Urban sprawl refers to excessive spatial growth of cities The key word in this definition is excessive While everyone recognizes that cities must grow spatially to accommodate an expanding population the claim is that too much spatial growth occurs If this allegation is correct it follows that current public policies should be altered to restrict the spatial expansion of cities Prices for agricultural land Competition for land between real estate developers and non urban users mainly farmers and other agricultural users help to determine the spatial sizes of cities For a city to grow spatially developers must be able to bid away additional land from agricultural users A successful bid by developers means the land is worth more in urban use than in agriculture reflecting a greater economic contribution in its developed state In this sense land conversion is guided by the economist s invisible hand which directs resources to their highest and best use Traffic congestion as a common pool resource problem Impact Fees A third source of market failure that affects urban growth comes from the infrastructure costs generated by new development When a new housing development is built roads and sewers must be constructed and facilities such as schools parks and recreation areas are needed Homeowners through the property tax system pay for this infrastructure The way to correct this problem is to alter the system of infrastructure financing so that new development pays for the infrastructure costs it generates In fact many communities have undertaken such an alteration by adopting a system of impact fees Under this system infrastructure costs are paid up front in a lump sum fashion rather than being spread over many years of property tax payments The impact fees are calculated to exactly offset the infrastructure costs from the new development so that no additional financing is required The fees are paid directly by housing developers instead of by homeowners and the dollar amounts can be substantial reflecting the high per house cost of sewers school facilities and other infrastructure Urban Growth boundaries Three market failures leading to urban sprawl have been identified and in each case a specific remedy has been prescribed These remedies development taxes congestion tolls and impact fees each involve use of the price mechanism to correct urban sprawl Policymakers however often favor a much blunter instrument This instrument is usually called an urban growth boundary but other terminology is sometimes used Rather than relying on taxes or congestion tolls to limit sprawl an urban growth boundary UGB is a zoning tool that slows urban growth by banning development in designated areas on the urban fringe In effect imposition of such a boundary involves drawing a circle around a city and prohibiting development outside the circle Zoning v Planning Zoning establishes a class of activities that are allowed in an area Zoning both protects and threatens property rights Protects them by ensuring that someone s use of property doesn t devaluate them Threatens them by limiting what a person may do with his her property Planning More specific establishes long term plan for what is to occur Zoning is generally more popular than planning its more protective and less intrusive Exclusionary Zoning Overview of Exclusionary Zoning Problem of exclusionary zoning Reasons for exclusion Types of exclusionary zoning Legal Challenges Possible remedies Problem of exclusionary zoning Reasons for Exclusion Types of Exclusionary Zoning Zoning excludes activities Exclusionary zoning used to refer to use of zoning to exclude members of certain groups of the population Especially prevalent in suburban areas Prejudice racism Social status Fear Fiscal consequences Reduction of housing for people Large lot zoning Exclusion of multi family houses apartments mobile homes and other manufactured housing minimum requirements and building codes Legal Challenges Complex issue of sorting out exclusion by race and income Anti snob zoning allows developers to ignore some local rules to allow them to build affordable housing defined as housing affordable by a person earning 80 of the local median income Inclusionary Zoning Is controversial critics claim it distorts housing market while supporters say it is necessary to ensure a mix of housing Regressive Tax the term is frequently applied in reference to fixed taxes in which every person has to pay the same amount of money Progressive Tax The term is frequently applied in reference to personal income tax where people with more income pay a higher percentage of that income in tax than do those with less income poor people favor this one Common Pool Resources s a type of good consisting of a natural or human made resource system e g an irrigation system or fishing grounds whose size or characteristics makes it costly but not impossible to exclude potential beneficiaries from obtaining benefits from its use Unlike pure public goods common pool resources face problems of congestion or overuse because they are subtractable A common pool resource typically consists of a core resource e g water or fish Voucher System A school voucher also called an education voucher is a certificate issued by the government which parents can apply toward tuition at a private school or by extension to reimburse home schooling expenses rather than at the state school to which their child is assigned OR Medical vouchers that work in the same way that all government programs are obsolete and everyone gets a voucher and everyone is happy National Security Counsel chaired by the president and attendees usually include the vice president secretary of state secretary of the treasury the secretary of defense and the national security advisor Changing focus of defense policy to other things outside the normal scope of foreign policy like climate change and energy concerns the enemy is not so clear cut anymore attacks are more disbursed Homeland Security Goal Two focuses are Organization of contemporary national security in the US and how to address new problems of terrorism vs traditional war Definitions of Institutions in policy theory We define an institution as a widely understood rule norm or strategy that creates incentives for behavior in repetitive situations Institutions may be formally described in the form of a law policy or procedure or they may emerge in formally as norms standard operating practices
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