1Urban and Regional Planning Program College of Architecture and Urban Planning The University of Michigan Urban Planning 502 Environmental Planning: Issues and Concepts Fall 2003 Richard Norton, Assistant Professor Mondays and Wednesdays 3:00 – 4:30 pm 1248C A&AB / 936-0197 2213 A&AB [email protected] Web: http://www-personal.umich.edu/~rknorton/ Coursetools: https://coursetools.ummu.umich.edu/2003/fall/up/502/001.nsf Course Description This is an introductory graduate-level course on the fundamental concepts and issues that confront environmental policy makers and planners in practice. The term “environmental planning” encompasses a wide array of planning techniques and institutional settings. Rather than focusing on one particular type of planning (e.g., cost-benefit analysis, impact assessment, site design), the course is designed to address recurrent value-based and analytical conflicts that cut across those various environmental policymaking and planning activities. Although we will focus in some detail on site planning and impact assessment at the end of the term, the course is not designed as a studio-oriented course. Contemporary environmental policymaking and planning debates typically appear at the surface to hinge on disagreements about scientific questions and appropriate policy-making and planning techniques. These debates, however, often mask at their core hidden (and unquestioned) disagreements over fundamental philosophical values and analytical assumptions. One goal of the course will be prepare students to be competent environmental policy analysts and planners. The principal goal, however, will be to provide students with the knowledge and skills they will need in order to be thoughtful and creative professionals, capable of recognizing the key disconnects in communication and analysis that often hinder effective and satisfying environmental policy and planning solutions. Specifically, the course is designed to: • provide students the ability to recognize and tease apart the competing values and analytical assumptions made by various stakeholders in environmental policy-making and planning debates; • consider how those debates are shaped by and play themselves out within the political, legal, and administrative processes that characterize environmental policy-making and planning in the U.S.; and • familiarize students with the various forms of contemporary environmental policy-making and planning practice they will likely encounter in their professional work.2 The focus of this course will be on environmental planning and policymaking in the United States. This class will not address in great depth the concept of sustainable development, but has been designed as a foundational course for the sustainable development course that will be offered during the winter term. This course should also provide a good complement to a variety of other planning and natural resource management courses that focus on particular topics or analytical techniques, such as land use planning and design, landscape planning, watershed planning, dispute resolution, and analytical tools for environmental policy. Course Format Because of the nature of the topics to be addressed by this class—topics that lend themselves to healthy debate—I hope to conduct the class as part recitation and part seminar, with as little lecturing by me and as much discussion by all as possible. You will be expected to participate actively in class discussions and write several papers and other short assignments that present synthetic analyses of a selection of the topics covered. There will be no mid-term or final exam. Course Requirements and Grading The final grade for the course will be based on the following distribution: In-class participation: 15% Short papers/journal: 30% (5 journal entries, worth 6 % each) Short Research Paper: 25% (5 – 10 page paper) Final Research Paper: 30% (10 – 15 page paper) Note regarding written assignments: As graduate students, I expect you to turn in papers that are well organized and that do not require extensive copy-editing. Papers that are not well written will be downgraded accordingly. If you are concerned about your writing skills, avail yourself of the Sweetland Writing Center’s services: http://www.lsa.umich.edu/swc/mainmenu.html. If you turn in a paper that requires substantial editing, I will require a re-write and refer you to the writing center. Required Texts DesJardins, Joseph. 1999. Environmental Ethics: Concepts, Policy, Theory. Mountain View, CA: Mayfield Publishing Company. Buck, Susan J. 1996. Understanding Environmental Administration and Law. Washington, D.C.: Island Press. Peck, Sheila. 1998. Planning for Biodiversity: Issues and Examples. Washington, D.C.: Island Press. Course Reader3Recommended Texts (on reserve at the Media Union) Schueler, Tom. 1995. Site Planning for Urban Stream Protection. Ellicott City, MD: Center for Watershed Protection. Bass, Ronald E. et al. 2001. The NEPA Book. 2nd ed. Point Arena, CA: Solano Press Books. Summary Outline Course Introduction Part I: Environmental Policy-Making and Planning: Overview and Institutions Historical context and debates Overview of environmental protection, planning, and law Environmental policy analysis described and critiqued Pollution control and wildlife protection Recent trends: development dispute resolution Part II: The Environment: Pulp for Paper, Paradise, or … What? Environmental planning conflicts as wicked dilemmas Is there an environmental crisis? Private property and public welfare The economics view defended and critiqued What value nature? Alternative visions: anthropocentrism, extensionism, and ecocentric (holistic) ethics Environmental problems: pollution and environmental justice Environmental problems: growth and development Deep Ecology, Social Ecology, and Ecofeminism Part III: Environmental Planning and Management in Theory and Practice Planning for biodiversity / habitat conservation planning Impervious surfaces / site design for urban stream protection Conservation by design Development management planning / land suitability analysis / buildout analysis Watershed planning and urban sprawl in Washtenaw County Open-space protection / land trusts