Teaching > RWU HP202 Preservation Planning > Assignments >

Mid-Term Exam

Logan Circle, Washington, DC, 1985.

1. Planning and Planning

Planning as a profession and planning as a personal and trans-disciplinary process have been traditionally quite different. But future efforts to engage a broad spectrum of stakeholders as decision makers (community, commerce, government, etc.) requires that there be efforts to empower people to frame their personal and community aspirations — while achieving a congruity between these aspirations and the goals of professional planners.

  1. Define "planning""
    1. as a process and
    2. "planning" as a professional discipline.
  2. Fully cite at least four references (from the assigned and/or extra reading or other resources) as a mean to provide a professional definition.
  3. Provide and evaluate two examples of techniques where (scenario, etc.) planning have been successfully, intentionally coupled with planning for a community, region.

2. Home and Dillon's Rule

There is an ongoing debate as to the merits (or demerits) of Home Rule and Dillon's Rule and the effect these have on both municipalities (or in some cases counties) and their state. Meanwhile, preservation (and federalism) are tending toward communities assuming greater fiscal burden and autonomy, while planning is trending toward a more statewide and regional approach. The New Rules Project summarizes this by noting,

"The strongest argument in favor of local control is that government works best and is most legitimate when it is most intimately connected with its citizens. The strongest arguments against local control are that it fragments decision making, burdens commerce, and often leads to parochialism and an erosion of civil liberties."

Devolution and Preemption, New Rules Project http://www.newrules.org/gov/devolution.html

The following lists, newly posted, may be of help:

  1. Define "Home Rule" and "Dillon's Rule". Fully cite at least four references (from the assigned and/or extra reading or other resources) as a mean to provide a professional definition.
  2. Select two of your "adopted" states. Identify whether they are operating as Home Rule or Dillon's Rule state. Find one example in each state showing how their operation (under Home Rule or Dillon's Rule) has affected both local autonomy and regional efforts. The examples you use do not have to be preservation specific.

3. Planning and Zoning

Preservation planning (here, the development of "comprehensive" plans) and zoning share a long history and relationship in the development of planning in the United States. This is a subject that we will revisit when talking more about these two subjects, somewhat separately, later in the semester. For now:

  1. Define these two concepts: comprehensive planning and zoning.
  2. Explain their relationship as defined in the standard planning and zoning acts of the 1920s.
  3. These two acts were developed when the issues and areas of concern fro planners were quite different from those of today. What was the focus of the standard acts of the 1920? How do these differ from those of today? Is it time to revisit these acts (and the state and municipal acts they enabled) today? Why?

4. Zoning

  1. What is "comprehensive" about "comprehensive zoning?" Cite at least three sources, including the:
    1. New York Zoning Code of 1916
    2. Standard Zoning Enabling Act (SZEA) of 1926
    3. Another reference.