FUNDAMENTAL PLANNING KNOWLEDGE History

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178 A Trail Across Time

American Environmental Planning From City Beautiful to Sustainability

Thomas L. Daniels

Problem : It would be useful to identify nvironmental planning is the theory and practice of making good, and connect the major ideas of American interrelated decisions about the natural environment (natural environmental planning from the late 19th resources, wildlife, and natural hazards), working landscapes (farms, century up to today, to show its evolution E forests, and lands from which minerals are extracted), public health (air and over time and anticipate its potential future direction. water pollution, toxics, and waste disposal), and the built environment (Daniels & Daniels, 2003) . This article is organized around five time periods, in each Purpose : I aim to tie together the major ideas of American environmental planning, of which I argue that American environmental planning defined the most showing how they have evolved, and suggest pressing environmental problems of the day ; exhibited public and private what additional changes will be required to strategic capacity and willingness to plan responses to those problems; and progress further toward sustainability. developed and used scientific knowledge and planning technology to manage Methods : I review the literature, defining the environment. I judge environmental planning in each of these eras by five time periods that are useful for under - whether it did or did not improve environmental quality (Fiorino , 2006; standing and analyzing environmental Mazmanian & Kraft , 1999; Ndubisi , 2002). planning successes and shortcomings. Each era that I identify in American environmental planning has distinct Results and conclusions : Environ- mental planning has its roots in the physical problems and presents new ideas and approaches to managing the environment . design of cities and the tension between Each brought thought and practice further along, closer to what it would be conserving natural resources for human use in the next period . Taken together, they define the trail toward planning for and protecting wilderness. In the 1920s, sustainability and for the entire global biosphere (see Figure 1 ). This trail has regional environmental planning emerged.

Downloaded by [APA - American Planning Association] at 11:59 09 May 2014 Federal environmental impact statements were first required in the 1970s, along with development, and changing lifestyles and : None. efforts to clean up and prevent pollution. Research support business practices. A backlash against government command About the author : and control began in the 1980s, leading Takeaway for practice : Environmental Thomas L. Daniels (thomasld@design governments to use incentives to address planning ideas have been around for the past .upenn.edu) is a professor in the Department environmental problems. The current era century and underlie the currently popular of City and Regional Planning at the makes sustainability the goal, tying together concept of planning for sustainability. University of Pennsylvania. He is the the ideas and practices of the previous eras However, environmental planning has been coauthor of The Environmental Planning and blending regulation and financial only modestly effective at influencing Handbook (APA Planners Press, 2003). incentives to address national and global business practices and lifestyles. To change environmental problems, such as climate this, federal and local governments will have Journal of the American Planning Association, Vol. 75, No. 2, Spring 2009 change. To reduce carbon footprints and to lead by example, pursuing environmental sustainability as seriously as they pursue DOI 10.1080/01944360902748206 increase water and energy conservation in © American Planning Association, Chicago, IL. the face of significant population growth in economic growth. the United States will require making Keywords : city beautiful, garden city, eco- environmental planning a political priority, logical region, sustainability, environmental with the goals of curbing sprawling land planning 75-2 07 374990 Daniels qc2:JAPA 70-1-8 Laurian 3/10/09 12:50 PM Page 179

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Figure 1. Five eras of environmental planning in the United States. Downloaded by [APA - American Planning Association] at 11:59 09 May 2014 much to teach planners and policymakers. Following it were well underway in American cities by the latter half of into the future, I conclude by suggesting the kinds of the 19th century, producing extensive environmental programs and policies needed if the goals of sustainability change . Laissez-faire capitalism , lack of popular support and worldwide environmental protection are to be for state or federal government action , and corrupt local achieved . governments all contributed to poor environmental quality in the United States . Cities, particularly in the Northeast and Midwest, suffered from air-polluting factories, copious The First Era: Getting on the manure from horse-drawn transport, and minimal sewage Green Path treatment that resulted in chronic water pollution. Green spaces were in short supply, and housing was often The origins of environmental planning in America crowded and unsanitary. These problems were exacerbated preceded the first national planning conference of 1909 , by a surge in immigration, mainly from southern and largely coinciding with the reform movement of the Pro- eastern Europe, between 1890 and 1910 (Peterson, 2003). gressive Era, between 1890 and 1920 (Hays , 1959; Schuyler , By 19 10, nearly half of America’s 92 million people lived 1986). Population growth and industrial development in urban places and the nation had added a stunning 16 75-2 07 374990 Daniels qc2:JAPA 70-1-8 Laurian 3/10/09 12:50 PM Page 180

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million net residents in the decade of 1900 –1910 (U.S. movements all attempted to use physical planning and Census Bureau , 2008). New York City was a major entry urban design to respond to the deplorable conditions of point for immigrants , and thus it comes as no surprise industrial cities (see Table 1 ). that New York’s Committee on Congestion of Population was a prime mover behind the initial national planning Urban Parks and Playgrounds Movements conference (Reps, 1965). Beginning in the latter half of the 19th century, urban During the first era of environmental planning , the reformers called for parks that served entire cities as well as parks and playgrounds, city beautiful, and garden cities neighborhood playgrounds (Girardet, 2004; Marsh, 1864;

Table 1. Five eras in U.S. environmental planning.

Era and issues Purposes Actors

Progressive era Urban parks, playgrounds, city beautiful Aesthetics, social gathering places, sense of place Frederick Law Olmsted, Daniel Burnham Garden cities, suburbs Public health, sense of place Ebenezer Howard, Frederick Law Olmsted

Wilderness Nature protection, sense of place John Muir Conservation of natural resources Efficiency, sustainable yield Gifford Pinchot

Regional ecological planning and putting science in environmental planning Regional ecological planning Balance nature with built environment, economy Lewis Mumford, Clarence Stein, Benton with wilderness, sense of place MacKay, Ian McHarg, regional commissions Wilderness protection Nature protection, sense of place U.S. Dept. of Interior, Wilderness Society, National Wildlife Federation Environmental impact assessment Public health, natural resource conservation Ian McHarg, U.S. EPA, state environmental agencies, regional commissions

Modern environmental planning Pollution cleanup and control Public health, remediation U.S. EPA, state environmental agencies, private sector, NGOs State-level planning Manage growth, protect natural resources State planning offices, state environmental agencies, local governments

Downloaded by [APA - American Planning Association] at 11:59 09 May 2014 Backlash or a bridge to sustainability? Regulatory flexibility, financial incentives, Impede environmental progress, change Federal government, U.S. EPA, private sector cooperation regulations The rise of land trusts and NGOs Preserve land, protect environmental quality Land trusts, NGOs, Nature Conservancy, Natural Resources Defense Council, Environmental Defense, Sierra Club

Sustainability and the global environment Sustainability Long-term economic, environmental, and social Cities, land trusts, private sector viability; sense of place

Global environment Human prosperity, survival of living beings, Al Gore, federal government, private sector maintaining global ecosystems Urban ecological planning Public health, sense of place, protection of city Cities, land trusts, private sector as ecosystem 75-2 07 374990 Daniels qc2:JAPA 70-1-8 Laurian 3/10/09 12:50 PM Page 181

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Schuyler, 1986) . According to Frederick Law Olmsted, Sr., system together (Peterson , 2003; Reps , 1965 ). Among the parks were places where nature and the built environment Chicago plan’s accomplishments were the creation of the met in harmony , where all classes of society could interact lakefront park developed between 1917 and 1930 and the peacefully , and where environmental services like drainage, establishment of the Forest Preserve District (1914) that water filtration and flood control occurred naturally today encompasses more than 30,000 acres (Encyclopedia (Girardet , 2004 ; Schuyler, 1986 ). of Chicago , 2008). Olmsted and Calvert Vaux ’s 1857 design for New York City’s Central Park and Brooklyn’s Prospect Park, Garden Cities authorized by the New York legislature in 1859, were The appalling pollution and congestion of British sufficiently large to serve as green refuges from urban life industrial cities, especially London, prompted Englishman (Schuyler, 1986). Olmsted’s Emerald Necklace , the Boston Ebenezer Howard to set out an alternative regional settle - metropolitan area’s 1,100 -acre system of parks and parkways ment pattern in Tomorrow: A Peaceful Path to Real Reform begun in 1878 , reflected a more regional plan . Notably, the (1898) later published as Garden Cities of Tomorrow (1902). Emerald Necklace gave rise to the land trust movement in Howard envisioned a series of self-sufficient satellite cities America , and provided the original model for the involve - connected to each other and to a central city by rail lines. ment of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in envi - Encircled by greenbelts designed to limit growth and ronmental planning when landscape architect Charles Eliot provide space for recreation and agriculture, each garden formed the Trustees of Reservations in 189 1 in part to city would have a maximum population of 30,000, and all protect the Boston parklands (Brewer , 2003). residents would live and work within the city (Howard , Urban reformers also called for the construction of 1902; Parsons & Schuyler , 2002) . The goal was to com - small playgrounds in slum neighborhoods and adjacent to bine the best features of country and city life, balancing schools to provide places for children (especially immigrant development with nature. Howard helped build two ex- children) to have wholesome, supervised recreation, keeping perimental garden cities: Letchworth and Welwyn, on the them off the streets and out of trouble. First supported by outskirts of London, which have since become attractive philanthropists, nearly 2,000 supervised playgrounds commuter suburbs . Register (2006) refers to these garden existed in more than 300 U.S. cities by 1910 (Nolen , 1910). cities as the world’s first “ecocities” because of their harmony with nature (p. 100). City Beautiful Americans experimented with garden cities in the To celebrate the 400th anniversary of Christopher 1920s and 1930s, notably through the Regional Planning Columbus’s voyage to America, Congress chose Chicago to Association of America, founded by architects Clarence host the World’s Columbian Exhibition in 1892– 1893. Stein and Henry Wright and supported by Lewis Mumford Designed by Frederick Law Olmsted, Sr. and architect/ and Benton MacKaye, among others. Stein and Wright planner Daniel Burnham, the 600- acre site included classical - designed and garnered financial support for two private style exhibition buildings, a wooded island park, and the developments, Sunnyside Gardens in Queens, NY , and Midway Plaisance, a forerunner of the modern amusement Radburn, NJ. Due to the Depression, Radburn was only park (Reps , 1965) . The fair (also called the White City for partially realized , but stood as a model for later planned Downloaded by [APA - American Planning Association] at 11:59 09 May 2014 its architecture ) initiated the city beautiful movement, unit developments featuring clustered housing arranged which was characterized by the construction of civic centers, around large open spaces (Stein , 1951). During the New tree-lined boulevards , and public spaces ; by the imposition Deal, Stein served as an advisor to the Resettlement Ad - of order on chaotic industrial cities ; and by including ministration, which built three greenbelt cities: Greenbelt, nature in the city (Peterson , 2003). MD , Greenhills, OH , and Greendale, WI (Arnold , 1971). In the early 20th century, Cleveland and Columbus, OH , Washington , DC , Harrisburg, PA, Philadelphia , and Wilderness Protection and Conservation San Francisco embarked on city beautiful planning (Peter - of Natural Resources son , 2003) . The most ambitious city beautiful plan, the A fourth movement within the first era of environ - Plan of Chicago , was unveiled in July 1909, shortly after the mental planning involved federal policies promoting the first national planning conference. Commissioned by the wise use of natural resources and the preservation of wilder- city’s Commercial Club and overseen by Daniel Burnham , ness areas instead of the rapacious resource exploitation the Chicago plan featured a massive park system extending common in the 19th century (Hays, 1959). But a debate from the city into the larger region, with parks of varying arose between those advocating wilderness protection and scales and miles of tree-lined boulevards knitting the those advocating conserving natural resources for human 75-2 07 374990 Daniels qc2:JAPA 70-1-8 Laurian 3/10/09 12:50 PM Page 182

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use . Under President Theodore Roosevelt , who would in the form of air, water, and land pollution, underscoring leave office early in 1909, the federal government greatly local government’s tendency to value economic growth expanded its efforts to protect wildlife and conserve natural above the quality of the environment. Yet, led by Los resources. Roosevelt, widely acknowledged as America’s Angeles and New York, cities began to adopt zoning to most conservation-minded president, created the National separate conflicting land uses to better protect public Wildlife Reserve System in 1903 and the U.S. Forest health, safety, and welfare (Reps, 1965) . Concentrating Service in 1905 (Hays , 1959). However, these two acts noxious uses in industrial zones, for instance, reduced the showed Roosevelt’s ambivalence toward the federal govern - threat that industrial air and water pollution would cause ment’s role : How much of the environment should be set health problems for inhabitants of separate residential aside in its natural state, and how much should be used for zones. human consumption? This longstanding debate culminated The garden city movement enjoyed only minor success in the struggle over whether to build a dam in the Hetch as an alternative to the new residential suburbs, which were Hetchy Valley of Yosemite National Park, beginning in the precursors of automobile-dependent suburban sprawl, 1901. The dam was eventually built , but marked the first and the broad visions of the city beautiful movement were of many arguments over damming western rivers that not realized as widely as those of the site-specific parks and continue today (Hays , 1959). playgrounds movement. The debate about the use of natural resources pitted The first era of environmental planners employed only the wilderness preservationists, led by John Muir, founder limited technology and scientific knowledge. One impor - of the Sierra Club in 1892, against conservationist Gifford tant contribution was the overlay, a series of maps that Pinchot , who believed that natural resources should be could be layered one on top of the other to record and managed for sustained yields and used wisely for human communicate data for analyzing a site or region. The benefit (Hays , 1959). Muir shared the sentiments of Henry overlay was pioneered by Charles Eliot and later widely David Thoreau, who famously stated that , “In wildness is used by planner and landscape architect Ian McHarg (1996). the preservation of the world” (Thoreau , 1862/1967). Water supplies for large cities were increasingly developed Pinchot was mindful of the warnings of George Perkins in the hinterlands, such as New York City’s Catskills Marsh (1864) , who in Man and Nature described human reservoirs and San Francisco’s Hetch Hetchy source in the activity, such as overharvesting timber , that led to soil Sierras (Daniels & Daniels , 2003). Sewerage systems and erosion and flooding. Roosevelt had appointed Pinchot as treatment plants were built, but storm sewers were not the first head of the Forest Service, yet he also was greatly separated from sanitary sewers , leaving waterways vulnerable impressed with Muir (Shabecoff , 1993). This debate to combined sewer overflows during rain storms. These continues to this day, especially over planning the multiple continue to plague hundreds of cities to this day (Daniels uses (timber harvesting, recreation, watershed protection, & Daniels , 2003). livestock grazing, and wilderness) of the 191 million acres of national forests (Daniels & Daniels , 2003). The Second Era: Regional Ecological First Era Assessment Downloaded by [APA - American Planning Association] at 11:59 09 May 2014 Planning and Natural Science The first era of environmental planning provided a strong basis for future urban and regional ecological During the second era of U.S. environmental planning, planning, natural resources planning, and the balancing from the 1920s to 19 69 , planners pursued regional eco- of nature and development. The construction of parks, logical planning , balanced development and wilderness playgrounds, and central sewer and water systems led city protection , and conducted environmental impact assess - officials to recognize their responsibilities for the quality of ments, combining the preservation and conservation the environment and public health. The federal government principles of the first era with the garden city ideal. But began to act as a steward of the nation’s natural resources the main innovation of the second era was incorporating through the National Forest, National Wildlife Refuge, science into environmental assessment . Ecology, the study and National Park systems. of relationships within natural systems of hydrology, geology, The early emphasis on physical planning and urban biology, and botany , grew into a body of knowledge design did not come close to controlling air pollution, (McHarg , 1969). The efforts begun at this time to plan sites solving water pollution problems, or dealing with solid and and regions so as to fit humans unobtrusively into ecological hazardous waste . Business interests continued to impose the systems continue today (McHarg , 1996; Randolph , 2004). external costs of their production processes on the public 75-2 07 374990 Daniels qc2:JAPA 70-1-8 Laurian 3/10/09 12:50 PM Page 183

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Regional Ecological Planning soils together with a prolonged drought in the Great Plains In the 1920s, members of the Regional Planning devastated millions of acres of farmland during the infa - Association of America (RPAA) combined garden city ideas mous Dust Bowl years of the 1930s. In response, Franklin with the conservation of natural resources and wilderness Roosevelt’s administration created the Soil Conservation protection to create regional ecological planning . The RPAA Service to work with farmers on conserving soil and water saw the spread of urban development into the countryside resources through better farming practices (Steiner, 1990) . as a serious threat to the natural environment. RPAA The National Resources Planning Board (1934 –19 43) was members argued that maintaining and enhancing natural formed as a federal economic planning and development systems was essential and that humans must fit compatibly office and compiled numerous reports on the condition of within watersheds and plant and animal communities. the nation’s land and water resources with an eye toward RPAA member Clarence Stein served as chairman the wise use of those resources for economic growth of the New York State Housing and Regional Planning (Clawson , 1981). The short-lived Resettlement Admin- Commission , which produced the nation’s first state-level istration was created to move people away from the Dust land use plan in 1925. It called for transportation corridors, Bowl , but the federal government fell short of adopting settlement nodes , and the preservation of rural land. Lewis regional settlement policies on a national scale to balance Mumford was the chief spokesperson for the RPAA and population with the carrying capacity of the environment. took the lead in promoting the concept of regional eco- The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) used reforestation, logical planning. Inspired by Scottish botanist and planner better farming methods, and dam construction to restore Patrick Geddes, he saw the region as a set of environmental regional ecology and pursue economic development in one relationships among terrain, climate, and soils which in of the nation’s most backward regions. turn shaped human culture (Mumford , 1927). Mumford The successes of regional ecological planning occurred envisioned a region deliberately settled in an organic, mainly in rural areas, and included the programs of the decentralized fashion that balanced nature with the built Tahoe Regional Planning Agency (1969), Adirondack environment (Luccarelli , 1995). But it remained unclear Park Agency in upstate New York (1971), the Land Use what level of government could adopt and implement a Regulation Commission in the Unorganized Territories settlement policy for multistate regions, such as that sur - of northern Maine (1971), and the New Jersey Pinelands rounding New York City. Fellow RPAA member Benton Commission (1979). These regions are now managed to MacKaye incorporated Mumford’s regional ideas into his balance human activities with ecological health, much as own thinking (Parsons, 1994) . Lewis Mumford and Benton MacKaye had advocated. More MacKaye, a trained forester , combined Mumford’s recently, New York City joined this tradition, purchasing idea of the ecological region with Pinchot’s ideas about land and development rights, replacing failing septic systems, conserving natural resources and Muir’s love of wilderness . and promoting improved conservation practices on farms He called for regional economic development linked with and in forests to protect its water supply sources in the ecological planning , so that residents and visitors could Catskill and Delaware watersheds at a cost of about $1 “pass from civilization into the wild” (Luccarelli, 1995, billion, rather than building a $6 billion water filtration p. 88). MacKaye envisioned regions as networks of villages plant (Daniels & Daniels, 2003). Downloaded by [APA - American Planning Association] at 11:59 09 May 2014 or small cities, connected by highways that ran through the countryside without inducing sprawling development Balancing Development With (MacKaye , 1928). Today, MacKaye is best known as the Wilderness Protection father of the Appalachian Trail, which he proposed in 1921 In the 1960s, wilderness protection was the main to act as a natural buffer against what he saw as a metropoli - concern of most environmentalists, in the tradition of John tan invasion of the countryside (MacKaye , 1921, 1928). In Muir , and they wanted the federal government to take 1937, MacKaye helped forge a coalition of hiking organiza - action (Shabecoff , 1993). They scored a major victory with tions , states , and the federal government to make the more The Wilderness Act of 1964 , which set aside more than 30 than 2,100-mile trail from Maine to Georgia a reality. million acres of national forest as wilderness and created a Federal environmental policy during the New Deal process for designating additional federal lands as wilder - expanded federal involvement in planning settlements, ness (Daniels & Daniels, 2003). In 1965, Congress created restoring degraded environments , and making better use of the Land and Water Conservation Fund , funded by annual natural resources. A number of New Deal agencies com - revenues from oil and mineral leases on federal lands , to bined Pinchot’s idea of wise use of natural resources with purchase lands for wilderness and recreation. In 1968, regional ecological planning. The plowing up of fragile Congress passed the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act to protect 75-2 07 374990 Daniels qc2:JAPA 70-1-8 Laurian 3/10/09 12:50 PM Page 184

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wilderness and other largely unspoiled areas from develop - nation’s environmental quality declined, especially after ment. The theme of balancing development and wilderness World War II , as urban sprawl spread and the chemical protection appeared in the 1973 Endangered Species Act, industry expanded rapidly . probably the most far-reaching federal environmental law, The technology and science of planning were still which applies to all public and private land and requires rather basic, but the creation of county soils maps by the the identification of critical habitat and recovery plans for Soil Conservation Service and McHarg’s layers approach, plants and animals on the endangered species list (Daniels which built on Eliot’s overlays , were noteworthy achieve - & Daniels, 2003) . Shortly before leaving office, President ments. From the early 1920s to the end of the 1960s, Carter signed the Alaska National Interest Lands and America’s population doubled from 100 to 200 million. Conservation Act of 1980 , which designated 56 million But deteriorating air and water quality , contaminated acres as wilderness. And in 2001, President Clinton declared industrial sites, suburban sprawl, and loss of wildlife habitat 58.5 million acres of the national forests as roadless areas, suggested that the nation’s most pressing environmental in effect making them off limits for timber harvesting and problems were not being successfully addressed . Although development (Daniels & Daniels , 2003). local government planning became more widespread after the Standard Zoning and Planning Enabling Acts of the Environmental Impact Assessment 1920s, the impact of local development decisions on the In January of 1970, President Nixon signed the environment was not fully appreciated, and economic National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), which also growth remained the top priority in most localities . created the Council on Environmental Quality to oversee implementation of the act itself. NEPA established a process for the review of federal policies and projects that could The Third Era: The Birth of Modern affect environmental quality and irreversibly alter natural Environmental Planning resources. The heart of NEPA is the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) process that screens all proposed federal From the start of World War II to the 1960s, envi- projects, funding, permits, policies, and actions for ronmental issues took a back seat to international conflicts, potential environmental effects. though the metropolitan countryside suburbanized and This requirement opened up a demand for environ - central cities declined as Mumford and MacKaye had mental planners with training in geology, biology, botany, predicted, especially in the Rust Belt. Resistance to suburban and hydrology (Ndubisi , 2002). They used landscape archi- sprawl began to emerge in the 1960s (Rome , 2001). Large tect Ian McHarg’s pioneering system of land classification development projects, such as the proposed electric gener - based on layering information on soils, slope, drainage, ating plant at Storm King Mountain on the Hudson River, water supplies, wildlife, and vegetation (Wallace-McHarg galvanized opposition. Rachel Carson’s (1962) famous Associates , 1963) to analyze sites and landscapes for devel - book, Silent Spring , described the destruction of nature opment potential and constraints (McHarg , 1969). This wrought by the chemical industry. In short, the modern method was the precursor of GIS, now widely used to for environmental movement was born (Shabecoff, 1993) . environmental evaluation and to determine environmental In its first phase , from 1970 to 1981, the driver of the Downloaded by [APA - American Planning Association] at 11:59 09 May 2014 carrying capacity. modern environmental movement was not the individual thinker and practitioner, as had been the case previously, Assessment of the Second Era but the institutional framework of government policies The federal government played a significant role in and laws. The modern environmental movement initially environmental planning during the New Deal by creating emphasized federal command and control measures to new agencies and programs, such as the Soil Conservation force industry and governments to clean up polluted air, Service and the TVA. This activism resurfaced in the 1960s water, and land (Fiorino , 2006; Mazmanian & Kraft , 1999). with the passage of The Wilderness Act , the Wild and States created environmental agencies to help implement Scenic Rivers Act, and the Land and Water Conservation the federal laws, 22 states created state environmental policy Fund. Of special note in the second era is the rise of acts, and some states adopted statewide plans featuring NGOs in environmental planning and their ability to natural resource protection (Healy & Rosenberg, 1979) . influence environmental thinking and outcomes. The RPAA, the Wilderness Society, the Nature Conservancy, Pollution Clean Up and Control and others got their start in this second era. Meanwhile, During the 1960s, environmental problems became so business continued to ignore the environment , and the serious that they cried out for action, and the public and 75-2 07 374990 Daniels qc2:JAPA 70-1-8 Laurian 3/10/09 12:50 PM Page 185

