Environmental Planning and Management in the United States

September 1st, 2015

*So What's Environmental Planning, Anyway?
*5 Eras of Environ. Planning
*Sustainability as Ethic

Bird's Eye View

Environmental Planning is a negotiation.

Public Participation Has 3 Critical Components:

• Good technical information
• Strong support by advocacy groups
• A champion

Environmental Planning is a process.

The process includes

• Scoping: identification of issues and stakeholders
• Public involvement
• Formulation of alternatives
• Impact assessment 
• Evaluation of options
• Implementation
• Monitoring

Planning is the spatial application of public policy. 

It is concerned with distribution and access.

At its best, it gives a voice to equality and fairness. 

Environmental Plann-ing is also interested in equality & fairness.

It gives a voice to the interest of natural systems (which are often in our own interests too!). 

Two sides of the coin: Mitigation & Adaptation

5 Eras According to Daniels

First Era

Getting to the Green Path

1890-1920

• Spurred by reaction conditions in industrial cities, public health
• Focus on urban green spaces, sewage treatment, basic infrastructure. Local scale issues not macro.
• Some plans utopian (Example: Garden Cities)

Second Era

Regional Planning

1920-1969

• Took on a regional approach with scientific approach
• Ecological Planning (Ian McHarg, Design with Nature)
• Large-scale wilderness conservation 
• NEPA brings Environmental Impact Statements

Third Era

Modern Environ. Planning

1970-1981

• Federal Acts create EPA, Clean Water/Air Acts. Emphasis pollution control
• State level planning ramps up to implement federal law
• Rachel Carson & Silent Spring  
• Florida has Developments of Regional Impact; Oregon has vertical consistency

Fourth Era

Backlash or Bridge to Sustainability?

1982-2008

• Regulatory flexibility and move toward incentives
• Rise of Land Trusts and NGO/Non-profit driven work
• Continued re-emphasis on planning at state and local level

Fifth Era

Planning for Sustainability

1992-Present

• First four eras culminate in emphasis on not compromising the future
• Considers environmental quality alongside economic growth (Example: LEED)
• Looks at both urban and non-urban as symbiotic 

Sustainability is part utilitarian and part ethical. 

Environmental Planners

• Future-oriented
• Constructive discontent
• Apply range of perspectives
• Source of quality facts and information
• Negotiator and mediator acting as agent of change

Collaborative Environmental Planning

September 3rd, 2015

Overview

*Rational to collaborative

*Examples

*Process + Benefits

In the beginning, there was rational planning and it was good (except it wasn't).

• Centralized and top down
• Assumes planner as technical expert
• Assumes known problem, known technology, and known goals
• Act of prediction that assumes we have capacity to accurately predict

But, there are no simple solutions to complex problems.

Problems often exist in conditions of uncertainty.

Example of Rational Scenario: Cascades Park

Example of Uncertain Scenario: Sea Level Rise

http://sls.geoplan.ufl.edu/view-maps/

Collaborative planning takes us beyond single issue, single lifecycle, top down process

• Policy issues tend to require ongoing implementation, maintenance, and adjustment
• Costly to constantly re-assemble coalitions
• Collaborative networks have evolved into a practical way forward

Other practical considerations driving collaborative planning:

• We have to anyway (Federal environmental acts require)
• Avoid protracted disputes among stakeholders (particularly costly legal processes!)
• Constrained government budgets
• Movements toward deregulation and property rights protection (remember growth in private actors during 4th and 5th eras of Environmental Planning)

Example: Fire Learning Network

• Established to promote restoration of fire-dependent ecosystems through collaborative planning, regional capacity building, and national coordination.
• Since 2009, a total of 14 regional networks and more 650 partner organizations have participated.
• Outcome: Improved training, workshops, publications with overview of activities and lessons learned, Networker biweekly e-newsletter, development of locale specific products like GIS maps

Fire Learning Network

Types of CEP Applications

• Problem-solving or plan-development (Brownfield redevelopment or a habitat restoration plan as examples)
• Ongoing management process (Fire/Forest service management or watershed management as examples)

Objectives and Outcomes

• Develop a consensus driven shared vision
• Stakeholder buy-in and support for implementation
• Strengthen ongoing working relationships
• Resource and knowledge sharing among organizations
• Resolve (or even mitigate) conflicts between parties

Zac Efron put it best:

We're all in this together