Plan Implementation

Question 1

Euclidean Zoning

Answer 1

Euclidean zoning is named after the city of Euclid, Ohio. It places the most protective restrictions on residential land uses, less on commercial uses, and virtually none on industrial uses. This concept places the most restrictive zoning category, single-family residential, at the top of the pyramid.

Question 2

Cumulative Zoning

Answer 2

Cumulative zoning is less protective of various land uses than Euclidean zoning. Single-family residential districts are the most exclusive. However, in cumulative zoning, each successive zoning district allows all the uses from the previous zones:

A Single-Family District allows single-family homes
A Multi-Family District allows apartments and all uses allowed in the Single-Family District
A Commercial District allows retail and commercial uses and all uses allowed in the Multi-family District
An Industrial District allows industrial uses and all uses allowed in the Commercial District

In a city with cumulative zoning, a person could build a single-family house in any zoning district. However, a factory could only locate in an industrial district.

Question 3

Modified Cumulative Zoning

Answer 3

A modified version of cumulative zoning has been developed to allow cities to provide a greater degree of protection than they could with cumulative zoning. In this type of zoning, districts are typically cumulative by type of land use. For example, a multi-family district would allow both single-family homes and multi-family housing. However, the industrial district would not allow residential uses. The figure below provides an example of how modified cumulative zoning works.

Question 4

Non-conforming uses and Amortization

Answer 4

A nonconforming use is a property use that existed prior to the adoption of district regulations and is allowed to continue under the “grandfather clause.”

Some communities allow the use to continue indefinitely until it naturally ceases or for a set period of time. The subsequent property use would then be required to conform with the current zoning ordinance.

In other communities, nonconforming uses are amortized. Amortization sets a definite period of time within which the use must come into compliance with the zoning ordinance. Amortization is often quite controversial because it requires that the administrators of the ordinance determine a fair period of time during which the use will be allowed to continue before it must come into full compliance. This time period is based on the property owner’s original investment, the use of the property, and other factors that affect the owner’s potential income.

In most ordinances, a clause ends the nonconforming privileges if a certain percentage of the use is destroyed by either natural or man-made causes or if it discontinues for a set period of time.

Question 5

Big Box Retail

Answer 5

Big-box retail generally has 50,000 or more square feet in a large box. The APA published a PAS Report titled “Meeting the Big Box Challenge” to address this topic as well as numerous articles in other APA publications.

Question 6

Concentrated animal feeding operations

Answer 6

Concentrated animal feeding operations include the practice of raising farm animals indoors and in high volumes. Local governments may be limited in their ability to regulate concentrated animal feeding operations because of Right-to-Farm laws, which limit the ability of local governments to regulate commercial farms and limits lawsuits by private and public organizations. See the PAS report “Planning and Zoning for Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations.”

Question 7

Floor Area Ratio (FAR)

Answer 7

is the ratio of a building’s total floor area (gross) to the size of the piece of land upon which it is built. FAR is most frequently used in downtown areas to help control for light and air. A FAR of 0.1 would mean that on a 10,000 square foot lot the building could have no more than 1,000 square feet.

Question 8

Maximum parking standards

Answer 8

are an alternative to the conventional minimum parking standards used in most communities. Maximum parking standards cap the amount of parking that a property owner or business can provide. This addresses the problem of providing excessive impervious cover and undermining pedestrian quality. For example, some retailers provide enough parking for their busiest days of the year, leaving an empty parking lot for the rest of the year. Donald Shoup’s book, The High Cost of Free Parking, showed that 99% of parking in the U.S. is free, despite the negative impact.

Question 9

McMansion

Answer 9

is a term that describes large houses that are mass produced and have perceived negative impacts on the community, sometimes because they are out of scale with surrounding homes. Another term, Parachute Home, describes the scenario where a home is dropped (almost randomly) into an area where it clearly does not fit with the neighborhood’s character. The APA published a PAS report titled “Too Big, Boring, or Ugly” on this topic.

Question 10

Teardown

Answer 10

is a term that refers to the demolition of a home for the purposes of building a larger home on the same lot. This type of development frequently occurs in large cities and in neighborhoods convenient to employment centers.

Question 11

Types of Taxes

Answer 11

Progressive - The tax rate increases as income rises. For example, the federal income tax system taxes those with high incomes a higher tax rate than those with low incomes;

Proportional - The tax rate is the same regardless of income. For example, a property tax rate is the same regardless of the price of your home. A person who owns a $50,000 home pays the same proportion as a person who owns a $250,000 home;

Regressive - The tax rate decreases as income rises.

Question 12

Evaluation

Answer 12

Evaluation is the activity that developers an understanding of the merit, worth, and utility of a policy.

An evaluative framework needs to consider:

Utility: Who wants the evaluation results and for what purpose?
Feasibility: Are the evaluation procedures practical, given the resources available?
Propriety: Is the evaluation being conducted in a fair and ethical way?
Accuracy: Are approaches at each step accurate?

Question 13

Descriptive and Predictive policy analysis

Answer 13

When can a policy analysis take place? Before or after the policy has been implemented. Conducted to anticipate the policy or can be conducted to describe the consequences of a policy.

Descriptive - after the fact policy analysis - interpretation of policy - what happened? or evaluative - were the purposed of the policy met?

