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Abstract
The stage has never been better set for the playing out of the political melodrama that accompanies new land-use statutes. Local and state governments are facing myriad complex problems today: traffic congestion, environmental protection and preservation, housing affordability and availability, economic development, and adequate infrastructure to meet the demands of growth. To address these problems, more than 40 states have 1920s standard planning and zoning statutes still on the books. But these problems did not exist in the 1920s, and today's planners and municipal attorneys are painfully aware of the critical need for modernization of state land-use statutes. State legislators are now beginning to understand the value of good planning and flexible land-use controls as a major component of the solutions to numerous community development and environmental problems. Changes are being proposed and implemented to meet the demand for enhanced capacity to deal with these problems on a local, regional, and statewide basis.