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Congress took note. The first Earth Day on April 22, 1970 , 1972 ; Healy & Rosenberg , 1979) . Slowly, these environ - brought national attention to the poor environmental mental issues started to appear in local plans , and local quality : 60% of America’s waterways were not fit for governments drafted zoning provisions that protected swimming or drinking and many city dwellers choked in environmental features such as steep slopes and floodplains. smog (Daniels & Daniels , 2003). The problems were A few states, notably Vermont and Florida, established simply too big for cities, metropolitan regions, or even state guidelines for reviewing developments of regional states to handle. Moreover, the private sector had to be impact (Healy & Rosenberg , 1979). In 1973 , Oregon included in environmental planning and regulation (Fiorino , instituted a sweeping state planning law that required local 2006) . Beginning in 1970, Congress and President Nixon comprehensive plans be consistent with statewide planning responded with the most sweeping environmental legislation to protect farm and forest lands, coastal resources, and in the history of the United States. natural areas, and to concentrate most development within The Clean Air Act of 1970, the Water Pollution urban growth boundaries (DeGrove , 2005). Control Act of 1972 (better known as the Clean Water Act), and the Safe Drinking Water Act of 1974 enabled Assessment of the Third Era the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA ; created The initial phase of the modern environmental move - by President Nixon in 1970 ) to combine a command and ment led to spending hundreds of billions of dollars each control regulatory approach with infrastructure funding to year on pollution cleanup and control (Fiorino , 2006). It clean up pollution and maintain environmental quality was starting to become apparent that environmental quality (Mazmanian & Kraft , 1999) . Finally, the funding and was linked to economic growth , as well as to public health regulation necessary to plan for the environmental resto- and the general quality of life. The results have been im - ration and protection of cities and regions had begun at a pressive; air and water pollution have been much reduced level beyond what Olmsted, Burnham, Howard, Mumford, (Daniels & Daniels , 2003 ; Speth, 2008). Many, though or MacKaye could have imagined . National air and water not all, hazardous waste sites have been remediated. The quality standards were established to protect the public disposal of solid waste became safer and more orderly . health. Polluters faced fines or, in the case of water, had to Private industry developed the capacity to comply with obtain a National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System environmental laws and recognized the need to cut pollu - (NPDES) permit to discharge pollutants into waterways. tion and waste (Fiorino , 2006) . Popular awareness of the Section 201 of the Clean Water Act provided more than environment rose, thanks to both federal legislation and $150 billion in funding for municipal sewage treatment the annual celebration of Earth Day. The emergence of plants and sewer lines and required states to do sewerage state and local environmental planning was a noteworthy facilities planning (Shabecoff , 1993). Even so, some 40 % achievement, and led localities to plan and implement of America’s waterways remain unfit for drinking or policies to create healthier, more attractive places to live, swimming (Daniels & Daniels, 2003). work, and recreate (Healy & Rosenberg, 1979). Through the 1980 Comprehensive Environmental But the federal environmental legislation did not Response, Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA ; emphasize place-making, a fundamental concern of planning commonly known as Superfund) and the 1984 amendments (Shutkin , 2000). And the command and control approach Downloaded by [APA - American Planning Association] at 11:59 09 May 2014 to the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA), assumed that government had adequate data and scientific the EPA began to address the problem of cleaning up knowledge to set standards for air and water, which was hazardous waste sites and improving the disposal of solid not always the case (Fiorino , 2006 ; Speth , 2008). waste . CERCLA authorized federal funds to clean up a list of severely contaminated sites . The redevelopment of less contaminated brownfield sites (of which there may be as The Fourth Era: Backlash or a Bridge many as 500,000 across the nation ) for commercial, indus - to Sustainability? trial, or residential uses is crucial for urban revitalization , especially in Rust Belt cities (Daniels & Daniels , 2003). The fourth era of environmental planning, which began in 1982 and stretched through the George W. Bush State-Level Planning for the Environment administration, ending in 2008, was also the second phase In the 1970s, a number of states began to require local of the modern environmental movement (Mazmanian & governments to adopt comprehensive plans that incorpo - Kraft , 1999). The primary environmental problem in this rated state goals, including the protection of air, water, phase was a backlash against government environmental coasts, and other natural resources (Bosselman & Callies , regulation , which was seen as too costly , inflexible, and 75-2 07 374990 Daniels qc2:JAPA 70-1-8 Laurian 3/10/09 12:50 PM Page 186

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burdensome to private industry. During this period, two improvement through Metropolitan Planning Organizations Republican administrations, those of Ronald Reagan and (MPOs) . By their roles in MPOs, local governments gained the second President Bush , tried vigorously to roll back the power to influence how federal transportation dollars federal environmental regulations; but it was under Dem- would be spent, as long as compliance with the Clean Air ocratic President Clinton that the shift of federal control Act standards or progress toward those standards was over many environmental regulations to the states began in maintained (Daniels & Daniels , 2003). earnest (Fiorino , 2006). During this period the Montreal During this same period the federal government began protocol on substances that deplete the ozone layer, ratified paying landowners to improve land management in the in 198 7, also showed the limits of federal influence in Conservation Reserve Program (1985), and for conservation environmental matters by making it clear that some global easements to preserve their land through the Wetland environmental challenges go far beyond national politics. Reserve Program ( 1990) and the Farm and Ranchland Meanwhile, the term smart growth came to describe states Protection Program (1996 ; Daniels & Daniels, 2003). and local government policies to allow economic and population growth while protecting the environment and The Rise of Land Trusts quality of life . The Reagan years were a watershed for nonprofit environmental planning organizations. In 1980, there were A New Model of Federal about 400 private, nonprofit land trusts in the United Environmental Planning States. Today, more than 1, 600 land trusts have preserved Planning is a political process , as was evident at the nearly 40 million acres, thanks in part to large national beginning of the Reagan administration in 1981. In spite land trusts like The Nature Conservancy and the Trust for of air and water quality improvements, Reagan reined in the Public Land (Land Trust Alliance , 2005 ). Large land trusts Department of the Interior and the EPA, whose environ - with statewide , regional, or national scopes can implement mental regulators had been criticized as bureaucratic, puni- regional environmental planning by permanently preserving tive, and adversarial toward industry and private property land for natural areas, farmland, or forestland . owners (Fiorino , 2006). The Reagan administration also re- quired cost-benefit analyses of proposed new environmental Assessment of the Fourth Era regulations, and characterized environmental regulation The backlash against federal environmental regulation generally as a drag on economic growth (Speth , 2008). and planning in the Reagan and George W. Bush admin- At the same time, it also became apparent to environ - istrations retarded environmental progress (Speth , 2008). mentalists that regulation alone was not necessarily the most Economic growth and business interests were given top cost-effective or politically acceptable strategy. Federal priority, and federal environmental regulation was relaxed . policy stressed financial incentives, cooperation, regulatory By contrast, the George H. W. Bush administration em - flexibility, and negotiation rather than the command and phasized financial incentives for environmental planning in control regulatory approach, hoping to encourage markets the 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments and ISTEA. to produce more environmentally beneficial outcomes During this period energy became an important envi - (Mazmanian & Kraft , 1999). The federal government ronmental issue. The oil price shocks of the 1970s should Downloaded by [APA - American Planning Association] at 11:59 09 May 2014 aimed to work more collaboratively with industry and have spurred the federal government to promote energy local governments. The 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments, conservation and mass transportation systems and develop enacted during the first Bush administration , exemplified domestic supplies of renewable energy. Instead, the United this approach, creating a cap-and-trade program that gave States now imports more than half of its oil, and only a industry incentives to reduce sulfur dioxide emissions small fraction of the nation’s energy consumption comes (Fiorino , 2006 ; Speth , 2008). A company that could from renewable sources (Speth , 2008) . Approximately 80 % reduce emissions below a set cap could then sell pollution of federal funding from ISTEA and subsequent transpor- credits to a company that was not able to reduce emissions tation legislation has been spent on road construction and below its cap. The cap-and-trade approach did not specify maintenance, and only 20 % on mass transit (Daniels & how companies should reduce emissions, but emphasized Daniels , 2003). As a result, few of the nation’s metropolitan the goal they should meet, and the cost of failing, providing regions possess much dense, mixed-use , transit-oriented them with a strong financial incentive . development clustered around bus, rail, or subway stations. The Clean Air Act Amendments together with the MPOs have had little influence on local and regional land Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act (ISTEA) use planning , a serious flaw that undermines regional of 1991 linked transportation planning with air quality environmental planning and public health. 75-2 07 374990 Daniels qc2:JAPA 70-1-8 Laurian 3/10/09 12:50 PM Page 187

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On the positive side, environmental planners and the This latest era first, sees environmental planning as a land trust movement used financial incentives to encourage process, and sustainability as something to work toward positive environmental results and make markets more rather than something that will soon be achieved . Second, efficient. For example, the cap-and-trade model worked it requires a holistic view of a city or region that includes well in reducing sulfur dioxide emissions, and became the equal concern for environmental, economic, and social model of choice for reducing carbon dioxide emissions sustainability (Newman & Jennings, 2008) . It is simply under the Kyoto protocol on climate change (Speth, not possible to have one kind of sustainability without the 2004). Planning knowledge became more widely available others. Campbell (1996) warned that planners must con - thanks to the expansion of the Internet, remote sensing, sider environmental and social justice as they implement computer modeling, and the growing use of GIS. And urban greening projects . This new perspective also considers companies gradually became aware that going green could environmental quality to be of the same importance as reduce operating costs and boost their profits (Fiorino , economic growth. Third, under the sustainable planning 2006). model all levels of government must work with the business community and individuals to shape behavior and lifestyles to be in harmony with nature (Register, 2006). Topics of concern to sustainable environmental planning The Fifth Era: Planning for include ecological planning, low-impact site design, Lead - Sustainability and the Global ership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) – Environment certified buildings and neighborhoods, public health and settlement patterns, hazard mitigation and disaster planning, conserving water supplies and protecting water quality, Sustainability alternative energy systems, biodiversity, access to green space, The 1987 World Commission on Environment and promoting green jobs, environmental justice, multimodal Development report, Our Common Future , defined sus - transportation, and, of course, climate change (Girardet, tainable development as “development that meets the 2004; Register, 2006). needs of the present without compromising the ability of President Clinton appointed a Council on Sustainable future generations to meet their own needs” (p. 43). Thus, Development in 1993 and the Council’s report was pub - stewardship is fundamental to the principle of sustainability, lished in 1996 (President’s Council on Sustainable Devel - which requires leaving the earth at least as well off as one opment, 1996). Even so, the United States has no clear found it. The report also noted the limits of the biosphere national policies on population, settlement, energy, or to absorb the effects of human activities and the need for water supply although increasing population will place wealthier countries to “adopt lifestyles within the planet’s greater demands on natural resources and the ability of the ecological means” (p. 9 ). In particular, the report empha - environment to assimilate pollution and waste. There are sized that “sustainable development can only be pursued if now more than 300 million Americans , and by the end of population size and growth happen in harmony with the the 21st century it is projected that there will be more than changing productive potential of the ecosystem ” ( p. 9 ). 570 million (U.S. Census Bureau, 2004). As one environ - Downloaded by [APA - American Planning Association] at 11:59 09 May 2014 Thus, planning for sustainability must minimize waste mental historian put it, “It is clear enough that our current and pollution , conserve natural resources, and reflect the ways are ecologically unsustainable” (McNeill, 2000, p. 358). carrying capacity of ecosystems . Although we did not realize it at the time, the previous Global Environmental Planning four eras of environmental planning led us to our current In 1972, the authors of The Limits to Growth (Meadows, concern for sustainability . The first era showed how to Meadows, Randers, & Behrens, 1972 ) caused an uproar by create a quality physical environment with a sense of place , predicting when the world would run out of some natural and that natural resources are finite and must be used resources and suggesting that economic growth based on wisely. During the second era, ecological regional planning the exploitation of finite natural resources could not go on learned to balance a region’s long-term environmental and forever. In 1989, McKibben claimed that there was virtu - economic health. The third era showed that governmental ally nowhere on earth that had not been altered by human command and control measures can change business and influence, and hence, that the end of true nature had been consumer behavior and reduce pollution. The fourth era reached (McKibben, 1989). Figure 2 lists what Gus Speth, proved that financial incentives can produce more sustainable Dean of the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental lifestyles and business practices. Studies, considers to be the top 10 global environmental 75-2 07 374990 Daniels qc2:JAPA 70-1-8 Laurian 3/10/09 12:50 PM Page 188

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challenges, which, cumulatively threaten global ecosystems and the very existence of the world’s inhabitants . 1. Climate change and global warming 2. Loss of crop and grazing land and soil erosion So far, the United States has responded slowly to these 3. Loss of tropical forests global environmental challenges (Speth, 2008) . For instance, 4. Extinction of species the United States has long been a major producer of green - 5. Ozone depletion by chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) and other house gases (Speth, 2008 ). The Kyoto protocol of 1997 gases proposed a global cap-and-trade system to reduce carbon 6. Population growth dioxide emissions in 2012 to at least 5% below 1990 levels 7. Freshwater shortages (Speth , 2004) . As of 2008, America was the lone industrial 8. Overfishing oceans nation that had not signed the Kyoto protocol, under the 9. Pesticides 10. Acid deposition reasoning that the protocol would harm the U.S. economy (Speth, 2008) . In the absence of federal environmental leadership, more Figure 2. The 10 leading global environmental challenges. than 900 U.S. cities have signed the Sierra Club’s cool Source: Adapted from Speth (2004). cities pledge to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 7% or more below 1990 levels by 2012 (Sierra Club , 2008). Several cities have gone a step farther by drafting sustainability plans that emphasize the curbing of greenhouse gases locality’s environmental footprint is to reduce its dependence (Wheeler, 2008). By early 2008, 23 states and at least a few on cars (Kenworthy & Newman, 1999; Register, 2006). cities had adopted renewable portfolio standards requiring In addition, urban environmental planners are applying local electricity providers to obtain a certain amount of McHarg’s environmental layers as opportunities and their electricity from renewable energy sources (Daniels, constraints , to understand the urban setting as a living 2008). ecosystem with a sense of place rather than as simply a Threats to sustainability are now matters of national collection of buildings (Spirn , 1984). security because as a nation we have become dependent on Comprehensive plans, zoning ordinances, and building importing more than half of the oil we consume to support codes should be rewritten to enable practical models for our carbon-intensive lifestyle, and global climate change incorporating sustainability principles into urban environ - poses potential threats to water resources from more frequent mental planning (Beatley , 2000; Beatley & Manning , 1997; and severe droughts, to wildlife from hotter temperatures, Farr, 2007; Girardet , 2004; Jepson, 2004; Newman & and to coastal settlements from rising ocean levels (Gore, Jennings , 2008; Register , 2006). For example, Beatley and 2006). Manning describe how Chattanooga, TN , the nation’s most polluted city in 1969 , became the greenest city in Urban Ecological Planning America while developing a strong economy and providing Within the first decade of the 21st century, more a substantial amount of affordable housing. humans will be living in cities than in villages and the The new urbanist movement stresses the importance countryside for the first time in history (Girardet, 2004). of design in creating attractive, livable communities (Duany, Downloaded by [APA - American Planning Association] at 11:59 09 May 2014 Urban areas are expected to increase in size and population Plater-Zyberk, & Speck, 2001; Katz , 1993). New urbanism throughout the current century, underscoring the need for does not place a strong emphasis on the natural environ - safe, healthy, efficient, and attractive places for people to ment, and the movement has been criticized for building live, work, and recreate (Newman & Jennings, 2008). At on greenfield sites (Gordon & Richardson , 1998) , yet the the heart of urban environmental planning is the push for density, mixed uses, pedestrian-friendliness, green spaces, air and water quality, energy conservation, walkability, and transit-oriented developments of new urbanism pro - multimodal transit, green spaces, social inclusiveness, mote better air and water quality and healthier residents. economic success, and ultimately , sustainability (Alberti , Architect Peter Calthorpe and planner William Fulton 2008; Farr, 2007; Newman & Jennings , 2008; Register , advocate bounded dense settlements surrounded by open 2006). A key concept is a city’s ecological footprint , defined countryside to curb sprawl (Calthorpe & Fulton , 2001). as the total amount of land resources used to support the Although far from achieving this vision, several cities city’s residents (McNeill, 2000; Rees , 1992 ; Speth , 2008). are stepping up their environmental planning efforts. The lower the ecological footprint, the more harmony with Chicago’s aggressive programs to plant trees and promote natural systems and the less energy and natural resources green roofs and solar energy is a well-known example. New consumed and waste generated. One way to reduce a York City’s watershed protection program and its latest 75-2 07 374990 Daniels qc2:JAPA 70-1-8 Laurian 3/10/09 12:50 PM Page 189

