Toward A Balanced Growth Strategy For Jacksonville

Report of the Mayor\u27s Task Force on Growth Management. PALM

The Limits to Growth Management

This paper reviews and critiques the growth management system in Montgomery County, Maryland with the intent of finding generalizable lessons. An overview of the twenty year old system is followed by an analysis of its consequences and implications. The system fails to provide effective price signals, rather relying on proactive command and control policies from the county government. Moreover the system fails to raise sufficient revenue for new infrastructure. The paper suggests that an alternative, reactive, approach, which links the threads of infrastructure financing and adequate public facilities by replacing quotas with a market based approach of cost-based prices, would be more equitable, efficient, and effective in implementing county goals.

The Planning Tax: The Case against Regional Growth-Management Planning

Regional growth-management planning makes housing unaffordable and contributes to a business-unfriendly environment that slows economic growth. The high housing prices caused by growth-management planning were an essential element of the housing bubble that has recently shaken our economy: for the most part, this bubble was limited to urban regions with growth-management planning. In 2006, the price of a median home in the 10 states that have passed laws requiring local governments to do growth-management planning was five times the median family income in those states. At that price, a median family devoting 31 percent of its income (the maximum allowed for FHA-insured loans) to a mortgage at 6 percent, with a 10 percent down payment, could not pay off the mortgage on a median home in less than 59 years. In contrast, a median home in the 22 states that have no growth-management laws or institutions cost only 2.7 times the median family income. This meant a family could pay off a home in just 12.5 years. Growth-management tools such as urban-growth boundaries, adequate-public-facilities ordinances, and growth limits all drive up the cost of housing by artificially restricting the amount of land available or the number of permits granted for home construction. On average, homebuyers in 2006 had to pay $130,000 more for every home sold in states with mandatory growth-management planning than they would have had to pay if home price-to-income ratios were less than 3. This is, in effect, a planning tax that increases the costs of retail, commercial, and industrial developments as well as housing.The key to keeping housing affordable is the presence of large amounts of relatively unregulated vacant land that can be developed for housing and other purposes. The availability of such low-cost land encourages cities to keep housing affordable within their boundaries. But when state or other planning institutions allow cities to gain control over the rate of development of rural areas, they lose this incentive, and housing quickly becomes unaffordable. States with growth-management laws should repeal them, and other states should avoid passing them

THE INFLUENCE OF SPATIAL LAND USE PATTERNS ON RURAL AMENITY VALUES AND WILLINGNESS TO PAY FOR GROWTH MANAGEMENT: EVIDENCE FROM A CONTINGENT CHOICE SURVEY

This paper reports on a contingent choice study in which residents of a rural Rhode Island community were asked to express their preferences for packages of growth management outcomes, where surveys presented both spatial and non-spatial attributes of growth management outcomes. Survey results provide insight on the extent to which estimated willingness to pay (WTP) for marginal changes in specific landscape features or land uses may be influenced by spatial considerations. Results also characterize the potential impact of spatial context on public preferences and WTP for coordinated packages of growth management outcomes. Keywords: Land Use, Spatial, Contingent Choice, Growth Management, Economics, ValuationLand Use, Spatial, Contingent Choice, Growth Management, Economics, Valuation, Land Economics/Use,

Telling Stories - A History of Growth Management in the Gauteng Province (South Africa)

The sprawled nature of major South African cities can be attributed to a variety of reasons. The 1994 (post-apartheid) political shift, however, prompted cities and regions to plan for more equitable and accessible cities. Together with its three metropolitan municipalities, the Gauteng Province proved to be a pioneer in adopting an urban growth management approach (the Gauteng Urban Edge). Against the backdrop of a Provincial Spatial Development Framework, a Provincial Urban Edge was delineated within which local authorities were awarded the opportunity to refine a custom-made growth management strategy. In the absence of clear provincial direction, these strategies achieved various levels of success. This paper explores the urban growth management movement, its approaches and its expressions as witnessed in the case of Gauteng

GROWTH MANAGEMENT TOOLS AND PROGRAMS TARGETING SPECIFIC OUTCOMES WITH NON-MARGINAL INSTITUTIONAL CHANGE

Communities across the country are struggling to accommodate population growth and economic development while limiting negative impacts of associated land development patterns.. At federal, state and local levels, policies and programs are being implemented in an attempt to mitigate the negative impacts of growth. Many of these programs are united under the concept of Smart Growth. There are numerous resources available that explain and describe applications of tens, if not hundreds, of smart growth tools (for example: see ICMA, 2003). The purpose of this paper is to highlight a few growth management programs that have incorporated tools characterized by fairly significant institutional changes. Of particular interest are the economic incentives and disincentives created by the institutional change. First, sprawl and growth management are defined. Next, the role of federal policy in growth patterns is reviewed briefly. Third, specific examples of growth management policy tools are provided. Finally, several policy issues critical to the achievement of growth management are discussed. Because this paper was initially presented as a general resource for public policy educators, the background material references include an internet site where available.Institutional and Behavioral Economics,

Does State Growth Management Change the Pattern of Urban Growth? Evidence From Florida.

This paper evaluates growth management in Florida by using a land use based regional adjustment model to project adjustments toward equilibrium densities of population and employment at the county level. The analysis utilizes a unique data set that contains detailed information on initial outcomes of the 1992 plan review in the State of Florida. These plan review outcomes are interacted with adjustment variables to test the hypothesis that Growth Management-specific policies have affected equilibrium adjustments in the following time period. The analysis is motivated by three specific research questions: Has Florida’s (1985) Growth Management Act increased changes in density during any of the three year time periods? Does plan compliance affect the growth trajectories of approved counties? And, finally, does the inclusion of optional plan elements further affect these growth trajectories? The findings suggest that compliance with state growth management mandates in Florida may push the adjustment process toward higher population densities in the1992-1997 time period. Additionally, the inclusion of an optional educational plan element may also push adjustments toward higher density. The results indicate that growth management efforts to address the technical planning process, as well as human capital needs, can increase the desirability, and thus the density, of sprawling counties in the Atlantic Southeast. Finally, because population and employment growth are jointly determined in the Atlantic Southeast, the long-term sustainability of economic development in Florida may depend on policies that preserve its desirability as a place to live. This paper elaborates upon work by Carruthers, McLaughlin, and Boarnet (2006) that shows Florida’s growth trajectory during the early 1990’s was significantly different than the Atlantic Southeast region.

Growth Management Study

A review and analysis of the current growth management mechanism in the city. Identifies major problems including a lack of policy coordination, inconsistent funding and inadequate citizen involvement. Recommends the adoption of a comprehensive plan, an equitable funding structure and increased media coverage and citizen awareness of growth management issues. PALM

The Smalling of America?: Growth Management Statutes and the Dormant Commerce Clause

When we start talking about quality of life, they start talking about cheap underwear. And I keep saying, You cannot buy small-town quality of life at a Wal-Mart; they don\u27t sell it.