LAND USE PLANNING: CONCEPTS, THEORIES AND PRINCIPLES

What is Land?

Any part of the earth’s surface which can be owned as property, and everything
annexed to it, whether by nature or by the hand of man; not necessarily “dry”
areas only.

What are important concepts of land?

a) Supremacy of human beings (of Biblical origin)

b) Stewardship
c) Concern of posterity
d) Conservation

What is the general nature of land and its use?

Land People
Infinite Number not fixed
Moves easily
Many needs – which are absolutely
necessary and almost solely from land:
- food
- shelter
- clothing
Characteristics
Immobility - Location
- Expense to adapt available land to
desired use
- Strategic value
Finiteness - Land is not reproducible
- Surface change possible but usually
expensive
Physical Climatic Characteristics
Topography - flat, sleep, irregular, rocky, etc.
- controls many land uses
- relates to use; such as fertile –
agricultural
Soil - sometime unimportant commercial
center buildable almost anywhere
Subsurface Structure and - rock gravel, aggregates, sand, muck
Composition - may also influence surface uses
Alternative Combine Uses
- Construction - maintain surface/utilities underground
- Agriculture - urban surface/subways or tunnel
- parks - maintain surface/mining under
- buildings over fertile land
- urban use over swamp

What are the underlying principles of land use planning?

Maintenance of environmental quality – it is generally believed that if population

could be reasonably stabilized, it would be possible to deal with energy and
resource problems and also improve or at least maintain environmental quality.

What is land tenure?

The right or capacity to have and to hold lands for certain uses.

What is exclusion?

It is shutting our or barring others from premises.

Who was Land acquired?

• By conquest; by feudal claims, by parceled among nobles for free.

• Simple absolute-highest form of tenure, implies one owns everything on
surface, downward to center of earth, upward to undeterminable distance;
but in reality and practice not so.

What are inherent rights of the state?

• Right to tax – compulsory levy; kind and size given by the government
• Right to condemn – to take title of privately held land for public or quasi-
public use
• Police power – protect and promote public health, safety, morals, general
welfare

What is escheat?

It is reversion of property back to government, on owner’s dying without heirs.

What are the types of land ownership rights?

a) Surface rights
• Access: entry into premises
• Boundaries and adverse occupancy: difficulty in accurately establishing
boundaries
• Water (concepts): riparian rights-ordinary use of water flowing through
property
 • Direct Water-Use Rights – claim from adjoining property
• Fish and wildlife: fishing and hunting
• Owner liability: from visitors and guests

b) Above-surface rights (air rights)

• Against air contamination, invasion of privacy
• Limitation of aesthetic view

What are reversible land uses?

Several uses/option still possible e.g. croplands, pastures, forest lands, urban-
renewal, land is a base and produce is not needed.

What are irreversible land uses?

a) Pre-empts the original character of the land

b) Reversal to former use in impracticable or impossible without enormous
expense e.g. cities, large towns, river dams, major roads and highways

What are examples of combined uses?

a) Urban Uses e.g. planned development, which combine housing,

commercial services and recreation
b) Non-Urban Uses:
• Agriculture
• Forestry and related wild lands
• Wildlife and forests
• Outdoor recreation and forests
• Grazing and forests
• Water and forests

c) Application of combined uses – as a land management policy

• Multiple uses
• Sustained yield (Sustainable Development)
• Combine land use

What are the key factors allowing for combined land uses?

a) Compatibility – key considerations, harmonious combination of functions

• Land can often have more than one use

• Available land is limited
• Competition for different uses

What are the different systems?

a) Based on Land Only
Bedrock and Surficial Geology
Landforms – Geomorphology
Weather and Climate
Soil
Ecological-Vegetative
b) Based on Land Use
Agricultural
Engineering
Forests
Wildland Grazing
Wildlife
Outdoor recreation
- includes the origin, structure, and
composition of rocks, i.e., igneous,
sedimentary, metamorphic
- the topography of land such as
mountains, valleys, streams, other
features created by erosion such as
plains, plateaus, and coastal
flatlands
- atmospheric conditions
- precipitation, wind, humidity,
temperature, air pressure
- consists of disintegrating rock and
organic material
- powdered rock
- wetlands, grasslands, woodlands,
forests
- related to crop cultivation
- generally suited for cultivation
- of special interest for structural
reasons
- construction and maintenance of
roads, buildings, etc.
- permeability compaction character,
sheer strength
- soil quality, often desirable for
agriculture
- forest type, wood quality and volume
- livestock gracing
- pastures and meadowlands
- related to all birds and other
undomesticated animals
- characterized by tow major
dimensions
- areas reserved and developed for
recreation as primary or exclusive
function
- those predominantly not intended for
recreational (not owned by those
who use it)
- recreational classifications
- land information
 - recreational uses

c) Combined Use Classifications

Non-Urban - may be combined in many different

ways
- Dominant use concept - designated by statute classification
- Classification needs for of public land
total land use planning - According to consistent categories

Urban Land Uses - Zoning