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planning document , PlaNYC (City of New York, 2007), Conclusions: The Trail Toward a promote environmental quality while strengthening the Greener 21st Century urban economy and transportation system, improving quality of life even as the city’s population grows. Environmental planning in America has evolved substantially in response to social, political, and environ - Assessment of the Fifth Era mental circumstances. Since the 1909 national planning Sustainability in environmental planning is a far-off conference, the nation’s population has more than tripled, but worthy goal to work toward. Despite the achievements the economy has multiplied many times , government and of the command and control approach in the third era and corporate sectors have mushroomed, and threats to the the introduction of financial incentives in the fourth era, environment have become more widespread and often many environmental challenges remain (Speth , 2008). cross political boundaries. In response, environmental Particulates from burning coal are still a leading cause of planning has grown from a handful of thinkers and prac- air pollution, supplies of clean fresh water are becoming titioners who emphasized physical planning and urban increasingly precious, and automobile emissions are the design to an institutional policy and legal framework that primary source of air pollution in many metropolitan includes government, business, and nonprofit groups, as regions (Daniels & Daniels , 2003 ; Speth , 2008 ), and the well as individuals. The problems that originally prompted United States is adding over three million new residents environmental planning still exist: the need for parks and each year (U.S. Census Bureau , 2004). playgrounds , inadequate urban infrastructure for clean American environmental planning is just beginning to water and disposing of waste , the need for safe and healthy address sustainability. Part of the reason is the long-standing places to live, and the desire to balance wise use of natural tension between whether to give higher priority to economic resources with the preservation of wilderness . But modern growth or environmental quality. Many decisions that environmental planning aims to go beyond protecting affect the environment are made at the local or regional regional ecosystems and cleaning up local pollution to level where economic growth often gets more attention embrace national and international sustainability . than do environmental concerns. Practicing planners have Government and private sector capacity to plan for the long struggled with politicians over incorporating environ - environment has increased enormously over the past 100 mental issues into local comprehensive plans and promoting years. But the willingness to plan has wavered recently, par- zoning and subdivision codes that regulate development ticularly on the part of the federal government . Strategies while protecting environmental quality (Berke & Manta , have changed over the period from physical design , to 2001 ; Jepson, 2004 ). Indeed, we lack evidence on how command and control regulation, to financial incentives well the goals of federal laws like the Clean Air Act and for pollution control, regional ecological protection, urban Clean Water Act have been incorporated into urban and greening, and global cooperation . regional environmental plans (Daniels & Daniels , 2003). Planning technology and scientific knowledge have To address their environmental problems, urban areas made major strides from rudimentary overlays to GIS, will need significant reinvestment, which does not appear remote sensing, computer modeling, and a far greater to be forthcoming from the federal government. Thus, understanding of biology, botany, geology, and hydrology Downloaded by [APA - American Planning Association] at 11:59 09 May 2014 state and local governments along with the private sector and how humans impact the environment. The biggest and NGOs have begun to forge responses to climate problem environmental planning faces may be lack of change and other environmental problems . But adequate political will, not scientific uncertainty. funding for environmental programs will continue to be Have the theory and practice of American environ - a major obstacle. mental planning been equal to the challenges ? Not in the Changes in business practices and consumer behavior early years, when urban air pollution was hardly addressed. are beginning to benefit the environment. Businesses are Water pollution from combined sewer overflows continues recognizing that green products and green processes can to be a major problem today. Suburban sprawl trumped increase profits and reduce costs (Speth, 2008). Many the garden city movement, but wilderness preservation has consumers want to buy products that produce minimal been a noteworthy success. Regional ecological planning environmental impact, and saving water and energy and has had a few impressive achievements, but mainly in rural minimizing waste and pollution help companies’ profitability . areas rather than metropolitan regions . Since 1970 , pollu - tion cleanup and control has been an expensive but largely successful effort. The blending of regulations with financial incentives and greater cooperation and collaboration has 75-2 07 374990 Daniels qc2:JAPA 70-1-8 Laurian 3/10/09 12:50 PM Page 190

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produced some improvement in air quality. The goal of drinking water, Americans will have to learn to leave sustainability holds promise as a new paradigm for environ- smaller ecological footprints in order to accommodate the mental planning. And greater awareness of human impacts projected increase of more than 250 million Americans on the global environment may spur action , particularly to over the course of the 21 st century (U.S. Census Bureau, address climate change. There is, in short, still much work 2004). More compact settlements , urban revitalization, to be done (Speth , 2008). Yet history may not have and stricter standards for new developments will be key to equipped us adequately for dealing with the host of serious accommodating additional population with a minimum of challenges we face . It is not clear whether sustainability has environmental impact on air and water quality, wildlife, truly achieved the same importance as economic growth, and energy consumption. Otherwise, the United States though the future of the planet may depend on it . might consider adopting a population and settlement Planners can take action to make the future better policy to limit population growth and better match the both as professionals and as citizens. First , they should location of population with environmental carrying capacity . minimize sprawling development patterns and work to Such changes in American culture and values will redevelop low density sprawl into urban places. Sprawling involve difficult investment choices, trade-offs, and political development depends heavily on cars and trucks which decisions. For example, better mass transit will be essential generate air pollution and climate -altering greenhouse gases for the conservation of energy and reducing air pollution as well as increasing America’s dependence on imported and greenhouse gas emissions in U.S. metropolitan areas oil. Sprawl also contributes to water pollution when septic (Yaro & Carbonell , 2007). But investing in mass transit systems fail and storm runoff is improperly managed. It is an will cost hundreds of billions of dollars and will compete unsustainable form of development. Environmental planners with highway projects. The goal should be for the United should blend command and control regulations (especially States, the world’s wealthiest country, to set an example for zoning and urban growth boundaries ), financial incentives , the world in environmental planning and environmental and investment to promote sustainable settlement patterns. quality: act locally, think globally. And environmental Second, environmental planners can use regulations planning must involve more international cooperation to and financial incentives to promote environmentally manage the global biosphere and to address climate change friendly business practices and consumer lifestyles. It is and the other challenges listed in Figure 2. important to use regulation to ensure basic environmental Fourth , both major political parties should embrace quality and to stop pollution at its source , but it is also environmental planning and sustainability. Republican important that prices signal consumers and producers the Presidents Theodore Roosevelt and Richard Nixon pushed true costs of their choices, and enable them to make in - for major environmental legislation; and former Democratic formed choices that promote sustainability (Speth, 2008). Vice President Al Gore has been the leading spokesperson The principle that requires those who create negative ex- on climate change. Planning is fundamentally a political ternalities to pay for them must apply not only to polluters process, and electing political candidates who support of air and water, but also to developers who build far from environmental planning and sustainability is crucial. The established settlements. Financial incentives, such as cap- federal government should guide the United States and the and-trade systems to reduce carbon dioxide emissions and world toward greater sustainability, specifically : Downloaded by [APA - American Planning Association] at 11:59 09 May 2014 other greenhouse gases that contribute to climate change, and greater cooperation among levels of government, 1. Enact major controls, taxes or trading systems industry, and NGOs will be necessary. to retard climate change; Third , Americans must also adopt what Aldo Leopold 2. Change or end programs that subsidize sprawl called a land ethic : “ A thing is right when it tends to pre - and environmental degradation; serve the integrity and stability and beauty of the biotic 3. Increase funding for mass transit and the community. It is wrong when it tends otherwise” (Leopold, development of renewable energy ; 1929/1977, pp. 224–225). The stakes of environmental 4. Elevate the EPA to a cabinet department to give planning are much higher now than they were in 1909. the environment its due place at the table in the Potential catastrophes from climate change now threaten national decision-making process, and to put the the entire planet , as well as America’s national security. goal of a sustainable environment on a par with that Thus, global environmental planning and sustainability are of a sustainable economy . about long-term human survival as much as quality of life. Unless sweeping technological breakthroughs occur in the Fifth, fragmented, uncooperative local governments production of clean, carbonless energy, food, fiber, and compete to expand their property tax bases, often at the 75-2 07 374990 Daniels qc2:JAPA 70-1-8 Laurian 3/10/09 12:50 PM Page 191

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expense of environmental quality and social cohesion. State Farr, D. (2007). Sustainable urbanism: Urban design with nature . New and federal regulations should compel local governments York: John Wiley & Sons. to do better environmental planning, but more state and Fiorino, D . J. (2006). The new environmental regulation . Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. federal funding for local infrastructure and planning will Girardet, H . (2004). Cities, people, planet: Livable cities for a sustainable be needed as well. For regional environmental planning to world . Chichester, UK: Wiley-Academy. succeed, Americans must revamp local governmental Gordon, P ., & Richardson, H.W . (1998 , November ). A critique of new structure and plan according to ecosystems, such as water - urbanism. Paper presented at the American Collegiate Schools of sheds, rather than political boundaries, as MacKaye long Planning Conference. Pasadena, CA. ago advocated. Gore, A . E., Jr. (2006). An inconvenient truth: The planetary emergency of global warming and what we can do about it . Emmaus, PA: Rodale Finally, let us keep in mind that at the 2109 national Books. planning conference, planners will look back at another Hays, S . P. (1959). Conservation and the gospel of efficiency: The progres - 100 years of environmental planning and judge how well sive conservation movement, 1890 –1920 . Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. we have managed not only America’s environment, but Healy, R . G. , & Rosenberg, J. S. (1979). Land use and the states (2 nd also the global biosphere . ed.). Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. Howard, E. (1902). Garden cities of tomorrow . London : Faber and Faber . Jepson, E. (2004). The adoption of sustainable development policies References and techniques: How wide, how deep, and what role for planners? Alberti, M. (2008). Advances in urban ecology: Integrating humans and Journal of Planning Education and Research , 23 (3), 229–241. ecological processes in urban ecosystems . New York: Springer. Katz, P. (1993). New urbanism: Toward an architecture of community . Arnold, J. L. (1971). The New Deal in the suburbs: A history of the green - New York: McGraw-Hill. belt town program, 1935–1954 . Columbus: Ohio State University Press. Kenworthy, J. , & Newman, P. (1999). Sustainability and cities: Beatley, T. (2000). Green urbanism: Learning from European cities . Overcoming automobile dependence . Washington, DC: Island Press. Washington, DC: Island Press. Land Trust Alliance. (2005). 2005 National land trust census. Retrieved Beatley, T. , & Manning, K. (1997). The ecology of place . Washington, March 23, 2008, from http://www.landtrustalliance.org/about-us/ DC: Island Press. land-trust-census Berke, P. , & Manta, M. (2001). Are we planning for sustainable Leopold, A. (1949/1977). A Sand County almanac and sketches here and development? An evaluation of 30 comprehensive plans. Journal of the there . New York: Oxford University Press. American Planning Association , 66 (1), 21–34. Luccarelli, M. (1995). Lewis Mumford and the ecological region: The Bosselman, F. P. , & Callies, D. (1972). The quiet revolution in land use politics of planning . New York: Guilford Press. control . Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office. MacKaye, B. (1921). An Appalachian trail: A project in regional Brewer, R. (2003). Conservancy: The land trust movement in America . planning. American Institute of Architects Journal , 9, 325–330. Hanover, NH: University Press of New England. MacKaye, B. (1928). The new exploration. A philosophy of regional Calthorpe, P. , & Fulton, W. (2001). The regional city: Planning for the planning . New York: Harcourt and Brace. end of sprawl . Washington, DC: Island Press. Marsh, G. P. (1864). Man and nature . New York: Charles Scribner. Campbell, S. (1996). Green cities, growing cities, just cities?: Urban Mazmanian, D. A. , & Kraft, M. E. (1999). The three epochs of the planning and the contradictions of sustainable development. Journal of environmental movement. In D. A. Mazmanian and M. E. Kraft, the American Planning Association, 62 (3), 296–312. (Eds.), Toward sustainable communities: Transition and transformations Carson, R. (1962). Silent spring . Boston: Houghton Mifflin. in environmental policy (pp. 3–41). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. City of New York. (2007). PlaNYC: A greener, greater New York . New McHarg, I. (1969). Design with nature . Garden City, NY: Anchor Downloaded by [APA - American Planning Association] at 11:59 09 May 2014 York: Author. Doubleday. Clawson, M. (1981). New Deal planning: The national resources planning McHarg, I. (1996). A quest for life: An autobiography . New York: John board . Baltimore: Resources for the Future. Wiley & Sons. Daniels, T. (2008). Taking the initiative: Why cities are greening now. McKibben, B. (1989). The end of nature . New York: Random House. In E. L. Birch & S. Wachter (Eds.), Growing greener cities: Urban McNeill, J. R. (2000). Something new under the sun: An environmental sustainability in the 21st century (pp. 11–26). Philadelphia: University history of the twentieth century world . New York: W. W. Norton. of Pennsylvania Press. Meadows, D. H. , Meadows, D. L., Randers, J., & Behrens, W. W. Daniels, T. , & Daniels, K. (2003). The environmental planning handbook (1972). The limits to growth: A report for the Club of Rome’s project on the for sustainable communities and regions . Chicago: APA Planners Press. predicament of mankind . New York: Universe Books. DeGrove, J. M. (2005). Planning policy and politics: Smart growth and Mumford, L. (1927). Regionalism and irregionalism. Sociological the states . Cambridge, MA: Lincoln Institute of Land Policy. Review , 19 , 277–288. Duany, A. , Plater-Zyberk, E., & Speck, J. (2001). Suburban nation: The Ndubisi, F. (2002). Ecological planning: A historical and comparative rise of sprawl and the decline of the American dream . New York: North synthesis . Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. Point Press. Newman, P. , & Jennings, I. (2008). Cities as sustainable ecosystems: Encyclopedia of Chicago. (2008) . The Plan of Chicago, a Living Principles and practices . Washington, DC: Island Press. Document: Implementation: Lakefront and parks . Retrieved March 22, Nolen, J. (1910, March). The parks and recreation facilities in the 2008, from http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/300008 United States. Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social .html Science, Recreation Facilities , 1–12. 75-2 07 374990 Daniels qc2:JAPA 70-1-8 Laurian 3/10/09 12:50 PM Page 192

