Ecologically Based Municipal Land Use Planning

by William B. Honachefsky

Book Overview

In the decades following the first Earth Day in 1970, a generation has been enlightened about the unspeakable damage done to our planet. Federal, state, and local governments generated laws and regulations to control development and protect the environment. Local governments have developed environmental standards addressing their needs. The result-an ecologically incongruous pattern of land development known as urban sprawl. Local land use planners...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1566704065
• ISBN13: 9781566704069
• Release Date: December 1999
• Publisher: CRC Press
• Length: 286 Pages
• Weight: 0.05 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 7.1" x 10.5"

Customer Reviews

Ecologically Based Municipal Land Use Planning

ESRI Magazine:"Honachefsky provides nuts and bolts solutions for controlling urban sprawl, emphasizing the integration of federal, state, and local land use plans. It discusses ecological resources and provides practical solutions that municipal planners can implement immediately. It discusses the most recent scientific data, how to extract what is important, and how to apply it to the local land planning process. The author includes the application of GIS to problem solving, and he generated all the GIS-derived color maps in the book using ArcInfo and ArcView."Environmental Building News:"This book is a thorough and practical presentation of two fundamental planning principles: (1) incorporating the science of ecology into land planning fulfills its real purpose of protecting "the long-term interests and future well-being of the community"; and (2) zoning should be one tool used in implementing a sound municipal master plan and not the other way around. A must-read for land planners and citizen planning board members."ECOIq Magazine:"His book incorporates the latest research, GIS mapping techniques, and a host of unique ecological indicators into a new approach to land use planning. The goal is to broaden the process beyond the considerations normally involved in zoning. It provides easily understood, nuts and bolts solutions for controlling urban sprawl, emphasizing the integration of federal, state, and local policies and plans."Tidepool Books:"Ecologically Based Municipal Land Use Planning -- a new book with some very new ideas about incorporating the values and services of our ecological infrastructure into our development and land use decision making. Ignore the academic title, and you'll find a useful, well written and well illustrated book packed with the latest thinking on land use management, written in non-condescending but easy to understand terms and punctuated with anecdotes from the author's 30 year career as an environmental scientist, investigator and professional planner."

Much Needed Ecological Planning Guide

Honachefsky provides planning practitioners with a much-needed justification and framework for moving land use planning in a more sustainable direction. Through ecosystem inventories, use of indicators of the health of community natural resources, and GIS mapping tools, land use plans can better complement rather than ignore natural systems. Provides a lot of detail but not overwhelming. I would have like a little more how-to instruction.