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Government regulation of cities in Sweden started with the 1874 National Building Code. In 1907 a Town Planning law was introduced. The praxis that followed was characterized by garden cities and large courtyard housing blocks, adapted to the sites with curved streets in green town plans by the architect P. O. Hallman who was based in Stockholm and influential in international planning debates. Inspired, inter alia by Camillo Sitte and Raymond Unwin, and as a teacher at the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH), he introduced artistic town planning into Sweden. The leading architects designed housing for workers, with simplicity and moderation, typical for the period. In 1926 the Stockholm municipality started a cottage-bureau called the Stockholms stads småstugebyrå (SMÅA), which helped workers to build their own homes by using factory-built units. The SMÅA assisted with organization, materials and instructors. In 1923 tenants created a cooperative housing movement called the HSB. All these efforts were aided by site-leasehold loans with low rate, starting in 1907. This article analyses four town plans by Hallman of importance for introduction of housing for workers: Röda Bergen (1906), Enskede Garden City (1907), Helgalunden (1911), Blecktornsparken (1918), and how they were modified across the twentieth century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The book "Town Halls in Hungary" by Attila Brunner offers a detailed exploration of the architecture and development of town hall buildings in Hungary. It covers various historical periods and styles, providing ample visual material and descriptions of notable buildings. The book is accessible to both academic and general readers, and the author, Attila Brunner, is an art historian and staff member of the Budapest City Archives. The text discusses the functions and features of town halls, their conversion from existing buildings, and the use of decorative elements. It also explores the influence of religion, nationality, and changing concepts of citizenship on town hall design. The book categorizes town halls into different architectural styles and highlights the competition and ambition among architects during the peak of town hall architecture. The text concludes by discussing the impact of Communist dictatorship on town hall construction and the importance of preserving town halls as cultural landmarks. Overall, the book provides a comprehensive overview of the history and significance of town halls in Hungary. [Extracted from the article]

