Participatory Democracy and Its Limits

Evaluating California local land use plan's environmental impact reports

Cities affect and are affected by climate change. Local land use comprehensive plans have an essential role in greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reduction. The study addresses two critical research questions: 1) How well do the fastest growing cities in the U.S. implement the low-carbon principles in their local comprehensive land use plans? and 2) How can local comprehensive land use plans be improved to promote low-carbon development? An evaluation protocol with five plan components and thirty-five indicators was developed to measure local land use planning capacity in building low-carbon cities. Results show that the majority of these cities have already established their comprehensive low-carbon city framework; however, they fail to fully incorporate specific low-carbon planning strategies into their plans. These cities can improve their local plan quality by enhancing the scientific basis of the plans, adopting more specific goals and policies, and expanding the planners' toolbox to achieve low-carbon city planning.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to extend the previous larger‐scale climate policy studies to the local jurisdiction level to evaluate local land use planning capacity for climate change.Design/methodology/approach – This paper evaluated 53 recently developed local comprehensive land use plans in California and analyzes how well these plans recognized the concepts of climate change and prepared for climate change mitigation and adaptation.Findings – The descriptive results show that local land use plans reflect very low awareness and little analysis for climate change; however, the actions for climate change varied widely in scope and content in their plans.Originality/value – This paper provides policymakers important empirical evidence to improve local land use planning capacities for climate change.

In the U.S., various anti-sprawl land use regulations have been implemented for over two decades. Previous studies primarily investigate the impacts of local land use regulations or neighborhood-level built environment attributes on travel behaviors within a narrow time frame. Through a different lens, this paper examines how various local land use regulations and transit investment, both measured at the aggregated metropolitan level, have affected people’s long-term travel behaviors over a 15-year period, and how these impacts differ between younger and older age groups. This study combines a set of land use regulation indices measured at the metropolitan level in 2003 with 15 years of travel data (2005–2019) from a pooled representative sample of over 8 million workers in the 50 largest U.S. metropolitan areas. Results show several local anti-sprawl land use regulations (e.g., growth containment, adequate public facilities, and moratoria), when combined at the metropolitan level, effectively reduced driving notwithstanding their marginal effects. Government investment in public transit also significantly increased commuters’ likelihood of using public transit and, carpooling, as well as increased carpool group size. Moreover, the commuting mode choices of younger workers are more responsive to transit improvements and land use regulations. Urban planners should commit to regional cooperative planning to promote effective land use regulations at the metropolitan level. Regional collaborative entities, such as metropolitan planning organizations should play a larger role in coordinating local land use planning and regulations. To reduce automobile dependency, planners should commit to improving public transit through enhanced financial assistance, harnessing land use regulations in a more targeted way, and accommodating the needs of different age cohorts.

Municipal spatial planning is one of the key elements of a national spatial policy and the local land use plan is the most important tool for shaping this policy. The local land use plan, as opposed to the study, is a provision of the local law. The study, however, is mandatory for the whole area of the municipality, while the local land use plan is, in principle, voluntary and subject to certain exceptions. One of the elements which ought to be included in the spatial policy a municipality is taking into account the threats to the safety of its inhabitants and their property, as well as identifying areas of natural geological hazards. Therefore, both the study and the local land use plan of the municipality should include, among others, areas of particular risk related to the subsidence of soil masses, i.e., landslide areas. Landslide areas are of a limited use for investment purposes, including residential, industrial or service development, as particularly vulnerable to the phenomenon of rock masses, eluvium or sediments sliding down slopes under the force of gravity. The purpose of this article is to analyze the legal and economic consequences resulting from changes to the local land use plan, related to the qualification of an area as a landslide area. This paper examines the changes to the local land use plan for the town of Wieliczka, located place on the border of the Outer Carpathians and the Carpathian Foredeep. The transition from a mountainous terrain into a plane gives rise to numerous natural forms of relief which are prone to landslides. The study of landslides in the municipality of Wieliczka conducted in 2008, resulted in changing the qualifications of many areas to areas at risk of soil subsidence. The effects of the study have been reflected in the new local land use plan introduced in 2010.

Environmental pollution has received global attention, particularly regarding noise pollution, but noise generated from worship places remains a concern in urban areas where worship places are on the rise. This raises a question about the compliance of worship places with land use plans and noise levels in urban areas. The study analysed the spatial distribution of worship places to ascertain their compliance with local land use plans and noise levels in the Wa Municipality of Ghana. Locations of worship places were mapped and analysed in the context of two local plans of the study area. Data regarding the planning standards, zoning regulations, and the Ghana Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)-approved noise range of 45-55 dB, as well as the views of key informants (n = 8) around the worship places were used to support the analysis. The results revealed that the spatial distribution of worship places was dispersed with a Z-score of less than 5%. About 88% of the worship places did not comply with local plans. Some worship places were sited in residential and other land uses, while areas earmarked for worship places were encroached upon by other land uses. Sound levels from the worship places exceeded the EPA permissible noise range of 45-55 decibels. The study concludes that worship places in Wa Municipality do not comply with the prescribed local land use plans and noise levels of the country. The study recommends that the Wa Municipality Assembly and the EPA should regularly embark on monitoring exercises to enforce compliance with local land use plans and acceptable noise levels in the Municipality.

