the public
that during the preceding 25 years the loudest noises to which man was ex-
posed has increased 25 decibels, from . . . about 110 to 135 dB(A), an aver-
age of one decibel per year. I further reminded them that if this rate of
increase continued for another 25 years, noise would reach a maximum level of
. . . about 160 dB(A), which probably would be lethal for man. . . .
The loudest noises to which urban man is presently exposed are generated by
aircraft. Although motor vehicles are still the most ubiquitous contributor
to urban noise pollution, aircraft noise is increasing at an alarming rate.
An article in the February 1970 issue of Scientific American reports that from
1936 to 1963 the takeoff noise from civilian aircraft increased from about
100-130 dB(C) [85-115 dB(A)], thus continuing its inexorable rise of at least
one decibel per year.3
If urban environmental noise is to be controlled and worse conditions prevented
in the near future, it is certain that decisive steps must be taken now, based on
available knowledge. To wait longer is to be too late. For by the time environ-
mental pollution problems reach the point of widespread public response, there
This article originally appeared in Traffic Quarterly: An Independent Journal for Better Traffic,
Volume XXV, Number 2, April 1971, pp. 167-188. Reprinted by permission.
1 E.g., California-Noise Control Safety Orders, Division of Industrial Safety (California Admin-
istrative Code, title 8, sec. 3870-72, with Appendix A), 1963.
2 Alexander Cohen, Joseph Anticaglia, and Herbert Jones, '"Sociocusis"—Hearing Loss from Non-
Occupational Noise Exposure," Sound and Vibration 4, no. 11 (November 1970): 12-20; Committee on
Environmental Quality of the Federal Council for Science and Technology, Noise-Sound Without Value
(Washington, D. C.: Government Printing Office, September 1968), 56 pp.
3 Vern 0. Knudsen, in Outdoor Noise and the Metropolitan Environment, eds. Melville C. Branch et
al., Case Study of Los Angeles with Special Reference to Aircraft (Los Angeles: Department of City
Planning, 1970), p. Ill: Vern Knudsen is Professor of Physics and Chancellor, Emeritus, University
of California at Los Angeles.
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are so many investments and commitments represented by early inaction that stand-
ards rigorous enough to control the pollution are difficult to impose. As a rule
of thumb, the time for effective action is 3 to 5 years before an urban problem
is widely acknowledged.
Noise and People
Although intense sound can cause physical damage to buildings, plants, and animals
other than man, it is because noise is hurtful to humans that we concern ourselves
with its effects. The physiological effects have been investigated; prolonged or
repetitive exposure to noise of certain intensities damages the mechanism of human
hearing.4 Investigations of such physiological injury are the bases for indus-
trial noise limits in the public health and safety laws of many countries in the
world. Recently, scientific study has extended our knowledge of the physical ef-
fects of noise to include chemical and physiological reactions involving blood,
heart, eyes, skin, stomach, and esophagus. It is now well established that noise
above 75 dB(A) produces temporary changes in the physiological state of man. ...5
Psychological effects of noise are less well established.6 Tests have been made
which indicate the "complaint" response of small sample populations to different
frequencies and intensities of noise under specific circumstances.7 These are
used to anticipate reaction to noise. But human adaptability is well known. For-
tunately for his emotional stability and physical survival, man can adjust to a
wide range of conditions occurring in the real world.8 Psychology tells us, how-
ever, that this adaptation takes its toll in the unconscious realm of the human
mental-nervous system. Precisely how and to what extent noise affects us in this
unrecognized way is not yet clear. But there is reason to expect that monitoring
physiological and psychological responses during human sleep will confirm the un-
consciously disruptive effects of noise. 9 In the meantime, psychology and psy-
chiatry seem unanimous in their opinion that noise is registered by and affects
the unconscious mind and central nervous system as an irritant or disruptively
in some other way. These unconscious effects—together with the necessary human
adjustment to unwanted conditions, reluctance to complain, not bothering to ob-
ject because it is believed useless, or general distrust of the governmental
establishment—are why registered complaints are not a reliable basis for deter-
mining desirable environmental conditions.
Alexander Cohen, "Physiological and Psychological Effects of Noise on Man," Boston bac^ety aj
Civil Engineers (1965): 70-95; Alexander Cohen, Joseph R. Anticaglia, and Herbert Jones, "Noise
Induced Hearing Loss-Exposures to Steady-State Noise," and Aram Glorig, "Medical Aspects of Noise
Control," "Non-Auditory Health Effects," in Proceedings of the Sixth Congress on Environmental
Health (Chicago: American Medical Association, April 1969); W. I. Acton, "A Review of Hearing
Damage Risk Criteria," Annals of Occupational Hygiene (Great Britain) 10 (1967): 143-153; Anonymous,
"How Today's Noise Hurts Mind and Body," Medical World News, 13 June 1969, pp. 42-47.
W. Dixon Ward and James E. Fricke, eds., Noise As a Public Health Hazard, Proceedings of the
Conference, 13-14 June 1968 (Washington, B.C.: American Speech and Hearing Association,
February 1969), 384 pp.
6 Karl D. Kryter, "Psychological Reactions to Aircraft Noise," Science, 151 (18 March 1966):
1340-56; I. Abey-Wickrama, M. F. A'Brook, F. E. G. Gattoni, and C. F. Herridge, "Mental Hospital
Admissions and Aircraft Noise," The Lancet, 13 December 1969.
James H. Botsford, "Using Sound Levels to Gauge Human Response to Noise," Sound and Vibration
(October 1969): 16-28.
8 Rene Dubos, Man Adapting (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1965), 527 pp.
Q
Jerome S. Lukas, "The Effects of Simulated Sonic Booms and Jet Flyover Noise on Human Sleep,"
Proceedings of the Sixth Congress on Environmental Health (April 1969), 24 pp.
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Noise, Economics, and Cities
Noise is prevented and reduced only at an economic cost.10 No pollution control
is "free." The cost-benefit ratio of noise abatement, however, is more favorable
than water and air pollution alleviation because noise does not involve such huge
fixed investments and improvement drawn out over a great many years. Mufflers for
vehicular and stationary internal-combustion engines are not costly and do not re-
duce power output severely. Many noise sources are insulated without great ex-
pense.11 Even aircraft-engine noise is being reduced by design improvements re-
sulting from belated research and development. Every noice is lessened by reduc-
ing the power producing it. On the other hand, equipment to monitor and inspect
sources of sound costs money. And for some forms of noise, such as sonic boom
and helicopter rotor-slap, there is no economically feasible solution at present.
Although the benefits of noise control to human health and efficiency are diffi-
cult to calculate, there seems little doubt among those best informed that they
are considerable.12 Physical damage to hearing is shown in medical records and
compensation awards in insurance and court records. Evidence exists suggesting
that efficiency is reduced in working environments with excessive noise levels.13
The mass effect of noise on people's tensions and "peace of mind," however, has
not yet been measured nor its economic cost estimated. In suits for damage from
environmental pollution, the courts have so far tended to take the view of eco-
nomic balance, weighing the value of the noise source as a productive asset,
taxable enterprise, and employer in the economy against the demonstrable damage
done the plaintiffs.1^ With the current costs and potential dangers of environmental
pollution becoming more and more apparent, it is likely that the courts will tend
to equalize the burden of proof required of defendant and plaintiff.
Although the time left for preventive action is short, it is still possible to
prevent noise pollution rather than have to cure it in the future. It is still a
situation where advance planning can be accomplished as the word and process sig-
nify, rather than the action after the fact, to mitigate a condition already out
of control, which is all too often characteristic of city planning in the United
States today. What is done about present and potential urban environmental noise
pollution is a test whether we have the will, capacity, and institutional mecha-
nisms to plan in reality—or whether planning for a nation, state, region, or
municipality is in fact more a comforting delusion than a true capability.
Noise and City Planning
Until recently, noise pollution was considered beyond the scope of city planning—
10 Edwin L. Dale, Jr., "The Economics of Pollution," New York Times Magazine, pt. 1, sec. 6,
Sunday, 19 April 1970, pp. 27-29, 40, 42, 44, 47.
11 Bolt, Beranek, and Newman, Inc., A Study—Insulating Houses from Aircraft Noise (Washington,
D. C.: Government Printing Office, November 1966), 78 pp.
12 U. S. House of Representatives, Subcommittee on Science, Research and Development, Committee
on Science Astronautics, Hearings: Environmental Quality—H,R. 77961 E,R. 12233, H.R. 14605,
H.R. 14627(Washington, D. C.: Government Printing Office, 1968), 588 pp., and Managing the En-
vironment, Committee Print (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1968), 59 pp.
13 Alexander Cohen, "Noise Effects on Health, Productivity, and Well-Being," Transactions of the
New York Academy of Sciences, 2d ser.30, no. 7 (May 1968): 910-18.
^ Luther J. Carter, "Conservation Law I: Seeking a Breakthrough in the Courts," Science 166,
no. 3912 (19 December 1969): 1487-91.
