This article develops a framework to evaluate the use of smart growth principles in local comprehensive plans. Using the framework, a sample of thirty local comprehensive plans was evaluated to determine how well local plan goals and policies promote smart growth principles. The plans were selected from a pool of plans that have been adopted in Wisconsin under its new comprehensive smart growth planning law. Plans are evaluated for attention to six commonly accepted smart growth principles as developed and promoted by a number of national organizations and coalitions. This content analysis reveals that communities are not fully embracing the smart growth agenda. Furthermore, there is a clear distinction between the use of smart growth principles among cities and villages versus town or rural governments. The article concludes with a discussion of the applicability of smart growth to small towns and rural communities.
Problem, research strategy, and fi ndings: To understand how communities use zoning ordinances to achieve sustainability goals, we identify nine sustainability principles and 53 associated regulatory items that might be included in a zoning ordinance to achieve sustainable development and then examine the zoning ordinances of 32 randomly selected communities to determine if they included these principles and their associated items. We fi nd both wide variation and some consistency in how zoning ordinances address sustainability goals, independent of city size or location in the country. Some of the identifi ed principles and regulatory items are found in many ordinances; others appear in only a few. However, there is an inverse relationship between the age of the ordinance and the extent to which it includes sustainability principles. As ordinances are updated, it is likely that they will address more topical sustainability concerns. We study only ordinance content, not implementation; moreover, sustainability can be achieved in ways other than zoning. However, zoning ordinances that directly address sustainability in many dimensions are more likely to achieve these goals. We conclude that planners can more effectively use zoning ordinances to achieve sustainable development. Takeaway for practice: This review of zoning ordinances can alert local planners to the many ways in which zoning ordinances could be used to achieve sustainability goals and suggest how planners can assess the contribution of their zoning ordinance to the sustainable development of their communities. Keywords: sustainability, sustainable development, land use regulations, zoning, planning strategy About the authors: Edward J. Jepson, Jr., AICP (ejepson@uoregon.edu), is an adjunct professor in the Department of Planning, Zoning for Sustainability A Review and Analysis of the Zoning Ordinances of 32 Cities in the United StatesEdward J. Jepson, Jr., and Anna L. Haines S ustainable development has been characterized as balancing the "three Es" of ecology (or environment), equity, and economy, a characterization that has received considerable attention in the planning literature (see Berke, 2002;Campbell, 1996;Jepson, 2004; Saha & