Chapter 7: Local Government Smart Growth Management

Discussion Questions
Exercises
Links

Summary:
This chapter illustrated local growth management to conserve environmental lands and arrest sprawl using several examples of successful communities. A wide range of regulatory and nonregulatory tools are available and the effective programs are those that are tailored to the needs, resources, and political climate of the community. The foundation of any local program is a comprehensive plan based on sound technical information, including an environmental inventory and other studies, as well as extensive public involvement.
Innovative regulatory tools such as overlay environmental zones, flexible and performance zoning, conservation cluster zoning, and urban growth boundaries can steer development toward appropriate areas and away from environmentally sensitive ones. Design standards and incentives have helped advance mixed-use, compact, and transit-oriented development. In some cases, compensation is required to achieve environmental objectives, and land acquisition, conservation easements, or purchase or transfer of development rights are appropriate. The location of development infrastructure is a useful tool to steer development to growth centers and to reduce sprawl.
In many cases, local government action is not enough to manage growth and development effectively. In some cases, the state has stepped in with regional or statewide programs to complement or guide local action.

Chapter 7 Discussion questions:

1. Conventional zoning and subdivision regulations have been used for decades to control land development to meet community goals for orderly growth. Many have argued that such traditional means are not adequate to protect the range of environmental values that many communities deem important.
a. Make a brief argument why conventional zoning is inadequate to protect the environment from the impacts of land development.
b. List three innovative land use regulations have been developed to better address environmental concerns? In a few words, describe each.

2. The constitutional protection of private property rights often conflicts with government's police power to regulate land use to protect public health and welfare. Please discuss how the regulatory "takings" issue might affect the following programs for local environmental land management. Please limit your response to one page.
a. Open space zoning (allowing existing gross density through clustering, but requiring 50% of subdivision site be dedicated, permanent open space)
b. Floodplain zoning
c. Agricultural zoning
d. Development impact fees (exactions) for off-site stormwater infiltration facilities (new developments are assessed a fee to pay for stormwater management measures not on the development site).
e. Conservation easements for habitat protection

3. Explain the difference between the following:
a. Density transfer…..transfer of development rights
b. Transfer of development rights…..purchase of development rights
c. Density transfer…..density bonus
d. Sliding scale zoning…..conservation zoning
e. Performance zoning…..overlay zoning
f. Explain how the following non-regulatory approaches can be used to manage growth to protect the environment:
g. Development impact fees

4. Plans and investment in water and sewer line infrastructure

5. Land acquisition

Chapter 7 Exercises

1. Austin (TX), Boulder (CO), Albuquerque (NM), Montgomery County (MD), and King County (WA) were used to illustrate various tools used to management growth. Do either (a) or (b) below.
a. select one of these examples, and using references cited in the chapter and/or internet sources, write a two-page critical review of its growth management program to protect the environment and achieve other social and economic objectives.
b. Using the Internet, select another community that you believe has an exemplary growth management program and write the same critical review as requested in (a).

2. Using the Internet, explore the status of the comprehensive planning in your community, hometown, or other community of interest, by answering the following questions:
a. Is there a comprehensive plan?
b. When was it last updated?
c. What are the current timing and procedures for updating the plan?
d. What participation process is being/was used to draft or update the plan?
e. How does the plan address the natural environment?
f. What environmental inventory information is used in the plan (see chapter 18)?
g. How is the environmental inventory information reflected in the plan’s policies?
h. How are the plan’s policies, especially those dealing with the natural environment, put into action through implementation mechanisms including zoning and other regulations, capital improvement plans for infrastructure, and other programs?

3. Using the Internet, find the zoning map and ordinance of your community, hometown, or other community of interest. Review the ordinance and assess how it incorporates environmental protection and the various types of land use regulation described in chapter 7.