Vegetative riparian buffer strips are typically used to curb stream degradation due to cattle grazing, but intensive rotational grazing has shown promise as an alternative best management practice. We compared aquatic macroinvertebrate assemblages among stream segments within continuously grazed pastures, intensive rotationally grazed pastures, undisturbed grassy vegetative buffer strips, and undisturbed woody vegetative buffer strips. We collected macroinvertebrate and stream sedimentation data from four streams in each land use category in two consecutive years. In an attempt to account for inherent watershed variability among streams, we represented watershed condition with a sample collected upstream of each treatment reach. Watershed condition tended to have greater influence on macroinvertebrate measures than local riparian land use. However, local riparian land use influences were apparent if watershed condition was statistically accounted for with analysis of covariance. Stream reaches with intensive rotational grazing tended to have macroinvertebrate assemblage characteristics intermediate of the buffer and continuously grazed reaches. Although we detected some differences in macroinvertebrate assemblages that apparently reflected very local land use, our results suggest the macroinvertebrates were mostly responding to large-scale watershed influences.

Cichorioideae abundance and local land use drive Osmia leaiana pollen use in semi-natural grasslands

Increasing amount of empirical evidence has shown that the local land use regulatory environment has substantial effects on the housing market. It is widely acknowledged, however, that measuring the degree of land use restrictiveness is challenging. The heterogeneity of regulations, as well as the unavoidable difficulty of assessing the relative importance of different types of regulations, are the primary reasons for that. Another often brought up shortage of the existing land use regulation measures is the lack of temporal dimension, which makes it difficult to separate the effects of regulation from other local characteristics that might correlate with land use regulation. This study is set to reassess how to measure the local land use regulatory environment, and possibly, to address some of the shortcomings previous studies have reported. Empirically, the focus of this study is on the Finnish planning system, where land policy and planning decisions made at the municipal level most strongly control land use. Within a set of legal boundaries, each municipality independently decides which land policy instruments to employ, and further, by utilizing the so-called planning monopoly, lays planning restrictions that guide the (residential) development of land. To construct a measure of the restrictiveness of local land use, this study combines data on municipal land use planning and policy decisions for some 30 largest cities in Finland derived from multiple sources. Interviews with key municipal representatives responsible for local land policy actions are used as a primary data source. The interviews covered several themes with the aim to capture differences in the land use policy and planning actions across cities. The study also utilizes official statistics and municipal documents, such as strategies of land use and development, land use agreements and financial documents for measuring and modeling the degree of local land use restrictiveness. Measuring the impact of land use regulation and planning on housing markets has been a significantly growing topic and the local land use regulatory environment is understood as an important contributor to the elasticity of housing supply. Yet, the formulation of a quantified measure for the restrictiveness of local regulation has received less attention, especially in the context of statutory planning systems. This study addresses this gap and outlines a new kind of approach to measure local land use environments that builds on data from multiple sources.

The coastal zone has critical natural, commercial, recreational, ecological, industrial, and esthetic values for current and future generations. Thus, there are increasing pressures from population growth and coastal land development. Local coastal land use planning plays an important role in implementing the U.S. Coastal Zone Management Act (CZMA) by establishing goals and performance policies for addressing critical coastal issues. This study extends the CZMA Performance Measurement System from the national level to the local land use level by measuring coastal zone land use plan quality and political context in fifty-three Pacific coastal counties. Plan quality is measured using an evaluation protocol defined by five components and sixty-eight indicators. The results indicate a reasonable correspondence between national goals and local coastal zone land use planning goals, but a slight gap might exist between the national/state versus local levels in the overall effectiveness of coastal zone management (CZM) efforts. The results show many U.S. Pacific coastal counties lack strong coastal zone land use plans because the average plan quality score was only 22.7 out of 50 points. Although these plans set relatively clear goals and objectives, they are somewhat weaker in their factual basis, identify a limited range of the available planning tools and techniques, and establish few coordination and implementation mechanisms. The regression analysis results indicate that CZM plan quality was not significantly related to any of the jurisdictional characteristics.

Effect of California Greenhouse Gas Regulations on Local Land Use and Regional Transportation Planning

In The Netherlands, the local land use plan as used for several decades is a strong tool for safeguarding local environmental quality. The City of Amsterdam contributes to this innovation, forced by the growing complexity of environmental problems and the subsequent need for integration of environmental interests along with economic and social interests in urban planning. The Dutch environmental legislation makes use of environmental quality requirements, which have been translated into standards. The environmental nuisance of industries in urban areas is regulated in two ways; by local land use plans and by environmental permits for the companies. National environmental laws and the methodology of local land use plans do not facilitate a region-oriented environmental policy. The Environmental Performance System functions as a set of guidelines for the development of the IJ Bank, and is complementary to the defensive nature of the sectoral environmental laws.

