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The land use policy debate in the United States
Landscape Planning, 9 (1982)
171-175 Elsevier Scientific Publishing Company, Amsterdam - Printed in The Netherlands
171
Book Reviews LAND USE POLICY IN THE U.S.A.
The Land Use Policy Debate
in the United States. Judith Innes de Neufville (Editor), Plenum Press, New York, NY, 1981, xiii + 269 pp, U.S. $29.50, ISBN o-306-40718-3.
Man’s age-old concern with land as a source of food, as personal turf, and as security of home has boiled up in recent years into a spate of new books about land. Within the past year I personally have reviewed three books (before this one) for professional journals and have evaluated one book-length manuscript for a publisher; and I am sure that these are but a fraction of the total output of books about land in the past year. Most of the published material comes from the economicallydeveloped countries, but the economically less-developed countries are equally concerned with land use and land policy. Two aspects of the recent books about land impress me most: (1) the wide variety of professional groups concerned, i.e. geographers, geologists, soils scientists, ecologists, foresters, economists, political scientists, sociologists, lawyers, and planners, and others whose professional origins are less easily identified; (2) the degree to which each group or person asserts particular competence to speak about land. Clearly, with such wide interest in land, there are many differences in definitions and in ideas. There are several features of the book here reviewed. First of all, as its title says, it is concerned with the U.S.A.; only incidentally are other economically-developed countries mentioned, and almost no attention is given to the economically less developed countries. Secondly, the book is a group undertaking, with the richness and the unevenness that group undertakings typically have. Of the 18 authors, 12 are planners or are connected with planning departments of universities; 3 are lawyers; and the others come from a variety of social science disciplines. Thirdly, although the title speaks of land use, the focus of the book is basically urban land; little or no attention is given to present non-urban land use problems and policies. The serious land use and policy problems affecting agricultural land, forests, grazing, and mineral-bearing land are wholly omitted, and recreation and transport use of land are considered only within an urban setting. There is nothing on the history of these non-urban land uses. Fourthly, the book discusses in considerable detail the problems of public policy, as such policy affects privately-owned land within an urban setting. There is almost nothing on the land use problems and policies relating to publicly-owned land. Someone from another country, uninformed about the U.S.A., reading this book would never guess that over 40% of our total land is publicly owned.
172
True, the largest acreages of public land are non-urban in character, but there is significant public land ownership within every major metropolitan area. Public ownership of land does not by any means resolve all policy issues. In recent years there has been extensive public debate about land policy issues in the U.S.A., on the kinds of land omitted from consideration in this book. An informed scholar could compile a long list of books on land policy which would have little overlap with the present book. The editor and the authors clearly had a right to define the scope of their inquiry as they chose, and I do not criticize them for restricting the range of their concerns as they have; one might, however, query the accuracy of their title: “Some Issues of Land Use Policy” would have been more accurate, but of course, less appealing. Within its own limits, this book is interesting, informative and stimulating. Its focus is on the human or social science aspects of urban land use, in particular economics, politics and the law. There is also concern shown about the environmental aspects, but again more the social than the technical aspects of environmental issues. There are chapters on “market failure,” economic cycles, the “taking issue,” citizen participation in planning, and the like. The issues are, naturally enough in view of the scope of the book, those which concern Americans and the description and analysis of these problems are in terms Americans can understand better than could professionals from other countries. As I read the several chapters, and more particularly the introduction and the concluding chapters, I suspect that their respective authors learned more from one another, in part at the colloquium from which the written material emerged, than any reader of the book will learn from reading it. Self-education is not less important than the education of others, and if a group with the general competence and maturity of these authors learned something from the experience, that is no inconsiderable gain. I judge that this book will prove useful as supplementary reading for college courses, especially in planning but perhaps in other fields as well. It was not designed as a textbook and I would think it not well suited to that use. It should also prove stimulating and informative to practicing planners whose formal training ended a decade or longer ago. Overall, I rate it as a good book, not a great one; and would encourage potential users to buy it on that basis.
(Washington,
ENVIRONMENTAL
STRATEGY
M. CLAWSON DC, U.S.A.)
AND ACTION
Environmental strategy and Action. Series No. 6. Human Settlement Issues. Peter Jacobs, University of British Columbia Press, 1981,99 pp. illustrated U.S. $6.95 (soft cover), ISBN O-7748-0148-4. This small book is subtitled
“The Challenge
of the World Conservation
171-175 Elsevier Scientific Publishing Company, Amsterdam - Printed in The Netherlands
171
Book Reviews LAND USE POLICY IN THE U.S.A.