Being awarded the organisation the Olympic and Paralympic Games (OG) implies that the host cities must tackle several major challenges: The mandatory delivery of the Olympic venues (sport, transport and athletes housing) by the date of the OPG, and the post-Olympic sustainability. Organising the Games demands exceptional urban planning and governance. This article analyses planning law amendments to be made for the OPG in various fields (environment, building permits, participation, etc.), and looks at the link between the level of waiver and the implementation of certain types of urban planning projects (sport venues and flagship projects of international scope). The study is based on a comparative approach to three Olympiads: Paris 2024, London 2012 and Athens 2004, each representing a different level of interaction between the urban project and the Olympic projects. Three aspects are addressed: (1) the political, legal and planning strategies of how to integrate the OPG project into urban mega-projects (which are 'exceptional' projects by nature); (2) the waivers and innovations in town planning law; (3) a critical analysis of the specific governance and the socio-economic impacts of these mega-projects on the local residents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The role of federal policy in encouraging sprawl and segregation is well-known, as is the role of local zoning law. The role of state law in defining development patterns is less developed. In this Essay, we will use two sets of unique data to explore the role of state law in subsidizing unsustainable and inequitable development patterns. While our focus is on California's Community Facilities District ("CFD"), our research is generalizable because there are similar laws in many states. There are a number of different types of CFDs. For example, a local government at the behest of a developer can form a CFD in order to complete a greenfield development project. The new CFD imposes special taxes on the new residents of the development. In anticipation of the new residents and the new tax revenue, the CFD is able to borrow to build infrastructure for the new development, which is advantageous to developers for many reasons. First, these borrowings free up the developer's own capital or credit by shifting risk to the public. Second, the interest on these borrowings are exempt from state and federal income taxes, thus reducing the costs of development. Third, the new residents likely do not fully take these future taxes into account when evaluating the price of the house they purchase. We use property tax and the CFD tax burden of parcels in Sacramento County to examine spatial attributes of where these CFDs form and who pays for them. Although there are many variations of CFDs, our interest is in CFDs that provide significant infrastructure funding, either through developments or through school district capital projects. We also analyze data from securities documents to dive deeper into the financing and cost of CFD taxes. Our preliminary findings are: Substantial subsidy. Estimating the size of the subsidy is difficult, but the subsidy is likely enough to make the chance to setup a CFD for a project a significant boon, thus possible carrot, for developers. Arbitrary tax burdens. Especially when combined with California's Proposition 13, CFD taxes impose another level of unfairness on some taxpayers, as taxpayers in quite similar homes in similar neighborhoods can pay very different tax rates. Sprawl. We find that there is nothing arbitrary about the kinds of projects these taxes subsidize. In fact, we recognize a sprawl pattern development: most of the infrastructure projects are located near urban fringe. Segregation. We find, with some exceptions, that the developments subsidized with these special taxes are relatively segregated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Glaeser and Gyourko's method of measuring the gap between marginal and average land prices of housing lots has become a popular way of demonstrating the degree to which planning controls, or 'regulatory taxes', increase residential land prices. This has led policy-makers across the globe to focus on town planning as a critical determinant of rising home prices. We show, however, that Glaeser and Gyourko's method shows no such thing. Instead, the price gap is a product of the location premium of land, diminishing returns to buyers of residential land size, and historical city development patterns. Numerous shortcomings are identified in their theoretical model, including that (a) they ignore that development happens over time; (b) their 'regulatory tax' is simply the location value of land; (c) they reason inconsistently about the source of land prices, arguing that land at the margins is scarce but locations for whole housing lots are not; and (d) there are no optimal lot sizes nor subdivision incentives in their model. Standard price-taking models of residential land markets that recognize that locations are scarce contain none of these limitations and provide a better interpretation of land price patterns. Empirically, we show that Glaeser and Gyourko's method finds a high 'regulatory tax' even in the absence of regulatory constraints using both simulated suburb development scenarios and historical land sales data from colonial Australia and ancient Mesopotamia. In short, there is no information regarding the effect of planning controls on the supply of new dwellings in a comparison of marginal and average land prices, and this method should not be relied upon to inform planning and housing policy decisions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In addition to its roles in urban settings, color also affects people's feelings and their assessments about the environment's quality. There are no control programs of building exterior's color in urban planning policies in Iran. Color design of building exterior is done based on the designer's taste, regardless of user's preferences. These issues have caused public dissatisfaction with their visual quality. These factors remind us of the need to pay attention to building exterior color, based on the user's evaluation. To evaluate the color of the buildings' exterior, we must describe and classify its color combination. In color evaluation studies, there is no theoretical consensus on the emotional scales of the color description and the components affecting their assessment and definition, unlike physical dimensions of color. Therefore, the questions which arise are: what are the emotional scales of the color description of building exterior? And What are the components affecting the assessment to define and classify the color combinations of building exterior? In this regard, research aimed to identify and determine components describing and defining the color combination of building exterior as harmonious and contrasting. To achieve this purpose, we have used a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods. First, content analysis and then Delphi survey was done by 20 experts in design and color. Having analyzed the results through Q-method, three scales, harmony, temperature, and weight, were extracted to classify the color combination of building exterior and several selected building exterior images of each scale. Due to the wide range of topics, we examined only the harmony-contrast in this research. In the next step, we determined components to assess the harmony of the building exterior's color combination through semi-structured interviews with five architects and urban planners. According to the qualitative results, we used the Delphi survey to confirm these components. A questionnaire was prepared based on these components and selected images of the harmony scale in the first survey. Twenty former experts completed this questionnaire. We extracted the components affecting the building exterior's color combination's assessment harmony by analyzing the data through Q-method. Quantitative values were obtained using the color strip method and HSL codes and based on the components. These values defined the harmony-contrast scale of the color combination of the building exterior. Significant components were the difference between the hues' luminance, the difference between the hues' saturation, the number of the hues in combination, and the color of openings. The form of openings, the formal composition and details of building exterior, and the area of openings and hues in combination did not have any significant effect on the harmony assessment. Therefore, to describe and classify the color combination of building exterior as harmonious, the color combination of building exterior should have a maximum of two or three hues and the same temperature. The difference in luminance between the hues of the combination should be less than 20%. The difference in saturation between them should be less than 15%. The color temperature of its openings should be the same as the temperature of other building exterior colors. The color combination of the building exterior as contrasting should have a maximum of two or three hues and different temperatures. The difference in luminance between one hue and other hues should be more than 45%. The difference in saturation between this hue and other hues should be more than 20%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article aims to analyze the complexities and limitations faced in implementing the Palmas Participatory Master Plan (2007) to promote institutional change. For that, the theoretical framework of the new institutionalism was used, which proved to be useful for understanding Urban Policy in Brazil after the Federal Constitution of 1988 as an institution. Thus, it was possible to use the general theory of institutional change (TANG, 2011) as a methodology to analyze the Participatory Master Plan of Palmas (2007-2018) under a new lens. It was concluded that, considering the five phases of institutional change and the objective of guaranteeing the fulfillment of the social function of the city and urban property, the Participatory Master Plan of Palmas (2007) was not a sufficient instrument to enable an institutional change in urban policy in Palmas. In the last two phases, the 4 for defining or configuring the rules, comprised by the approval of the Master Plan law in the City Council and the 5 for legitimizing, stabilizing and reproducing the policy, which is characterized by the implementation of the Master Plan and Democratic Management, have been completed. The obstacles to institutional change proved to be stronger in influencing the conduct of these stages, even with the advancement of formal rules instituted through urban planning instruments and the urban planning and management system of the City Statute and the Participatory Master Plan of Palmas (2007). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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On 18 December 2015, the spatial planning bill was finally passed by the Legislative Yuan in Taiwan. That was a special moment for planning community and authority since they had anticipated this moment for more than two decades. However, this is not the end of the story. On the contrary, the battle between the economic development promoters and environmental conservation supporters just starts. The Act introduces several new changes to secure its goal of nationwide sustainable development, but the introduction also raises some tensions. This article reviews the tensions and their socio-political context, and gives some suggestions to the Taiwanese government. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the collaboration of several scientists and minority groups in supporting the adoption of urgent open-housing legislation in Batavia, Illinois. The author's experience indicates that all scientists, in the pursuit of research, may have a real opportunity to the intellectual and cultural achievements of making, improving the plight of the underprivileged, and the under-educated and under-employed. The National Accelerator Laboratory supports the principles of minority rights. The staff have made contacts with the leaders of minority organizations and have expressed their conviction to support the movement. INSET: POLICY STATEMENT ON HUMAN RIGHTS.

