Land use planning involves the strategic arrangement of various uses within a community to maximize economic, social, and environmental efficiency while creating healthful livability for present and future generations.

Land use policies should reflect an awareness of environmental justice (EJ), to ensure low-income communities have equal access to resources while bearing their share of environmental burdens. EJ can help ensure equal and balanced distribution of burdens associated with environmental impacts across communities.

Commercial

Given Earth’s limited amount of habitable land, developers must carefully manage their projects. Land use planning helps ensure factories don’t locate next to schools or apartments are situated in pedestrian-friendly neighbourhoods; and communities have access to local parks.

Commercial land use planning enables retail, management, manufacturing and residential developments that improve the economy of a region while conserving natural resources. Furthermore, this planning fosters community relationships which support creating healthy and safe environments; however it must be noted that significant changes to land use may negatively impact water resources or delicate ecosystems.

Transportation

Land use planning can provide opportunities to enhance transportation networks by assessing potential effects of future projects on traffic, environment, economy and land uses.

Accessibility to public transit options can have a profound impact on how a community grows and prospers, which is why integrated land-use and transportation planning often reaps significant rewards for any given community. Such planning acknowledges how infrastructure influences economic development while protecting natural environments from further degradation.

Recreation

Recreational land use planning helps ensure that residents have sufficient recreational spaces for recreation and physical activity, as well as providing a boost for local tourism – which in turn benefits the economy of an area.

Recreational land plays a critical role in conservation efforts, safeguarding species and maintaining ecological integrity. One example is management of national parks, wildlife reserves and wilderness areas. Many public land managing agencies have adopted benefits-based management frameworks (e.g. Anderson DH et al, 2008: “Putting Outcomes In Context For Recreation Management. IN: B L Driver’s book entitled, Optimizing Beneficial Outcomes Of Recreation Management State College Pennsylvania Venture Publishing).

Agricultural

Agriculture land offers both market and nonmarket benefits that enrich society as a whole, so planning can help minimize any threats to this key component of our food production system.

Reaching out to farmers and other groups impacted by a planning project can give people involved in shaping their future a voice instead of having decisions made for them by outsiders; and will show that their opinions are being considered instead of suddenly finding themselves subjected to changes that disrupt development plans.

Residential

Land planners can be invaluable allies during your due diligence process by helping to ensure that any property under consideration for purchase falls within its zoned area for your intended usage. They know all the applicable zoning laws and ordinances of your city, enabling them to notify you about restrictions such as setbacks, height limitations or parking requirements that might exist on it.

Residential zoning permits the building of all kinds of houses, from single family houses and duplexes to townhomes and high-density (apartment) buildings. Some areas even permit mixed-use housing combining residences with retail, office or industrial uses.

Industrial

As our population increases, more land will become necessary to meet living and working needs. Proper land planning can ensure these spaces meet our physical, social and economic requirements.

Industrial land planning allows the creation of factories, power plants and manufacturing facilities that produce goods for consumption or export. This type of plan also encompasses airports, subways, trains and bus stations.

As it’s difficult to assess how many potential rezonings never make their way forward due to New York City’s lengthy, costly, and unpredictable review process, it is hard to know exactly how many could potentially go forward without encountering environmental, hazardous materials, archaeological concerns, wetlands or water rights issues. Those that do go forward often come up against environmental hazards, archaeological findings or rights issues that require further evaluation before moving forward with plans.

Open Space

Keeping open space preserve can bring numerous social, environmental, and economic benefits for any healthy community. Nature provides many services free of charge – oxygen production, control of erosion and aquifer recharge, water filtration, recycling organic matter recycling back into nature for species habitat etc.

Municipalities typically create open space plans as part of their comprehensive land use plans; occasionally they also develop dedicated plans for natural areas or historic preservation preservation.

Planning open space at the local level is often best. A municipally owned open space property could, for example, provide recreational opportunities to children while simultaneously restricting residential development on adjacent properties.