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if it was considered at all.15 with the advent of comprehensive city planning,
no problem is excluded from consideration if it is important to the community
and its future. Specifically, noise is involved in city planning because it af-
fects human health and amenity through the design and construction of buildings
and by the livability of the outdoor environment—the latter the focus of this
article.
If industrial structures are built without regard to noise, human health may be
damaged, as already indicated. If apartment buildings are constructed without
acoustical insulation between dwelling units, not only are reasonable privacy and
quiet violated but psychological irritation and strain can result. Also, as
apartments are found undesirable because of noise transmission within the build-
ing, tenant turnover and poor maintenance are likely to increase. Similar ef-
fects occur when single-family homes are subject to excessive outside noise. In
both cases, deterioration of the property is hastened. This, in turn, adds to
other neighboring conditions favoring progressive economic decline and blighting
of the area. Acoustical requirements of building design and construction belong
in municipal building codes and state industrial public-health statutes requir-
ing safe and healthful living and working environments. Although they are not
considered here, they are essential to controlling noise pollution within the
urban environment.
Any noise which permeates a neighboring area or entire district affects amenity
and hence land use. A freeway which causes high-noise levels on adjoining prop-
erty influences the type of land use which locates in this borderland or the de-
sign and acoustical insulation of buildings to attain necessary or desirable
interior sound levels. Similarly, the high-noise level of diesel-truck traffic
on a secondary highway or local street bordered by residential buildings will
affect amenity and induce land use changes sooner or later. Airports, heliports
and helistops, vertical and short-run takeoff and landing fields, and other faci-
lities with exceptionally intense noise have even more pronounced effects on
their immediate surroundings.16 And as aircraft of various kinds multiply over
cities, entire urban environments are subject to noise pollution which not only
produces the adverse effects already mentioned but can impair the economic
"health" and development potential of an entire city by generally reducing its
desirability as a place to live.17
Urban Noise
Noise phenomena involve three components: a souce or noise generator, a trans-
mission path, and a receiver. All methods of noise control intervene directly
or indirectly with one or more of these components to change the noise situation.
The source can be altered, the distance between source and receiver increased,
or the receiver insulated. The receiver can be shielded from the noise source;
transmission modified by changing the vibration frequency of the source, isolat-
ing vibrating elements, or increasing the distance between source and receiver;
or the receiver can be altered by various means from ear plugs to different
land use.
15 Dorn C. McGrath, Jr., "City Planning and Noise," in Noise As a Public Health Hazard, eds.
Ward and Fricke, pp. 347-59.
16 Bolt, Beranek, and Newman, Inc., Estimated Noise Exposure Due to Helicopter Operations
from Proposed Helistops in Century City, Mimeographed report 1385, Job 163515 (Van Nuys, Cal.,
15808 Wyandotte St., 91303: 5 August 1966), 16 pp.; Benjamin F. L. Darden, and M. I. Khan,
"Developing a STOLport Policy for the City-Center," Proceedings of the Eleventh Anglo-American
Aeronautical Conference (London, England: September 1969), 12 pp.
17 Melville C. Branch, "Urban Planning and the New Mobility," Journal of the American Institute
of Planners 30, no. 1 (February 1964): 2-9; Anthony James Catanese, "Helicopters and the Form of
Future Cities, Rotor & Wing 1, no. 6: 38-42; Robert Courter, "What It's Like to Fly the New Jet
Belt," Popular Science (November 1969): 55-59, 190; Jim Kissick, "Like Flight of a Bird," Pilot
Report, Rotor & Wing 3, no. 5 (May 1969): 10-15, 37.
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In the urban environment, ambient sound is the background level existing in the
neighborhood or throughout the city. It is the accumulation of all the repeated
natural and man-made sounds in a city, from crickets and bird calls to automo-
•ZfS^.«rcraft' mechanical and construction equipment. It varies to a degree
with different atmospheric conditions, topography, land use, and activity on the
ground. Urban ambient sound can range from 40 dB(A) during the quietest hours
of the early morning to as high as 80 in the noisiest part of the day. Although
it appears to have halted its annual rise of 1 dB(A), growing noise from aircraft
and new types of powered equipment threatens to increase ambient noise once again.
Vehicular surface traffic is the foremost noise pollutant in most cities.18 It
is the disturbing noise of the diesel truck which offends the ears of the largest
number of the urban population. Other trucks, motorcycles, minicycles, and im-
properly mufflered or defective vehicles of every sort produce objectionable
noise. In addition to the close-range effects of noisy vehicles, there is the
bordering "roar" of heavily traveled freeways which creates corridors of back-
ground noise over and above the ambient sound level. Furthermore, unlike general
urban ambient sound, the noise of an expressway is most noticeable at night when
the rest of the city is quieter. Special-purpose vehicles with noisy attachments
seem to be on the increase, such as trucks carrying un-shielded gasoline engines
for power purposes, air compressors, or the pulverizing machinery for tree prun-
ings which produces very intense high-frequency noise. The snowmobile and beach
buggy are bringing noise pollution to some communities, as well as to the quiet
countryside. . . .
Unless checked, aircraft will likely become the most pervasive and disturbing
source of urban noice in the future.19 In areas surrounding airports, aircraft
landings and takeoffs, taxiing, and testing engines on the ground generate the
most intense noise in the city.20 These areas are growing. In metropolitan Los
Angeles, for example, 5 percent of the urbanized area projected for 1990 will lie
within the 88 dB(A) noise contour surrounding the 20 airports expected at this
future time. From these airfields there will be many more than the three million
takeoffs and landings in the Los Angeles area in 1959. It is difficult to imag-
ine, however, that there will be more than the four billion dollars of suits in-
volving noise now outstanding around Los Angeles International Airport. Twenty
years from now, there will probably be many more than the 165 heliports and heli-
stops now existing, and as many VTOL and STOL ports with their especially noisy
aircraft as proponents can attain. The situation will be worse in the larger
urban centers, but smaller communities will also have more noise and related
problems.
Of even greater import for urban environment in the future is the rapidly increas-
ing number of aircraft over cities. In los Angeles, this now includes more com-
mercial airline routes and more frequent flights, more business aircraft, personal
18 Karl D. Kryter, "Evaluation of Transportation Noise," Proceedings of the Sixth Congress on
Environmental Health (April 1969), 16 pp.; Consultative Group on Transportation Research (B.T. Price,
Chairman), Urban Traffic Noise—Strategy for an Improved Environment (Paris, France: Organization
for Economic Cooperation and Development, August 1970), 141 pp.; Richard C. Potter, Transportation
Noise Sources, Presented at the Thirty-sixth Convention of the Audio Engineering Society (New York:
April 1969), 21 pp.
19 0. Powers, "Airport Noise: An Environmental Problem," Proceedings of the Fifteenth Annual
Technical Meeting (New York: Institute of Environmental Sciences, April 1969), pp. 215-30.
20 Jack McCurdy, "Hazards, Noise Around Airport Will Close Second School," Los Angeles Times,
18 July 1969, p. 1.
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flights, police and fire helicopter patrols, the overflight of military heli-
copters based at military airfields in Southern California, and more and more
miscellaneous helicopter flights transporting business executives, politicians,
movie actors, municipal officials, newscasters, data-processing tapes, construc-
tion materials. It is now proposed that they be used for regular ambulance
service. To these flights will be added, if present intentions are realized,
extensive VTOL. and STOL commercial operations in and out of the city.21 Not to
be dismissed as purely imaginary is the possibility of personal helicopter fly-
ing and jet back-packs for individual locomotion in the air. Kits have been
available for some years permitting the buyer to assemble his own single-place
autocopter. Until recently, the jet backpack was powered by a blast of com-
pressed air, but a small jet turbine now provides much longer flight. ...
The third category of urban noise comprises such varied sources as: construction
equipment, particularly jackhammers, air compressors, concrete-mixing and riv-
eting machines; air-conditioning blowers on building rooftops; outdoor vacuum-
cleaning machines; lawn mowers, chain-saws, and other tools and toys powered by
gasoline engines; car-washes; automobile crushing and pelletizing; outboard-
motor boats; and exterior loud-speaker systems. This miscellaneous category of
noisemakers in the urban scene appears to be growing as urban densities and the
standard of living rise, and as leisure time and recreational activities increase.
Noise Control: Freeways, Ground Vehicles and Powered Equipment
Engine Noise
First, it must be determined if new legislation with stricter standards for muf-
flers, engine enclosure, and tire design is needed on original truck, bus, motor-
cycle, passenger car, and other ground vehicles before they can be sold within
the municipality. At the same time, police patrol cars must be equipped with
sound meters permitting the monitoring and control of vehicular noise in accord-
ance with urbanwide limits. Stockholm has had such acoustical patrolling for
years. In particular, the louder noise of fourthhand and poorly maintained cars
must be controlled, even if this means a long-term public loan or subsidy for the
low-income owner who cannot pay for the repair required to reduce the noise from
his car and has no alternative to its use for his gainful employment. Fines for
violations must be high enough to definitely deter disregard of noise-control
regulations.