The Land Use Policy Debate
in the United States. Judith Innes de Neufville (Editor), Plenum Press, New York, NY, 1981, xiii + 269 pp, U.S. $29.50, ISBN o-306-40718-3.
Man’s age-old concern with land as a source of food, as personal turf, and as security of home has boiled up in recent years into a spate of new books about land. Within the past year I personally have reviewed three books (before this one) for professional journals and have evaluated one book-length manuscript for a publisher; and I am sure that these are but a fraction of the total output of books about land in the past year. Most of the published material comes from the economicallydeveloped countries, but the economically less-developed countries are equally concerned with land use and land policy. Two aspects of the recent books about land impress me most: (1) the wide variety of professional groups concerned, i.e. geographers, geologists, soils scientists, ecologists, foresters, economists, political scientists, sociologists, lawyers, and planners, and others whose professional origins are less easily identified; (2) the degree to which each group or person asserts particular competence to speak about land. Clearly, with such wide interest in land, there are many differences in definitions and in ideas. There are several features of the book here reviewed. First of all, as its title says, it is concerned with the U.S.A.; only incidentally are other economically-developed countries mentioned, and almost no attention is given to the economically less developed countries. Secondly, the book is a group undertaking, with the richness and the unevenness that group undertakings typically have. Of the 18 authors, 12 are planners or are connected with planning departments of universities; 3 are lawyers; and the others come from a variety of social science disciplines. Thirdly, although the title speaks of land use, the focus of the book is basically urban land; little or no attention is given to present non-urban land use problems and policies. The serious land use and policy problems affecting agricultural land, forests, grazing, and mineral-bearing land are wholly omitted, and recreation and transport use of land are considered only within an urban setting. There is nothing on the history of these non-urban land uses. Fourthly, the book discusses in considerable detail the problems of public policy, as such policy affects privately-owned land within an urban setting. There is almost nothing on the land use problems and policies relating to publicly-owned land. Someone from another country, uninformed about the U.S.A., reading this book would never guess that over 40% of our total land is publicly owned.
172
True, the largest acreages of public land are non-urban in character, but there is significant public land ownership within every major metropolitan area. Public ownership of land does not by any means resolve all policy issues. In recent years there has been extensive public debate about land policy issues in the U.S.A., on the kinds of land omitted from consideration in this book. An informed scholar could compile a long list of books on land policy which would have little overlap with the present book. The editor and the authors clearly had a right to define the scope of their inquiry as they chose, and I do not criticize them for restricting the range of their concerns as they have; one might, however, query the accuracy of their title: “Some Issues of Land Use Policy” would have been more accurate, but of course, less appealing. Within its own limits, this book is interesting, informative and stimulating. Its focus is on the human or social science aspects of urban land use, in particular economics, politics and the law. There is also concern shown about the environmental aspects, but again more the social than the technical aspects of environmental issues. There are chapters on “market failure,” economic cycles, the “taking issue,” citizen participation in planning, and the like. The issues are, naturally enough in view of the scope of the book, those which concern Americans and the description and analysis of these problems are in terms Americans can understand better than could professionals from other countries. As I read the several chapters, and more particularly the introduction and the concluding chapters, I suspect that their respective authors learned more from one another, in part at the colloquium from which the written material emerged, than any reader of the book will learn from reading it. Self-education is not less important than the education of others, and if a group with the general competence and maturity of these authors learned something from the experience, that is no inconsiderable gain. I judge that this book will prove useful as supplementary reading for college courses, especially in planning but perhaps in other fields as well. It was not designed as a textbook and I would think it not well suited to that use. It should also prove stimulating and informative to practicing planners whose formal training ended a decade or longer ago. Overall, I rate it as a good book, not a great one; and would encourage potential users to buy it on that basis.
(Washington,
ENVIRONMENTAL
STRATEGY
M. CLAWSON DC, U.S.A.)
AND ACTION
Environmental strategy and Action. Series No. 6. Human Settlement Issues. Peter Jacobs, University of British Columbia Press, 1981,99 pp. illustrated U.S. $6.95 (soft cover), ISBN O-7748-0148-4. This small book is subtitled
“The Challenge
of the World Conservation