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27 Twentieth Century Land Use Plannin 9 A Stalwart Family Tree Edward J. Kaiser and David R Godschalk How a cityt land is used defines its character, its potential for development, the role it can Play within a regional economy and how it impacts the natural environment Seattle Planning Commission 1993 During the twentieth century, community physical development plans have evolved from elite, City Beautiful designs to participa tory, broad-based strategies . for managing urban change. A review has evolved from The twentieth desl8n and inearr� lanning into an intricate use plan of land use planning's intellectual and practice history shows the continu- simple roots in civic ous incorporation of new ideas and techniques. The traditional mapped combination of design, policy, and land use design has been enriched with innovations from policy plans, management. Its family tree illustrates land classification plans, and development management plans. Thanks to how new branches growing from dif- this flexible � i ado tato local cal governments can use contemporary land fi:rent disciplinary roots have been in- tegrated into contemporary hybrid use Pig to build consensus and support decisions on controversial plans. A source of the vitality of tradi. issues about space, development, and infrastructure. If this evolution per - tonal land use planning has been its sists, local plans should continue to be mainstays of community develop ability a to respond ro and incorporate ment policy into the twenty -first century. " new approaches, including verbal pol- i plans, growth management Unlike the more rigid, rule- oriented modern architecture contem- cy P gemenc plans, , and land classification plans. Despite porary local planning does not appear destined for deconstruction by a predictions of its demise, land use postmodern revolution. Though critics of comprehensive physical plan- planning is still a mainstay of efforts to ning have regularly predicted its demise (Perin 1967, Perloff 1980, Jacobs manage commueity change, while be. coming more participatory and elei:- 1992, Friedmann 1993),' the evidence demonstrates that spatial planning tronically based, and concerned with is alive and well in hundreds of United States communities. A 1994 tabu- increasingly complex issues. lation found 2,742 local comprehensive plans prepared under state , Kaiser, AICP, is a professor and Chair, growth management regulations in twelve states. (See table 1.) This figure and Godschalk, AICP, is Stephen Bax. of course significantly understates the overall nationwide total, which ter Professor, in the Department of would include all those plans prepared in the other thirty -eight states City and Regional Planning at the uni. and in the noncoastal areas of California and North Carolina. It is safe to varsity of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Coauthors of the fourth edition assume that most, if not all, of these plans contain a mapped land use of Urban land Use Pknning, they are element? Not only do such plans help decision makers to manage urban both former editors of this journal. growth and change, they also provide a platform for the formation of Journal ofdo Awrioon planning community consensus about land use issues, now among the most con- Amda6on, Vol. 61, No. 3, Summer troversial items on local government agendas. 1995. *American Planning This article looks back at the history of land use planning and for - Association, Chicago, IL. ward to its future. It shows how planning ideas, growing from turn-of- APA JOURNAL- SUMMER 199s 1365