Recent Progress in Reforming Planning Legislation

Abstract

Is it possible that attempts to reform state legislation on local planning will be more continuous in the beginning of the new millennium? Historically, these efforts have been erratic. After a flurry of reform of state planning legislation ending in the mid-1970s (most notably in Oregon and Vermont), reform efforts took a hiatus until the mid-1980s, with successes in Florida, Rhode Island, and again in Vermont. New successes continued into the early 1990s in Georgia, Washington, and Maryland. Although planners and land-use attorneys in other states watched these events with interest, there seemed be no national passion for legislative reform of planning laws.