This book introduces community planning as practiced in the United States, focusing on the comprehensive plan. Sometimes known by other names—especially master plan or general plan—the type of plan described here is the predominant form of general governmental planning in the U.S. Although many government agencies make plans for their own programs or facilities, the comprehensive plan is the only planning document that considers multiple programs and that accounts for activities on all land located within the planning area, including both public and private property. Written by a former president of the American Planning Association, Community Planning is thorough, specific, and timely. It addresses such important contemporary issues as sustainability, walkable communities, the role of urban design in public safety, changes in housing needs for a changing population, and multi-modal transportation planning. Unlike competing books, it addresses all of these topics in the context of the local comprehensive plan. There is a broad audience for this book: planning students, practicing planners, and individual citizens who want to better understand local planning and land use controls. Boxes at the end of each chapter explain how professional planners and individual citizens, respectively, typically engage the issues addressed in the chapter. For all readers, Community Planning provides a pragmatic view of the comprehensive plan, clearly explained by a respected authority.

This extensively revised and expanded third edition of Planning in the USA continues to provide a comprehensive introduction to the policies, theory and practice of planning. Discussing land use, urban planning and environmental protection policies, this fully illustrated book explains the nature of the planning process and the way in which policy issues are identified, defined and approached. New planning legislation and regulations at the state and federal layers of government are exemplified alongside examples of local ordinances in a variety of planning areas. New material includes: a new chapter on the Comprehensive Plan a new chapter on the use of technology in planning a discussion on planning in New Orleans after Katrina the implications and aftermath of Kelo v. New London a discussion on the Kyoto Protocol and Global Warming a discussion on form-based codes, performance zoning an enhanced discussion of financing urban development, including General Obligation Bonds and Revenue Bonds the implications of Oregon’s Measure 37 a discussion on congestion charging a discussion on wetlands a discussion of Big-Box stores and aesthetics a discussion on the Main Street Program and Business Improvement Districts. The text features numerous boxed case studies, illustrations, and photographs. This book offers a thoroughly detailed account of urbanization in the United States and reveals the problematic nature and limitations of the planning process, the fallibility of experts and the difficulties facing policy makers in their search for solutions. Planning in the USA is an essential book for students, planners and all who are concerned with the nature of contemporary urban and environmental problems. Both comprehensive and easily accessible this extensively revised third edition will be an invaluable resource for all students of planning and urban related research.