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Parsons, K. C. (1994). Collaborative genius: The regional planning Sierra Club. (2008). Cool cities: Solving global warming one city at a association of America. Journal of the American Planning Association , time. Retrieved May 23, 2008, from http://coolcities.us 60 (4), 462 –482. Speth, J. G. (2004). Red sky at morning: America and the crisis of the Parsons, K. C. , & Schuyler, D. (Eds.). (2002). From garden city to green global environment . New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. city: The legacy of Ebenezer Howard . Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Speth, J. G. (2008). The bridge at the edge of the world: Capitalism, the Press. environment, and crossing from crisis to sustainability . New Haven, CT: Peterson, J. A. (2003). The birth of city planning in the United States, Yale University Press. 1840–1917 . Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. Spirn, A. W. (1984). The granite garden: Urban nature and human President’s Council on Sustainable Development. (1996). Sustainable design . New York: Basic Books. America: A new consensus for prosperity, opportunity, and a healthy Stein, C. (1951). Toward new towns for America . Liverpool, UK: environment for the future . Washington, DC: Author. University Press of Liverpool. Randolph, J. (2004). Environmental land use planning and management . Steiner, F. R. (1990). Soil conservation in the United States: Policy and Washington, DC: Island Press. planning. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. Rees, W. (1992). Ecological footprints and appropriate carrying capacity: Thoreau, H. D. (1862/1967). In wildness is the preservation of the world . What urban economics leaves out. Environment and Urbanization , San Francisco: Sierra Club. 42 (2): 121–130. U.S. Census Bureau. (2004). Population estimates and projections . Reps, J. (1965). The making of urban America . Princeton, NJ: Princeton Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office. University Press. U.S. Census Bureau. (2008). 1910 U.S. census. Retrieved June 16, Register, R. (2006). Ecocities: Rebuilding cities in balance with nature . 2008, from http://www.census.gov/population/censusdata/table-4.pdf Gabriola Island, BC, Canada: New Society Publishers. Wallace-McHarg Associates. (1963). Plan for the valleys . Philadelphia: Rome, A. (2001). The bulldozer in the countryside: Suburban sprawl and Wallace-McHarg Associates. the rise of American environmentalism . New York: Cambridge University Wheeler, S. M. (2008). State and municipal climate change plans: The Press. first generation. Journal of the American Planning Association , 74 (4), Schuyler, D. (1986). The new urban landscape: The redefinition of city 481 –496. form in nineteenth-century America . Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University World Commission on Environment and Development. (1987). Our Press. common future (The Bruntland Report). Oxford, UK: Oxford University Shabecoff, P. (1993). A fierce green fire: The American environmental Press. movement . New York: Hill and Wang. Yaro, R. D. , & Carbonell, A. (2007). Reinventing megalopolis: The Shutkin, W. A. (2000). The land that could be: Environmentalism and northeast megaregion. In J. Barnett (Ed.), Smart growth in a changing democracy in the twenty-first century . Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. world (pp. 77–93). Chicago: APA Planners Press. Downloaded by [APA - American Planning Association] at 11:59 09 May 2014 75-2 05 368836 Talen p:JAPA 70-1-8 Laurian 3/19/09 4:37 PM Page 144

144 Design by the Rules

The Historical Underpinnings of Form-Based Codes

Emily Talen

Problem : Form-based codes (FBCs) affect t the start of the 21st century, urban planning has rediscovered how the design of cities with rules about building to regulate the design of cities with rules about building form called form- form and location. They are of renewed based codes 1 (FBCs). The Form-Based Codes Institute (2008) , a nonprofit interest to modern planners, but their history A group devoted to their advancement, provides the following definition: and that of coding reform generally are largely unexplored. Purpose : This research traces the historical ... a method of regulating development to achieve a specific urban form. lineage of FBCs. Form-based codes create a predictable public realm primarily by control - Methods : This work is based on archival ling physical form, with a lesser focus on land use. . . . Form-based codes research on historic codes regulating urban address the relationship between building facades and the public realm, development. I also used secondary sources the form and mass of buildings in relation to one another, and the scale on coding history, both from the United and types of streets and blocks. . . . Not to be confused with design guide - States and abroad. lines or general statements of policy, form-based codes are regulatory, not Results and conclusion s: I describe examples from a long history of rules advisory. Form-based codes are drafted to achieve a community vision governing building form and placement, based on time-tested forms of urbanism. considering those intended to produce particular effects on urban form as direct FBCs constitute a significant departure from the way development has antecedents of modern FBCs. been regulated in the United States in the last century. Instead of concentrating Takeaway for practice : Today’s codes on bulk and use, these codes focus on the dimensions and locations of buildings, are more complex and difficult to implement streets, frontages, and other elements that constitute the physical design of

Downloaded by [APA - American Planning Association] at 11:59 09 May 2014 than their predecessors. Modern FBCs require community participation and place (Katz, 2004). visioning to create consensus, whereas in Many desirable urban places are the result of explicit rules. Urban historians previous historical periods such agreement tell us that beloved urban places like Boston’s Back Bay and Edinburgh’s New was taken for granted and many aspects of Town were not random accidents, but were the result of “a unified control of urban form were dictated by technological land and buildings” (Rybczynski, 1989). This leads to the question of whether and other constraints. Keywords : form-based code, zoning, American cities could regain a higher quality urbanism by utilizing a different historical codes kind of coding. Figure 1 is a page from the SmartCode , a model FBC developed Research support : This article is one by Duany Plater-Zyberk and Company, showing how building height, type product of a larger research project on the and disposition can be regulated in addition to function. history of urban codes. The research was funded in part by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. Further information

can be found at http://codesproject.asu.edu/ Sciences, School of Planning, and School of Journal of the American Planning Association, About the author : Sustainability at Arizona State University. Vol. 75, No. 2, Spring 2009 Emily Talen , AICP ([email protected]), is a Talen’s research focuses on new urbanism, DOI 10.1080/01944360802686662 professor in the School of Geographical urban design, and the history of codes. © American Planning Association, Chicago, IL. 75-2 05 368836 Talen p:JAPA 70-1-8 Laurian 3/19/09 4:37 PM Page 145

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Figure 1. An example of a form-based code, showing regulation of building height, type, disposition, and function. Source: Duany, Sorlien, & Wright, 2008. (© Duany Plater-Zyberk & Co., Image used with permission.) 75-2 05 368836 Talen p:JAPA 70-1-8 Laurian 3/19/09 4:37 PM Page 146

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In this article , I aim to understand the historical context required that cooks buy only from local common markets , of FBCs. Is their current popularity a return to historical and not “by waiting at the ends of the town or in the approaches? What experience do we have with the regu- highway” (Coventry City Record Office, 1907/1421 ), lation of urban form, and how does this current interest likely affecting the form of places significantly. relate to it? By recounting the history of codes and putting Although it is sometimes difficult to distinguish FBCs the current popularity of FBCs in a broad historical con - from other types of rules, guidelines, standards, court cases, text, I hope to reveal what is new and what is unchanged and legislation, all of which play important roles in city about the attempt to implement vision and design through form, the historical trajectory traced in this article defines coding. I also hope that this will support what seems to be FBCs as having the following attributes: a promising redirection of the way coding is done in the United States. • significant enforceability; • the intent to prescribe the public realm, often by regulating private building; and • the direct or indirect production of “time-tested forms Defining Codes of urbanism” (Form-Based Codes Institute, 2008). In order to understand the history of FBCs we must With regard to the last criterion, the Form-Based define what they are as well as the source of their authority. Codes Institute (2006) advocates codes that shape the However, development codes, which include FBCs, are public realm “to invite pedestrian use and social interaction” extremely varied. They exist at a variety of scales and may and produce “walkable, identifiable neighborhoods that apply to small-scale, incremental change at the parcel or provide for daily needs .” Such codes produce the streets, individual building level, or to much larger issues and squares, and other public spaces that make up the public areas, such as layouts of entire towns. Carmona, Marshall, realm. Historically, they often did so by ensuring the and Stevens (2006) uncovered 13 separate definitions for production of a building wall that could adequately define design code . the public realm, typically with a unified and consistent The authority to create and enforce a development building frontage. code most often belongs to government, but under some For this article, I consider the FBC lineage to include circumstances could also be derived from the powers of any code, law, or rule that meets these three criteria. Thus, religious leaders or be based on social and cultural customs. I exclude modern design guidelines and design review Though a modern code is normally legally enforceable, processes because they tend to be advisory rather than unlike a plan, the difference between the two is not as regulatory. I exclude codes governing private building that straightforward as it would seem. Idealized models of human does not impact the public realm (such as modern codes settlement can sometimes act like codes. One example is regulating the interiors of buildings) because they do not Clarence Perry’s neighborhood unit concept, which planning meet the second criterion. I exclude conventional zoning textbooks, government regulations, chambers of commerce, because it has little to do with prescribing “time-tested and social service agencies promoted after it was imple - forms of urbanism,” but produces urban form as a by- Downloaded by [APA - American Planning Association] at 11:59 09 May 2014 mented at Radburn and Baldwin Hills Village, and which product of regulating something else, such as separation, was widely accepted (Dahir, 1947; Patricios, 2002). property value, traffic flow, or perceived harmful effect. Some rules that are not intended as development codes However, many of these excluded elements, like design have indirect effects on physical form nonetheless. For review guidelines and conventional zoning, contributed to example, those that dictate the existence of particular the evolution of today’s FBCs, for example by breaking facilities affect urban form, such as the requirement that down legal and political barriers. every town in ancient Greece contain an agora. Napoleon Only FBCs meet the three criteria directly, so that I’s 1807 law permitting towns to draw boundaries (Hall, their intentions and effects are the same, but codes, laws 1997), England’s 1847 Markets and Fairs Clauses Act and rules that meet one or more of these criteria indirectly regulating where markets and fairs could be located and may be part of the FBC lineage, though they are not FBCs how big they could be, and Britain’s Public Health Act of themselves. Figure 2 illustrates this difference. 1875 requiring paved streets, street lighting, and better The history below is based on my reading of what quality construction are all examples of how laws affected FBCs are trying to achieve and what kinds of endeavors, urban form indirectly. A law prohibiting unsanitary and historically, had a similar effect, even if not directly fraudulent commercial practices in 15th-century England intended. Determining what is or is not part of the FBC 75-2 05 368836 Talen p:JAPA 70-1-8 Laurian 3/19/09 4:37 PM Page 147

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Regulation/Law/Rule/Code Intent Effect

Form-based codes Urban form and regulating plans

Laws concerning social Order Urban form behavior and control

Health laws Health Urban form

Figure 2. Direct and indirect effects of rules and codes on urban form.

