Property Rights: The Neglected Theme of 20th-Century American Planning

Abstract

Problem: Planning affects individual property rights, which have a special cultural significance in the United States, and it has often protected the interests of affluent and influential groups in the past. Thus, it is not surprising that many Americans perceive planning negatively.

Purpose: We provide a perspective on the role of property rights in the history of American planning, arguing for confronting these issues as part of finding a better way forward.

Methods: We reviewed primary and secondary historical sources and analyzed key legal cases and legislation.

Results and conclusions: Planners should honestly acknowledge the role planning has played in protecting elite property rights and should consider taking three steps toward a more positive future. First, they should tell their own story, rather than leaving this to opponents of planning. Second, they should highlight both the rights and the duties of private property owners and of the larger community. Third, planners should not shy away from stating the impacts their proposals would have on property rights.

Takeaway for practice: In order to accurately claim that planning manages property in the public interest, planners must understand and explain how planning proposals benefit and harm property owners.

Research support: None.

Keywords:

• property rights
• land use
• planning history