In the decades following the first Earth Day in 1970, a generation has been enlightened about the unspeakable damage done to our planet. Federal, state, and local governments generated laws and regulations to control development and protect the environment. Local governments have developed environmental standards addressing their needs. The result-an ecologically incongruous pattern of land development known as urban sprawl.
Local land use planners can have a greater effect on the quality of our environment than all of the federal and state regulators combined. Historically, they have existed on the periphery of land management. The author suggests that federal and state environmental regulators need to incorporate local governments into their environmental protection plans. Ecologically Based Municipal Land Use Planning provides easily understood, nuts and bolts solutions for controlling urban sprawl, emphasizing the integration of federal, state, and local land use plans.
The book discusses ecological resources and provides practical solutions that municipal planners can implement immediately. It discusses the most recent scientific data, how to extract what is important, and how to apply it to the local land planning process. The author includes the application of the Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to problem solving.
Despite compelling evidence and sound arguments favoring the implementation of an ecologically sensitive approach to land use planning, municipal planners, in general, remain skeptical. It will take considerably more encouragement and education to win them over completely. Ecologically Based Municipal Land Use Planning makes the case for sound land use policies that will reduce sprawl.

About the Author
William B. Honachefsky, an environmental scientist, is also licensed as a professional planner, a professional land surveyor, and a health officer; is a Certified Hazard Control Manager, Master Level, and a professional in soil and erosion control. For the past 29 years he has specialized in the fields of environmental protection and land use planning, both in private enterprise and state and federal government. He developed New Jersey's first trace metal analyses protocols and organized and operated that state's first water resources emergency response sampling team. He is the author of two prior books on land use and environmental planning and is a recognized expert in watershed planning and management.

Reviews

"The solution to the urban sprawl that seems to thwart the efforts and values of communities...is not to be found in more legislation, rules, and regulation, says Honachefsky, but in local communities and how they develop their municipal master plan...incorporating recent scientific research studies, applying geographic information systems, and designating the protection of the community's ecological infrastructure as the premier priority".
-Book News, Inc.

"Honachefsky provides nuts and bolts solutions for controlling urban sprawl, emphasizing the integration of federal, state, and local land use plans".
-ERSI Magazine

This book is a thorough and practical presentation of two fundamental planning principles...a must read for land planners and citizen planning board members."
-Environmental Building News

"Ignore the academic title, and you'll find a useful, well written and well illustrated book packed with the latest thinking on land use management, written in non-condescending but easy to understand terms and punctuated with anecdotes from the author's 30 year career as an environmental scientist, investigator and professional planner...Yet, it is also that rate thing-a reference book accessible to the average citizen, that is likely to spark new ways of thinking for professional planners and civil engineers."
-Ed Hunt, Editor, Tide Pool

"Move over, the municipal master plan of the 21st Century has arrived."
-ECOIq Magazine

Book Information
ISBN 9780367579050
Author William B Honachefsky
Format Paperback
Page Count 286
Imprint CRC Press
Publisher Taylor & Francis Ltd
Weight(grams) 453g