Geography 4742: Land Use Analysis

Fall, 2005 Tue and Thur: 12:30-1:45, HLMS 271

www.colorado.edu/geography/courses/geog_4742_f05/index.html

Instructor: William Travis, 102C Guggenheim; 2-6312; wtravis@colorado.edu

Off hrs: Tue and Thur. 9-10 and 2-3, and by appointment any time.

This class will cover the theory, policy and practice of land use analysis and land planning in the United States. We begin with a survey of land tenure and use concepts, history, and legal aspects, federal lands, and public sector planning principles and practices using a text written by a geographer/lawyer (Platt). Then we shift to a comprehensive look at the issue of "sprawl" (Gillham text), as both a way to get at the driving forces and patterns of modern American land development, and to explore the role of government regulation, markets, and personal behavior in land use outcomes. Besides being a newsworthy issue, sprawl encompasses a large range of land use problems and solutions. Finally, you will choose a topic for a term paper, and prepare a class presentation. This term project may be a traditional research paper or might be more akin to a planning report, a plan, or a consultant’s report. The latter allows those heading into planning as a profession to add to their portfolio. We’ll discuss these options in class before fall break.

Key Concepts: Land as a resource; land use patterns and analysis; the nature of land ownership and use; theories and practice of public sector land planning and use. The structure of urban and suburban development, the debate over "sprawl," how it is defined, just what kind of problem is it; and its causes and solutions.

Texts: Platt, Rutherford H. (2004) Land Use and Society: Geography, Law, and Public Policy. Revised Edition. (Washington, DC: Island Press).

Gillham, Oliver (2002) The Limitless City: A Primer on the Urban Sprawl Debate. (Washington, DC: Island Press)

Readings: A very few additional readings may be added for selected classes, and will be handed out in class, available on Travis door; or on the web.

You should also subscribe or check each week: www.planetizen.com for news items and opinion on land use, development, planning and sprawl. We’ll discuss how to bring these items into class discussions as we go along.

Educational Goals/Grading: Your educational goals should be to develop an understanding of the conceptual and practical aspects of land use, its analysis and planning, so that, with just a few more focused classes and your other course-work and experience, you could reasonably offer yourself on the job market as an entry-level land use planner, as a professional with land use analysis skills, or go on to more academic study of land resources. Your grasp of the material will be tested in one in-class exam (40% of final grade), your participation and contribution to class (10%), and your term project (50%). As part of your class participation, I’d like each student to choose a day in which they will be a "lead discussant" on the material—the person I turn to first for questions and discussion.

Please see polices on classroom behavior, academic honesty, disabilities, etc, to which we will adhere:
Classroom behavior: http://www.colorado.edu/policies/classbehavior.html

Academic honesty:

http://www.colorado.edu/policies/honor.html and http://www.colorado.edu/academics/honorcode/index.htm

Accommodation for disabilities: www.Colorado.EDU/disabilityservices

Campus policy regarding religious observances: http://www.colorado.edu/policies/fac_relig.html

Class Schedule:

Aug 23: Introduction, Geographic Analysis of Land Use

Aug 25: Land Resources and Use in the United States (Platt, Intro and Chap. 1)

Aug 30: Interaction of Geography and Law (Chap 2)

Sep 1: Discussion: what is property?

Sep 6: Roots of Land Use Institutions (Chap 3)

Sep. 8: Roots of Land Use Planning continued (Chap 3)

Sep 13: Property and Property Rights (Chap 7)

Sep 15: Local Land Use Planning (Chap. 8 and 9)

Sep 20: Legl aspects of land use planning (Chap. 9 and 10; Strong et al., 1996)

Sep 22: State, Regional and Federal Land Use Planning(Chap. 11)

Sep 27: Discuss Term projects

Sep 29: "Sprawl" What is it? (Gillham Chap 1), plus web reading

Pct. 4: Origins of sprawl (Chap 2)

Oct. 6: The sprawl debate (Chap. 4; Sierra Club website)

Oct.11: discuss term projects

Oct. 13: No Class, fall Break

Oct 18: The debate (Chaps 5, 8 and 9)

Oct. 20: The Sprawl Fix: Growth Management (Chap. 10 and 11; O’Toole’s web site)

Oct 25: The Sprawl Fix: Development (Chap 12), and Transportation (Chap 13)

Oct 27: Students presents project proposals

Nov 1: Regionalism (Chap. 14); catch up; review

Nov 3: EXAM

Nov 8: Discuss term projects

Nov. 10: Land use planning information sources, plans; etc.

Nov. 15: term project in class work session

Nov. 17: term project in class work session

Nov 22: Student presentations

Nov. 24: No class, Thankgiving Break

Nov. 30: Student presentations

Dec 2: Student presentations

Dec 7: Student presentations

Dec 9: Student presentations, last class

Additional Readings (more announced as we go along)

Strong, Ann Louise, Daniel R. Mandelker, and Eric Damian Kelly (1996) "Property Rights and Takings." Journal of the American Planning Association 62 (1): 5-16.

O’Toole, Randal (2001) The Vanishing Automobile and Other Urban Myths. (Bandon, OR: the Thoreau Institute). See: http://www.ti.org/vaupdates.html