Insulation
If not already existing, construction standards should be established which pro-
vide the occupants of buildings along noisy transportation corridors with reason-
able protection against this environmental impairment, except where topographi-
cal defilade of a permanent nature screens out the transmission of noise from
highway or rail traffic. These acoustical insulation standards and their enforce-
ment would be the responsibility of the municipal department with jurisdiction
over the building code. With the sound insulation of roofs added, these same
regulations might be required as the minima for new construction in areas sur-
rounding airports.
Screening
Exterior screening or buffering is also effective in certain environmental noise
situations. Fences, walls, or earth mounds along the right-of-way boundaries of
automobile expressways can sometimes protect adjacent single-story dwellings from
21 Charles Einstein, "There's a STOL in Your Future," Los Angeles Times, West Magazine, 10
August 1969, pp. 8-12; Bruce Ellison, "STOL, The Coming Invasion of America," Rotor & Wing
4, no. 11 (November/December 1970): 22-25, 32-33.
2 See above footnote 17.
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most of the expressway noise. Dense rows of trees or large shrubs planted at
freeway borders can reduce noise by about 1 decibel for every 4 feet of thickness,
as well as cut off direct view of traffic, reduce the glare from automobile lights
at night, and mitigate smog and exhaust fumes slightly. Autobahns in West Ger-
many are frequently lined with trees. High acoustical screens of wood or masonry,
made as visually pleasing as feasible, may be worth while where an activity such
as an open-air amphitheater, auditorium, or otherwise tranquil pocket park is
subject to freeway roar. Such buffers would be installed and maintained by the
state department of highways or its equivalent or by whatever agency controlled
the auditorium, park, or facility needing noise protection.23
Subdivision, Projeet, and Building Design
Noise is reduced by an arrangement of single-family dwellings on land alongside a
freeway which: "backs up" lots to the expressway; places houses as far forward on
these lots as feasible to increase distance from the freeway; provides for gar-
ages, a masonry fence, and/or dense landscaping as a screen between the house and
the expressway; and uses house plans which locate those functions within the home
least disrupted by noise, closest to the freeway and also possibly with an insu-
lated wall with no windows facing the freeway. Similarly, in project design, the
operations least disturbed by vehicular noise may be placed closest to the trans-
portation artery, and in such a way that they screen other activities more sensi-
tive to vehicular noise. For example, for some industrial and commercial activi-
ties, warehousing and other storage facilities can be interposed as an effective
barrier between the noise source and areas or functions to be protected. Of
course, distance itself reduces sound; doubling the distance from a. noise source
reduces its intensity approximately 6 dB(A).
Land Use
Another way of controlling the effects of freeway noise is regulating the land use
permitted or encouraged on bordering property. If it were feasible to limit this
to open space, there would be far fewer people, of course, subject to freeway roar.
But cities cannot do without the tax revenues from what would be a significant per-
centage of the most accessible urban land, and they would have to withstand year
after year the age-old pressures for intense land use next to principal highways.
With good subdivision, project, and building design as described briefly above,
freeway noise need not preclude the location close by of any but the most noise-
sensitive land uses. Clearly, residential land uses will in general require high
development standards to insure that dwelling units are not made undesirable and
thereby progressively deteriorated by the noise from the nearby traffic artery.
Probably industrial land use suffers the fewest ill effects of location next to an
expressway. It can most easily afford adequate insulation, part of which may be
required by industrial health standards for noise levels inside the building. On
the average, fewer people are involved than for multiple-story commercial or
apartment concentrations. And the industrial project can often be designed so
that noise-insensitive areas screen spaces either occupied by people or industri-
ally sensitive to noise.
Powered Equipment
There must be acoustical limitations in the municipal building code for air-condi-
tioning units unenclosed or insufficiently insulated, for automatic car-washes,
23 John J. Beaton, and Louis Bourget, Can Noise Radiation From Highways Be Reduced by Design?
Highway Research Report No. M&R 636316-1 (Sacramento, Cal.: Materials and Research Department,
Division of Highways, Department of Public Works, Highway Transportation Agency, January 1968),
28 pp. Paper.
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and other mechanical equipment which produces excessive noise for nearby dwelling
units. Building inspectors, in the course of inspection for other purposes, can
sample check various installations with respect to noise, and investigate noise
violations. Sale of equipment which is designed without regard to noise—such as
some gasoline-powered lawnmowers, minicycles, and power tools—should be prohib-
ited within the municipality. For if noise-polluting sources are allowed to be
sold and to multiply throughout the city, the difficulty of quietening them later
is magnified. An example of such a potential source is the gas turbine engine
now being promoted for power generation. While it contributes less to smog than
do gasoline engines, it could add appreciably to noise pollution. The municipal
departments responsible for controlling noise pollution by powered equipment are
those empowered to prohibit the sale of products which do not meet municipal stand-
ards of health, safety, and amenity, and those responsible for the inspection of
buildings and their equipment.
Noise Control: Airports, Aircraft, and Airways
Aircraft
Prevention of aircraft noise pollution involves the same general elements of con-
trol as for vehicles: the noise source and its location on the ground or in the
air; land use; building insulation; screening; and subdivision and project design.
Until recently, aircraft-engine manufacturers paid little attention to reducing
the sound levels of these primary sources of outdoor noise pollution. The U.S.
Federal Aviation Administration (F.A.A.) has recently reduced permissible noise
levels of new aircraft engines, but the new levels are well above what can be
tolerated around airports from the viewpoint of environmental city planning. Nor
has the federal government announced a definite policy with respect to the forth-
coming sonic booms of supersonic aircraft.24 Procrastination and irresolution
are the order of the environmental day.
Local governments must take whatever actions they can to prevent aircraft-noise
pollution and constantly pressure higher levels of government to find the courage
to act. For it is the local government which suffers directly from rising air-
craft noise, and it is the municipality which may have its economic as well as
environmental health hurt by noise pollution. The fact that the federal govern-
ment has legal jurisdiction over the airways above an indefinite height over the
ground should not deter municipalities from establishing firm control over the
immediate air environment—except the approach, landing, and take-off paths to
F.A.A. certified airports. Without this control of its environmental "third di-
mension," a city cannot prevent the fouling of its own nest by federal inaction
or error.25 The best such protection is reducing aircraft-engine noise at the
source. If airlines know that they will be heavily fined after every landing if
their aircraft does not meet municipal noise requirements, they will certainly
seek alternate airplanes or routes. If these standards cannot be met, introduc-
tion of new aircraft into the community should wait until technological advances
make this possible.26
Airports and Airways
All too often, cities have allowed airports to expand and bring severe noise pol-
lution to surrounding developments originally some distance away. Or cities have
24 Carl D. Kryter, "Sonic Booms from Supersonic Transport," Science 163, no. 24 (January 1969):
359-67; George Muscone, "The SST and the California Environment: Bangs and Superbangs," Cry
California 4, no. 1 (Winter 1968-69): 5-11.
25 Ray Donley, "Community Noise Regulation," Sound and Vibration (February 1969): 12-21.
26 Committee on Public Engineering Policy, National Academy of Engineering, "Experimental Techno-
logy Assessments, Subsonic Aircraft Noise," in A Study of Technology Assessment (Washington,
D.C.: Superintendent of Documents, July 1969), pp. 76-95.
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permitted building up to airport property lines, with little or no protection from
aircraft noise. Resulting questions of environmental responsibility and liability
will be settled sooner or later in the courts, as numerous lawsuits are decided.
The critical requirement at present is to install automatic sound-monitoring at
airport property lines to enforce noise limits established for aircraft approach-
ing, landing, taxiing, taking off, and testing engines. But . . . the noise from
aircraft spreads far beyond the vicinity of airports. More and more airways ex-
tend over the larger cities as the aircraft and airline industries strive to
create a bigger and bigger demand for air travel. This urban overflight and over-
head noise have been ignored or avoided. For example, a high official of the Wes-
tern Regional Office of the F.A.A. is quoted to agree that this federal office has
not been taking into account in planning air routes their noise effects on metro-
politan Los Angeles. He is reported to concur that higher altitudes for flights
returning eastward over land after takeoff westward over the Pacific Ocean, would
reduce the noise of these overflights in the city.27 It is a mistake for a muni-
cipality to depend on someone else to establish noise limits it requires for its
own environmental protection. And its urbanwide noise-monitoring system must ex-
tend well beyond airport property lines.
Land Use
The F.A.A. has been encouraging industrial and commercial use of land subject to the
most intense noise not only at both ends of airport runways but more generally sur-
rounding airports. The point is made that around a busy, noisy, industrial-type
land use such as a major airport is no place for adjacent residential development
needing and expecting reasonable neighborhood peace and quiet. Schools may not be
able to conduct classes; libraries and some medical offices could also be badly
affected. The most difficult situations exist where major airports are bordered
by residential areas with no open space or other deliberate land use buffer in be-
tween. Yet today there are new residential properties being crowded close to ac-
tive, noisy, and growing airports, without special acoustical provisions or sub-
division design to reduce the impact of aircraft noise. Certainly, this should
not be possible, for we know from long experience how overoptimistic or undiscern-
ing homebuyers can be in making what is usually the biggest investment of their
lives. Sometimes they are deliberately misled.
