661 Midterm Flashcards
What are the five main reasons there are cities?
- Expand civilized footprint
- Colonization/control of land, people
- Access to resources for use and exchange
- Trade and human interaction
- Concentration of effort/labor
What features determine a city’s location?
- defensible location
- clean air, water, drainage
- natural resources and food supply
- point of processing or manufacture
- transport/trade route
What are some components that make a good city?
- adequate housing
- clean air, water, good drainage
- usable open space
- access to consumer needs
- easy transport/circulation
- ability to distribute consumer necessities
- educational/cultural opportunities
- accessible health care
- diverse populations, building types, sizes, ages.
- permeability of districts
- mixed uses
- sense of safety
What are the three factors to urban resilience?
- physical/natural (climate change)
- socio-economic (gentrification, employment)
- Technological (smart infrastructure)
What makes an effective governance structure?
- current land use plans and zoning
- capital program process
- meaningful community participation
- transparent decision-making
Define planning
shape the growth and physical form of the city to create attractive, efficient, healthful, sustainable and equitable environments.
Why do we plan?
- support efficient use of resources
- provide adequate housing and shelter
- promote economic development
- create, maintain safe, healthy environment
- generate resources
- foster equity
Who are the six stakeholders we plan for?
- property owners
- business operators
- occupants
- visitors and service users
- government
- future participants
What is the role of planning?
Provide the greatest public good with the least private harm
What are Kevin Lynch’s five elements of a city?
- paths
- edges
- districts
- nodes
- landmarks
What are factors that affect a city’s natural capacity?
- soils and bedrock stability, fertility
- plant material
- supply of potable water
- water drainage, waste management
- air circulation
What are engineered methods to address natural limitations?
- building methods/building on appropriate sites, soils, bedrock
- renewable/green building materials
- stormwater management
- shoreline barriers
- greenways
What are land development mechanisms to address growth?
- wetland preservation
- blue and green infrastructure
- waste water treatment plants
- engineered open space
- farmland preservation
- mixed use/TOD
What measures must cities plan for in order to be resilient?
- emergency supply/stock piling
- temporary housing
- design standards/development limits
- restrictions on building in certain locations
- buyouts to prevent reconstruction in risk areas
What are factors that result in a city’s decline?
-depletion or exploitation of resources (mining towns)
expansion beyond natural carrying capacity (NOLA)
-Loss of demand for key industry (rust belt)
-major changes in transport and technology
-lifestyle changes (suburbs)
-obsolescence of buildings (urban renewal structures, industrial buildings no longer used)
-built urban design is too constraining (highways in urban areas)
Taxes based on property condition _______ (promote/discourage) disinvestment
promote
Over-zoning _____ (promote/discourage) speculative intensification of communities
promote
Making land use decisions based on the resultant municipal income can result in incompatible mixes and ______ vehicular travel
worsen
Public Investment creates winner and loser communities based on what factors?
decisions on timing and placement
What are some ideas that many private landowners share about land rights?
- wide latitude
- right to develop
- private property and individual right
- regulation should minimize land use restrictions
- central pillar of American society
What are some complaints many private landowners share about land use regulation?
- reduces land values and unfair
- unequal treatment
- unfairly requiring private property owners to benefit public
- American values under attack
How are planners affected by the 1st amendment?
- sign regulation
- adult businesses
- location of religious institutions
How does the 5th Amendment apply to planning?
Eminent domain. “be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use without just compensation.
How does the 14th Amendment (civil rights act of 1964) apply to planning?
Equal protection under the law which includes all land use and planning regulation.
How does the 10th Amendment (states rights) apply to planning?
Relegates land use decisions to the states and subsequently to the cities.
“Any powers not delegated to the US by the Constitution, or prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”
What is a planner’s police power?
The broad authority of government to enact regulation to protect the health, safety, welfare, and morals of its citizens.
Who makes up “local” government?
- county
- county board of supervisors
- city
- city council
- mayor
- city manager
- departments or agencies
(T/F) When a hearing takes place to determine a regulatory decision, it is always held in a court of law.
False. It can sometimes just be with a staff person. You can have a chance to appeal.
City Councils have quasi-judicial role sometimes ruling on a dispute.
Most states (except LA) use common law practice in judicial decisions. What does that mean?
They rely on prior case law to determine future decisions using it as a precedent and then interpreting it by judge/jury for that particular set of circumstances.
What issues does the county typically address?
water, jails, foster care, homelessness, etc.
What is the “bundle of sticks” concept refer to?
Property rights are a bundle of sticks that can be individually taken away.
What are the “sticks” that can be included/removed from the rights of a given property?
- indefinite
- right to exclude
- inherit
- transfer
- build upon
- use surface
- extract things from
Name three types of possessory land rights.
- Fee Simple Estate (college campuses, single family home)
- Lease (tenant)
- Ground Lease (P3’s, airports)
Name three types of non-possessory land rights.
- Easement
- Covenants and restrictions
- water and mineral rights
(T/F) Property Rights are absolute.
False. Bundle of rights
In the Euclid case, what was the argument of the plantiff (Ambler Realty) to allow industrial use in an area prohibiting it?
violation of the 14th amendment. “taking”. Plantiff had bought land with the intention of industrial use and then the City changed the zoning.
What was the decision of the courts on the Euclid case and why is it significant?
The zoning regulation was determined to be justified on the Ambler property and was not arbitrary or unreasonable.
It was valid because it PROTECTED THE HEALTH, SAFETY, AND WELFARE OF PUBLIC establishing “Euclidean Zoning” regulation throughout the country. It determined that zoning regulations that separate uses ARE a valid exercise of the police power.
How is the scope of the police power regarding zoning regulation ascertained? (Euclid case)
Through the law of nuisance that it is “the right thing in the wrong place”… pig in a parlor analogy.
In the Nectow case, what was the argument of the plantiff (Nectow) regarding the way his land was zoned?
Splitting the parcel into both residential and unrestricted prevented him from selling the parcel and violated due process.
What was the decision of the courts on the Nectow case and why is it significant?
The courts ruled in favor of the plantiff agreeing that no practical use could be made of the plaintiff’s land.
The zoning ordinance was unconstitutional becuase there was no substantial relationship to the community’s health, safety, and welfare. “No rational basis”. This resulted in parcels being uniformly zoned and not split.
What are the two cases that define the spectrum of land use regulation?
Euclid (defined scope) and Nectow (defined the limitations of the scope)
Define Eminent Domain
POWER of government to take private property (real or personal) from someone else.
Define Condemnation
ACT of a government body exercising eminent domain.
What is another name for condemnation?
“Taking”
What is a regulatory taking?
where a government creates land use laws or exercise its regulatory authority over land use matters in such a way that it results in a taking.
How is “just compensation” defined by law to meet the requirements of the 5th amendment?
- Fair market value
- highest and best use
- economic expectations
What is the significance of the Kelo v. City of London decision?
The court ruled in favor of the city that the constitution allows corporations to be viewed as a public purpose. Due to backlash, many states narrowed the definition of public purpose significantly to avoid corporate overreach.
What are types of regulatory takings?
- Permanent Physical Invasion.
- Inverse condemnation
- Forced Entry Exaction
- Other regulatory takings
What is a permanent physical invasion as a form of taking?
Landowner is NOT applying for entitlements. Gov’t requires a portion of the property to be invaded (even if it is small).