State and Local Economic Development and Urban Anticipatory Governance

Abstract

This edition of the Zoning and Planning Law Report connects the concept of “anticipatory governance,” developed in the context of climate change adaptation and technology assessment, with urban governance challenges particularly around economic development. Climate change adaptation has to do with the process of adjustment to actual or expected climate and its effects. Technology assessment relates to public participation around understanding the ramifications of new technology. I have written elsewhere at length about approaching planning and economic development processes in cities and states both in relation to business location incentives—job buying —and through what I have termed an “urban anticipatory governance” framework. The focus of this Report is two-fold. First, it investigates and summarizes the lack of legal constraints on economic development to stimulate job creation and capital attraction. Inherent in this first point is a critique that residents frequently lack participation in economic development legal processes and approvals. Second, this Report provides guidance for officials in state and local government involved in planning and economic development decisions, as well as practitioners, to consider using anticipatory governance principles in practice. An urban anticipatory governance approach to economic development activity addresses society’s most complex local economic development issues, in flexible ways, allowing residents and experts to work together, with enough time for that collaboration to have a meaningful impact on decisions.