Consolidating Plans and Regulations

Abstract

Urban planners have the professional obligation to be “comprehensive” in their planning; i.e., to anticipate and provide for as many functions of the future urban setting as can be envisioned and managed. This poses a special problem. A growing literature in urban planning and public administration has questioned the degree to which planning can be both comprehensive and effective. Yet state legislatures increasingly have embodied the ideal of comprehensiveness in local planning statutes and reinforced it with consistency requirements that the courts have upheld.