Ecologically Based Municipal Land Use Planning / Edition 1

by William B Honachefsky

Overview

In the decades following the first Earth Day in 1970, a generation has been enlightened about the unspeakable damage done to our planet. Federal, state, and local governments generated laws and regulations to control development and protect the environment. Local governments have developed environmental standards addressing their needs. The result-an ecologically incongruous pattern of land development known as urban sprawl.
Local land use planners can have a greater effect on the quality of our environment than all of the federal and state regulators combined. Historically, they have existed on the periphery of land management. The author suggests that federal and state environmental regulators need to incorporate local governments into their environmental protection plans. Ecologically Based Municipal Land Use Planning provides easily understood, nuts and bolts solutions for controlling urban sprawl, emphasizing the integration of federal, state, and local land use plans.
The book discusses ecological resources and provides practical solutions that municipal planners can implement immediately. It discusses the most recent scientific data, how to extract what is important, and how to apply it to the local land planning process. The author includes the application of the Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to problem solving.
Despite compelling evidence and sound arguments favoring the implementation of an ecologically sensitive approach to land use planning, municipal planners, in general, remain skeptical. It will take considerably more encouragement and education to win them over completely. Ecologically Based Municipal Land Use Planning makes the case for sound land use policies that will reduce sprawl.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781566704069
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	12/20/1999
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	286
Product dimensions:	7.00(w) x 10.00(h) x (d)

About the Author

William B. Honachefsky, an environmental scientist, is also licensed as a professional planner, a professional land surveyor, and a health officer; is a Certified Hazard Control Manager, Master Level, and a professional in soil and erosion control. For the past 29 years he has specialized in the fields of environmental protection and land use planning, both in private enterprise and state and federal government. He developed New Jersey’s first trace metal analyses protocols and organized and operated that state’s first water resources emergency response sampling team. He is the author of two prior books on land use and environmental planning and is a recognized expert in watershed planning and management.

Table of Contents

Foreward. Preface. Why Ecologically Based Land Use? Environmental Degradation - The Product of Land Use. Land Use and Environmental Protection - Their Origins, Philosophies, and Destinies. Reconciling the Master Plan and Zoning and Restoring True Home Rule. Additional Science Aids the Process. The Value of Natural Ecosystems and Natural Resources. Private Property Rights and Public Trust Resources. Getting Ready. Getting Started. Analyzing the Data, Assessing Community Health and Setting Objectives and Strategies for the New Ecologically Based Municipal Master Plan. New Ideas for the New Millennium. A General Commentary on Best Management Practices. Appendices. Appendix A: Web Site Containing Environmental or Ecological Information. Appendix B: Excerpted Tables From U.S. Fish and Wildlife Exposure Factors Handbook for the American Woodcock (Scolopax minor)and the red fox (Vulpes vulpes). Appendix C: Example Data Available From New Jersey DEP's Natural Heritage Program. Appendix D: Excerpts From New Jersey Geological Survey's "A Method for Evaluating Ground Water Recharge Areas in New Jersey". Appendix E: Siltation and Erosion Control Sample Products. References. Index.


NTI/Sales Copy

Editorial Reviews

"The solution to the urban sprawl that seems to thwart the efforts and values of communities…is not to be found in more legislation, rules, and regulation, says Honachefsky, but in local communities and how they develop their municipal master plan…incorporating recent scientific research studies, applying geographic information systems, and designating the protection of the community's ecological infrastructure as the premier priority".
-Book News, Inc.

"Honachefsky provides nuts and bolts solutions for controlling urban sprawl, emphasizing the integration of federal, state, and local land use plans".
-ERSI Magazine

This book is a thorough and practical presentation of two fundamental planning principles…a must read for land planners and citizen planning board members."
-Environmental Building News

"Ignore the academic title, and you'll find a useful, well written and well illustrated book packed with the latest thinking on land use management, written in non-condescending but easy to understand terms and punctuated with anecdotes from the author's 30 year career as an environmental scientist, investigator and professional planner…Yet, it is also that rate thing-a reference book accessible to the average citizen, that is likely to spark new ways of thinking for professional planners and civil engineers."
-Ed Hunt, Editor, Tide Pool

"Move over, the municipal master plan of the 21st Century has arrived."
-ECOIq Magazine

From the Publisher

Ecologically Based Municipal Land Use Planning -- a new book with some very new ideas about incorporating the values and services of our ecological infrastructure into our development and land use decision making. Ignore the academic title, and you'll find a useful, well written and well illustrated book packed with the latest thinking on land use management, written in non-condescending but easy to understand terms and punctuated with anecdotes from the author's 30 year career as an environmental scientist, investigator and professional planner.

Tidepool Books

His book incorporates the latest research, GIS mapping techniques, and a host of unique ecological indicators into a new approach to land use planning. The goal is to broaden the process beyond the considerations normally involved in zoning. It provides easily understood, nuts and bolts solutions for controlling urban sprawl, emphasizing the integration of federal, state, and local policies and plans.

ECOIq Magazine

Honachefsky provides nuts and bolts solutions for controlling urban sprawl, emphasizing the integration of federal, state, and local land use plans. It discusses ecological resources and provides practical solutions that municipal planners can implement immediately. It discusses the most recent scientific data, how to extract what is important, and how to apply it to the local land planning process. The author includes the application of GIS to problem solving, and he generated all the GIS-derived color maps in the book using ArcInfo and ArcView.

ESRI Magazine

Clearly, the nation is poised on the threshold of a land planning renaissance that could significantly alter the way in which Americans in general and local governments in particular conduct the business of land use planning. This reformation should include a much greater emphasis on environmental and ecological protection, thanks to the public's indignation over the landscape evolving from the present system of land use and the concerted effort by state and federal environmental regulators to recruit and incorporate local governments into their environmental protection agendas. The motto of this reformation is simply this: "The quality of our lives is dependent upon the quality of our environment, which is dependent upon the quality of our land use." Despite all the compelling evidence and cogent arguments, both recent and historic, favoring the implementation of a more ecologically sensitive approach to land use planning, municipal planners remain frustratingly wary. It is apparent that it will take considerably more encouragement and education to win over their hearts and minds completely. This presentation is a commencement of that effort.
— American Museum of Natural History

William B. Honachefsky

This book is a thorough and practical presentation of two fundamental planning principles: (1) incorporating the science of ecology into land planning fulfills its real purpose of protecting "the long-term interests and future well-being of the community"; and (2) zoning should be one tool used in implementing a sound municipal master plan and not the other way around. A must-read for land planners and citizen planning board members.

The solution to the urban sprawl that seems somehow to thwart the efforts and values of communities across the industrialized world is not to be found in more legislation, rules, and regulation, says Honachefsky, but in local communities and how they develop their municipal master plans. His strategies include restoring the municipal master plan as the dominant planning document, incorporating recent scientific research studies, applying geographic information systems, and designating the protection of the community's ecological infrastructure as the premier priority. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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