Community Planning: An Introduction to the Comprehensive Plan

by Eric Damian Kelly

Book Overview

This book introduces community planning as practiced in the United States, focusing on the comprehensive plan. Sometimes known by other names--especially master plan or general plan--the type of plan... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1559635401
• ISBN13: 9781559635400
• Release Date: December 1999
• Publisher: Island Press
• Length: 496 Pages
• Weight: 1.75 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Not for the layperson

A textbook for public planners of various ilks. Provides an overview rather than an in depth analysis of particular issues. For that reason, it is liable to be pertinent for awhile yet. Good for what it is.

excellent resource

This book was a great help in the projects that my instructor assigned. It was very detailed.

Planning in the 21st Century

Planning in the 21st CenturyBY MARY R. ENGLISHPart of a growing series on land use planning published by Island Press, Community Planning is modestly titled. It provides much more than an introduction: it gives the reader a working acquaintance with community planning.In the United States, the concept of comprehensive local planning dates back to the City Beautiful movement spawned by the 1892 Columbian Exposition in Chicago. In the late 1920s, the concept took off on a grand scale with the Standard City Planning Enabling Act published in 1928 by the U.S. Department of Commerce as a companion to its 1926 Standard Zoning Enabling Act. Both were the culmination of the work of a commission appointed in 1921 by Herbert Hoover, then Secretary of Commerce. While the Department of Commerce's model acts were simply that-models-they provided helpful guidance to states. In 1926, local land use zoning had received the blessing of the U.S. Supreme Court in Village of Euclid v. Ambler Realty Co., which sanctioned the use of public regulatory power to specify how private land may be used. To enable and provide direction for local zoning and planning, states passed legislation patterned on the Department of Commerce models. Now more than 70 years old, these models have been scrutinized and alternatives have been proposed-by the American Law Institute and the American Planning Association, for example-but virtually all state zoning and planning legislation harkens back to these two standard acts. They are premised on the idea that good government requires professionalism grounded in fact-based analysis and dispassionate forecasting. Just as you can take a trip without an itinerary, you can zone without a comprehensive plan. Properly done, however, a comprehensive plan brings logic, foresight, and defensibility to zoning and other community decisions. Sometimes called a master plan or a general plan, a comprehensive plan is, as Kelly and Becker note, "a tangible representation of what a community wants to be in the future."Today, full-blown comprehensive plans typically include inventories of existing conditions, statements of needs and goals, and implementation strategies. Comprehensive plans also broach topics such as population, housing, land use, economic development, public facilities and infrastructure, natural resources, and cultural resources. These are often described in some detail, accompanied with maps and information on historic trends and projections. The comprehensive plan may also detail more specific plans for special areas such as a city's downtown, or special topics such as open space and recreation. Community Planning is contemporary in its orientation. Kelly and Becker frequently note the need for early and continued involvement of citizens and elected officials in community planning processes. Nevertheless, the book is in keeping with the rationalist, "good government" spirit that motivated the U.S. Department of Commerce's model acts. It pr

Community Planning a MUST have for college student planners

We used this text in our planning course last fall and it was excellent! Eric Kelly is a genius when it comes to writing planning books. This book is a must have for all college planning students. I highly recommend it!