Planning Zoning News

It's time for America to move beyond zoning, argues city planner M. Nolan Gray in Arbitrary Lines: How Zoning Broke the American City and How to Fix It. With lively explanations, Gray shows why zoning abolition is a necessary--if not sufficient--condition for building more affordable, vibrant, equitable, and sustainable cities. Gray lays the groundwork for this ambitious cause by clearing up common misconceptions about how American cities regulate growth and examining four contemporary critiques of zoning (its role in increasing housing costs, restricting growth in our most productive cities, institutionalizing racial and economic segregation, and mandating sprawl). He sets out some of the efforts currently underway to reform zoning and charts how land-use regulation might work in the post-zoning American city. Arbitrary Lines is an invitation to rethink the rules that will continue to shape American life--where we may live or work, who we may encounter, how we may travel. If the task seems daunting, the good news is that we have nowhere to go but up

The latest edition of The Illustrated Book of Development Definitions breaks new ground. It addresses traditional and new planning problems: natural and industrial disasters such as hurricanes and oil spills; new housing types and living accommodations; changes in urban design and practice like new urbanism; sustainability; pedestrian and bicycle friendly environments; and more. Joining Harvey S. Moskowitz and Carl G. Lindbloom, authors of the first three editions, are two prominent, nationally known planners: David Listokin and Richard Preiss. Attorney Dwight H. Merriam adds legal annotations to almost all 2,276 definitions. These citations from court decisions bridge the gap between land use theory and real world application, bringing a new dimension to this edition. More than 20,000 copies of previous editions were sold over four decades to professionals and government representatives, such as members of planning and zoning boards and municipal governing bodies. This first revision in ten years updates what is widely acknowledged as an essential, standard reference for planners.