Elements of Effective State Land‐Use Planning Policy

Abstract

Many states are changing their view of the role of local‐government planning in achieving statewide interests in preserving the environment, economizing on capital facilities, and generally, in managing development patterns. The emerging view is that to be truly effective, state planning policy must mandate and enforce local‐government planning consistent with state interests. In recent years such states as Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, and Oregon have implemented legislation mandating local‐government planning consistent with state interests, and they have enforced such planning through a variety of means. Much can be learned from the effectiveness of these state planning policies. This paper begins with a review of the four epochs of state involvement in local‐government land‐use planning. Those epochs include: state enabling of local‐government planning, state regulation of specific landscapes or development activities, mandated local‐government planning without state‐level enforcement, and mandated planning with state‐level enforcement. States entering the last epoch achieve effective planning. The paper then reviews the critical elements of effective state land‐use planning policy as evidenced by the fourth epoch.