Urban/Metropolitan Planning Policies, Urban Land Use, Policy, Development & Renewal of Infrastructure, Urban Studies - Environmental Aspects, City Planning & Urban Design, Urban Planning & Studies

Resource Guide for Creating Successful Communities

Name: Resource Guide for Creating Successful Communities
Author: Conservation Foundation Staff, Michael A. Mantell, Stephen F. Harper, Luther Propst
ISBN: 9781559630153

by Conservation Foundation Staff, Michael A. Mantell, Stephen F. Harper, Luther Propst

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Overview

<p>Developed to assist users of Creating Successful Communities, the Resource Guide for Creating Successful Communities includes a detailed outline of the many tax benefits of private land conservation; examples of ordinances covering all land types, articles of incorporation, bylaws, and easements; and a glossary of growth management tools.

About the Author, Conservation Foundation Staff, Michael A. Mantell, Stephen F. Harper, Luther Propst

Michael A. Mantell was general counsel of World Wildlife Fund and The Conservation Foundation, where he oversaw legal and congressional affairs for the two affiliated organizations. He directed the Successful Communities Program and the Land, Heritage and Wildlife Program of the foundation in Washington, D.C., and managed its State of the Environment and National Parks Projects. A principle author of National Parks for a New Generation and A Handbook on Historic Preservation Law, he has also been involved in foundation work on wetland and floodplain protection, industrial siting, and environmental dispute resolution. Before joining the foundation in 1979, he was with the city attorney's office in Los Angeles, where he worked on various environmental matters. Michael Mantell is a graduate of the University of California at Berkeley and Lewis and Clark College Law School, and was chairman of an American Bar Association Subcommittee on Federal Land-Use Policy.

Stephen F. Harper is a Washington-based environment policy and planning consultant and writer. He formerly directed the Nonprofit Organization Assistance Program of the California State Coastal Conservancy and served as assistant director of the American Farmland Trust. He has also served in staff capacities with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the Colorado State Legislative Council, and in several state agencies in New Jersey. He authored The Nonprofit Primer, a guidebook to management of citizen conservation organizations, published by the California State Conservancy. Stephen F. Harper has a master's degree in public affairs from Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, a B.A. from University of Colorado, and has completed additional studies at the University of Pennsylvania.

Luther Propst was field director for The Conservation Foundation's Successful Communities Program in Washington, D.C., where he oversaw the delivery of technical assistance in land use matters to communities nationwide. Before joining The Conservation Foundation, he was an attorney in the Land Use Group with the Hartford, Connecticut, law firm of Robinson & Cole, where he represented governments, developers, and local environmental organizations in land use matters. Luther Propst received his law degree and master's of regional planning from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He co-authored Managing Development in Small Towns,nbsp; published in 1984 by the American Planning Association, and has taught land use law as an adjunct professor at the Western New England College School of Law.

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Editorials

Library Journal

These two new books aimed at encouraging citizens to become involved in local growth management issues are welcome additions to the literature. Each has a definite point of view and, taken together, can do much to enlighten residents and students of urban affairs concerned with development on a local level. Robin's volume is a pragmatic activist handbook with an antideveloper bias (one chapter is titled, only partly in jest, ``Know the Enemy!''). Based on the author's experiences in Washington, D.C. as a community advocate, the book demystifies the planning and zoning process and provides practical advice on forming a community organization. Of particular interest is a chapter to help groups focus on goals that are attainable. A bibliography and helpful glossary are included. Mantell's book is an outgrowth of the Conservation Foundation's ``Successful Communities'' program, begun in 1988 to provide grants and technical assistance to local growth management programs. As such, the volume is less adversarial and more cooperative in tone than Robin's. It looks at growth management issues, such as farmland and historic area preservation, and profiles local programs that have worked. Like Robin's book, this provides suggestions on organizing a community group. Both books have a place in both academic urban studies collections and in public libraries where growth management is an issue. If librarians must choose, then Mantell's book is a better choice for academic collections, while Robin's book gives useful ``nitty-gritty'' advice for public library patrons.-- Diane K. Harvey, SAIS-Johns Hopkins Univ. Lib., Washington, D.C.