NR 377: Land Use Policy and Economics

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Instructor: Austin Troy

atroy@uvm.edu

Instructor’s Office: Gund Institute (617 Main St) or Farrell Hall (Trinity Campus)

656-8336

Website: www.uvm.edu/~atroy/landuse

 

Requirements (subject to change)

  • Participation in class discussions and online discussion threads
  • Posting to land use blog
  • “My town” exercise (make posting to Blackboard and do research which will serve as the basis for your final paper)
  • Midterm essay question (details later)
  • Lead one class discussion and post discussion topics online before class
  • Attend and write a brief report on local commission meeting of your choice (click here to link to the Burlington Planning and Zoning page, which includes meeting times and agendas for several commissions)
  • Final Paper (details later)

 

Discussion leader list (see under syllabus below)

 

Readings:

Book: Fischel, W. 1985. The Economics of Zoning Laws. Johns Hopkins University Press: Baltimore. 

All other readings are available as PDFs on Blackboard or free on the web

 

Sources for current land use articles:

Require on campus computer or VPN:

Westlaw and Lexis-Nexis (excellent databases of newspaper and magazine articles) are available from the UVM library website at http://library.uvm.edu/research/index.php?tab=iref&mode=subjects&subject=general

Vermont articles index: http://bfprhdindex.uvm.edu/

My own personal search engine on land use and energy (limits search to a number of relevant newspapers, NGO websites, government agency websites, etc.)

 

Available anywhere:

Planetizen: A great source for planning articles and resources: www.planetizen.com

Google News: www.google.com/news

 

Software downloads

Google Earth

Microsoft Bing Maps (formerly Virtual Earth; includes side-angle aerial views)

 

Preliminary Seminar Schedule and Reading List (subject to change)     

8/31:

Introduction + Why do cities exist and what are public goods?

Lecture 1 (Blackboard)

9/7

No class

9/14

Urban Economics Fundamentals

  • O’Sullivan, chapter 7: Introduction to Land rents
  • O’Sullivan, chapter 8: land use in the monocentric city
  • Ding: Land policy reform in China
  • Mills: A Thematic History of Urban Economics, pp. 7-18

9/21

Visit to South Village new urbanist development in South Burlington, with developer David Scheur.

  • DeWolf: Why New Urbanism Fails
  • Lund. Testing the claims of new urbanism  (skim conclusions and results)
  • Skaburskis: New Urbanism and Sprawl: A Toronto Case Study

9/28:

Introduction to local regulation and property rights

  • Fischel: The Economics of Zoning Laws, Chapters 2-3
  • Porter: Growth Management Approaches and Techniques pp. 15-42

10/5:

Visit to Burlington Planning and Zoning with Planning Director David White

10/12:

Urban decentralization

  • Mieszkowski and Mills, The Causes of Metropolitan Suburbanization
  • Ewing: Is Los Angeles style sprawl desirable?
  • Bruegmann, The Causes of Sprawl, from Sprawl: A Compact History 

10/19:

The economics of zoning and land use controls

Google Earth/Virtual Earth exercise: “your definition of sprawl” (email your Google Earth placemarks before)

10/26:

Urban differentiation

  • Fischel The Economics of Zoning Laws chapter 14 
  • O’Sullivan, chapter 13
  • Jimenez and Hendrick: Is government consolidation the answer?

Midterm handed out in class

11/2:

Growth management as a response to sprawl or cause of sprawl?

  • Chinitz: Growth Management: Good for the Town, Bad for the Nation (short piece)
  • Downs and Godschalk: Growth Management, Satan or Savior (short piece)
  • Heim: Leapfrogging, Urban Sprawl, and Growth Management: Phoenix, 1950-2000.
  • Byun and Esparza: A revisionist model of suburbanization and sprawl: the role of political fragmentation, growth control, and spillovers

11/9:

Regionalism, new regionalism, and soft regionalism

  • Bollens: Fragments of regionalism: The limits of Southern California Governance
  • Tara Bryan and James Wolf: Soft Regionalism in Action: Examining Voluntary Regional Councils’ Structures, Processes and Programs
  • Harvard Law Review Note: Old Regionalism, New Regionalism and Envision Utah: Making Regionalism Work

11/16:

State growth management case studies: Vermont and Oregon

Guest lecture and discussion with Geoff Hand, land use lawyer with Shems, Dunkiel, Raubvogel and Saunders

  • Murphy: Vermont’s Act 250 and the Problem of Sprawl
  • Shoemake: the Smalling of America, pp. 895-910 
  • Son and Knapp--Is Portland winning the war on sprawl?. This is just a short list
  • Short recent article on Oregon’s Measure 37: From Farmland to Subdivision
  • Optional (for background on which states are doing growth management) Anthony: do state growth management regulations reduce sprawl

11/23:

Thanksgiving Break

11/30

Farmland and open space preservation

  • Nelson: Preserving Prime Farmland in the Face of Urbanization

·         Daniel: Integrated Working Landscape Protection: The Case of Lancaster County , PA

12/7

Smart Growth: Urban Density and Infill

Readings:

Guest Speaker: Miro Weinberger of the Hartland group.  Check out the website for their new development, Gile Hill

Bibliography (partial)

Anthony, J. (2004). "Do state growth management regulations reduce sprawl?" URBAN AFFAIRS REVIEW 39(3): 376-397.

Berke, P. R., J. MacDonald, et al. (2003). "Greening development to protect watersheds - Does new urbanism make a difference?" Journal of the American Planning Association 69(4): 397-413.

Byun and Esparza (2005)  A Revisionist Model of Suburbanization and Sprawl: The Role of Political Fragmentation, Growth Control and Spillovers. Journal of Planning Education and Research. 24.

CHINITZ, B. (1990). "GROWTH MANAGEMENT - GOOD FOR THE TOWN, BAD FOR THE NATION." JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN PLANNING ASSOCIATION 56(1): 3-8.

Daniels, T. L. (2000). “ Integrated Working Landscape Protection: The Case of Lancaster County , PA” Society and Natural Resources. 13:261-271.

DOWNS, A. (1992). "GROWTH MANAGEMENT - SATAN OR SAVIOR - REGULATORY BARRIERS TO AFFORDABLE HOUSING." JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN PLANNING ASSOCIATION 58(4): 419-422.

Downs, A. (1999). "Some realities about sprawl and urban decline." HOUSING POLICY DEBATE 10(4): 955-974.

Downs, A. (2005). "Smart Growth: Why We Discuss It More than We Do It." Journal of the American Planning Association 71(4): 11.

Ewing, R. (1997). "Is Los Angeles-style sprawl desirable?" JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN PLANNING ASSOCIATION 63(1): 107-126.

Fischel, W. (2004). "An economic history of zoning and a cure for its exclusionary effects." URBAN STUDIES 41(2): 317-340.

Fischel, W. A. (1985). The economics of zoning laws : a property rights approach to American land use controls. Baltimore, John Hopkins University Press.

Fischel, W. A. (2001). "Why are there NIMBYs?" Journal of Planning Literature 16(1): 80-163.

Fulton, W. B. (1997). The reluctant metropolis : the politics of urban growth in Los Angeles. Point Arena, CA, Solano Press Books.

Heim, Carol (2001). Leapfrogging, Urban Sprawl, and Growth Management: Phoenix, 1950-2000. American Journal of Economics and Sociology. 60(1)

Mieszkowski, P. and E. Mills (1993). "The causes of metropolitan suburbanization." Journal of Economic Perspectives 7(3): 135-147.

Mills, E. (2000). "A Thematic History of Urban Economic Analysis." Brookings-Wharton Papers on Urban Affairs 2000(1): 52.

Nelson, A. C. (1992). "Preserving Prime Farmland in the Face of Urbanization: Lessons from Oregon." Journal of the American Planning Association 58(4): 467.

O'Sullivan, A. (2003). Urban economics. Boston, McGraw-Hill/Irwin.

O'Toole, R. The Folly of Smart Growth

Porter, D. R. and Growth Management Institute. (1997). Managing growth in America's communities. Washington, D.C., Island Press.

Shoemake, J. (1999). "The smalling of America?: Growth management statutes and the dormant commerce clause." DUKE LAW JOURNAL 48(4): 891-931.

Walker, P. and L. Fortmann (2003). "Whose landscape? A political ecology of the 'exurban' Sierra." CULTURAL GEOGRAPHIES 10(4): 469-491.