The urban environment is dynamic and is constantly changing. In Brazil, it has been recently published a decree for urban land regulation for the cadastre – Decree No 9.310 of 2018 15 of March which fixes 8,0 centimeters as the maximum spherical positional error for vertex of an urban property stock being georeferenced by Global Navigation Satellite System – GNSS equipment or aerial orthophotograph. Nowadays it has been noticed a growing use of Unmanned Aircraft Vehicle System – UAVS for remote sensing. This work aims to test if the accuracy of orthophoto-mosaic from a small UAVS mapping data of an urban area for a parcel scale georeferencing is answering the new decree of urban land regulation for the cadastre. It is intended to check the number of Ground Control Points (GCPs) to reach the best quality in terms of geometric resolution according to the necessity of positional quality for the urban parcel georeferenced for the cadastre. As a final consideration, the results implied that mapping a small surveying area with small UAVS is worth, being a potential tool for georeferencing city blocks, and using 20 pairs of GCPs is enough to reach the quality of positional geometry adequate to the Brazilian legislation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The concept of informality has often been misunderstood. Its, especially, urban character is rarely appreciated. With respect to urban development, it was once thought to distinguish the Global South, a view that is changing, but an alternative has not been systematically articulated. Based on an extensive survey of literatures, this article clarifies the urban character of informality, articulates its global relevance, and proposes a framework for understanding its major modes: latent, diffuse, embedded, overt, and dominant. Their relative frequency distinguishes cities, regions, and nations while their identification facilitates the comparison of places. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the expansion, legitimization and development of urban agriculture policies in the U.S. cities and the drafting of a comprehensive plan and amendment of the zoning resolution. Topics discussed include a background of the U.S. urban agriculture, its benefits and challenges on various aspects, the urban agriculture goals and needs of New York City and analysis of how other cities have successfully addressed their urban agriculture policy.

Drawing on qualitative research on housing aspirations in Scotland, the objectives of this article are threefold. Firstly, this article will contextualise the subject of housing aspirations within relevant research literature and situate it within wider debates which revolve around the relationship between housing and social class. Secondly, in order to understand the implications of the research, this article uses Bourdieu’s notion of ‘sociodicy’ to help explain the ‘social’ reasons which incline people to have housing aspirations. Thirdly, the data will be analysed to understand the differences in ‘aspirations’ between groups, concluding that the generational differences, which correspond to the epochal changes in the economy, are more important than class differences when understanding the uneven distribution of housing outcomes and housing wealth in developed societies. The article concludes that the Bourdieusian concept of hysteresis explains the gap between the subjective expectations of young ‘professionals’ and the objective chances of their realisation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

El artículo informa sobre varias leyes y jurisprudencia sobre bienes raíces y planificación urbana en España. Estos incluyen un proyecto de ley sobre los contratos de crédito celebrados con consumidores de bienes inmuebles de uso residencial; una ley que establece el derecho de primera negativa y retracción en el desalojo de la vivienda en Andalucía; y un reglamento aprobado para los establecimientos hoteleros y balnearios en Aragón.

