Land Use Planning PDF

ENVIRONMENTAL AND LAND-USE PLANNING Master of Science Planning and Environment Prof. Dr. Saleh Mohammed Mubarak INTRODUCTION Land is the fulcrum on which the existence of life and man depends. It is the substratum on which all other things on earth are fastened. Land...

ENVIRONMENTAL AND LAND-USE PLANNING Master of Science Planning and Environment Prof. Dr. Saleh Mohammed Mubarak INTRODUCTION Land is the fulcrum on which the existence of life and man depends. It is the substratum on which all other things on earth are fastened. Land is the barometer that gauges the life, growth and development of man on earth. Land is the foundation of shelter, food and employment. Man lives on land during his life and upon his demise his remains are kept in it permanently. Even where the remains are cremated, the ashes eventually settle on land. It is therefore crucial to the existence of the individual and the society.  Globally, the essence of land to mankind is well recognized. In the words of Winston Churchill “Land, which is a necessity of human existence, which is the original source of all wealth, which is strictly limited in extent, which is in fixed geographical position – land I say, differs from all other forms of property in these primary and fundamental conditions.” This wise saying drives home the imperative important for land use management in any given society.  In fact, it is this importance of land to man and the society that influenced the state intrusion into property and land use legislation in order to ensure adequate and efficient land management technique for the benefits of the greater number of the members of the society. Since virtually every form of investment or development by government and private entities is dependent upon land in one way or the other, and it is now generally accepted that poor land administration can impede economic development and social welfare, it is imperative to PLAN the use to which the land is put. One of the veritable tool of physical planning is the concept of ZONING. PLANNING PHILOSOPHY AND POLICY In view of the inelasticity supply curve for land and its limited supply, and because of the relative importance of land to life, there is the imperative need to plan land use, particularly in the face of competing land needs for diverse purposes. “Planning” in the words of Lord Scarman is therefore “anything that relates to the character of the use of land”. It is the art and science of controlling the use of land, and the character and arrangement of buildings, so as to achieve economy and secure connivance and beauty.  Planning therefore is a preconceived instrument for arranging the use and allocation of land for competing uses in order to attain optimal, maximum and efficient land use for the generality of the community.  Restrictively, it can be defined as a system of regulatory zoning restrictions on the general rights of the landowner to use and develop his land the way he likes based on the preconceived socio- economic patterns of a given society so that a purposeful utilization of land may be achieved in the interest of the general welfare of the community to which it relates.  Its basic ideology is the regulation of development and control of the use of land for the benefit of a community as a whole in a sustainable way that caters for the need of the present generation without impeding on the rights and need of future generations of mankind. The purpose of town planning is to provide a quality living environment, facilitating economic development and promoting healthy, safety, convenience and general welfare of the community by guiding and controlling development and use of land. Thus the objective of physical planning is the attainments of organized environment that avoids environmental problems and makes land available to prospective users at reasonable prices so that it is effectively used for the growth of the economy.  Planning is directed at the future, learning from the past and trying to preserve its strengths and opportunities. The overall objectives of planning law is therefore to restrict the use to which an individual may put his land in the overall interest and welfare of the society. To achieve the set goals of planning various tools and schemes are usually adopted and used. These include, restrictive covenants, the nuisance control rules, building schemes covenants and zoning amongst others. THE CONCEPT OF ZONING According to the Webster’s Dictionary of English language, zoning is to plan a town so that different sections are devoted to different purposes i.e residential, industrial, commercial etc. That is, it is the division of a city or town by legislative regulation into districts and the prescription and application in each district of regulation having to do with structural and architectural designs of buildings, use to which buildings within designated district may be put.  Zoning refers to either the land use provision in the state Regional Land Use Plan, Operative Master Plans, District Plans, Urban Renewal Plan of any area or any of the plans defined as such which specifies the appropriate use for which a development could be put. A planner may simply explain the concept of zoning as an attempt for separating nonconforming or contradictory socio-economic activities spatially from other land uses and putting conforming uses together in a mixed zone. The primary planning function of each zone is to preserve the neigbourhood as classified by eliminating non conforming uses of land therein. There are various types of zoning which have evolved and recognized over the years. They include; Euclidean Zoning This type of zoning was first adopted in United States of America in the city of Euclid in Ohio. It is characterized by the division of the land uses into specified geographical districts, land dimensional standards stating the limits of the development activity that is allowed to take place on allotted land within each type of district. Performance Zoning This type of zoning uses performance or goal oriented criteria for development projects within the area, district or zone. A typical example of the standard of performance required from a developer under the performance zoning include, the ability to mitigate environmental impact of development and to provide public amenities. INCENTIVE ZONING To permit greater diversity and flexibility within Euclidean zones, incentive zoning enables projects to exceed standard requirements if they provide some form of benefit to the local community. For example, in exchange for providing (parks, transit access, or affordable housing), projects are usually allowed to build at higher densities or to greater building heights than are typically allowed. FORM-BASED