Note: Solid lines indicate direct influence, and dashed lines indicate indirect influence.

lineage is thus an important aspect of defining FBCs. rules for laying out towns, streets , and houses (Dutt, 1925). We know from the writings of Plato and Aristotle there were laws governing streets and public squares (agora) in Greece in the 4th century BC. Roman laws included specifications A Brief History of Codes for street layouts in military installments, laws intended to avert harm to neighbors, and laws regulating the use of To organize the discussion, I divide the lineage of land in central parts of cities. codes into five categories. The first, “big interests and main Rules for laying out and building towns are an obvious lines,” is a title borrowed from Raymond Unwin’s 1909 example of large-scale urban coding. The Laws of the Indies treatise (p. 379), and concerns Town Planning in Practice promulgated by the Spanish monarchy in its colonies in codes and laws affecting the larger urban realm. I then the 16th century dictated street arrangement and width discuss regulations for streets, frontages, and buildings, all and the location of important buildings. The planned city of which are significantly smaller in scale. A final category of Savannah, GA, founded by James Oglethorpe, had rules concerns generative codes, Islamic codes, and other types for streets, lots, and buildings, some of which were enforced Downloaded by [APA - American Planning Association] at 11:59 09 May 2014 of rules based on customs and social laws rather than through deed restrictions in the 18th century. Figure 3 predetermined designs. These affect urban form through shows a town plan from the 18th century. rules governing behavior, offering a significantly different The system put in place by surveyor-architect Daniel approach to the coding of urban form, but one that has Stolpaert in Amsterdam in the 17th century is often offered some connection to today’s coding reform efforts. as an example of successful coding on a large scale. Stolpaert made use of a regulating plan that dictated the locations of Big Interests and Main Lines public buildings, streets, canals, and private residences. The earliest written laws that affected city form include A corresponding ordinance established rules for building, the code of Hammurabi from 2100 BC , which focused on including where the privies could be located, who paid for ensuring quality building by exacting penalties if damage the streets, and rules about drainage. The ordinance was in occurred (loss of life due to faulty construction was punish - effect for some 400 years, and Lewis Mumford called the able by death). But other very early laws affected the form plan and implementing ordinance “the final expression of and pattern of the urban public realm on a large scale, a more thoroughgoing attention to the conditions of especially the layout of streets and the placement of public health and social life” (Mumford, 1961, p. 441). buildings. Indian laws dating back 4,000 years established Regulating plans pay close attention to the aesthetics of 75-2 05 368836 Talen p:JAPA 70-1-8 Laurian 3/19/09 4:37 PM Page 148

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Figure 3. An 18th-century plan for a one-square mile town. Note: This plan, which would have functioned like a code, showed land use, including common land, and dimensions of streets and parcels. Source: Sharp, 1794.

the public realm. In ancient Greece, the dimensions of streets, in order to enlarge public spaces (Girouard, 1985, p. 65). blocks, and public squares were made law in what Gallion The 1865 regulating plan for Naples, Italy, laid down rules and Eisner (1983) called “the final test of civic responsibility” for rebuilding that were literally the “guiding blueprint” (p. 23). In 13th-century Florence, laws intended mainly as for 25 years (Kostof, 1992, p. 57). aesthetic interventions compelled owners to give up property Plans for new towns also clearly affect the form and 75-2 05 368836 Talen p:JAPA 70-1-8 Laurian 3/19/09 4:37 PM Page 149

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pattern of the urban public realm on a large scale. Rules new buildings had to be built on top of old foundations guided the founding of Mormon towns, American railroad (Larkham, 2001). The Prussian Building Land Act of 1875 towns, British new towns, and the medieval bastides 2 in prohibited construction on greenfields that lacked public France (Reps, 2002), establishing building rules that pro- utilities and infrastructure, which meant that German cities duced particular urban forms. Regulating plans for Garden avoided the “squalid belts of privately owned shanties” that Cities and other kinds of complete planned communities surrounded French cities (Kostof, 1992, p. 57). Germany established rules for development that included street enacted a law in the early 20th century that forbade build - layout, public space allocation, and building placement. ing on “virgin plots” and restricted development to lots Planned communities like Shaker Heights, OH, Chatham that had been built on prior to 1887 (Arntz, 2002). When Village, PA, and Venice, FL , all have rules guiding the U.S. historic preservation laws of the 20th century affect the urban form of their developments in precise terms, and public realm and the creation of urbanism they continue thus I consider them part of the FBC lineage. this same tradition. The American landscape architect and early city planner John Nolen produced regulating plans that specified the Streets exact locations and dimensions of public streets and build - Only the regulation of building height is more common ings. Modern FBCs have emulated this practice. Figure 4 than regulation of streets, especially street width. Given shows an example of one of Nolen’s plans regulating the that streets make up the largest part of the public realm, form of public space and surrounding buildings on the left, how they have been regulated is particularly pertinent to a plan that inspired the modern FBC-regulated new town the lineage of FBCs. 3 The public realm of the streets has in Huntersville, NC, of which an aerial photograph is also been most frequently regulated by controlling street width, shown on the right. which became “habitual” after the 17th century (Kostof, Laws restricting where development could take place 1992, p. 205). In the 5th century BC , architect Hippo - also had a significant, though indirect, effect on urban damus called for straight, wide streets in his plans for Greek form at a large scale. One common theme was to prevent cities. In Rome in 100 BC , a written law required a mini - new development from spreading into previously undevel - mum street width of 15 feet (Southworth & Ben-Joseph, oped areas. In 16th-century England under Elizabeth I, 2003). About the same time, Vitruvius’ Ten Books on Downloaded by [APA - American Planning Association] at 11:59 09 May 2014

Green Garden Terrace Vermillion Erie, Pennsylvania Huntersville, North Carolina

Figure 4. A portion of John Nolen’s 1913 plan for Green Garden Terrace in Erie, PA, and an aerial photograph of a portion of Duany Plater-Zyberk and Company’s plan for Vermillion in Huntersville, NC. Sources: Left, University of Pennsylvania Library; right, retrieved December 1, 2008, from Google Earth. (Images courtesy of Thomas E. Low.) 75-2 05 368836 Talen p:JAPA 70-1-8 Laurian 3/19/09 4:37 PM Page 150

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Architecture (n.d.) laid down principles of street width and direction that would later influence Renaissance codes like the Laws of the Indies. In the 1st century, Vitruvius speci - fied rules about siting new towns and laying out street directions to minimize wind. Figure 5 shows the names and directions of eight winds he identified. Often street standards were practical, such as the law in medieval Ger - many requiring streets to be the width needed for two carts to pass each other (Arntz, 2002). In Islamic towns around the Mediterranean basin , main streets were to be wide enough to allow two loaded beasts of burden to pass (Hakim, 1986). Street width was frequently specified in order to make cities more open. Beginning in the 17th century , it was believed that wide streets helped ventilate the city and keep it healthy, according to the “miasma theory” that stagnant air caused disease (Girouard, 1985, p. 227). During the medieval period buildings sometimes encroached so far into the street that “it was literally possible to shake hands between opposite windows” (Morris, 1979, p. 73). After the great fire of London in 1666, the London Building Act of 1667 specified wider streets in part to keep fires from jumping across streets. In Dublin in the 18th century ,a Wide Streets Commission made sure street widths remained Figure 5. Names and directions of the eight winds Vitruvius identified. between 75 and 100 feet. Girouard (1985) argues that Source: Vitruvius Pollio, n.d. since the widths being advocated in Dublin went well beyond what was needed to accommodate carriage traffic, the commission must have been motivated by visual as well as health reasons (p. 227). at private expense, as in 19th-century Germany, there was Street widths were often regulated to accord with an incentive to maximize the value of abutting property building height, but the location and importance of the by building taller buildings. In response to the 1875 Law street was also considered. The Roman emperor Augustus of Building Lines which set street widths in Germany, imposed a law that specified street widths ranging from 40 developers of the Berlin Meitskaserne “filled every inch to 15 feet, depending on location relative to the central core. of property with huge buildings; . . . inhabitants had no Immediately after the French Revolution, four categories benefit whatever of the light and air of the ample streets, of width were created based on streets’ lengths and primary as they breathed through narrow courtyards and less” Downloaded by [APA - American Planning Association] at 11:59 09 May 2014 functions. In his original plan for Washington DC, L’Enfant (Kostof, 1992, p. 206). specified that grand avenues like the one leading to the Frederick Law Olmsted Sr. advanced an entirely White House should be 160 feet wide, streets leading to different approach. He used parkways that included speci - public buildings or markets should be 130 feet wide, and fications for a flanking street system, alleys, blocks, and lots all other streets should be 110 feet wide (Brown, 1900). as “city-shaping devices” (Macdonald, 2005, p. 296). By Rules about who was required to pay for the construc - the middle of the 20th century, regulations on streets in tion, drainage, and lighting of streets had an indirect effect the United States were the exclusive province of traffic on street width and urban form. In Paris in the 14th century, engineers focused almost solely on the flow of cars and the for example, households were required by law to clean the prevention of accidents. Codes for street design were streets in front of their dwellings (Girouard, 1985). This therefore de facto consequences of manuals published by had the effect of encouraging encroachment into the street, the Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE; see , e.g., since residents felt a sense of entitlement in exchange for Hammond & Sorenson, 1941; ITE, 1964). This effectively this responsibility, but it was also a motivation to keep ended consideration of the relationship between street streets narrow and to minimize frontage. On the other width and urban form. hand, where street width was firmly set and maintained 75-2 05 368836 Talen p:JAPA 70-1-8 Laurian 3/19/09 4:37 PM Page 151

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Frontage among youth (Alberti, 1988/1452). In Bern, Switzerland, Frontage is what defines the public realm. It includes arcades were precisely regulated by building codes, being both the public elements of curb, sidewalk, and tree, and required for the fronts of all houses on main streets as early regulations governing the private frontage of the building as the 16th century (Braunfels, 1990). At the same time , façade and its setback. Codes about how buildings were to the Laws of the Indies prescribed arcades around central meet the street were essentially rules prescribing the public plazas to encourage sociability and trading and provide realm. This recognition prompted William Penn to declare protection from the elements. in the 17th century, “let the houses built be in a line, or Figure 6 shows a drawing from a 19th-century code upon a line, as much as may be” (Hazard, 1850, p. 530). regulating building height and setbacks in London. Such Jefferson and L’Enfant also included rules about street codes regulated building form based on street width, and frontage in their plans for laying out Washington DC in had the effect of creating a uniform street frontage. the late 1700s: “houses shall range even and stand just six feet in their own ground from the street” (Reps, 1965, p. Buildings 126). In some cities, the effects were lasting: In Winchester, Regulation of individual buildings has had a profound England, building frontage rules remained unchanged effect on urban form. Rob Krier (2003) identified 24 dif- from the 11th to the 20th centuries (Kostof, 1992). ferent ways in which buildings affect urban space, asserting Uniform frontage was required for centuries in Ger - that the failure to recognize these effects “shows a society many. The earliest German regulations concerning building in cultural crisis” (p. 329). Regulations about where build - setbacks were recorded in the 13th century, and Berlin ings could be placed, their height, and the spacing between regulated building location to ensure continuous façades as them all already existed in ancient Roman times. Restrictions late as the early 20th century. Such codes aimed to form a on height were the most ubiquitous. In 15 BC, the Roman deliberate frame around streets and squares, always distin - emperor Augustus imposed a law limiting the height of guishing between public and private responsibilities for the buildings to 66 feet (Southworth & Ben-Joseph, 2003) in public and private realms. Public space was ordered, but an effort to keep the city more open. But in the 18th behind the building line regulation concerned itself only century, German cities imposed regulations on minimum with fire safety and the rights of neighbors (Arntz, 2002). height (Kostof, 1991, p. 200), and after World War II , At first, frontage regulations mostly ensured that residential buildings in German cities were required to be buildings did not project too much into public space. In at least four stories high in an effort to make cities more Amsterdam, 16th-century decrees regulated even the maxi - urban and dense. mum size of front steps to ensure an accessible public realm. In the medieval period, codes regulated structure Dutch decrees also limited lean-tos, benches, and displays placement, height, and setback. The first building regula - of goods on the street, suggesting problems keeping streets tions in England are from 1189, and dealt with issues such free of encumbrances (Wheelock & Seeff, 2000). In some as obstruction of views, blockage of light, party walls, and cities in Italy in the 15th century , laws regulated building projections (Larkham, 2001). A famous book of German projections by zones, with more strict control on primary building regulations known as the Sachsenspiegel, formu - streets. In addition to setting maximum building heights, lated in the early 1200s, allowed construction of a three- Downloaded by [APA - American Planning Association] at 11:59 09 May 2014 London’s Rebuilding Act of 1667 prohibited building story building without a judge’s permission, but specified projections and required consistent setbacks and cornice laws governing minimum distances between buildings, lines. This created relatively uniform, flat-fronted build - maximum heights, and rules about fencing property ings. A set of 18th-century Prussian laws allowed building (Arntz, 2002). It also prohibited windows that overlooked freedom only if the building did not lead to “disfigurement a neighbor’s yard and buildings that overhung streets. of the towns or public squares” ( Allgemeine Landrecht , Some codes varied building height rules according to 1794, quoted in Arntz, 2002, p. 7), a concern aimed at urban location. One version of this practice was to connect unsightly projections . building height and street type. London’s Rebuilding Act Arcades were an important mechanism for regulating of 1667, for example, specified three building heights based frontage and ensuring a uniform, dignified public realm. on type of street. Some differentiated between inner and The social and environmental value of requiring a covered outer parts of a town, as did 1891 building requirements in public walkway was recognized in the Roman period, and Frankfurt am Main, Germany. in rules guiding city building in 6th-century Palestine Fire safety concerns were often the reason for restricting (Hakim, 2001). In the 15th century, Alberti imagined how building materials and specifying windows and other porticoes could promote social interaction and even play features, but such requirements could also be imposed for 75-2 05 368836 Talen p:JAPA 70-1-8 Laurian 3/19/09 4:37 PM Page 152

