Big Places Big Plans
Land Use Planning and the Great American Outdoors

With origins in the late 1960s, a 'quiet revolution' in land use planning and control has taken hold across North America. First seen as a manifestation of the environmental movement, the revolution prompted governments at several levels to attempt to protect critical areas and vulnerable natural resources.

With origins in the late 1960s, a 'quiet revolution' in land use planning and control has taken hold across North America. First seen as a manifestation of the environmental movement, the revolution prompted governments at several levels to attempt to protect critical areas and vulnerable natural resources. Many of the most dramatic and far-reaching shifts in planning regimes have occurred in large-scale, environmentally unique or sensitive regions. It is these big places, looming large in the American and Canadian psyches, that are the focus of this edited volume. Each of the chapters reflects on the contemporary challenge of environmental and land use planning. Ten leading distinguished scholars here provide thoughtful analyses and critical insights into the processes and contexts shaping the innovative planning and policy schemes in seven regional landscapes.

Introduction, Mark B. Lapping and Owen J. Furuseth
The beckoning country: Act 200, Act 250 and regional planning in Vermont, Robert M. Sanford and Mark B. Lapping
The Pinelands, Robert J. Mason
The Niagara fruit belt: planning conflicts in the preservation of a national resource, Hugh J. Gayler
Planning and land regulation at Lake Tahoe: five decades of experience, Robert H. Twiss
The Everglades: where will all the water go?, Jaap Vos
Unorganized Maine: regional planning without local government, Andrew Fisk
The history of planning in the Adirondack Park: the enduring conflict, Glenn Harris and Michael G. Jarvis
Lessons for the future, Owen J. Furuseth and Mark B. Lapping
Index.