ZONING One of the newer interpretations of land-use planning, Form-Based zoning regulates development by focusing on the scale, design, and placement of buildings, paying particular attention to their relationship with the street (or other public spaces). Communities that implement form-based zoning codes tend to believe that both the look and arrangement of buildings more strongly define a community’s character than do the actual uses that take place within those buildings. HISTORY AND EVOLUTION OF ZONING The concept and practice of zoning is thoroughly ancient. Over 1800 years before Christ, Egyptians cities revealed careful planning of residential district, workforce housing, and storage. A quote from an Egyptian covenant agreement stipulates specific uses of homes that neigbhours agree to guard against the possibility that one home would block the light of another, or result in wood beams intruding into the walls of another. During the time of Christ, Emperor Augustus Cease imposed height limits on Roman buildings in order to avoid dark, passages. London did the same in 1669.  Today the use of the zoning device as a tool of physical planning had grown and spread worldwide even to the remotest part of the globe. In United State the only notable exception to the zoning institution is to be found in Houston where in 1993 voters narrowly rejected a referendum to establish zoning in that city. In modern times New York City is credited with the first comprehensive set of zoning ordinances that applied to the entire city. Philosophical justification of zoning Various writers, commentator, jurist and academics have written on the philosophical origin and justification of the concept of zoning. These theories ranges from economic, property, psychological theories to statutory and technological innovation theories.  Without zoning, residential property owners would face plummeting property values if a development with significant negative externalities – a junkyard or brick factory for example - moved in next door. Moreover the mere prospect that such a development could move in would tend to depress the value of residential property. The solution is to divide the municipality into zones so that industries are sited near other industries, commercial enterprises near other commercial enterprises and residential properties with other residential properties. This rationale has some intuitive appeal based on the real or imagined horrors of entirely unregulated development.  Zoning is also defended as a tool of a broader scheme of comprehensive urban planning. However it is not in all cases that zoning is accompanied by comprehensive planning. To the progressive zoning is justified as a necessary response to the realization that the laissez faire theory of government is no longer tenable in modern world. Land and its resources must be efficiently managed and efficiency requires that all planning should have regard to the best economic use to which land can be put, to the provision of the soundest economic basis for industrial development and to the social organization of life so as to conserve the skill and physique of life of workers.  To the learned jurist zoning does no more than lay down a legislative and prospective blueprint to minimize the number of land use conflicts that might otherwise fester in a system without planned development. Zoning in urban neighborhoods is not merely for protecting the market values of individual properties, but rather is a device that protects a neighborhood from encroachments by land uses inconsistent with its character, regardless of the positive nor negative affects of a proposed development on the market values of individual properties.  Its appeal lies in the fact that it allows homeowners to protect all the value we place in a home, including the consumer surplus that lies above and beyond the market price of the home, particularly the neighborhood commons (these includes inchoate rights in such communally owned property such as streets, sidewalks, parks playgrounds, libraries, public utilities etc). CRITICISM Most of the critics of zoning fall into four broad categories. Two concern fairness or equity and the other two are based on considerations of economic efficiency. Zoning is said to be unfair because it benefits some landowners at the expense of others; exclusionary and therefore unfair to those excluded from a particular community. Some critics content that zoning is fundamentally unfair because it grants special privileges to some property owners at the expense of others including principally those owners who wish to develop their properties for other purposes other than zoned uses.  Zoning is also criticized as being exclusionary because it is prohibitory in nature. It is argued that zoning is widely used to exclude racial groups, economic classes, and economic activities that are deemed to be undesirable. There is also the criticism that zoning adds unnecessary transaction cost to development cost outlay. However most proponents of this argument concede that some form of local land use regulation is necessary to control the negative effects of some types of land uses.  The critics also argued that zoning distorts the natural allocation of land use within cities in a way that is detrimental not only to economic innovation and growth but also to the flowering of culture and the natural pleasures of city life. These criticism of the zoning scheme have led to the agitation and campaign for a more innovative proactive and effective land use regulatory system that will advance community development.  Zoning designs should address issues of social cohesion and inclusion and should particularly seek to reduce social inequalities, take into account the needs of all the community, including particular requirement relating to age sex, religion, disability and income. Zoning should seek to maintain and improve the local environment and help to mitigate the effects of declining environmental quality through positive policies on issues such as design, conservation and the provision of public spaces. It should stimulate and encourage accessible public transport in order to secure a more sustainable pattern of transport development.  Therefore if zoning is properly conceived and applied to our urban spatial order this can reduce the distance of motor trips, traffic congestion and the associated environmental hazard occasioned by the discharge of carbon monoxide by vehicles plying our roads. The only other headache is corruption and collusion in the system. This problem can be reduced where the system is transparent and the use of information and communication technology is employed in the administration and delivery of government services in this regard. THANK YOU