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Figure 6. A 19th-century code regulating building height and setbacks in London. Source: Forrest, 1925.

aesthetic reasons. A law from 1344 required that all build - increasing setback as part of protecting health and welfare ings on the Piazza del Campo in Siena, Italy, have the same rather than out of a desire to create a particular urban size windows, a ruling that was driven by a desire for visual form. The classic example is New York City’s 1916 zoning harmony (Girouard, 1985). In Nuremburg, Germany, in resolution, which limited building mass at different heights the 15th century, codes stipulated how much ornamenta - (Ford, 1917). The intent was to prevent large buildings Downloaded by [APA - American Planning Association] at 11:59 09 May 2014 tion a building could have, how many oriel windows were from blocking light and air on the streets below. This, permitted, and that buildings had to be lined up to create coupled with owners’ desires to maximize building volume an “undeviating building line” (Kostof, 1992, p. 201). As in this desirable location, created a distinctive, stepped-back early as 1607 , French building regulations limited orna - architecture. mentation (falling entablatures were a significant problem) and promoted a classically proportioned, flat building line. Generative Codes English law dictated in 1618 that windows had to be taller Generative codes have a less direct connection to current than they were wide and brick arches over windows were coding reform efforts. These are rules guiding construction strongly encouraged (Ayers, 1998), while a Parisian law of decisions, rather than rules designed to achieve specific 1882 gave exact dimensions “for every decorative element, physical forms. They allow certain freedoms, but only including columns and pilasters, friezes, cornices, consoles within a framework of prohibitions focused on preventing and capitals” (Evenson, 1979, p. 149), clashing with 19th - damage to neighbors. They have been described as “a century notions of artistic freedom. bottom-up system of self-regulation, and thus democratic Most American building codes that affected urban in spirit” (Hakim, 2001, p. 22). Islamic codes are the form did so indirectly, for example, limiting height or clearest example, and the method is most prevalent in 75-2 05 368836 Talen p:JAPA 70-1-8 Laurian 3/19/09 4:37 PM Page 153

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Mediterranean cultures, although through Roman law such 1838 by a judge in upstate New York who declared that codes affected much of Europe. In fact, many historical the practice would limit economic return and prevent the rules dictating frontage, street width, and building height highest and best use of a piece of land (Davis, 1999). can be viewed as generative in the sense that one variable (like street width) generated the other (like allowable building height). In the United States, the idea of a gen- The American Experience: From erative code has been popularized by Christopher Alexander, Zoning to Form-Based Codes whose work on the organic city-making process follows in the tradition of Jane Jacobs’ process-oriented ideals These European coding traditions did not take root in (Alexander, Neis, Anninou, & King, 1987). This approach the United States, though there were some restrictions on rejects predetermined forms and patterns in favor of “the building materials in the North American colonies as early stepwise process by which a form might emerge from the as the 17th century, and a few colonial settlements were evolutionary actions of a group of collaborators” (Mehaffy, regulated by urban codes like the Laws of the Indies, as 2008, p. 57). mentioned earlier. During the 18th and 19th centuries some Traditionally, city building in the Mediterranean region American cities passed sanitation laws designed to protect has been guided by codes based on a widely shared set of public health and private investment and some well-known values including respecting one’s neighbor, acknowledging housing codes, such as New York’s Tenement House Act the inevitability of change, and respecting local customs of 1867, though the latter largely perpetuated the status (Hakim, 1986, 2008). The result is a low, compact urban quo. Planned communities had codes regulating form, but form with abutting buildings, narrow streets, private these were uncommon. As American urbanization increased courtyards, and connecting archways above the street. Rules in the second half of the 19th century, few development that protected adjacent properties against negative effects, controls were specifically about form. Regulations estab - but allowed great latitude in property use, were codified as lishing street widths, frontage, and building height were early as the 6th century by the Byzantine emperor, Justinian I, rare. Boston only regulated building height limits in 1903. whose code had roots in even earlier laws of the ancient This is not to say that urban form was unaffected by law, Near East (Hakim, 2001). Traditionally, local judges only that the effects were largely indirect. For example, the decided compliance with these codes one case at a time, tenements in Chicago were three stories tall, while those in aiming to rule equitably, and leading urban form to evolve New York were six stories tall, because above these heights “naturally,” as a “self-regulating and adaptive system” buildings were required to be fireproof (Williams, 1919). (Hakim & Ahmed, 2006, p. 19). Figure 7 shows Granada, The codes established by the late 19th century were Spain, a city resulting from generative coding. quickly subsumed by zoning regulations in the early 20th Islamic codes yield fine-grained urbanism and many century. By 1918, zoning had taken the country “by storm” courtyards. They are driven primarily by concern for privacy, (Kimball, cited in Simpson, 1985, p. 126). Herbert Hoover’s prevention of damages, and decorum. Koranic laws that enabling legislation pushed it even further, and by 1929 apply to buildings emphasize respect for proximate neigh - nearly 800 cities in the United States had zoning ordi - bors, privacy, and equity, and have a transparent effect on nances (Hubbard & Hubbard, 1929). Hoover was an Downloaded by [APA - American Planning Association] at 11:59 09 May 2014 urban form because their origins and impacts are known engineer, and promoted zoning as a tidy and technically (Davis, 1999). For example, a rule that doors on alleys efficient approach to city building, largely without concern should not face one another is motivated by the need for for its effects on urban form. Hoover’s 1926 publication, privacy rather than a specific aesthetic obligation. A rule A Zoning Primer, likened the unzoned city to “an undisci - that courtyards are to be symmetrical is motivated by the plined daughter making fudge in the parlor” (Advisory centrality of the courtyard in social life, not by an abstract Committee on Zoning, 1926, p. 1). notion of the beauty of classical proportions. Zoning was designed to remedy the negative exter- An example of generative coding in English common nalities of the industrial city, stabilizing residential property law known as the Doctrine of Ancient Lights came from values while keeping industrial areas efficient and functional. the document whose title page is shown in Figure 8. It Thus began American planners’ adaptation of German stated that a new building could not block the light from zoning laws from the 1890s to very different ends, maxi - an ancient window, defined by William Blackstone (1768) mizing separation and mobility (Scott, 1969; see also as having “subsisted there time out of mind” (p. 134). This Logan, 1976). The New York zoning ordinance of 1916 had the effect of limiting building heights. This doctrine was the first such comprehensive scheme, but the sugges - survived in the United States until it was struck down in tion to separate the city into zones had been made earlier. 75-2 05 368836 Talen p:JAPA 70-1-8 Laurian 3/19/09 4:37 PM Page 154

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Figure 7. Granada, Spain.

Source: Photo by Michael Mehaffy, published with permission. 75-2 05 368836 Talen p:JAPA 70-1-8 Laurian 3/19/09 4:37 PM Page 155

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Weiss (1987) demonstrated that development was not simply unfettered sprawl, but was orderly, controlled, and designed. The community builders helped put in place the deed restrictions, zoning, subdivision regulations, and other land development controls that engendered the segregated pattern of postwar suburbanization. The negative effects of such controls, particularly zoning, were recognized from the outset. In 1909, Ray - mond Unwin, the great British town planner, described the building regulations he was confronting as little more than “needless harassment and restriction of really good building” (p. 388). Clarence Perry (1939) lambasted zoning as inflexible and not able to invest a residential district with “attractiveness” (p. 114). The solution proposed at the time was not to reform existing codes, but to place greater reliance on professional expertise. Charles Robinson’s 1901 city planning text included a chapter called “Centralized Control” that recommended putting every aspect of urban development in the hands of planners offering “the central viewpoint” who would “take, beyond the cavil of petty politics or local interest, the community standpoint” (p. 245). Thomas Adams (1935) echoed the same sentiment several decades later, noting that “the city planner must be guided by his own judgment rather than by any formulae” (p. 24). In Europe, Unwin (1909) proposed an approach allowing “something of that elastic character which belongs to natural restraints,” (p. 387) and “a little give and take, a little averaging of one part with another” (p. 393). He proposed submitting individual cases to a referee. Dissatisfaction with land use codes grew throughout the 20th century, leading to the current intense interest in coding reform. A number of authors have tried to under - stand how planning regulations came to be so widely Figure 8. The source of the Doctrine of Ancient Lights. despised (Ben-Joseph & Szold, 2004; Davis, 1999). Critics pointed out inefficiencies, social inequities, and added costs of conventional zoning codes (Dowall, 1984; Levine, Downloaded by [APA - American Planning Association] at 11:59 09 May 2014 2005), 4 and noted that zoning was, “modified by bureau - Decentralization and separation were emphasized at the cracies, adapted to political exigencies, and otherwise First National Planning Conference in 1909, where Robert thoroughly watered down for ease of application and Anderson Pope argued for “wider dispersal of the laboring administration” (Relph, 1987, pp. 74 –75). class” (Sies & Silver, 1996, p. 462). George Kessler’s plan FBCs emerged as the antidote to conventional, use- for Dallas in 1910 emphasized dividing the city into zones, based zoning, possessing the fundamental difference of “each devoted to its own particular purpose” (Scott, 1969, being intended to affect urban pattern and form. 5 Duany p. 124). and Plater-Zyberk’s 1982 master-planned community of Later, FHA regulations on mortgage lending had a Seaside, FL , initiated the most recent wave of FBCs, speci - significant impact on urban form, setting standards for fying building use, height, permitted encroachments, and street widths, block lengths, and dwelling sizes (Federal parking (see Krieger, 1991). Subsequently, the Congress Housing Administration [FHA], 1935). Suburban restric - for the New Urbanism advocated that codes focus on the tive covenants imposed building rules designed to exclude visual harmony in the public realm; require continuous (Fogelson, 2005). In The Rise of the Community Builders: urban frontage to ensure a degree of uniformity; and be The American Real Estate Industry and Urban Land Planning, sensitive to context, factoring in spatial relationships to be 75-2 05 368836 Talen p:JAPA 70-1-8 Laurian 3/19/09 4:37 PM Page 156

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at least partly generative. Transect-based codes such as the protect the aesthetics of the public realm (Kistemaker, SmartCode are a subset of FBCs in which regulations vary 2000). Although architectural style was often affected depending on the type location, ranging from rural preserve indirectly by codes created to prevent fires or protect to urban core (Duany & Talen, 2002). public health, for example, the effects on aesthetics were also known in the early 18th century (Larkham, 2001). Royal proclamations in France in 1783 –1784 introduced Assessment rules that made house height a function of street width, and forbade any roof greater than half the width of the I aim to assess current efforts at code reform, particu - house. Both rules were motivated by urban aesthetics and larly FBCs, given the historical trajectory, first discussing the desire to create scenic views. Baron von Haussmann’s differences and similarities and then assessing the future 1859 decree regulating building height and street width prospects of code reform in light of what preceded it. grew out of these and was “more an evolution than a revolution” (Cognot & Roux, 2002, p. 10). Differences and Similarities Throughout history, urban codes imposed order and It is widely believed that today’s codes are more heavy uniformity to protect public health and safety and property handed and exert a greater degree of control than previ - values, and at times to provide social control. Such uni- ously seen. But laws regulating urban places have long been formity was often superficial, masking great social and common. Regulations specifying building type, height, economic complexity, and sometimes disconnecting form embellishment, window size, and setback already existed from function. In the Baroque era, for example, strictly in medieval times. Citywide regulations often went even controlled building frontages concealed speculative de- further, dictating appropriate dress and specifying curfews, velopment. Kostof (1991) points out that codes requiring for example. As Girouard (1985) summarized it: “The city uniform street frontage often accompanied other social government watched over the way people behaved, and controls. In St. Petersburg in the 18th century, codes made the appropriate regulations” (p. 73). Many of these required uniform streets and houses at the same time that rules were more proscriptive and generative than today’s Peter the Great required Western dress and shaved beards. FBCs, though some proponents claim that FBCs could be Urban order was supposed to make people more civic- generative, perhaps with “stepwise layout guides” minded and, according to Catherine the Great, “more (Mehaffy, 2008, p. 72). docile and polite” (cited in Kostof, 1991, p. 256). Historic codes were not exclusively about achieving Not all historic codes raised aesthetic quality. Before ideal physical configurations, as might be imagined, but World War I, Dutch architect Berlage encouraged Amster - have long sought to control land use. Islamic codes, for dam to require uniform block frontages, creating a “system example, are rooted in principles governing the acceptable of definite proportions” which many say yielded especially use of land. Ancient Romans enacted laws to keep industry beautiful urban form (Banham, 1960, p. 142). But English out of certain areas (Ben-Joseph, 2005), and in the Middle law created oppressively uniform bye-law streets 6 more to Ages, noxious industries like tanning establishments were reduce costs than to achieve visual harmony, like standard - kept out of the city center. In 17th-century London, shops ized terrace or row housing. Where requirements for Downloaded by [APA - American Planning Association] at 11:59 09 May 2014 were not allowed on main public squares nor on the streets uniform building frontage were intended to hide class leading toward them. Regulations in Italy from the mid -16th distinctions, as was the case in the 19th century and later century ordered that gaps between houses be filled in with in Garden City design, uniformity of design may have buildings (Girouard, 1985). Ancient Rome, 17th-century seemed more legitimate. London, and 19th-century Germany all had regulations It has always been important to balance uniformity, meant to be applied differently to different parts of the city order, and control with flexibility and the ability to adapt (i.e. , zoning). Land use zoning in the early 20th century to changing circumstances. Historically, codes often only expanded on these earlier coding traditions. required case-by-case problem solving involving an inter- Codes have recognized the importance of aesthetics mediary. Disagreements over the implementation of Islamic since the Renaissance. Girouard (1985) wrote that the codes, for example, were adjudicated by a local judge. In medieval period had “only a few recorded instances of medieval London, building disputes were dealt with at aesthetic awareness” (p. 76), but others have argued that quasigovernmental public meetings. A London proclama - regulations on such things as bridge ornamentation, street tion in 1618 specified that “the beauty and uniformity of the trees, the protection of admired buildings, and the clean- work [was] to be agreed by the builders at the discretion of liness of canal banks in the 16th century were intended to the Commissioners” (Ayers, 1998, p. 230). This was the 75-2 05 368836 Talen p:JAPA 70-1-8 Laurian 3/19/09 4:37 PM Page 157

