I. WHO PLANS?

The public has a fundamental right to define the nature of their urban environment. In the past, the nature of the urban environment was often defined by a king, lord, or general who obtained custody of the town or fortress and fashioned plans according to their own design. Today, we live in democracies whose governments are “of the people, by the people, for the people.” Thus, in the spirit of common law precedent, the nature of the urban environment must now be defined by the people. Don’t let any developer tell you otherwise.

The urban environment is and always has been, planned. To build any improved structure —from the most humble tepee to the Empire State Building— requires some level of foresight in the acts of designing and constructing the shelter. Towns and cities are composed of hundreds or thousands of buildings; therefore, towns and cities require planning no less robust than architects provide for a client’s building. Just as a building requires thorough, detailed architectural plans to affect good construction, so does a municipality need good plans to affect good development.

In most American towns and cities, the public has entrusted the design of the urban environment to civic planners organized into planning departments. The public acts as the “client” in this relationship while the planning department acts as the architect. To that purpose, planning departments design cities and towns through a system of plans and codes that regulate three key features of land development:

The Arrangement of land - the design of the parcel, block, and street network applied to the land The Use of land - the purpose for which land is exploited (i.e. residential, office, industrial, etc.) The Form of land - the broad design of land improvements (i.e. detached/attached structures, etc.)

A thorough, detailed plan for municipal development will regulate all three of these features in a way that expresses the public consensus for how the town or city should develop. A vague plan will neglect one or two of these features, affording private interests the liberty to build outside of the public consensus.

II. THE INADEQUACY OF LAND USE ZONING

Today, planning departments design municipalities primarily through zoning code regulations. Zoning codes dictate how land is used by creating districts or “zones,” such as: residential, agricultural, office, commercial, or industrial. On the surface, this is good. Planners should broadly regulate land use to prevent conflicting land uses from harming one another. The problem is that land use zoning is often the only regulatory tool in most planners’ toolbox.

Take a look at an example of a typical zoning code: