Course Description

Students can expect to learn about and gain experience in:

• Process of creating land use plans and policies for client communities and regions, from initial scoping and visioning to land use design, and implementation.

• Implementation tools including those based on planning, regulation, public service provision, land and easement acquisition, tax and incentives, community design and historic preservation strategies, and others.

• “Best practices” as evidenced by case studies from a wide variety of communities.

• Improving practical written communications skills by preparing and receiving detailed critiques on several client oriented memos.

• Vocabulary of terms and bank of concepts that will enable students to become participants in professional settings regarding today’s land use issues such as sprawl, farm land protection, infill development, transportation oriented development, quality of life communities, fiscal impact, economic development, sustainability and others.

Requirements

Four client memos (10% each), a mid-term readings exam (30%) and an applied term paper (30%) on a topic selected by the student in consultation with the professor.

Readings

Community Planning: An Introduction to the Comprehensive Plan by Eric Damian Kelly and Barbara Becker (Island Press, 2000). Managing Growth in America's Communities by Douglas Porter (Island Press, 1997). Hypothetical City Workbook: Exercises, Spreadsheets and GIS Data by Edward Kaiser, David Godschalk et al (University of Illinois Press, 1998).