Regulating Place: Standards and the Shaping of Urban America PDF
Preview Regulating Place: Standards and the Shaping of Urban America
Regulating Place Regulating Place Standards and the Shaping of Urban America Edited by Eran Ben-Joseph and Terry S. Szold Routledge New York • London Published in 2005 by Routledge Taylor & Francis Group 270 Madison Avenue New York, NY 10016 www.routledge-ny.com Published in Great Britain by Routledge Taylor & Francis Group 2 Park Square Milton Park, Abingdon Oxon OX14 4RN www.routledge.co.uk Copyright © 2005 by Taylor & Francis Group, a Division of T&F Informa. Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group. This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2005. “To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s collection of thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk.” All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Reguilating place : standards and the shaping of urban America/edited by Eran Ben-Joseph & Terry S. Szold. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-415-94874-6 (hb : alk. paper) — ISBN 0-415-94875-4 (pb : alk. paper) 1. City planning—United States. 2. City planning—Standards—United States. 3. Public hous- ing—United States. 4. Land use—United States—Planning. 5. Cities and towns—United States—Growth—Management. I. Ben-Joseph, Eran. II. Szold, Terry, S., 1960- HT167.R398 2004 307.1¢216¢0973—dc22 2004011422 ISBN 0-203-99803-0 Master e-book ISBN Table of Contents Acknowledgments....................................................................................vii 1 On Standards..................................................................................1 ERAN BEN-JOSEPH Part One Standards:Origins and Evolution 2 Design Standards:Whose Meanings?..........................................17 JOHN R.STILGOE 3. The Political Economy ofUrban Design Standards...................45 PETER VAN DOREN 4. Standardizing Public Housing.....................................................67 LAWRENCE J.VALE 5. Local Regulations and Housing Affordability..........................103 ANTHONY DOWNS Part Two Standards and the Shaping ofPrivate Space and Public Realm 6. Using and Misusing Law to Design the Public Realm..............115 JEROLD S.KAYDEN 7. Sidewalk Democracy:Municipalities and the Regulation ofPublic Space...........................................................................141 ANASTASIA LOUKAITOU-SIDERIS,EVELYN BLUMENBERG,AND RENIA EHRENFEUCHT v vi • Regulating Place:Standards and the Shaping ofUrban America 8. Facing Subdivision Regulations.................................................167 ERAN BEN-JOSEPH Part Three Private Land Use Controls:Voluntary Devices 9. The Voluntary City:Choice,Community,and Civil Society.......189 PETER GORDON,DAVID T.BEITO,AND ALEXANDER TABARROK 10. The Benefits ofNon-Zoning.....................................................203 BERNARD H.SIEGAN 11. Protecting Palos Verdes:The Dark Side ofthe Bourgeois Utopia.........................................................................................233 ROBERT M.FOGELSON Part Four Designed for Change:Regulatory Reform and Emerging Approaches 12. From Pollution Control to Place Making:The Role of Environmental Regulation in Creating Communities Place......253 WILLIAM SHUTKIN 13. Role ofEnvironmental Regulation in Shaping the Built and Natural Environment..........................................................271 VIRGINIA S.ALBRECHT 14. Regulating as ifHumans Matter:The Transect and Post- Suburban Planning....................................................................293 ANDRÉS DUANY AND DAVID BRAIN 15. Substituting Information for Regulation:In Search of an Alternative Approach to Shaping Urban Design.................333 J.MARK SCHUSTER 16. Afterword:The Changing Regulatory Template.......................359 TERRY S.SZOLD About the Editors...................................................................................371 Contributors...........................................................................................373 Index.......................................................................................................381 Acknowledgments The editors are grateful to Bish Sanyal, former head of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Department of Urban Studies and Planning (DUSP);Larry Vale,the current head ofthe department;and William Mitchell, former dean ofMIT School ofArchitecture and Planning for providing the in- tellectual and financial support that enabled an MIT colloquium and conse- quently this book project to materialize. Most of the chapters in this book originated as papers commissioned for this sponsored colloquium held in the fall of2002.Although we were not able to include their papers in this anthology,we greatly value the colloquium pre- sentations by Shlomo Angel, John de Monchaux, Dennis Frenchman, Ralph Gakenheimer,William Mitchell,Moshe Safdie,and Anne Whiston Spirn.We also appreciate the commentary on the colloquium presentations by Thomas Broadrick, Langley Keys, Karen Polenske, James Stockard, and William Wheaton. We are particularly indebted to Sam Bass Warner for his keen comments and indispensable help in sorting through the various drafts,as well as to David McBride and Angela Chnapko ofRoutledge.We also wish to acknowledge the central role of the MIT students who participated in our “Regulating Place” seminar: Jane Healey, Josh Huntington, Elizabeth Leheny, Michael Marrella, Ariella Rosenberg,Sarah Roszler,Lillian Shuey,and Carolina Simon.Their pas- sion and divergent opinions have fueled many ofour seminar’s discussions and have been instrumental in shaping the direction of this anthology.Finally,to our families,especially Jon Fain (who helped us prepare a coherent and engag- ing book proposal) and Holly and Eli Ben-Joseph,without your help and sup- port this anthology would never have come to fruition. Eran Ben-Joseph and Terry S.Szold Cambridge,MA vii 1 CHAPTER On Standards ERAN BEN-JOSEPH Through the years,the design and layout ofurban developments have become increasingly regulated.Professional and governmental bodies have developed standards for the built environment that dictate all aspects of the form and shape ofurban American communities.Furthermore,the methodical admin- istration of public works,the centralized supervision over land development, and the influential rise ofthe engineering and urban planning professions have established many ofthese design standards as absolutes.Although simple and familiar standards for subdividing land, grading, laying streets and utilities, and configuring right-of-way and street widths may seem innocuous, when they are copied and adopted from one place to another they have an enormous impact—good and bad—on the way our communities and neighborhoods look,feel,and work. One reason development standards have often been automatically adopted and legitimized by local governments is to shield them from responsibility in decision making.Modifications have been discouraged; because higher gov- ernmental agencies have not allowed flexibility,lesser agencies have been re- luctant to do so.Financial institutions and lenders have also been hesitant to support development proposals outside the mainstream, particularly when they do not conform to established design practices.With the crafting ofexact rules and standards, regulatory bodies can more predictably shape develop- ment,even though the actual results may be less desirable than a more variable approach. Standards not only shape and affect physical space,but are also an impor- tant aspect of planning practice.Planning professionals spend most of their 1
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