Final paper options

Options:

  1. Urban History Paper: trace the history of urban development in a city or region (including “your town” if you want) up to the present, focusing on what were the major government policies and investments, natural occurrences and changes in jurisdictions and technology that most significantly impacted the course of urbanization and, if applicable, sprawl development.

 

  1. Tools paper

The tools paper option looks at an important land use planning tools or approaches. Tools include things like:

·       Urban growth boundaries

·       Impact fees

·       Tax base sharing

·       Transfer of development rights

·       Transit-oriented development

·       Cluster development

·       Planned unit developments

·       Inclusionary zoning

·       New Urbanist development

·       Conservation easements

·       Sewer and water service boundaries

·       Performance based zoning

·       Urban and brownfield redevelopment policies

 

You might also think of looking at new institutional frameworks that allow for very different land use planning like:

·       Regulatory Regional Planning Agencies (e.g. Tahoe Regional Planning Authority)

·       Multi-jurisdiction open space agencies (e.g. Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy, East Bay Parks District)

·       Oregon Metro (the agency that administers the growth boundary near Portland)

·       MPOs (the agencies that administer federal tranpo dollars at the metropolitan level, and help coordinate land use and transportation).

 

This paper should first define and explain the tool in question, based on the literature. Next you should discuss a particular real world application of these tools, also based on something out of the literature (e.g. growth boundaries in Portland), evaluating its success or failure. Ideally, you may find literature with differing opinions on this.  Finally, you should express your opinion about the effectiveness of the tool, how it could be used in other applications, its potential limitations and its feasibility.

 

  1. Plan review: review a town, city or regional plan and critique it for internal consistency, clarity, vision, enforceability, etc. Again, this can be “your town.”

 

  1. Research White Paper: do a consulting research project for a real world client related to planning, zoning, sprawl, etc.

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