Institutionalised profiteering

American Journal of Economics and Sociology, The, Nov, 2005

THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN urban and regional planning (conveniently but misleadingly abbreviated to "town planning" and in recent years more compendiously described as "environmental planning") and the land market is critically important economically, socially and environmentally. For many reasons, however, the relationship, together with its implications for equitable and efficient public revenue raising, is not always clearly understood.

Throughout history the conscious location of dwellings, roads and community buildings has been, in effect, a form of town planning. In their different ways architects, builders, engineers and surveyors have all contributed. But it is only in comparatively recent times that town planning has become recognised as a separate profession, a profession that tries to co-ordinate the activities of all the other more specialised professions involved in building and maintaining human settlements. It is, of course, essentially a public activity concerned with the public interest. Its objectives are to promote safe, healthy, convenient, aesthetically satisfying and economically efficient and environmentally responsible human settlements. These are public functions. The extent to which these public objectives are achieved will depend upon the political will of public authorities and upon the extent of the professional town planning resources available to them.

Town planning may be pro-active, in the sense of positively guiding the direction of future development. Or it may merely react to privately initiated development proposals. Potentially, however, town planning has an enormous influence because it operates by controlling the use of land upon which all human activities are ultimately based.

In the broadest sense, controlling the use of land is a national responsibility. It is therefore a proper function of national governments to formulate strategic land use plans and policies. For example, in respect of balanced population distribution, the curbing of excessive city growth, promoting regional industrial development, efficient transport provision and the conservation of environmental resources. At the other end of the spectrum, and subject to overall national planning policies, land use planning at a detailed level is the proper responsibility of local government. At a national or regional level, plans may take the form of policy statements, perhaps accompanied by broad diagrammatic maps. At a local level, plans will take the form of detailed local policy statements accompanied by detailed minimum standards for particular kinds of land use, together with detailed maps (showing property boundaries) indicating where particular land uses should be located (or not located). A common technique is to designate zones for estimated land use needs, for example, for agriculture, housing, industry, commerce, public facilities and recreation. If sufficient professional resources are available, a better technique is to describe in written detail the intended future character of the various parts of a local government area. The rigour of town planning laws will depend upon the philosophy of the government of the day.

There is no definitive form of town plan. A town plan can take various forms depending on the size of the area and the planning resources available. In essence, however, a town plan is a statement of planning principles and an expression of a community's desired objectives, adopted after consultation with the people of the area and taking account of their aspirations. It will be accompanied by a statement of the ways and means by which the objectives of the plan will be achieved. For example, by the designation of what land uses are permissible, and by adopting minimum allotment sizes, maximum building heights, noise and pollution standards, landscaping standards and motor vehicle parking standards. Regulating the use to which land can be put will obviously have a major bearing upon its value.

Town planning in Western societies has achieved--or partly achieved--some very desirable objectives. For example:

* It has segregated incompatible land uses, such as housing and noxious industries.

* It has restrained urban encroachment upon valuable agricultural land and upon land containing useful extractive minerals such as sand, gravel and coal.

* It has prevented urban development on unsuitable land such as land subject to flooding or subsidence, and thereby minimised the risk of public authorities being called upon to undertake costly rescue and rehabilitation operations.

* It has prevented "ribbon-type" commercial development from reducing the capacity of major roads to carry the volume of through traffic for which they were designed and built (at considerable public cost).

* It has promoted the development of alternative commercial sub-centres to relieve the pressures upon the central business districts of major cities and make employment opportunities more accessible to people in the suburbs.

* Particularly in the United Kingdom, it has led to the successful creation of self-contained new towns to relieve the concentration of population in large cities such as London, Birmingham and Glasgow.