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kind of flexible adjudication and generative process that vernacular building traditions, or a clear memory of them, planners like Unwin, Robinson, and Adams would have FBCs must break new ground. endorsed. Codes also require transparency and a shared, easily Codes have always been subject to change. In Rome, understood set of principles. When zoning codes are when tall buildings made narrow streets dark, Julius Caesar unresponsive to local conditions and do not explain the reduced allowable building heights. Widespread European reasons for their requirements (why must a building be set support for wide streets was replaced in the 19th century back 15 feet?), they may prevent development that fails to by the view that wide streets were unhealthy, creating wind comply with the letter of the law even though it satisfies and dust (Kostof, 1992, p. 206). Rules also often applied the law’s intent (Davis, 1999). to only a few aspects of urban form, with the rest left to And code reform also requires shared ideals. Without change as desired. The codes of medieval cities, for example, these, a code becomes one element in a multitude of what required that some streets would be wide enough for clear Waller (1983) described as idiosyncratic “secular influences” passage, and protected the public square, but left the dictating city form. Building cycles, the behavior of spec- remainder of the city unconstrained. ulators and lenders, taxation, capital investments, and Today’s code reformers also specify a few simple rules topography all have influence. While coding was previously while leaving everything else to adapt, innovate, and remain supported by culture and technological limits, FBCs must culturally distinctive within a coding framework. This now build consensus around what Ben-Joseph (2005) approach existed almost from the beginning of American termed “place-based norms” (p. 24). Such norms may city planning. Early 20th-century planners like Frederick be dormant. Some planners have been accused of relying Law Olmsted Jr. wanted codes to be adaptable and respon - on conventional zoning codes precisely because design sive (Scott, 1969). Lewis Mumford said that because the sensibilities and norms about place are missing. Laws of the Indies followed the standard bastide pattern That codes will have to be the substitute for place-based and prescribed exact dimensions (e.g., plazas were to be norms, or at least the mechanism through which they occur, 400 by 600 feet), they produced towns that “looked back - is not a completely new viewpoint. Writing in 1909, Ray- ward, not forward” (Mumford, 1961, p. 330). Julian of mond Unwin said that town planning “and the powers Ascalon’s 6th-century treatise, which modern writers say conferred by legislation” were evidence that the “spirit of combined “a large measure of performance outcome and a association” (p. 375) that may have once existed in feudal small dose of prescribed rules” (Ben-Joseph, 2005; Hakim, times was making a comeback. It was a matter of a new order 2001), would likely appeal to current code reformers. taking the place of an old one, a solution to the problem of the individual in “helpless isolation of his freedom” (p. 375). Future Prospects Some decades later, the 1942 “Dedication of Principles” In the past, a code could produce a coherent visual of the Building Officials Conference of America (BOCA) framework for the city because it was supported by what proclaimed commitment not only to better methods of Witold Rybczynski (1989) called “a collective wisdom construction and to relief “from the uncertainty and con- and a shared consensus about what constituted good fusion of conflicting building laws and regulations,” but to architectural manners .” In Urban Design in Western Europe , “the promotion of civic pride and community well-being” Downloaded by [APA - American Planning Association] at 11:59 09 May 2014 Wolfgang Braunfels (1990) asked why “the most compre - (BOCA International, Inc., 2002, p. 4). hensive and precise codes no longer suffice to maintain” an Modern code reformers aim to help communities ordered urban framework previously achieved by just a few uncover shared attitudes toward urban form by engaging the simple rules (p. 1). He did not blame this on architects and public in the code-making process. Requiring meaningful urban designers, but explained it as the result of political public participation in the code-making process, as strongly change, saying that cities are now too disparate and lack urged by FBC advocates, is new. The new book Form-Based commonality among competing actors and interests. Codes (Parolek, Parolek, & Crawford, 2008) stresses the For this reason, modern FBCs cannot simply resurrect importance of public participation, calling for a community past codes. Rather, they must substitute something for a visioning process as a key source of code content. consensus about urban form that no longer exists. Some Consensus will have to be balanced with flexibility. earlier urban codes were the product of constraints, so that There is a continuing tension between infusing aesthetic the uniform street width, frontage lines, and building goals into the planning process, and coding prescribed heights they required were rarely disputed. But modern forms. One is about infiltrating a process with design sensi- FBCs attempt to move development in a new direction, bilities, the other about hardwiring a specific physical goal. and what they require is not already in place. Absent One allows multiple interpretations, the other constrains 75-2 05 368836 Talen p:JAPA 70-1-8 Laurian 3/19/09 4:37 PM Page 158

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responses in order to achieve predetermined outcomes. reaches back at least 3,000 years, and much of what current This tension is an ongoing coding challenge. code reformers are trying to do when they regulate urban One approach to resolving this dilemma is to code only dimensions like street width, building height, and frontage the most essential elements. Codes can be all-controlling or connects to that history. they can stipulate a few key principles and, from there, “let it Early 20th-century planners like Thomas Adams and go” (Jacobs, 2002, p. 139). History provides ample evidence Frederick Law Olmsted Jr. apparently had little confidence that a few simple rules can lead to desired urban forms while that using codes could achieve particular urban forms. making adaptation less cumbersome. Mumford (1968) said Many prominent planners deplored the subordination of that failure to adapt led to the “brilliantly sterile” urbanism design to legal restrictions and thought attempting this was of Le Corbusier and Mies van der Rohe (p. 162 –163). Yet, a chief weakness of planning. This view persisted even after code reformers must wonder whether it will be possible to it became clear in the 1930s that zoning codes were not guide urban form in desirable ways by focusing on small, producing good urban places. This way of thinking was in incremental changes, given that big developers and large- keeping with modernist sentiment. As Howard Davis scale developments often have the greatest influence. (1999) summarized: “Modernism helped legitimize things Thus , there is ongoing disagreement over the degree to that could be measured and tried to liberate the architect’s which incremental changes can or should be regulated. individual creativity with respect to things that could not” Jane Jacobs (1961) expressed “great wonder” at the intricate (p. 201). order that cities exhibited because of the countless freedoms Today’s codes must cope with complexity that was available to urban dwellers (p. 391). Others have similarly unknown in previous historical periods. Before the 20th extolled the virtues of loose controls. Richard Sennett, in century, urban form was limited by transportation, con - The Uses of Disorder (1970) , promoted an urban social life struction methods, and the need for defense, identity, and that is “disordered” and “unstable,” because it causes proximity to agricultural land. These constraints created residents to become more directly involved with the miti - urban form that today’s FBCs emulate in many ways: uni- gation of neighborhood problems (p. 144). Absent land form frontage, small blocks and lots, pedestrian orientation, use laws, Sennett reasoned, residents would not rely on and emphasis on the public realm. With the emergence of government to solve problems, but would take it upon modernism, the consensus about what constituted time- themselves to effect change. tested urbanism no longer held. Technological constraints Urban planners generally disagree, and have not favored and the limitations imposed by premodern institutions minimizing regulation. Unwin (1909) believed that any gave way to a variety of technological and stylistic freedoms semblance of order or convenience in an unplanned place that produced a much different kind of urban form. was due purely to chance (p. 2). As discussed earlier, the Modern FBCs aim to impose limits that are no longer historic solution was to grant architects like Unwin great dictated by technological and other constraints, but instead authority over the pattern and form of the built environ - rely entirely on public consensus. Thus , today’s codes must ment rather than to try to refine codes. Early 20th-century balance use, form, location, safety, and public process. This planners had little interest in regulating the small details of is unprecedented. And paradoxically, reformers are trying the built environment, and didn’t think it could be done to simplify regulation at the same time, attempting to Downloaded by [APA - American Planning Association] at 11:59 09 May 2014 in any case. Writing in 1901, Robinson concluded, “Rules reverse trends evolving since the onset of modernism and and suggestions can be based only on practical considera - conventional zoning. This is especially evident in the case tions. The rest must be in the designer’s heart” (p. 126). of controls on land use, where zoning regulation has be - While early planners promoted a theory of systematized come a complicated set of prohibitions of all imaginable planning (Birch, 1980), they failed to extend the system to incompatibilities. physical design. As a result, urban form languished under a It is ironic that one century after the establishment of coding approach (zoning) that paid little attention to the city planning as a profession, planners have reversed them - quality of urban form. Modern code reformers, by contrast, selves on urban codes, one of their most fundamental tools. believe they can use codes to achieve a better sense of place. FBCs are an attempt to reverse the decentralization and separation advocated at the First National Planning Conference in 1909. Advocates of code reform can take Conclusion comfort in the fact that their approach connects to a history that extends much further back than 1909. It is Current code reform is an interesting blend of old and conventional zoning that has a decidedly weak historical new approaches. Codes have an illustrious history that record. 75-2 05 368836 Talen p:JAPA 70-1-8 Laurian 3/19/09 4:37 PM Page 159

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Acknowledgments BOCA International, Inc. (2002, September/October). BOCA at 87: I would like to thank Besim Hakim, Andrés Duany, and five anony - A retrospective. The code official . Retrieved from http://www.iccsafe.org/ mous reviewers for their helpful comments. Booth, P. (1989). How effective is zoning in the control of development? Environment and Planning B: Planning and Design, 16 (4) , 401–415. Braunfels, W. (1990). Urban design in Western Europe: Regime and Notes architecture, 900–1900 (K. J. Northcott, Trans.). Chicago: University of 1. FBCs are also sometimes known as urban design codes or typological Chicago Press. codes . Brown, G. (1900). History of the United States Capitol . Washington, 2. Bastides were fortified new towns built mostly in France in the 13th DC: De Capo Press. and 14th centuries. Carmona, M. , Marshall, S., & Stevens, Q. (2006). Design codes: Their 3. I do not consider modern traffic engineering regulations that focus on use and potential. Progress in Planning, 65 (4), 209–289. traffic flow rather than public space. Cognat, S. , & Roux, J. (2002). Legislation, regulation and urban form in 4. See Dowall (1984) on the effects of land use regulation; see Booth France: From the ancient regime to the present (Working Paper Series No. (1989), McMillen and McDonald (1990), and Natoli (1971) on the 87, International Seminar on Urban Form). Birmingham, UK: University ineffectiveness of land use zoning; see Babcock on spatial impacts of Central England. (1980); see Pogodzinski and Sass (1991) for the effect on the real estate Congress for the New Urbanism. (2004) Codifying new urbanism: How market; see Talen and Knaap (2003) for counter-urban effects; see to reform municipal land development regulations (Planners Advisory Pendall (1999) for the effect on low densities. Service Report #526) . Chicago: American Planning Association, Planners 5. Two recent publications document implementing such reform: Steve Press. Tracy’s (2003) Smart Growth Zoning Codes: A Resource Guide , and the Coventry City Record Office, Leet Book. (1907). Florilegium ur - Congress for the New Urbanism’s (2004) Codifying New Urbanism: banum: Prohibition of unsanitary and fraudulent commercial practices. How to Reform Municipal Land Development Regulations . See also In Mary Dormer Harris (Ed.), The Coventry Leet Book or Mayor’s http://www.formbasedcodes.org/ for information on code reform Register, old series (Vol. 134, pp. 23–33). London: Early English Text efforts. Society. (Original work published 1421) Retrieved December 10, 2008, 6. The bye-law streets instituted in England following the public health from http://www.trytel.com/~tristan/towns/florilegium/ acts of the mid 19th century were very long, straight, and excessively community/cmfabr18.html wide, with few cross streets and no street trees or other vegetation. They Dahir, J. (1947). The neighborhood unit plan. 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