As recent IPCC reports have highlighted, urban areas are now home to most of the world’s population. The majority of such urban growth continues to occur in less developed regions and is expected to persist, specifically in Asia. Due to extensive anthropogenic change along coastal zones, as well as their inherent exposure to natural hazards such as sea level rise, erosion, and tropical storms, coastal cities are especially at risk to the adverse impacts of climate change. Having consistently ranked as one of the countries most at risk to the negative impacts of anthropogenic climate change, the Philippines has undertaken significant efforts to integrate climate change adaptation into various policies and planning documents. This research reflects on the specific practice of mainstreaming climate change adaptation (CCA), as well as disaster risk reduction (DRR) measures, into local land use planning in Metro Manila as a means of reducing the region's present and future risk. Effective land use planning represents a proactive and economical approach to managing both current and future climate change related risks, especially when taking into consideration the significant expenses necessary to remedy issues caused by poorly or unplanned development, which often most negatively impacts a community’s most vulnerable members. Specifically, the aim of this research is to take stock of what progress has been made toward mainstreaming climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction strategies into local land use planning in Metro Manila and to understand how this impacts those who are most vulnerable to climate change. The analysis also strives to comprehend how the knowledge gained from the Metro Manila case study can be transferred to other cities in Southeast Asia facing similar challenges. Methodologically, the software MAXQDA was utilized to conduct a qualitative data analysis of 39 policy and planning documents, ranging from the national to the local level. This analysis demonstrates that policy and planning documents at all levels integrate future-oriented climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction strategies to a certain extent. However, despite the consistent and comprehensive integration of such strategies into documents across scales, numerous documents cite significant challenges in implementing CCA and DRR strategies, especially at the local level. Poor and/or inconsistent coordination between government offices, in addition to other stakeholders, limited or poorly prioritized and difficult-to-access financing, as well as a lack of continuity in personnel due to political election cycles, particularly at the local level, were frequently referenced as representing significant barriers to proper implementation of CCA and DRR strategies. Future research will be conducted in the form of expert interviews, which will help to better understand the current issues regarding the local implementation of these strategies and in what ways these can be improved or altogether remedied.

Problem: Market mechanisms are emerging as means of offsetting the environmental effects of growth. Unfortunately, formal regulation of ecosystem markets is often separated from broader planning for urban development, resulting in offsets that are unsustainable in the face of future urban growth. Purpose: We aimed to assess how 2008 federal regulations that actively promote aquatic resource markets and encourage watershed planning to restore wetlands and streams damaged during development will affect reputedly efficient existing wetland and stream ecosystem markets in North Carolina. We explore how coordination between regulators and planners can improve long-term viability of market-created resource offsets and improve the ability of markets to respond to rapid urban growth. Methods: We analyzed new state and federal regulations and watershed planning efforts and convened a stakeholder forum including representatives of state and federal agencies, land developers, environmental groups, aquatic restoration companies, and academia. Results and conclusions: Problems with aquatic ecosystem markets in North Carolina stem from poor communication among local and regional planners, federal regulators, and state agencies. Institutional barriers and poor coordination cause federal regulatory decisions made without knowledge of land use plans or urban development patterns, faulty projections of market demand for aquatic offsets, and local land use plans that do not provide long-term protection for the offsets. Although regulators consider current surrounding land uses, they do not consider future land uses. We conclude that local land use projections should be required components of ecosystem restoration site plans and that state environmental management agencies' watershed plans should reflect urban development patterns. Takeaway for practice: Local planners should have input into the design of restoration sites providing environmental offsets as well as into state and regional ecosystem service market implementation plans. Federal, state, regional, and local agencies should facilitate and require information sharing, making planning and regulating ecosystem service markets part of the development process. Research support: This research was supported by the University of North Carolina's Institute for the Environment.

Mainstreaming climate change adaptation (CCA) links adaptation and sustainable development goals by integrating climate change information, concerns, and considerations into existing development planning, policy- and decision-making processes. It is gaining popularity in developing countries, but its operationalization has been slow because of the challenges that hinder its on-ground application. To understand the nature of these challenges, this paper developed a four-stage mixed methodology that examined mainstreaming of CCA into local land use planning in Albay, Philippines. The methodology includes a modified Institutional Analysis and Development framework for the qualitative analysis, and 20 mainstreaming indicators for the quantitative assessment. The data used in the analysis were collected from a survey and the interviews conducted among the key players in local land use planning in Albay. The correlation analysis showed that the challenges related to knowledge and awareness, local government prioritization, institutional incentives, availability of funds, access to funds, and stability of funds had the highest frequency of interconnections with the other challenges. Also, a strong tripartite relationship among local leadership, local government prioritization, and local government’s commitment to CCA was observed. The paper suggests that mainstreaming challenges are interconnected at varying degrees. It presents analytical tools and quantifiable measures that can be used to develop a reliable basis for the qualitative assessments of adaptation needs and effectiveness. These sets of information can help analyst and practitioners make informed decisions regarding the operationalization of mainstreaming CCA.