Predictive - done prior to implementation - project future states resulting from policy alternatives; recommend actions because they will bring about a certain result

Basic policy analysis:
1. Define and detail the problem (understand influence; who are the stakeholders; who holds power to affect policy decision?)
2. establish evaluative criteria (sometimes determined by data that are available; data access is critical to eval. criteria/policy analysis)
3. identify alternative policies
4. evaluate alternative policies
5. display and distinguish among alternative policies/compare
6. monitor the implemented policy/assess outcomes

Big Three data agencies: Census Bureau, Bureau of labor statistic, Bureau of economic analysis; All provide statistics and counts on employment - important data point in policy analysis

Question 14

Cost and Benefits

Answer 14

Cost: Central to policy analysis. Use of resources; diverted from other uses;
Benefits: Negative costs; direct/indirect; tangible/intangible;
Standing: who is to be considered when CB being computed;
Externality: effect that is external to producer or consumer but affects the producer or consumer
Elasticity: goods and services cost money;
Marginal Analysis: if marginal costs (cost of incremental unit) = marginal revenue = equilibrium condition;
Efficiency and Equity criteria are seldom both maximized in the same program.

Question 15

Evaluative Criteria

Answer 15

Technical feasibility
Economic and financial possibility: program cost; what the benefits produced are; economic implications
Political viability: measure policy and program outcomes on impact on politic classes
Administrative operability: how possible to actually implement policy/program; staffing available

Question 16

Fiscal Impact Analysis

Answer 16

Used to estimate the impact of a development, land use change, plan on the cost and reevenues on the governmental unit i.e. Tax rate, Education cost, Facility cost

Fiscal Impact Analysis is not equal to economic impact analysis - EIA focuses on cash flow to private measured in income, jobs; FIA focuses on changes that affect the cost and revenues of governmental units.

Question 17

Form Based Codes and Transect Codes

Answer 17

Form based codes are regulatory; design guidelines are not regulatory

Transect based code; Subcategory of form based code - applies urban to rural transect (line). Where more or less dense developments should be placed (urban vs rural life style). Transect coding is a form of form based code, but not all form based codes are transect codes

Transect (T1 - Natural; T6 - Urban Core)

Transect Codes has been implemented through Smart Codes - transect based code that is a form based code - Miami has implemented Transect based code; Denver has also;

Rules that shape urban form:
building type
frontage type
public space standards
blocks and subdivision standards
regulating plans
by-right development

Question 18

Performance ZOning

Answer 18

Alternative to standard zoning; focuses on ends vs means; flexibility; less common b/c it can be difficult to administer - what are the performance measures and if a development achieves the intended performance

Question 19

Methods of Finance

Answer 19

Real Estate Investment Trust - privately owned company that owns real estates that buys and sells trusts on wall street

Issuance of bonds - general obligation bonds - backed by credit of issuer and power of city to tax citizens

Revenue bonds - backed by specific stream of revenue - building a stadium

Municipal Bond Ratings are assessments of investment risk

Tax Increment Financing (TIF) - used to finance certain types of developments - anticipated increase in real estate tax revenue resulting from developments increasing property values is used to pay off bonds that are sold to finance redevelopment - used to redevelop blighted area, low income areas, increase jobs

Special Districts - Business Improvement Districts - biz groups band together and put money into improving an area (tax themselves)

Question 20

Types of Budgeting

Answer 20

Line item budgeting - separating expenditures into categories - costs are catorgorized by department or unit - easily manaagable

program budgeting - organized around specific programs - easier for staff working on specific programs

planning, programming, and budgeting systems (PPBS) - originated in the defense industry - combines program budgeting with short and long term planning targets - has performance measures, critical path identification,

zero based budgeting - expenses have to be justified for each new period - must start with zero based and every function is analyzed

performance budgeting - furthers program budgeting and ties budget to certain performance objectives

Annuality - specify that a budget must be created on a yearly basis - no carry over from one line to another - return unspent money to general fund

Participatory Budgeting - people in the community get together and decide on what should be spent on what. Democratic process

Question 21

Capital Improvements Program

Answer 21

Plan to fund infrastructure and improvements over a fixed period of time; uses forecasts/population projections and a schedule to make improvements - typ. 5 years; cost estimates, means of financing, time frame on construction; related to a comp plan because a CIP is a key way that a comp plan is implemented; supposed to be reviewed for compliance with a comp plan

Net operating income - calculation used to analyze real estate investment - income producing; gross operating income (revenue) - operating expenses; used to calculate capitalization rate or cap rate

Cap rate is the rate of return on a real estate investment property based on the income that the property is expected to generate. Property’s net operating income/current market value

Question 22

Program and Project Evaluation

Answer 22

Formulating plans (creating and evaluating alternatives, full range of impacts, plan presentation, policy analysis, building constituency, visualization techniques)

Monitoring and Assessment (measures of performance, outcome indicators

Project Eval -

cost-benefit analysy - actual and hidden costs of project measured against benefits received
fiscal impact analysis - impact of a development, LU change, plan costs and revenues of govt units serving the development - projection of direct cost and rev. from pop increase/employment change in community - helps local govts evaluate fiscal merits of plans or projects. projects cash flow to the public sector; property tax rate, avg cost of educating a child; cost of constructing public building

econ. impact analysis - focuses on the cash flow to the private sector measured by jobs, income, output, indirect impacts

Question 23

Project/Program Management

Answer 23

RFPs, RFQs, grants, preparing budgets, managing contracts, scheduling, allocating staff

Critical Path Method - project management technique used to help with decision making - complex projects with interrelated activities

Program Evaluation Review Technique (PERT)

Goal Achievement Matrix (GAM) - steps needed to achieve goals

GANTT Chart - project management tool - help think through all tasks, who is responsible, how long each tasks, possible problems, keeps schedule on track, is workable, and right people are working on it

Question 24

Strengths and Weaknesses of alternative selection processes

Answer 24