There have developed over the past 25 years or so other land use dynamics around
urban airports.28 The first to come, wanting to locate on bordering property,
were industrial activities closely related to airplanes. Then came other indus-
tries whose products required fast shipment by air. These were followed by busi-
nesses requiring a continuous flow of people from far and wide who wished to come
and go as quickly as possible. This led to hotels, restaurants, and other direct-
ly supportive commercial land use nearby. And, finally, as airports grow and be-
come large employment centers in themselves, they generate additional commercial
needs such as businesses closely connected with airport operations and activities,
and shopping and services used by airport employees near their place of work.
That there is development pressure to crowd industrial and commercial land used
close to airports is self-evident. The critical question is whether this cycle
of development should be as uncontrolled as the earlier residential subdivision
which led to environmental deterioration and lawsuits for damages. This in turn
relates to two other key questions. Will the very severe traffic congestion which
exists on the ground around most airports today slowly but surely depress industry
and commerce crowded too close? And, even if building interiors are acoustically
protected, will the fact that outdoor noise from aircraft will be so pervasive in
the future make a difference in land use demand and development around airports?
At the busiest airports, aircraft are expected to be taking off or landing less
27 Larry Levins, "Action on Plain Noise Protests," Beverly Bills Citizen, 8 January 1970, p. 1.
28 Arde, Inc. and Town and City, Inc., A Study of the Optimum Use of Land Exposed to Aircraft
Landing and Takeoff Noise,, NASA Contractor Report CR-410, Prepared under Contract NAS 1-3697
for Langley research Center (Washington, D. C.: National Aeronautics and Space Administration,
March 1966), 140 pp.; Michael J. Meshenberg, Planning the Airport Environment, Planning Advisory
Service Report No. 231 (Chicago, 111.: American Society of Planning Officials, February 1968), 38 pp.
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than every 15 seconds on the average. These are basic questions of city planning,
best determined for each particular situation. For example, airports can screen
themselves off to a degree by locating buildings along the edge of their property
between a runway and bordering residences. Masonry walls along the property line,
together with a thick border of trees, can do much to screen noise generated on
the ground within airports and hide from adjacent view what is becoming more and
more an industrial operation characterized as much by grime, grit, and fumes as
cacophony of sound.
For new airports, new communities, and existing airfields slated for growth but
now surrounded by undeveloped land, the highest degree of forethought, continu-
ous master planning, and land use control must be applied. First and foremost,
while the land is still free of urban structures, a surrounding buffer of open
land large enough to include the area subject to aircraft-noise pollution should
be bought, land development rights purchased, or otherwise absolutely controlled
against any but approved and time-limited land use which have relieved the air-
port and municipality from all noise liability. These protective noise belts
can be used for agriculture, recreational activities involving few people, traf-
ficways, and parking places. Expansion of the airport beyond its planned capa-
city and area limits is not allowed, unless technological advances permit intensi-
fication or extension without impairment of the surrounding environment.
Monitoring and Analysis
Controlling outdoor noise pollution requires a set of permissible limits and their
measurements for a variety of existing and potential sources. It also requires
the simplest workable method of measurement, for the success of local laws de-
pends on voluntary compliance and reporting of violations by the citizenry-
Sample check on compliance is all that can be afforded without prohibitive muni-
cipal costs. The A-Scale or dB(A) measurement of sound most closely fits these
essential requirements. It most nearly approximates human hearing and reaction
to sound. It is understandable to the average person. It involves no transforma-
tion calculations. A-Scale readings are readily converted into approximate PNdB
and several other sound measurement scales. And A-Scale sound meters are less
expensive than other types.29
Sound meters in police cars and at stationary locations along trafficways are the
direct way of enforcing noise limits for automotive vehicles and powered equip-
ment. Noise readings can be added to random or regular inspection of automobile
brakes, lights, and other safety equipment. And, in some cities, noise meters
could be added to vehicles used for air-pollution inspection. It would certainly
be appropriate to observe noise as well as chemical pollution of the urban air.
Control of aircraft noise overhead requires an Environmental Air Traffic Control-
ler in the radar control center of the major metropolitan airport. The control-
ler's sole responsibility would be to monitor compliance with air-traffic routes
and altitudes established to reduce noise, to identify and report all violations,
and to recommend continued improvement of the system. A licensing or inspection
agency of municipal government must also check by random sampling whether vehi-
cles, aircraft, powered equipment, and other manufactured products meet urban en-
vironmental noise standards. Because complete inspection is impractical and pro-
hibitively costly, an urbanwide system of noise reporting and recording is most
desirable. There is a possible basis for this system in the telephone network
extending throughout the city. It should be possible to phone a noise control and
and information center to report and acoustically record a sound believed to be
above permissible limits. The record of citizen reports and noise-patrol reports,
sound frequencies and intensities as transmitted by the telephone system, and re-
sults of specific inspections could be analyzed for: the predominant kinds of
outdoor noise; persistent problems and violations; correlations with land
economic condition of a business or industry; trends in the types and intensities
° Harold M. Frederickson, "Noise Control on the Local Level," Proceedings of the Sixth Conference
on Environmental Health (April 1969), 10 pp.: Division of Applied Physics, National Research
Council of Canada, A Brief Study of a Rational Approach to Legislative Control of Noise (Ottawa,
Ontario, 1968), 40 pp.
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of exterior noise; and any urban-wide patterns revealed in the accumulated data.
It should also be possible to identify new sources of noise as reports accumulate.
• • •
Conclusions and Recommendations
Legislation. Enact laws limiting man-made noise in the outdoor urban environment;
license the sale locally of products presently or potentially noisy; establish re-
sponsibility for noise emission and control; create an office within municipal
government to take the lead locally in the abatement and prevention of noise pol-
lution; provide mandatory notice to home buyers when their dwelling is in an
existing or potential area of noise pollution; set acoustical insulation standards
for new apartments throughout the city and new single-family houses in designated
areas.
Planning and Operations. Appoint an Environmental Air Traffic Controller to moni-
tor air-traffic routes over the city and control overhead aircraft noise; equip
ground patrol vehicles with sound meters to monitor ground noise; install sound
recorders at airports and elsewhere in the municipality to monitor air-traffic
noise; plan municipal facilities of every type so that they either meet or better
noise standards; formally consider noise in subdivision, land use, and city plan-
ning; institute a municipal purchasing policy requiring bidders to meet municipal
noise standards.
Information and Analysis. Establish a city system for gathering and analyzing
noise information.
Advoaaoy. Pressure federal and state governments to adopt and accept new and
stricter limits for noise emission in metropolitan environments; urge manufacturers
to make products with low noise emission.
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Muskegon County, Michigan, Mends
Waste Lands with Waste Water
Can county government effectively deal with problems of environmental pollution?
The reapportioned Muskegon County, Mich., Board of Commissioners says yes and they
have the program to prove it. The Muskegon County Waste-water Management Plan
developed under the direction of the Board has been referred to by President
Richard M. Nixon as an "innovative system of water-borne waste disposal. ... a
new and promising approach to sewage disposal."
Familiarity with this pioneering effort can provide direction for other counties
faced with problems of environmental degradation. Also, the Muskegon County expe-
rience can serve to encourage county officials who are reluctant to undertake the
formulation of county wide wastewater systems because of the risk of failure.
To best appreciate the Muskegon County plan, it is necessary to have an under-
standing of the three distinct stages that made up the planning process which
resulted in the plan. The first stage involved the undertaking of a water-re-
sources policy study. The primary purpose of this study was to provide a policy
framework for specific water and sewer plans which were to be prepared. The
second stage was directed toward the formulation of a waste-water management plan.
This plan was designed to be a total solution, both in terms of area (joining the
incorporated and unincorporated areas together) and treatment (no direct discharge
of any wastes into any water course). The final stage involved the implementation
of the plan. In essence, the implementation required the functional consolidation
of all waste water management activities in the county.
An important aspect of the planning process relates to the people involved. Al-
though the County Board is made up of 9 Democrats and 6 Republicans, the Board
approached the subject on a non-partisan basis. Harmony reigned throughout the
planning process; the Board members knew they had a job to do and they joined
together to do it. The Economic Development Commission (Planning Commission) under
the leadership of its chairman, Michael Kobza, spent countless hours in the policy
background, formulation, and implementation stages of the plan. Of particular im-
portance to the effort were the professionals who supported the elected officials.
County Administrator Ray S. Wells, and Planning Director R. T. Dittmer, were the
principal staff members associated with the plan. Based on the Muskegon County
experience, it appears that competent professionals in county government are a
prerequisite for success.
Policy Study and Research
The undertaking of a policy study was the idea of the county planning director. In
this study, relevant interests were identified as a prelude to the establishment of
a broad base of understanding of future plans. In addition, information on goals,
problems, and management alternatives was obtained'to provide planning guidelines.
