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Reprinted by permission of Land Development. BOOK REVIEW Copyright NAHB. 1201 15th Street, NW Washington, D.C. 20005 411, I With each passing year,we Ameri ginia and Maryland. He argues that cans consume ever-increasing Rural by Design: municipalities should resurrect the quantities of land for each new nearly forgotten concept of the"official • home, office, and store we build. In Maintaining Small map," with which the community— southeastern Pennsylvania, for exam- Town Character not individual developers—can decide ple,the amount of land consumed for the layout of streets and location of development increased by 32 percent by Randall Arendt public spaces. between 1970 and 1990 while the pop- with Elizabeth Brabec, In a chapter on affordable housing, ulation decreased by 3 percent. During Harry L.Dodson, Arendt notes that home prices have that same period,land consumption in Christine Reid, skyrocketed largely because houses and metropolitan Chicago increased by 46 and Robert Yaro. building lots are much larger than ever percent while the population increased (Chicago: Planners Press,1994). before. Building less extravagant by just 4 percent. The greater Seattle Hard cover,441 pp.,$84.95. homes on smaller lots can significantly area gained 36 percent more residents reduce housing costs,Arendt argues. but used up 87 percent more land to Review by Thomas Hylton "Attractive but modestly scaled homes accommodate them. built on relatively compact lots during "If American policy makers had de- the 1920s and 1930s can be found in liberately set out to construct the most only complied with the town's wishes every part of the country, providing wasteful, inefficient and land-con- but also demonstrated some unusual numerous examples of how pleasant sumptive pattern of development pos- creativity in the process. but affordable neighborhoods could be sible, they could have hardly been Arendt strongly recommends that created again," he writes. "The impor- more successful," writes Randall municipalities conduct a build-out tante of requiring developers to pro- . Arendt in Rural by Design,a treatise on analysis to show exactly how their corn- vide sidewalks and to plant deciduous building real communities rather than munity will look under current zoning street trees...cannot be overstated." sprawl. As former planning director of regulations. Residents are usually Numerous photographs and drawings the Center for Rural Massachusetts and amazed to find that,when fully imple- illustrate Arendt's points. The author now at the Natural Lands Trust in mented,their local zoning wipes out the also discusses the use of accessory Pennsylvania,Arendt has spent years scenic landscapes and open space they dwellings as well as Vermont's unique lecturing on techniques to accommo- cherish and replaces such features with program that links affordable housing date development in rural areas with- wall-to-wall sprawl. Only when the with land conservation. out destroying the areas' character. public is confronted with the inevitable In rethinking how we might guide Arendt has now put his ideas in book results of conventional zoning can resi- growth, Arendt reaches back to the form to aid local planners—both lay dents be persuaded to plan more astute- ideas of early 20th century planner and professional—in maintaining the ly for the future,Arendt suggests. Benton MacKaye,who foresaw the rise special identity of their communities. Americans need to start building of roadside strip development. Arendt Arendt emphasizes that sprawl is pedestrian-oriented towns again, the embraces MacKaye's proposal to re- the direct result of conventional plan- author says,a tradition that was largely strict development along highways and ping codes, which are largely con- abandoned after the 1920s.Arendt de- to center it in towns surrounded by trolled by local municipalities. But if scribes the principles that guided com- clearly defined open space. He notes local officials were to insist on better munity design in the late 1800s and that MacKaye's approach, which the planning standards and enforce those early 1900s and notes that such archi- Maine Planning Office unsuccessfully standards through zoning, they could tects as Andres Duany and Tony Ne- floated as recently as 1987, could be foster the kind of development they lessen are reviving these principles. implemented through a transfer-of-de- want. For example, even something as "What people yearn for these days,"he velopment rights scheme that would seemingly unalterable as the design of a writes, "is not another wave of'real es- free most highway frontage from de- McDonald's restaurant can be changed tate developments,' but rather the velopment and place it in carefully se- if the municipality stands firm. chance to live in a real human settle- lected nodes along the way. • Freeport,Maine, insisted that the local ment with a sense of place and a sense Most developers will likely agree McDonald's retain a farmhouse for its of belonging." In addition to describ- with Arendt's contention that conven- proposed restaurant and display only a ing the physical elements of a real tional codes require excessive residen- modest sign.As Arendt's photographs town, Arendt includes model village tial street widths.Widths of 18 to 20 ! demonstrate, the fast-food giant not design standards from counties in Vir- See BOOK REVIEW,page 34 Land Development/Winter 1995 27