Ilham Nurhakim

135060600111034

BOOK REVIEW
Land Use and Society by Rutherford H. Platt
The Land Use and Society by Rutherford H. Platt shows us the long history about land
use development and planning within the city and state of the United States and its
connection with the social issues and environmental quality that was viewed by the
geographical and justicial perspective. The review of the Land Use and Society by
Rutherford H. Platt will be described in each chapter of this book so the reader could
understand every single discussion on this book.
Part I Preliminaries: Land, Geography and Law
Chapter 1 The Meanings and Uses of Land
This opening chapter in this book clearly states about the three concept of the
land use definition. The following are the three concept ot the land use.
1. Land in the physical sense also includes the produce of the soil
2. Land in Anglo-America is legally referred to as real property or real estate.
For purposes of ownership and use, land is divided into units known as
parcels
3. Land is as an object of capital value capable of being owned and used by its
owner to maximize economic return
4. Land may also have noneconomic value, a sense of place defined by
collective or individual experience and values
Land usage in the United States are consist of cropland, forest land, grasslands,
recreation land, wetlands, floodplains, urban land, and cities (CBD). In this
chapter, Professor Platt also talked about the dichotomy between the land usage
of rural area and urban area. Linkages between the land usage of rural area and
urban area simply explained by the spatial growth of urban land is the reflection
of the loss of urban land to development.
Chapter 2 The Interaction of Geography and Law
In this chapter, Professor Platt talked about how can be the role of law affect to
the geographical perspective on land use. Professor Platt described it into a
model called the Land Use Law. Land Use Law is concerned with protecting
owners and the public from unreasonable land use actions of others and with
how that protection may be assured through the legal and political process. This

Ilham Nurhakim
135060600111034

adversarial approach between private and public interest will determine on how
land is used by the society. Finally, The Law of Land Use will leads us to the
spatial organization which will be the agent of the urban form.
Part II From Feudalism to Federalism: The Social Organization of Land Use
Chapter 3 Historic Roots of Modern Land Use Institution
The concepts of property rights and land use law in the United States was
adapted from the land policy that has been applied in Great Britain, France and
Spain. That concept was originated come from the concept of Feudalism which
was the prevailing socioeconomic system of England and continental Europe
which under feudalism, land was not privately owned in the modern sense, but
rather was held by the Crown by virtue of inheritance, marriage or conquest.
This concept had changed in a series of institutional innovations over several
centuries to meet the needs of a better, organize and control the use of land so
the society can understand and correct problems in the development of urban
places as described by the land use and society model in this book.
Chapter 4 City Growth and Reform in the Nineteenth Century
City growth in the nineteenth century was expanded at unprecedented rates of
immigration came along from the countryside and also from abroad. The city
rapid growth brings a tons of threats to life, health and morality. As Cities
expanded, city needs to enlarge the capacity through the innovation to make a
modern city. Based on the Professor Platt, this reformation have three
fundamental aspect which are regulation, redevelopment and relocation.
Chapter 5 Building a Metropolitan Nation: 1900-1945
The twentieth century of the United State was still predominantly a rural nation.
One of the reason is because great depression of World War II that suspended the
evolution of the city for almost fifteen years. After that war, government and
industry switched of the product from the military product to consumer product
and brings positive impact to the home construction that will leads to the
forming of the city later time. But at the other side, in that period of time, a new
phenomenon called urban sprawl and white flight also occurred and has
negative impact to cities form in the United States.
Chapter 6 The Polarized Metropolis: 1945-2000

Ilham Nurhakim
135060600111034

As said before on the Chapter 5, the United States was more interested in
building houses than in planning after the World War II. Most of the new houses
were a single-family homes built on agricultural or wooded land just outside the
older central cities or soon called suburbs. The suburbs area was filled by the
middle-class white while the inner-city was filled by the poor and nonwhites.
Over the rest of the twentieth century, the inner-city versus suburbs were blurred
because as nonwhites started to move into suburbs and at the same time most of
the whites attracted to the inner-city. This phenomenon causes a polarized
metropolis on the most of city at the United States.
Part III Discordant Voices: Property Ownership, Local Government and the
Courts
Chapter 7 Property Rights: The Owner as Planner
In this chapter, Professor Platt argue that the property owner is the primary land
use decision maker and sooner called private property rights. This rights was
the only control before in the late nineteenth century the public land use control
was introduced. The private property rights causes overcrowding, unsanitary
conditions and a variety of harmful externalities on neighboring in the city at the
United States. On the other hand, public land use control remain reactive,
negative and supplementary while the private property owner and investor still
retains most of the initiative in land use conversion.
Chapter 8 The Tapestry of Local Governments
The American system that we can see now is a system of complete
decentralization which is the primary and vital that local affairs shall be
managed by local authorities. This modern political geography of urban America
evolved from the medieval municipal corporations in England. The medieval
municipal corporation is a legal entity that could own land, make and enforce
local laws, sue or be sued and could exist until terminated by process of law.
That institutional model which was become the basic building block of the
American local political landscape, was adapted from a variety of geographical
and cultural settings.
Chapter 9 Local Zoning and Growth Management

Ilham Nurhakim
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Local municipal governments since the 1920 already been the primary
instrument towards the public oversight of private land use and building
practices as a response to the chaotic citys development. The effort to promote
city planning and zoning within the local government were inspired by the
progressive initiative of the period 1880-1910 such as city beautiful movement,
the garden city movement, public legislation regulating nuisances and building
heights under the police power, the advent and proliferation of the skyscraper
and related technology and the various social reform proposal associated with
the progressive movement.
Chapter 10 Land Use and Courts
This chapter a lot more concerned talking about constitutional aspect of the land
use in the United States. Professor Platt believe that the constitutional aspect
could be the key of the successness on the zoning or the other public regulation
related to the land use. Constitutional through the courts will be the body which
can provide appropriate balance between the public interest and private property
rights.
Part IV Beyond Localism: The Search for Broader Land Use Policies
Chapter 11 Land Programs: Regional, State, Federal
In this chapter, Professor Platt talking more about the land program within the
regional, state and federal as a way to tackle the chaotic situation due to the
conflict of interest on the land uses. The land program are the strategies and
roles of government at the regional, state and federal levels that can help offset
some of the harmful results of a predominantly local land use control system.
These strategies included a programs for public parks and open space within the
government, regional and state land programs and federal lands management for
multiple uses. Park and protected open space brings more good than harms
causes by harmful externalities on neighboring in the city, within the city or
within the states by providing outdoor recreation, visual amenity, ecological
habitat, water supply, flood mitigation, specialty farm products, and protection
of historic and cultural landscapes.
Chapter 12 Congress and the Metropolitan Environment

Ilham Nurhakim
135060600111034

This chapter is concerned about the role of the federal government on the land
use control in the United States. The role of the federal government through the
land use policy was begun on the debates over competing policies for disposal
versus retention and management of the public domain. Another federal role
were the development of water resources on major rivers for navigation, power,
flood control, recreation, habitat protection and restoration. In the 1930, the
federal role was expanded, this could be indicated by the new public works
program including both public lands and water development programs. In the
1950, federal government promote city and regional planning for urban
renewal. At the other, all that stuff was ignoring the nations environment
quality. So, late in the 2002, the federal government started to have intervention
program to protect environmental quality from global to the neighborhood scale.
Post Script:
Resume diketik dalam Bahasa Inggris dimaksudkan agar tidak menimbulkan multi
tafsir atau bias dalam pembahasan materi-materi akademis dalam buku Land Use and
Society karangan Rutherford H. Platt.