This information was gathered through personal interviews with representatives
from all sectors of the community, from an examination of published reports and
planning documents, and by an evaluation of on-going programs and development
decisions.
This article originally appeared in The American Countys Volume 35, No. 8, August 1970. Pp 32-35.
Reprinted by permission.
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The overall general development goals for Muskegon County which had the strongest
support were: (1) consolidation of governments and related services, and (2) eco-
nomic development (regional).
With respect to a water-resource management policy, the goals most desired were:
(1) improvement of environmental quality, (2) provision of an adequate water supply
for all needs, and (3) expansion of recreation opportunities.
The high degree of compatibility between the overall general development goals and
the water-resource management goals made it possible to use water management as a
basic planning device. The attainment of water management goals will to a large
measure help to attain general development goals. In this light, water is a sub-
system of a larger urban system and can assist the county in the realization of
its goals and aspirations.
An analysis of the problems confronting the county showed that the economic woes
were due, in part, to a failure to capitalize on the recreational resource poten-
tial and to develop an agricultural base. The cause for the low agriculture input
is the low fertility of the soil. These two employment deficiencies—service
industry and agriculture—can be linked together and related to issues of environ-
mental quality.
The provision of sewerage systems for the urbanized areas and more complete treat-
ment of municipal and industrial wastes ranked highest in terms of acceptability
of management alternatives. An assessment was made of the physical environment to
identify potential resources that could be related to a plan. This approach made
it possible to identify the forces in nature as opportunities that could be capi-
talized upon in the plan.
The policy study proved to be highly successful and provided meaningful guidelines
for use in the formulation of a waste-water management plan. It also served to
assist in the subsequent development of other needed planning activities.
The Plan and Three Fundamentals
The plan formulated constituted a synthesis of goals, problems, and management
opportunities. In essence, the waste-water management plan had the potential to
improve the environmental quality and also be the key to the expansion of recrea-
tional and agricultural opportunities. Partially treated waste-water discharged
into Mona, Muskegon, and White Lakes was accelerating eutrophication (enrichment)
of the water. Nutrients—nitrates, phosphates, and potassium—dissolved in waste-
water are the very items needed to make the unproductive soils productive. If
the nutrients were taken inland instead of being discharged into the water, the
environmental quality would improve because of the elimination of waste discharges;
in turn, the opportunity for the development of water-oriented recreation would be
enhanced and an agricultural potential developed.
The Muskegon County plan recognizes three fundamental principles. First, the earth
is a unit. We can no longer dispose of wastes by passing them from one area to
another on this earth. There are no "disposal" areas which will not come back to
haunt us, or our children, or our children's children. Second, pollutants are
simply resources out of place. The basic nutrients and minerals in industrial and
municipal wastes now entering our rivers and lakes cause excessive vegetation to
grow in those bodies of water, resulting in the rapid aging and premature death of
our precious water resources. We must see that these nutrients and minerals are
utilized in such a manner that they cause desirable vegetation to grow where we
want it to grow—on agricultural and forest lands. And third, we must recycle our
basic resources if man is to survive on this planet under conditions acceptable
to human beings. We must use our basic nutrients and minerals over and over again
rather than dispose of them wastefully.
Collection, Treatment, Irrigation
The basic components of the plan are (1) a collection system and transport pipe-
line, (2) treatment lagoons, (3) an irrigation site, and (4) a system to apply the
waste water (irrigation system). The system'functions in the following manner.
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A pipeline is used to transport all of the wastes from the urbanized part of the
county to a site that environmental geologic studies have shown to be safe for the
operation of waste-water management programs. A series of treatment lagoons are
constructed at the site that provide for aeration and aerobic bacteria to satisfy
bicchemical oxygen demand (BOD), settling to remove settleable solids, and sunlight
to convert some nitrates and phosphates into algal cell material which can be more
readily retained by the soil. The lagoon treatment facility produces an effluent
superior to that of a secondary sewage treatment plan (activated sludge) by substi-
tuting time for sludge accumulation.
The lagoon treatment facility offers several distinct advantages over traditional
treatment. First, large amounts of storage can be provided in the treatment lagoon
to hold and treat unusually large flows of water generally associated with storm-
water runoff and combined sewer overflow. Second, because of the large volume of
water held in the lagoon treatment facility, it has the capacity to assimilate
toxic shock loads associated with industrial spills. Even if the bacterial colony
is killed off by the toxic material, the incoming wastes are stored until another
colony can be established. This is quite different from an activated sludge plant,
where a colony kill results in the discharge of partially-treated wastes for 7 to
10 days until a new colony is established. An analysis of a large activated sludge
plant in the midwest showed that such colony kills are likely to occur as frequent-
ly as six times per year.
Another advantage is the effect of lagoons in terms of virus removal. Research has
shown that after 30 days' detention in a lagoon, only 30 percent of the samples
analyzed for 13 viruses were positive, whereas all samples were positive after
secondary treatment in an activated sludge plant.
Returning Vitals to the Earth
After the waste water is treated in the lagoon system, it is disinfected by chlorin-
ation and is applied to geologically-suited land areas which provide tertiary treat-
ment through the biological zone of the soil—appropriately named the living filter.
In Muskegon County, these areas tend to be glacial outwash plains which are unpro-
ductive because they lack water-holding capabilities and nutrients. By applying
the treated waste-water on these sites, both of the missing ingredients are pro-
vided and the barren land will become productive. The method of application
involves large automated rotating spray irrigation rigs which cover 160 acres
from a central point. These rigs require low labor inputs to operate and will
produce little, if any, aerosol or drift effect. Because the pipe rotates around
the field, the water does not have to be projected high into the air to gain
coverage.
The harvesting of animal feed crops from the irrigation site completes the treat-
ment process. The nutrients in the waste water are'harvested and, in addition,
heavy metals in the waste water are held by organic matter and clay particles in
the soil, and some are taken up as trace elements by the plants. The waste water,
after purification in the lagoons and treatment by the living filter, moves to the
ground-water table where it is discharged as base flow to water courses to augment
low flow or is recharged to the ground-water resource.
Waste Water for Farmlands
The plan will be creating a new agricultural industry in Muskegon County which
will help the local economy in a significant way. It will constructively utilize
resources which are wasted today, by converting them to agriculture crops rather
than water weeds and algae. . . .
When the waste-water management plan was presented to the reapportioned County
Board of Commissioners, it was" unanimously adopted as the official county plan.
Furthermore, upon presentation of the plan by County Administrator Ray S. Wells,
to all the local government units and key industries, similar unanimous responses
were obtained. U. S. Congressman Guy Vander Jagt observed that because of "the
magnificent cooperation of local units of government, the unsurpassed leadership
of Muskegon County officials, the tremendous response from the Federal Water Qual-
ity Administration and the President's Council on Environmental Quality, along
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rfith the approval by the State of Michigan, I will predict that the Muskegon County
raciiity will be the focal point for the Nation's battle to solve water pollution
proDiems. Furthermore, the Congressman referred to the program as ". . .a grand
ana glorious vision that would permit us to put water back into our lakes and
rivers that would be as pure as when the white man first saw them."
Muskegon County and all of western Michigan stand to benefit immensely from this
visionary effort to bring a sound approach to the solution of water pollution prob-
lems. Those citizens who have so long fought the seemingly hopeless battles against
tne contamination of our environment are about to win a significant and far reach-
ing victory in Muskegon County. ...
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Just v. Marinette County
Shorelands for the purpose of ordinances are defined in Sec. 59.971(1), Stats., as
lands within 1,000 feet of the normal high-water elevation of navigable lakes,
ponds, or flowages and 300 feet from a navigable river or stream or to the landward
side of the flood plain, whichever distance is greater. The state shoreland pro-
gram is unique. All county shoreland zoning ordinances must be approved by the
department of natural resources prior to their becoming effective. ... If a
county does not enact a shoreland zoning ordinance which complies with the state's
standards, the department of natural resources may enact such an ordinance for the
county. Sec. 59.971(6), Stats.
[2] There can be no disagreement over the public purpose sought to be obtained by
the ordinance. Its basic purpose is to protect navigable waters and the public
rights therein from the degradation and deterioration which results from uncon-
trolled use and development of Shorelands. In the Navigable Waters Protection Act,
Sec. 144.26, the purpose of the state's shoreland regulation program is stated as
being to "aid in the fulfillment of the state's role as trustee of its navigable
waters and to promote public health, safety, convenience and general welfare."!
In Sec. 59.971(1), which grants authority for shoreland zoning to counties, the
same purposes are reaffirmed.2 The Marinette county shoreland zoning ordinance in
Sees. 1.2 and 1.3 states the uncontrolled use of Shorelands and pollution of navi-
gable waters of Marinette county adversely affect public health, safety, conven-
ience, and general welfare and impair the tax base.
The shoreland zoning ordinance divides the Shorelands of Marinette county into
general purpose districts, general recreation districts, and conservancy districts.
