Regional Planning, Governance, and Growth Management

1. Regional Planning, Governance, andGrowth Management March 23, 2009 CP 6016/LAW 7242

2. Overview of Lecture • Regional Planning History • Regional Governance Alternatives • Portland, Oregon’s “Metro” • Regional Planning in Georgia • Regional Planning in Florida

3. Regional Planning History • Precursors to action: urban problems cross local city, county, township boundaries; annexation; service delivery issues; suburban downtowns; “edge cities;” exurbanization • Boston: Functional metropolitan commissions: Metropolitan Sanitary Commission (1889) and Metropolitan Park Commission (1893) – acquired 15,000 acres of land by 1902 along rivers, coasts, and for parkways; special water supply district in 1895; areawide government was later tested and drew political opposition (calls for local autonomy), but later merger of metropolitan districts

4. Regional Planning in the 1920s • Enthusiasm for metropolitan regional planning spread rapidly during the 1920s • Los Angeles County Regional Planning Commission was one of the first in the nation to adopt land use controls for unincorporated areas • Committee on the Regional Plan of New York and Its Environs, spearheaded by the Regional Planning Association of America which was formed in 1923 – regional plans for the NYC region were completed by the RPAA in 1931 and 1968; third effort in the mid-1990s

5. Federal Regional Planning in the 1930s • Tennessee Valley Authority (1933) – broad experiment in regional planning – a semi-independent federal corporation which had served and still serves broad conservation and resource development functions, including power generation and distribution, navigation, flood control, provision of recreation, promotion of local planning, and regional economic development (picture right) • Resettlement Administration (1930s) attempted to shape regional development patterns and build Greenbelt towns; went forward but with great difficulty; only three greenbelt towns were built.

6. Regional Planning: 1940s and 1950s • Post war regional planning efforts during the latter half of the 1940s focused on using federal assistance to develop airports, interstate freeways, flood control works and housing and redevelopment plans • Creation of a regional planning institution in the late 1940s for Atlanta • Atlanta’s “Plan for Improvement” (1950s) • Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations (1959) • Councils of government (COGs) proliferated in the 1950s, due to federal assistance

7. Regional Planning: 1960s • The heyday of federal and state-sponsored substate regionalism • Area Redevelopment Administration (1960s) set up by federal government to deal with high unemployment and low local incomes • Appalachian Regional Commission (1965): unique federal-state partnership to address the pockets of poverty, locally and regionally (picture right)

8. Regional Planning, 1960s (Continued) • Demonstration Cities and Metropolitan Development Act (1966) required that all federal grants and loans for major products be submitted for review and comment to a duly constituted metropolitan planning agency • Intergovernmental Cooperation Act (1968) and the passage of Office of Management and Budget Circular A-95 (1969) resulted in the creation of many councils of government • Federal Water Resources Planning Act of 1965 established joint federal-state operations • Department of Housing and Urban Development was set up in 1965

9. Regional Planning in the 1980s • Decline of substate regionalism and “fend for yourself federalism” (Reagan Administration) • Councils of Governments decreased in number by thirty percent between 1976 to 1989 under Reagan-style federalism; forced to be more entrepreneurial in their services and take on new roles

10. Regional Governance Alternatives • Multi-state regional economic development agencies (e.g., Appalachian Regional Commission, Tennessee Valley Authority) • Bi-state planning compacts for land use regulation, e.g., Columbia River Gorge (Oregon and Washington) and Lake Tahoe Basin (California and Nevada) • Regional metropolitan governments, e.g., Portland’s Metro (Oregon) and Toronto’s Federated Municipality

11. Regional Governance Alternatives • Substate regional agencies that supplant local authority over land use, e.g., The Adirondack Park Agency (picture right) • Regional planning councils and councils of government • Functional regional planning organizations, e.g., metropolitan planning organizations for transportation planning and special districts • Counties as regional entities (e.g., Washington State’s Growth Management Act)

12. Portland’s Metro (Oregon) • Role within the Oregon’s statewide land use planning program • Metro has authority to review and require amendments to local comprehensive plans to ensure their consistency with functional regional plans, including the management of regional urban growth. • Through the enforcement of the Portland region UGB pursuant to Oregon's land use laws, Metro is now a national model for regional growth management

13. Regional Planning in Georgia • Development of Regional Impact: Projects that require local government action to proceed and that exceeds the minimum thresholds established by the Department • Regionally Important Resource: a natural or historic resource that has boundaries extending beyond a single local government's jurisdiction or has value to a broader public constituency, and that is vulnerable to the actions and activities of man • Regional Planning (mandatory) • Note: RDCs now regional commissions -- realigned

14. Regional Planning in Florida • Multi-county regional planning councils • Development of regional impact (DRI) • Regional plans (strategic and policy)