Zoning and land use regulations accommodate and balance various interests which relate to urbanization, food security, enhanced livelihoods, industrialization and globalization, in the context of sustainable development. Unlike comparative practices in other countries, Ethiopia has no comprehensive and codified zoning law even though the zoning stage affects the subsequent stages. Ethiopia has not yet issued an integrated national land use policy. There is also a rush toward massive acquisition of land for investments and proliferation of industrial parks. This is clearly meant to catch up with the plans and aspirations under Ethiopia's Growth and Transformation Plan (GTP) I and II. This article examines the relevant laws and the rush toward land acquisitions and the haphazard decisions thereof vis-à-vis the need for sustainability through a multimodal and integrationist approach. There are constitutional issues with regard to decentralizing local development plans and land administration versus centralizing tendencies in land-investment administration and designation of industrial parks. It is argued that there are gaps in the three-tier stages of (i) Planning and Zoning, (ii) Acquisition and (iii) Performance Requirements, thereby necessitating reform towards the integrated and balanced implementation of these three stages. The political commitment for „catching up? pursuits should not be at the expense of constitutional rights and issues of sustainability. There is thus the need for an informed decision-making process that accommodates multitude of interests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urban landscapes present a variety of socio-topological environments that are associated to diverse human activities. As the latter affect the way individuals connect with each other, a bound exists between the urban tissue and the mobile communication demand. In this paper, we investigate the heterogeneous patterns emerging in the mobile communication activity recorded within metropolitan regions. To that end, we introduce an original technique to identify classes of mobile traffic signatures that are distinctive of different urban fabrics. Our proposed technique outperforms previous approaches when confronted to ground-truth information, and allows characterizing the mobile demand in greater detail than that attained in the literature to date. We apply our technique to extensive real-world data collected by major mobile operators in 10 cities. Results unveil the diversity of baseline communication activities across countries, but also provide evidence of the existence of a number of mobile traffic signatures that are common to all studied areas and specific to particular land uses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Italian coastal areas have been subject to strong anthropogenic pressure and urbanization processes over the past 60 years. Urbanization of the protected 300-m strip from shoreline has reached levels of over fifty per cent in some parts of the country. This article, by building on previous quantitative analyses and by providing some more quantitative data on the urbanization processes of coastal land at the provincial level, seeks to understand whether a con-cause that has led to a considerable urbanisation process is to be found in the way national landscape legislation has been designed, in its relationship with urban planning, and in the institutional and administrative fragmentation that characterise the management of coastal areas in Italy. After analysing landscape legislation and assessing its relationship with urban planning functions, following an approach based on concept of nomotropism the article highlights, for Italy as a whole, that national landscape legislation while seeking to protect and safeguard coastal areas paved the way for increased urbanization and development. Drawing on regional data on illegal development, the concept of nomotropism is also used to emphasise the impact that building amnesty laws have had on the practice of illegal development so contributing to increased urbanization processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article highlights several court decisions on planned communities in the U.S. Topics discussed include problems that arise when a municipality takes a planned community; value of the project amenities and public benefits; and environmental benefits associated with a Planned Unit Development (PUD).

The article highlights several court decisions on planned communities in the U.S. Topics discussed include problems that arise when a municipality takes a planned community; value of the project amenities and public benefits; and environmental benefits associated with a Planned Unit Development (PUD).

The article discusses how courts in the U.S. have traditionally reviewed challenges to land use decisions based on neighborhood opposition. Topics discussed include ways in which neighbor opposition to land use change is too often a deciding factor in local decision-making; the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in the case "City of Cleburne v. Cleburne Living Center;" and different cases accepting neighborhood opposition as a factor in land use decision-making.

The article discusses urban zoning law in Washington, D.C. and the case of Durant v. District of Columbia Zoning Commission (Durant III). Emphasis is given to topics such as population density in relation to future land use planning, neighbors' objections to a proposed planned unit development, and the accountability of local agencies in urban planning.