A "conservancy" district is required by the statutory minimum standards and is de-
fined in Sec. 3.4 of the ordinance to include "all Shorelands designated as swamps
or marshes on the United States Geological Survey maps which have been designated
The above has been excerpted from the North Western Reporter (201 N.W.2d 761).
1 "144.26 Navigable waters protection law (1) To aid in the fulfillment of the state's role as
trustee of its navigable waters and to promote public health, safety, convenience and general wel-
fare, it is declared to be in the public interest to make studies, establish policies, make plans
and authorize municipal shoreland zoning regulations for the efficient use, conservation, develop-
ment and protection of this state's water resources. The regulations shall relate to lands under,
abutting or lying close to navigable waters. The purposes of the regulations shall be to further
the maintenance of safe and healthful conditions; prevent and control water pollution; protect
spawning grounds, fish and aquatic life; control building sites, placement of structure and land
uses and reserve shore cover and natural beauty ..."
n
"59.971 Zoning of shorelands on navigable waters (1) To effect the purposes of s. 144.26 and to
promote the public health, safety and general welfare, counties may, by ordinance enacted sepa-
rately from ordinances pursuant to s. 59.97, zone all lands (referred to herein as shorelands) in
their unincorporated areas within the following distances from the normal high-water elevation of
navigable waters as defined in s. 144.26(2)(d): 1,000 feet from a lake, pond or flowage; 300 feet
from a river or stream or to the landward side of the flood plain, whichever distance is greater.
If the navigable water is a glacial pothole lake, the distance shall be measured from the high
water-mark thereof."
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as the Shoreland Zoning Map of Marinette County, Wisconsin or on the detailed In-
sert Shoreland Zoning Maps." The ordinance provides for permitted uses and c°n~
ditional uses. 4 One of the conditional uses requiring a permit under Sec. 3.42(4)
is the filling, drainage or dredging of wetlands according to the provisions of
Sec. 5 of the ordinance. "Wetlands" are defined in Sec. 2.29 as "(a)reas where
ground water is at or near the surface much of the year or where any segment of
plant cover is deemed an aquatic according to N. C. Fassett's "Manual of Aquatic
Plants." Section 5.42(2) of the ordinance requires a conditional-use permit for
any filling or grading "Of any area which is within three hundred feet horizontal
distance of a navigable water and which has surface drainage toward the water and
on which there is: (a) Filling of more than five hundred square feet of any wet-
land which is contiguous to the water . . . (d) Filling or grading of more than
2,000 square feet on slopes of twelve percent or less."
In April of 1961, several years prior to the passage of this ordinance, the Justs
purchased 36.4 acres of land in the town of Lake along the south shore of Lake
Noquebay, a navigable lake in Marinette county. This land had a frontage of
1,266.7 feet on the lake and was purchased partially for personal use and par-
tially for resale. During the years 1964, 1966, and 1967, the Justs made five
sales of parcels having frontage and extending back from the lake some 600 feet,
leaving the property involved in these suits. This property has a frontage of
366.7 feet and the south one-half contains a stand of cedar, pine, various hard
woods, birch and red maple. The north one-half, closer to the lake, is barren of
trees except immediately along the shore. The south three-fourths of this north
one-half is populated with various plant grasses and vegetation including some
plants which N. C. Fassett in his manual of aquatic plants has classified as
"aquatic." There are also non-aquatic plants which grow upon the land. Along
the shoreline there is a belt of trees. The shoreline is from one foot to 3.2
feet higher than the lake level and there is a narrow belt of higher land along
the shore known as a "pressure ridge" or "ice heave," varying in width from one
to three feet. South of this point, the natural level of the land ranges one to
two feet above lake level. The land slopes generally toward the lake but has a
slope less than twelve percent. No water flows onto the land from the lake, but
there is some surface water which collects on land and stands in pools.
3 "3.41 Permitted Uses.
(1) Harvesting of any wild crop such as marsh hay, ferns, moss, wild rice, berries, tree
fruits and tree seeds.
(2) Sustained yield forestry subject to the provisions of Section 5.0 relating to removal
of shore cover.
(3) Utilities such as, but not restricted to, telephone, telegraph and power transmission
lines.
(4) Hunting, fishing, preservation of scenic, historic and scientific areas and wildlife
preserves.
(5) Non-resident buildings used solely in conjunction with raising water fowl, minnows,
and other similar lowland animals, fowl or fish.
(6) Hiking trails and bridle paths.
(7) Accessory uses.
(8) Signs, subject to the restriction of Section 2.0."
* "3.42 Conditional Uses, the following uses are permitted upon issuance of a Conditional Use
Permit as provided in Section 9.0 and issuance of a Department of Resource Development permit
where required by Section 30.11, 30.12, 30.19, 30.195 and 31.05 of the Wisconsin Statutes.
(1) General farming provided farm animals shall be kept one hundred feet from any non-farm
residence.
(2) Dams, power plants, flowages and ponds.
(3) Relocation of any water course.
(4) Filling, drainage or dredging of wetlands according to the provisions of Section 5.0 of
this ordinance.
(5) Removal of top soil or peat.
(6) Cranberry bogs.
(7) Piers, docks, boathouses."
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The land owned by the Justs is designated as swamps or marshes on the United
States Geological Survey Map and is located within 1,000 feet of the normal high-
water elevation of the lake. Thus, the property is included in a conservancy
district, and, by Sec. 2.29 of the ordinance, classified as "wetlands." Conse-
quently, in order to place more than 500 square feet of fill on this property,
the Justs were required to obtain a conditional-use permit from the zoning
administrator of the county and pay a fee of $20 or incur a forfeiture of $10 to
$200 for each day of violation.
In February and March of 1968, six months after the ordinance became effective,
Ronald Just, without securing a conditional-use permit, hauled 1,040 square yards
of sand onto this property and filled an area approximately 20 feet wide commenc-
ing at the southwest corner and extending almost 600 feet north to the northwest
corner near the shoreline, then easterly along the shoreline almost to the lot
line. He stayed back from the pressure ridge about 20 feet. More than 500 square
feet of this fill was upon wetlands located contiguous to the water and which had
surface drainage toward the lake. The fill within 300 feet of the lake also was
more than 2,000 square feet on a slope less than 12 percent. It is not seriously
contended that the Justs did not violate the ordinance and the trial court cor-
rectly found a violation.
The real issue is whether the conservancy district provisions and the wetlands-
filling restrictions are unconstitutional because they amount to a constructive
taking of the Justs' land without compensation. Marinette county and the state
of Wisconsin argue the restrictions of the conservancy district and wetlands
provisions constitute a proper exercise of the police power of the state and do
not so severely limit the use or depreciate the value of the land as to consti-
tute a taking without compensation.
[3-8] To state the issue in more meaningful terms, it is a conflict between
the public interest in stopping the despoliation of natural resources, which our
citizens until recently have taken as inevitable and for granted, and an owner's
asserted right to use his property as he wishes. The protection of public rights
may be accomplished by the exercise of the police power unless the damage to the
property owner is too great and amounts to a confiscation. The securing or tak-
ing of a benefit not presently enjoyed by the public for its use is obtained by
the government through its power of eminent domain. The distinction between the
exercise of the police power and condemnation has been said to be a matter of
degree of damage to the property owner. In the valid exercise of the police
power reasonably restricting the use of property, the damage suffered by the
owner is said to be incidental. However, where the restriction is so great the
landowner ought not to bear such a burden for the public good, the restriction
has been held to be a constructive taking even though the actual use or forbidden
use has not been transferred to the government so as to be a taking in the
traditional sense. . . . Whether a taking has occurred depends upon whether "the
restriction practically or substantially renders the land useless for all reason-
able purposes." . . . The loss caused the individual must be weighed to determine
if it is more than he should bear. As this court stated in Stefan, at pp. 369-370,
124 N.W.2d 319, p. 323, ". . . if the damage is such as to be suffered by many
similarly situated and is in the nature of a restriction on the use to which land
may be put and ought to be borne by the individual as a member of society for the
good of the public safety, health or general welfare, it is said to be a reason-
able exercise of the police power, but if the damage is so great to the individ-
ual that he ought not to bear it under contemporary standards, then courts are
inclined to treat it as a 'taking1 of the property or an unreasonable exercise
of the police power."
[9] Many years ago, Professor Freund stated in his work on The Police Power,
Sec. 511, at 546-547: "It may be said that the state takes property by eminent
domain because it is useful to the public, and under the police power because it
is harmful . . . From this results the difference between the power of eminent
domain and the police power, that the former recognizes a right to compensation,
while the latter on principle does not." Thus the necessity for monetary compen-
sation for loss suffered to an owner by police power restriction arises when
restrictions are placed on property in order to create a public benefit rather
than to prevent a public harm. (Rathkopf, The Law of Zoning and Planning,
Vol. 1, ch. 6, pp. 6-7.)
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[10] This case causes us to reexamine the concepts of public benefit in con-
trast to public harm and the scope of an owner's right to use of his property.
