Planning in Appalachia: An Examination of the Appalachian Regional Development Programme and Its Implications for the Future of the American Regional Planning Commissions

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Post-war persistence of sharp geographical disparities in economic opportunity and living standards led the U.S. government in the 1960s to produce an area economic development programme. One feature of this was a unique formula for establishing co-operative federal and multi-state regional commissions for areas of difficulty straddling state lines. Under 1965 legislation, five 'Title V' Commissions were initially established and a separate Regional Planning Commission was provided for Appalachia. The former have not fulfilled expectations, but Appalachia has solid achievements to show. The regional plan greatly emphasized highway building, thus attracting much criticism, while non-highway spending was required to be spatially concentrated, creating some difficulties. These issues, and the record since 1965, are assessed and various wider lessons are drawn from Appalachian experience. Meanwhile, despite lack of impact, the Title V Commissions grew in number and size and it seemed that the formula would find wider application in the changed economic and geographic circumstances of the 1980s. Pressures to ease regional difficulties both of growth and decline via a federal policy for 'balanced national growth' led to proposals for a nation-wide system of Regional Commissions which were well advanced in Congress by 1980. With the change of Administration such proposals are now dead. But attempts to wind up the Regional Commissions have been made, unsuccessfully, before. They could well survive and emerge again some time in the future with increased strength and wider responsibilities. The limited programme of aid for distressed and lagging regions established by the federal government in the 1960s contained a special formula for achieving co-operation between state and federal governments in economic development planning. Under Title V of the 1965 Public Works and Economic Development Act, provision was made for two or more contiguous states that were related geographically and culturally, and which lagged behind the nation in economic development or rates of growth, to join together and request the designation of an Economic Development Region to cover appropriate areas of their states. On designation, a joint federalstate commission would be established to prepare a long-range economic development plan to guide federal, state and other development agencies in drawing up action programmes. These unique arrangements (described in more detail below) were widely applauded and hailed as introducing the 'golden era of regional planning in the United States. By 1967, five Economic Development Regions (Title V Regions) had been created (Fig. 1). Twenty states were involved, either in their entirety or partially, with a total population of some 25 millions. In the event, the 'golden era' did not materialize and the Title V Commissions have been virtually invisible-their existence possibly unsuspected by the majority of the populations for whose futures they were created to plan. Numerous difficulties emerged to frustrate their effective operation. Most notable were those associated with a very low level of funding, the indifference, or even hostility, of successive federal Administrations2 and a generally uneasy and Trans. Inst. Br. Geogr. N.S. 7, 35-58 (1982) Printed in Great Britain This content downloaded from 207.46.13.53 on Thu, 01 Sep 2016 05:20:15 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms