Federal Efforts To Take Over Land Use Control?

A columnist raises a warning that a joint APA-HUD 'growth blueprint' is an effort to centralize land use control by the federal government. (Link corrected.)

1 minute read

December 13, 2001, 7:00 AM PST

By Chris Steins @planetizen

When Secretary Mel Martinez took over the reins as the newly installed head of the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), he had little reason to suspect that in addition to heading up the nation's housing policies, he would also be handed the dubious distinction of being asked to unleash a 2,000 page blueprint for controlling every aspect of local land use across America from a "Directorate" located in Washington, D.C. Unless Secretary Martinez acts to stop it, in the next few days, what is benignly dubbed the "Legislative Guidebook" will be jointly issued by HUD and the American Planning Association (APA). The Guidebook is a comprehensive blueprint of model statutes and planning guidelines whose goal is nothing less than a centralization of land planning for state and local governments and elimination of the need for messy and "inefficient" local land use control.

Thanks to Congress on the New Urbanism

FULL STORY: Federal 'No Growth' Blueprint is Unrealistic

Wednesday, December 12, 2001 in Accuracy In Media

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