The article discusses the legal aspects of municipal annexations of urban lands in Idaho as of 2017, and it mentions Section 50-222(3)(a) of the Idaho Code which governs the annexation of certain residential enclaved lands within a city. The City of Nampa, Idaho effort to annex several subdivisions in 2011 is examined, along with a public hearing involving the Nampa, Idaho City Council and the Nampa Planning and Zoning Commissioner. Landowners' legal interests are assessed.

Almost 70 years after Great Britain gave up its Palestine Mandate, Regional Plans prepared under the Mandate still survive – as live statutory documents that are used to justify planning decisions. Behind them lies a story of how planning is unavoidably tied up with land, with rights, and with power. This article outlines the history of the making of these Plans, explores what the planners of the Mandate epoch thought they were doing, shows how the Plans have been used ever since, and provides an update in the light of a recent UN Habitat Mission to study the planning system under the Israeli occupation. The Plans were the output from the activity of the Mandate government’s ‘Town Planning Adviser’ in the late 1930s and the 1940s – during the period of both the Second World War and the worsening Jewish/Arab violence that led to war in 1947. It was very much a case of the ‘export’ of town planning from urban and industrial Britain to a society which was primarily rural. The Mandate Plans continue to be used in the formal process by the occupation authorities, but selectively: a selectivity which, unfortunately, the Mandate Plans enable by their flexibility. This bites directly on how Palestinians in the West Bank live – ‘the history in the present’. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Debates about land use federalism--like those about federalism more broadly--often focus on whether policies and priorities ought to be set at the national or local level. But such categorical judgments about national intervention are inadequate because they obscure the diversity of mechanisms by which nationalization can and does occur. This Article draws attention to the importance of this underappreciated legislative design choice and develops a framework within which to evaluate it. This Article observes that nationalization can take the form of rules that either displace local decisionmaking or channel it, and that those rules can be implemented either by fiat or by way of incentive. These are not equivalent in terms o f their effects on local democracy. Quite the contrary: the threat to the values o f local democracy that motivate land use federalism arises primarily from decision-displacing fiat nationalizations--a tool that is likely unnecessary for most categories o f land use goals. On the other hand, national action that channels land use decisionmaking or that incentivizes outcomes can achieve its ends while avoiding pernicious effects on local democracy. In fact, these forms of national action can even enhance local democracy. By confronting the full range of nationalizing options and accounting for their varied democratic impacts, this Article offers a solution to the federalist-nationalist dilemma in land use law, and may chart a path through the same thicket in other contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The competences of the European Union in matters of urban planning are, if not extremely limited, at least diffuse, and most certainly indirect. Without being expressly mentioned within the contents of the Treatises, they are revealed in other field of competence of the European structures, such as environmental protection or the economic, social, and territorial cohesion policies. Moreover, aspects relevant to sustainable development, more precisely the sustainable development of the territory of the EU, includes important aspects of urban planning law. Regarding sanctions, they usually are, and remain, in the exclusive competence of the national legal systems. However, we can identify, within the European regulations in this field (for instance, directive 2004/35/EC on environmental liability or recommendation no. 2001/331/EC), certain minimal legality criteria for the given domain, beyond which, in theory, we must find ourselves in the troubled area of (urban planning) unlawfulness. An important part is played, under these circumstances, by the case law of the European Court for Human Rights that has many a time stated on the conformity of the sanctions specific to urban planning law, to the contents of the European Convention of Human Rights. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the Bill 43, Housing Supply Act, introduced on November 21, 2022 to address housing challenges by decreasing municipal approval processes for building houses.

