As the world's population continues to grow, it is becoming increasingly important for cities to plan for the future. This means that strategic land use planning is more critical than ever.
Strategic land use planning is a critical endeavor that facilitates optimal utilization of our limited land resources. It takes into account population growth, necessary infrastructure, environmental protection, and economic development to ensure desired outcomes are achieved with minimal negative effects on the environment and local communities.
By holistically examining land use, this process affords us higher quality of life, better resource management, lower land costs, and enhanced sustainability.
What Is a Land Use Plan?
Strategic land use planning is developing a long-term vision for land use and developing policies to guide future growth. Preparing for future development is essential, mainly when delivering services and infrastructure such as water and sewer lines.
A land use plan is part of a larger process aiming to maximize land, natural resources, and other assets. Usually, it is part of a city, town, or community's overall development plan. Land use plans help plan future growth in a given area and determine how to develop existing sites.
As planning land use evolves, lawyers become increasingly critical. With so many changes in rules and regulations coming out, it is more important than ever to have someone who understands them.
A lawyer can help you navigate the process. For strategic land use planning in Philadelphia, a real estate attorney Philadelphia is a vital part of the team. A lawyer will draft the document as the foundation for your strategic land use plan. Lawyers have years of experience drafting documents.
Their experience and knowledge would help with knowing what to include and what not to. Thus, you can expect excellent results from your lawyer.
What Are the Strategies for Land Use
1. Zoning
Zoning is a key planning tool that plays a vital part in regulating the built environment and creating functional markets for residential and commercial properties. By dividing the statutory area of a local authority into sections, particular land use can be carried out on specific sites, thus enabling the development of towns and cities.
2.Infill Development and Adaptive Reuse
Infill development and adaptive reuse programs support smart growth. Infill development maximizes existing infrastructure investments and consumes less land than otherwise available. Compact land use and development patterns can result from infill development and redevelopment. It also aids in reinvestment in areas targeted for growth and with existing infrastructure, and more efficient delivery of quality public services.
3.Urban Growth Boundary
Urban growth boundaries (UGBs) are defined as boundaries that separate urban areas from their surrounding natural and agricultural lands. This restriction limits the extent to which the city can expand beyond its current boundaries The urban growth boundary divides cities from greenbelts. Greenbelts are natural and agricultural areas surrounding cities.
4. Transit-Oriented Development
To encourage non-motorized transportation and transit use, transit-oriented development (TOD) programs promote residential and commercial centers and corridors. It is a fusion of urban land development and public transportation investments near or at a station.
The TOD is typically a compact mixed-use development around rail transit nodes with a high-quality pedestrian environment. Dedicated lanes can also be implemented around bus routes and bus stops in TODs.These busways and bus services are called BRT (Bus Rapid Transit).
5. Siting Policies
It is an important strategy to ensure that schools, employment centers, and other vital destinations are placed at well-connected locations with public transportation, bicycle paths, and pedestrian walkways.
Steps Involved in Preparing a Land Use Plan
Land use planning ensures that all activities on the land (such as housing) are compatible. Effective use of available resources is the key to protecting the environment and improving living conditions.
Planning for land use is at the heart of intellectual growth. By using strategic planning tools, communities can determine where they want to grow and how they want to grow over time. This helps them plan for housing, transportation, and recreation needs and conserve natural areas and other resources.
Strategic planning for land use focuses on these components:
Community vision:
A community vision describes what an ideal community would look like. Density requirements, jobs nearby, and housing requirements all fall under this category.
Goals:
Policy changes or infrastructure improvements establish specific targets for achieving the community vision. Tracking progress over time requires measurable goals.
Action plan:
An action plan outlines strategies (such as improving public transportation or constructing more affordable housing), funding sources, and timelines for achieving each goal.
The main steps in the land use plan are:
Identify existing conditions such as population density, type and configuration of buildings and facilities, traffic patterns, noise levels, air pollution levels, etc.
Identification of future needs, including population growth rate and other factors which can directly or indirectly affect the existing situation.
Development of alternatives or scenarios which may be used as guidelines for future decision-making processes by analyzing various options available for meeting future needs for all kinds of services like transportation systems etc.
Evaluation of alternatives based on different criteria such as cost-effectiveness, environmental impact, etc.
The Importance of Strategic Land Use Planning
Strategic land use planning is indispensable when examining many pressing planning issues through research and investigation. Many problems need fixing, including shortage of land, rising population, inadequate transportation, and communication systems, slow economic growth, poor urban planning, environmental hazards, cultural loss, and more.
Strategic land use statements are used in planning to set clear priorities. These priorities are essential to meet land use's future economic, environmental, and social requirements. Some claims also include suggestions for where the needs can be completed entirely.
Land use statements also address the most effective means of dealing with future change and discuss the values communities want to preserve. Ultimately, this helps with housing demand forecasting, location and job forecasting, and growth projections for specific areas.
Conclusion
Land use planning is a critical component of sustainable development, as it provides a framework for managing the use and development of land in a way that promotes economic growth while also protecting environmental, social, and cultural values. The process of land use planning aims to balance the needs of individuals and communities with the broader goals of society.
Strategic land use planning can benefit many parties involved in urban development because it allows them to make decisions with their own needs in mind instead of making decisions based solely on what they think others want.