In the instant case we have a restriction on the use of a citizen's property, not
to secure a benefit for the public, but to prevent a harm from the change in the
natural character of the citizen's property. We start with the premise that lakes
and rivers in their natural state are unpolluted and the pollution which now
exists is man made. The state of Wisconsin under the trust doctrine has a duty
to eradicate the present pollution and to prevent further pollution in its navi-
gable waters. This is not, in a legal sense, a gain or a securing of a benefit
by the maintaining of the natural status quo of the environment. What makes this
case different from most condemnation or police power zoning cases is the inter-
relationship of the wetlands, the swamps and the natural environment of shorelands
to the purity of the water and to such natural resources as navigation, fishing,
and scenic beauty. Swamps and wetlands were once considered wasteland, undesir-
able, and not picturesque. But as the people became more sophisticated, an
appreciation was acquired that swamps and wetlands serve a vital role in nature,
are part of the balance of nature and are essential to the purity of the water
in our lakes and streams. Swamps and wetlands are a necessary part of the ecol-
ogical creation and now, even to the uninitiated, possess their own beauty in
nature.
[11,12] Is the ownership of a parcel of land so absolute that man can change
its nature to s\iit any of his purposes? The qreat forests of our state were
stripped on the theory that man's ownership was unlimited. But in forestry, the
land at least was used naturally; only the natural fruit of the land (the trees)
were taken. The despoilage was in the failure to look to the future and provide
for the reforestration of the land. An owner of land has no absolute and unlimited
right to change the essential natural character of his land so as to use it for
a purpose for which it was unsuited in its natural state and which injures the
rights of others. The exercise of the police power in zoning must be reasonable
and we think it is not an unreasonable exercise of that power to prevent harm
to public rights by limiting the use of private property to its natural uses.
[13] This is not a case where an owner is prevented from using his land for
natural and indigenous uses. The uses consistent with the nature of the land
are allowed and other uses recognized and still others permitted by special permit.
The shoreland zoning ordinance prevents to some extent the changing of the natural
character of the land within 1,000 feet of a navigable lake and 300 feet of a
navigable river because of such land's interrelation to the contiguous water.
The changing of wetlands and swamps to the damage of the general public by
upsetting the natural environment and the natural relationship is not a reason-
able use of that land which is protected from police power regulation. Changes
and filling to some extent are permitted because the extent of such changes and
fillings does not cause harm. We realize no case in Wisconsin has yet dealt with
shoreland regulations and there are several cases in other states which seem to
hold such regulations unconstitutional; but nothing this court has said or held
in prior cases indicate that destroying the natural character of a swamp or a
wetland so as to make that location available for human habitation is a reasonable
use of that land when the new use, although of a more economical value to the
owner, causes a harm to the general public.
[14, 15] Wisconsin has long held that laws and regulations to prevent pollu-
tion and to protect the waters of this state from degradation are valid police
power enactments. . . . The active public trust duty of the state of Wisconsin
in respect to navigable waters requires the state not only to promote navigation
but also to protect and preserve those waters for fishing, recreation, and scenic
beauty. ... To further this duty, the legislature may delegate authority to
local units of the government, which the state did by requiring counties to
pass shoreland zoning ordinances. . . .
[16, 17] This is not a case of an isolated swamp unrelated to a navigable
lake or stream, the change of which would cause no harm to public rights. Lands
adjacent to or near navigable waters exist in a special relationship to the state.
They have been held subject to special taxation, . . . and are subject to the
state public trust powers; . . . and since the Laws of 1935, ch. 303^—eeuntieB
have been authorized to create special zoning districts alontg^-wat'£rways and
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zone them for restrictive conservancy purposes.5 The restrictions in the Marinette
County ordinance upon wetlands within 1,000 feet of Lake Noquebay which prevent
the placing of excess fill upon such land without a permit is not confiscatory or
unreasonable.
The Justs rely on several cases from other jurisdictions which have held zoning
regulations involving flood plain districts, flood basins and wetlands to be so
confiscatory as to amount to a taking because the owners of the land were prevented
from improving such property for residential or commercial purposes. While some
of these cases may be distinguished on their facts, it is doubtful whether these
differences go to the basic rationale which permeates the decision that an owner
has a right to use his property in any way and for any purpose he sees fit. In
Dooley v. Town Plan & Zon. Com. of Town of Fairfield (1964), 151 Conn. 304, 197
A.2d 770, the court held the restriction «n land located in a flood plain dis-
trict prevented its being used for residential or business purposes and thus the
restriction destroyed the economic value to the owner. The court recognized the
land was needed for a public purpose as it was part of the area in which the tidal
stream overflowed when abnormally high tides existed, but the property was half a
mile from the ocean and therefore could not be used for marina or boathouse
purposes. In Morris County Land I. Co. v. Parsippany-Troy Hills Tp. (1963),
40 N.J. 539, 193 A.2d 232, a flood basin zoning ordinance was involved which
required the controversial land to be retained in its natural state. The plain-
tiff owned 66 acres of a 1,500-acre swamp which was part of a river basin and
acted as a natural detention basin for flood waters in times of very heavy rain-
fall. There was an extraneous issue that the freezing regulations were intended
as a stop-gap until such time as the government would buy the property under a
flood-control project. However, the court took the view the zoning had an ef-
fect of preserving the land as an open space as a water-detention basin and only
the government or the public would be benefited, to the complete damage of the
owner.
In State v. Johnson (1970), Me., 265 A.2d 711, the Wetlands Act restricted the
alteration and use of certain wetlands without permission. The act was a conser-
vation measure enacted under the police power to protect the ecology of areas
bordering the coastal waters. The plaintiff owned a small tract of a salt-water
marsh which was flooded at high tide. By filling, the land would be adapted for
building purposes. The court held the restrictions against filling constituted
a deprivation of a reasonable use of the owner's property and, thus, an unreason-
able exercise of the police power. In MacGibbon v. Board of Appeals of Duxbury
(1970) , 356 Mass. 635 255 N.E.2d 347, the plaintiff owned seven acres of land
which were under water about twice a month in a shoreland area. He was denied
a permit to excavate and fill part of his property. The purpose of the ordinance
was to preserve from despoilage natural features and resources such as salt
marshes, wetlands, and ponds. The court took the view the preservation of
privately owned land in its natural, unspoiled state for the enjoyment and
benefit of the public by preventing the owner from using it for any practical
purpose was not within the limit and scope of the police power and the ordinance
was not saved by the use of special permits.
[18] It seems to us that filling a swamp not otherwise commercially usable is
not in and of itself an existing use, which is prevented, but rather is the prepa-
ration for some future use which is not indigenous to a swamp. Too much stress is
laid on the right of an owner to change commercially valueless land when that
change does damage- £p the rights of a public^- *& re oEservecPthat a use of
speciai -permits is a me~aivs_ of centre! -aficl accomplishing the purpose of the zoning
ordinance as distinguished from the old concept of providing for variances. The
special permit technique is now common practice and has met with judicial approval,
and we think it is of some significance in considering whether or not a particular
zoning ordinance is reasonable.
A recent case sustaining the validity of a zoning ordinance establishing a flood
5 In Jefferson County v. Timmel (1952), 261 Wis. 39, 51 N. WL2d 518, the constitutionality of a
conservancy district use restriction was upheld as being based on a valid exercise of police power.
The purpose for this conservancy district, however, was for highway safety and not for the preven-
tion of pollution and the protection of the public trust in navigable waters.
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plain district is Turnpike Realty Company v. Town of Dedham (June, 1972), 72 Mass.
1303, 284 N.E.2d 891. The court held the validity of the ordinance was supported
by valid considerations of public welfare, the conservation of "natural condi-
tions, wildlife and open spaces." The ordinance provided that lands which were
subject to seasonal or periodic flooding could not be used for residences or otner
purposes in such a manner as to endanger the health, safety or occupancy thereot
and prohibited the erection of structures or buildings which required land to be
filled. This case is analogous to the instant facts. The ordinance had a public
purpose to preserve the natural condition of the area. No change was allowed
which would injure the purposes sought to be preserved and through the special-
permit technique, particular land within the zoning district could be excepted
from the restrictions.
[19] The Justs argue their property has been severely depreciated in value.
But this depreciation of value is not based on the use of the land in its natural
state but on what the land would be worth if it could be filled and used for the
location of a dwelling. While loss of value is to be considered in determining
whether a restriction is a constructive taking, value based upon changing the
character of the land at the expense of harm to public rights is not an essential
factor or controlling.
We are not unmindful of the warning in Pennsylvania Coal Co. v. Mahon (1922),
260 U.S. 393, 416, 43 S.Ct. 158, 160, 67 L.Ed. 322: ". . . We are in danger of
forgetting that a strong public desire to improve the public condition is not
enough to warrant achieving the desire by a shorter cut than the constitutional
way of paying for the change."
This observation refers to the improvement of the public condition, the securing
of a benefit not presently enjoyed and to which the public is not entitled. The
shoreland zoning ordinance preserves nature, the environment, and natural resour-
ces as they were created and to which the people have a present right. The or-
dinance does not create or improve the public condition but only preserves nature
from the despoilage and harm resulting from the unrestricted activities of humans.
