Rethinking Public Land Use Planning

Mark Squillace, University of Colorado Law School

2014 J.B. and Maurice C. Shapiro Environmental Law Symposium

The Problem

The current process for public land use planning is broken It takes too long It’s too complex It fails to meaningfully engage the public It invites litigation

Even if the process could be fixed the current system is inadequate Planning needs to be done at multiple scales Planning is pointless without a robust program for

monitoring and adapting

The Solution

A layered planning approach that avoids trying to do too much at any stage of the process

A robust monitoring program that is designed to ensure timely adaptation of plans as necessary to reflect new information or changing conditions

Landscape Level Planning

Resource Area Planning

Activity Level Planning

Monitoring and Adaptation

Project Level

Planning

The Layered Planning Approach

Mapping/Zoning

Exercises Only

Geographic Scale

The Planning

Cycle

Thank you. Your comments are most welcome!

Mark Squillace, University of Colorado Law School

mark.squillace@colorado.edu