Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Farm To School: Strategies For Urban Health, Combatting Sprawl, And Establishing Community Food Systems, Mark Vallianatos, Robert Gottlieb, Margaret Haase

Mark Vallianatos

Farm-to-school is a new, innovative strategy with multiple planning-related objectives. The article evaluates the significance of farm-to-school in relation to improving the health and nutrition of school-age children, particularly low-income youth; strengthening the capacity of local farmers, particularly those engaged in sustainable practices; adding to the toolkit of strategies designed to contain and ultimately reduce sprawl-inducing developments by helping preserve farmland; and helping establish a community food systems approach no longer entirely dependent on the global food system that has come to dominate food growing, processing, distribution, and consumption patterns around the world.

April 2015 - Urban Sprawl In Kane, Kendall, Will And Mchenry Counties, Illinois, 1987 And 2007, Elisa Addlesperger

Elisa E. Addlesperger

Elisa Addlesperger’s map, created as part of a final project for GEO 243 Remote Sensing, shows the impact of development on availability of farmland in four collar counties in northeastern Illinois: Kane, Kendall, Will and McHenry. Landsat 5 multi-band spectral images from 1987 and 2007 were processed to create classes showing development density in each respective year. Open or agricultural land is indicated with a bright green. Based on this visual analysis, substantial amounts of arable land have been lost to development in Chicago’s collar counties. According to the state Department of Agriculture, Illinois has lost over 3.6 million acres …

Smart Growth-Oriented Density And Parking Regulations, Michael Lewyn

Michael E Lewyn

Many articles have been written about pro-sprawl land use regulation, such as minimum parking requirements. This speech, by contrast, focuses on the frequency of land use regulation designed to increase walkability- in particular, minimum density requirements and maximum parking requirements. I conclude that the first type of regulation is quite rare and usually very lenient. The second type of regulation is more frequent; however, the impact of maximum parking requirements is not yet clear.

No Parking Anytime: The Legality And Wisdom Of Maximum Parking And Minimum Density Requirements, Michael Lewyn, Judd Schechtman

Michael E Lewyn

This article focuses on two aspects of smart growth policy that have thus far received little attention: maximum parking and minimum density requirements. To ascertain the frequency of such regulations, we examine the zoning regulations of twenty-four mid-sized cities, defined as those with populations between 500,000 and one million residents. The article concludes that the first type of regulation is somewhat common, but is usually restricted to certain types of land uses or sections of a city. Minimum density requirements, by contrast, are quite rare and quite lenient. Because these types of regulations have received little scholarly attention and are …

The (Somewhat) False Hope Of Comprehensive Planning, Michael Lewyn

Michael E Lewyn

Some commentators equate municipal comprehensive plans with "smart" growth (that is, development that considers the needs of nondrivers as well as the needs of automobiles). However, comprehensive planning. although desirable, is neither necessary nor sufficient for smart growth. Plans are not necessary because zoning reforms can achieve the same smart growth objectives as plans, and are not sufficient because many comprehensive plans support sprawl rather than smart growth.

2015 Planetizen Blog Posts, Michael Lewyn

Michael E Lewyn