6 On the letterhead of the Jackson County Zoning and Sanitation Department, the following ap-
pears: "The land belongs to the people ... a little of it to those dead . . . some to those
living . . . but most of it belongs to those yet to be born. . ."
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Conflicts Yet Unborn
I thought, We have geared the machines and locked all
together into interdependence; we have built the
great cities; now
There is no escape. We have gathered vast populations
incapable of free survival, insulated
From the strong earth, each person in himself helpless, on
all dependent. The circle is closed, and the net
Is being hauled in ...
Robinson Jeffers
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Conflicts Yet Unborn
Richard F. Babcock and Fred P. Bosselman
Land use law is society's technique for preventing or resolving conflicts between
various ways of Busing land. As the future brings new ways of using land it will
bring new conflicts, which in turn will require changes in our system of land use
law-
In the past such changes have all too often taken place without conscious fore-
thought. After a new way of using land is developed the legal rules that seem most
analogous are stretched, squeezed or bent to adapt to the changed conditions. But
if we examine prospective changes in our ways of using land well in advance, it
will often be possible to custom-tailor new legal institutions to society's real
needs.
This paper discusses three possible changes in our future ways of using land and
examines the impact of these changes on the legal system. Neither the desirability
nor the inevitability of these changes is at issue here. All have been widely dis-
cussed as possibilities, and the likelihood of their occurrence is at least suffi-
cient to justify examination of the consequences for the legal system.
Control of Migration
Since the Articles of Confederation our government has been based on the proposi-
tion that "We are all citizens of the United States; and as members of the same
community, must have the right to pass and repass through every part of it without
interruption, as freely as in our own states."1 The right of each part of the
country to compete to attract industries and offices and dams and air-bases is a
deeply ingrained element of our political system.
Conversely, our system recognizes that no part of the country has any direct power
to prevent other citizens of the United States from immigrating. Attempts by the
states to limit the migration of welfare recipients have been thrown out by the
courts repeatedly.
The United States is not atypical in its experience. The English have failed to
stop southeast migration from Glasgow to London. As the Meyersons have pointed
out, "no country, even the authoritarian Soviet Union, has successfully limited the
size of population-magnet cities."2 The shantytowns outside Brasilia bear witness
to the failure of present systems.
This paper was prepared for a Conference sponsored by the National Science Foundation held in
Boulder, Colorado, July 23 to August 4, 1972. The full text of the paper will appear in Environ-
ment: A New Focus for Land Use., edited by Donald McAllister, to be published by the
National Science Foundation.
1 Passenger Cases, 7 How. (48 U.S.) 283, 492.
2 Martin and Margy Meyerson, "Some Questions About Enhancing the Quality of the Urban Environ-
ment," in The Future of the United States Government, H. Perloff, ed., 327, 333 (1971).
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Our increasing awareness of the interrelated elements of our environment is lead-
ing many to conclude, however, that the carrying capacity of the ecosystems of
many areas of the country have already been exceeded. It is conceivable that our
constitutional traditions must give way to an environmental crisis- At least
Dr. Commoner suggests that "whatever stands in the way of the necessary accommoda-
tion to the ecological imperative. . . will need to abdicate its immunity from
change."
Assuming that new legal rules to control migration are demanded, how will they
develop? If they develop incrementally they will probably take the form of con-
trols over the use of land analogous to those by which we now limit portions of
metropolitan areas to members of upper income groups. By direct or indirect means
whole regions of the country might be reserved for the upper classes, with neces-
sary low-paid workers bussed in and out like South African gold miners.
But if we were to devise a different system of controlling migration—assuming for
purposes of argument that it must be controlled—how would we do it? To allow local
areas to choose their own methods of limiting migration would inevitably favor
existing residents. Thus a national system of regulation seems inevitable. But
with what criteria?
Let us assume that the national government concludes that South Florida can sup-
port only its present level of population rather than the doubling of it that is
currently predicted. How do we choose who gets to live in Miami? Only those over
65? Do we choose a cross-section of ethnic groups? Do we try to match talents to
jobs? Is it first-in, last-out?
This exercise in devising a legal system for controlling migration is not pure
whimsy. If, as we suspect, it results in demonstrating that all of the potential
methods of controlling migration portend horrendous social consequences, it will
demonstrate that any "ecological imperative" which requires this type of control
had better be pretty damned imperative!
The Law of the Megastructure
A more appealing alternative to the crisis foreseen for overcrowded urban areas
is the creation of new systems of urban living at high densities that minimize en-
vironmental problems. Various proposals for such systems have been put forth in
recent years, cities domed or subterranean, floating or sunken, all lumped for
purposes of this discussion in the category "megastructures."
All megastructures have a common emphasis on a three-dimensional element. Activi-
ties would be pursued on a multitude of vertical levels. This requires a number
of changes in basic legal theories.
Traditionally the common law visualized land for commodity purposes as the surface
of the earth together with the ground beneath down to the center of the earth and
the air above to infinity. The man who owned the surface owned all that was above
and below.
Technological developments have brought changes in this concept, but they have come
about incrementally, through the creation of exceptions to the traditional rules,
and for the most part these exceptions have proven an unsatisfactory method of deal-
ing with the problem. For example, the respective rights of airplanes and land-
owners near airports are still in a state of considerable confusion.
With the coming of the megastructure the idea of relating an individual's
"ownership" interest to a specific portion of the earth's surface becomes complete-
ly absurd. If we assume that the idea of property ownership is worth preserving
how can we find new methods of identifying the property being owned and specifying
the rights and responsibilities of ownership. Can the occupant of cubicle 362 on
level 26 of complex alpha be given the same incentive toward assuming a responsi-
bility for the maintenance of his dwelling that present homeowners apparently
Barry Commoner, The Closing Circle 281 (1971).
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receive from the concept of homeownership?1* Can the law governing a condominium
be expanded to encompass a whole city?
The megastructure should also force a reexamination of the law governing the con-
trol of communal function—streets, parks, utilities, etc. The use of analogies
to existing systems is not a sensible way to determine whether passageway B on
level 15 is a "street" that must be swept by the municipal government or a "private"
corridor to be maintained by a private individual or by some mini-goverment. Does
the electric company have the legal obligation and right to deliver power to each
dwelling or just to the megastructure "gate"? Only a new approach to traditional
ideas of law can resolve such issues sensibly.
The importance of taking a fresh look at these issues is accentuated by our in-
creasing knowledge of the ramifications of environmental psychology. As we under-
stand more of the different psychological impacts caused by subtle changes in the
physical characteristics of high density living we may find an increasing need for
new controls based on criteria unimaginable ten years ago. As we begin to under-
stand that what Robert Sommer has called "the ecology of privacy"5 may be signifi-
cantly affected by whether a door opens out or in or whether a barrier is five feet
high or six, we may see the need to adopt wholly new forms of regulation of the
use of land, particularly in the high density environment of the megastructure.
And even if the more advanced forms of enclosed cities are never built, a reexamina-
tion of legal concepts based on the megastructure model may produce innovations
that would prove useful in more immediate situations. The legal relationship of
the developer of a new town, residents of the surrounding area, and future resi-
dents of the new town, is at present muddled, and might benefit from this type of
research.
Changing Concepts of Family
One of the most prominent features of the counter-culture movement is its rebel-
lion against the concept of the unitary family and traditional methods of rearing
children. New forms of communalism are flourishing. Tolerance is expressed for
a wide variety of relationships between people of different age and sex as alter-
natives to the traditional man-wife parent-child pattern.
Whether these trends will or should continue is beyond the scope of this paper,
as is the substantial changes in the law of domestic relations—marriage, divorce,
adoption, etc.—that would be needed to legitimize a variety of alternatives to
the the traditional family. But our land laws also revolve around the traditional
family concept in more ways than one might realize.
The laws governing the inheritance of land, while somewhat more flexible than in
the days of primogeniture, still are based largely on each individual's place is
the traditional family hierarchy. So with such other legal institutions as dower,
community property, and homestead exemptions.
The law of zoning uses the traditional family unit as its modular. From the sim-
plest protection of the "single-family" home to the most complex density coeffi-
cient ratio all residential zoning assumes one traditional mom-and-pop family in
each dwelling unit. Where the system is challenged, whether by a haggle of hippies,
a piety of priests, or an exemplar of ex-addicts, the system proves unadaptable.
If greater flexibility in the concept of family is to be encouraged we will need
to revise our laws governing the disposition and use of real property to remove
the handicaps it now places on any attempt to share property in ways not officially
sactioned by our forefathers.
"*See George Sternlieb, The Tenement Landlord 174 (1966)
5Robert Sommer, "The Ecology of Privacy," in H. M. Proshansky, W. H. Ittelson, and L. G. Rivlin,
Environmental Psychology: Man and His Physical Setting 256 (1970).
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These three examples are merely illustrative of the way in which new ways of using
land demand reexamination of existing legal rules. Even if the new uses of land
never come about, however, the insight offered by the examination of traditional
land use laws from a new perspective may open the way for progressive reforms.
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