Japan’s Capital Construction Law, enacted in 1950, was intended to create the ability to obtain special financial assistance from the state to break the impasse of Tokyo’s reconstruction by regarding its planning and development as a national undertaking. However, recent studies in Japan’s planning history claim that the law was an infringement of local autonomy. This article considers how this law was discussed in the National Diet, which enacted it, and in a local referendum among Tokyoites as well as how its original proponents, particularly the metropolitan government planner Hideaki Ishikawa, who created the reconstruction plan for Tokyo, justified it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article seeks to present the development od public participation in local spatial planning in Poland. An assessment was made of the procedure of preparing planning documents and forms of their consultation with residents. To achieve this goal, use was made of the results of a survey research conducted among participants of public consultations in Poznań in the years 2012-2014. It is stressed that it is necessary to improve the decision-making process in urban spatial planning by accommodating not only traditional but also new forms and instruments of public participation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Heritage legislation is a provincial responsibility in Canada. New heritage legislation was adopted in the Province of Québec in October, 2012, replacing the 1972 Cultural Properties Act. The Cultural Heritage Act defines new obligations for municipalities and offers new possibilities allowing them to protect and develop their archaeological heritage resources on an elective basis. The City of Québec has worked closely with public and private partners over the last thirty years to assure the preservation and enhancement of its archaeological resources. The City is currently preparing an archaeological master plan for its territory which includes four legally protected historic districts, one of which is a UNESCO world heritage site. The master plan is being developed in the context of renewed heritage legislation and the adoption of a revised urban master plan required under provincial planning legislation but in a manner to capitalize on major achievements of past efforts. The archaeological master plan will be accompanied by policy and programs designed to foster public interest and promote participation in the process. This article will address challenges to policy and program development. A particular emphasis will be put on meeting expectations expressed in the new provincial Cultural Heritage Act. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article examines the history, development, and basis of legal standards applicable to Florida local government zoning decisions. Topics discussed include legal standard of review of local government decisions; the Snyder rule for quasi-judicial zonings; the Florida Supreme Court's decision in the case Schauer v. City of Miami; and Florida's standard and development of the fairly debatable standard.

The article offers information on the 1968 Fair Housing Act of the U.S. aimed to deal with the fundamental right to housing and prohibited discrimination against purchasers and renters. Topics discussed include history of passage of the Fair Housing Act; the act's consequences on the U.S. housing industry; and creation of creation of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).

Over the past decade, scholars of law and geography have been foraging in America's cities, hunting for the commons. Along the way, a new common sense has cropped up, which takes urban farms and community gardens as prototypical examples of the urban commons. Farm fields and garden plots produce not only vegetables, the argument goes, but also opportunities for residents to access and use land as a shared, decommodified resource. As both social practice and emergent institutional reality, such urban commons challenge and are challenged by the logics of public and private property that dominate our cities' legal landscapes. This Article, rather than assuming that urban farms and gardens are examples of the urban commons, poses this as a question. Are they in fact cases of commons governance? And if so, how do people bring this about? I explore these questions from the ground up, through a socio-legal mapping of how people have gained access to and sought to govern land for a community garden and an urban farm in two neighborhoods on Chicago's South Side. This mapping suggests that we should conceive of urban farms and gardens as sites where people experiment with the rules, norms, and forms of property that govern urban land. Municipal policies can promote property experiments that seek to treat urban land as a shared community resource. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article examines the needs of transferable development rights programs (TDR) in the wake of rising sea levels due to climate change in the U.S. Topics discussed include importance of regionally planned coastal TDRs; regionally planned transferable development rights programs; advantages of TDRs; and history of TDR program in the U.S.

Problem, research strategy, and findings: Form-based codes (FBCs), by definition, put more emphasis on built-form characteristics than do traditional zoning codes. Several municipalities are adopting FBCs as an alternative to Euclidean (traditional) zoning codes to achieve certain objectives; however, the extent to which these codes differ in integrating important planning and design criteria has not been examined. We use a case-study method and evaluate the extent to which the FBCs adopted by the City of Miami (Miami 21), as compared with the city's previous code (Ordinance 11000), reflects the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design for Neighborhood Development (LEED-ND) criteria. We evaluate the contents of these codes on a 5-point scale for their concordance with LEED-ND criteria. The results indicate that Miami 21 generally goes beyond Ordinance 11000 in reflecting LEED-ND criteria; however, some of the important criteria, such as mixed-income diverse communities and certified green building, deserve more attention in Miami 21. Takeaway for practice: Planners in municipalities seeking alternatives to their traditional zoning code should not only consider replacing it with an FBC, but also to integrate planning principles that LEED-ND incorporates to strengthen the proposed code. They can benefit from the findings of this study when determining the extent to which certain built-form characteristics and LEED-ND criteria should be emphasized and in choosing an appropriate alternative to traditional zoning codes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article examines the use of providing incentives for legally binding conservation agreements as a solution for protecting undersized trees in Australia's urban areas. Topics discussed include urban tree preservation laws across Australia; challenges in regulating trees by command and control regulations; and the Local Government Act 1999 of South Australia and Western Australia's Development Act 1993.

An introduction is presented in which the editor discusses various articles in the issue 2on topics including conflicts and tensions related to construction of smart cities; regulatory aspects of urban smart spaces; and structural and normative shift transition from physical to smart spaces.