Overview

Land-use policy is at the center of suburban political economies because everything has to happen somewhere but nothing happens by itself. In Suburb, Royce Hanson explores how well a century of strategic land-use decisions served the public interest in Montgomery County, Maryland, a suburb of Washington, D.C. Transformed from a rural hinterland into the home a million people and a half-million jobs, Montgomery County built a national reputation for innovation in land use policy-including inclusive zoning, linking zoning to master plans, preservation of farmland and open space, growth management, and transit-oriented development. A pervasive theme of Suburb involves the struggle for influence over land use policy between two virtual suburban republics. Developers, their business allies, and sympathetic officials sought a virtuous cycle of market-guided growth in which land was a commodity and residents were customers who voted with their feet. Homeowners, environmentalists, and their allies saw themselves as citizens and stakeholders with moral claims on the way development occurred and made their wishes known at the ballot box. In a book that will be of particular interest to planning practitioners, attorneys, builders, and civic activists, Hanson evaluates how well the development pattern produced by decades of planning decisions served the public interest.

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9781501705250

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Reviews

"""Suburb is a meticulously researched and expertly crafted assessment of Montgomery County, Maryland, as it developed over the past century. Royce Hanson's account is focused largely on land use policy as he tracks the ebb and flow of power in decision making. He demarcates the changing coalitions that ruled and determined how the county developed and who benefited from their decisions. Hanson effectively interjects his own experiences as a civic leader in Montgomery County to underscore his assessments of key decisions surrounding planning and development.""-Christopher Silver, University of Florida, author of Planning the Megacity: Jakarta in the Twentieth Century ""In Suburb, Royce Hanson presents the history of planning in a jurisdiction that has a national reputation for land use planning. Having served as chair of the planning board of Montgomery County, Maryland, for part of the 1970s and the years between 2006 and 2010, Hanson has a long-term perspective on the ways that planners and elected officials have approached challenges related to the county's growth and development for the past several decades. Suburb will be a valuable resource for residents, planners, government officials, and developers as well as historians and political scientists.""-Jim Cohen, University of Maryland ""Royce Hanson tells this story of some of the great innovations, breakthroughs, and visions in planning and zoning in America with passion and extraordinary insight. Suburb tells us as much about the future of suburban America as it does about conflicting views of public and private interests, land use, and zoning in Montgomery County, Maryland.""-Parris N. Glendening, President, Smart Growth America's Leadership Institute"

Suburb is a meticulously researched and expertly crafted assessment of Montgomery County, Maryland, as it developed over the past century. Royce Hanson's account is focused largely on land use policy as he tracks the ebb and flow of power in decision making. He demarcates the changing coalitions that ruled and determined how the county developed and who benefited from their decisions. Hanson effectively interjects his own experiences as a civic leader in Montgomery County to underscore his assessments of key decisions surrounding planning and development. -Christopher Silver, University of Florida, author of Planning the Megacity: Jakarta in the Twentieth Century In Suburb, Royce Hanson presents the history of planning in a jurisdiction that has a national reputation for land use planning. Having served as chair of the planning board of Montgomery County, Maryland, for part of the 1970s and the years between 2006 and 2010, Hanson has a long-term perspective on the ways that planners and elected officials have approached challenges related to the county's growth and development for the past several decades. Suburb will be a valuable resource for residents, planners, government officials, and developers as well as historians and political scientists. -Jim Cohen, University of Maryland

""Suburb is a meticulously researched and expertly crafted assessment of Montgomery County, Maryland, as it developed over the past century. Royce Hanson's account is focused largely on land use policy as he tracks the ebb and flow of power in decision making. He demarcates the changing coalitions that ruled and determined how the county developed and who benefited from their decisions. Hanson effectively interjects his own experiences as a civic leader in Montgomery County to underscore his assessments of key decisions surrounding planning and development.""-Christopher Silver, University of Florida, author of Planning the Megacity: Jakarta in the Twentieth Century ""In Suburb, Royce Hanson presents the history of planning in a jurisdiction that has a national reputation for land use planning. Having served as chair of the planning board of Montgomery County, Maryland, for part of the 1970s and the years between 2006 and 2010, Hanson has a long-term perspective on the ways that planners and elected officials have approached challenges related to the county's growth and development for the past several decades. Suburb will be a valuable resource for residents, planners, government officials, and developers as well as historians and political scientists.""-Jim Cohen, University of Maryland ""Royce Hanson tells this story of some of the great innovations, breakthroughs, and visions in planning and zoning in America with passion and extraordinary insight. Suburb tells us as much about the future of suburban America as it does about conflicting views of public and private interests, land use, and zoning in Montgomery County, Maryland.""-Parris N. Glendening, President, Smart Growth America's Leadership Institute

Author Information

Royce Hanson is Research Professor at the George Washington Institute of Public Policy. He is the author of many books, including most recently Civic Culture and Urban Change: Governing Dallas and Tribune of the People: The Minnesota Legislature and Its Leadership.

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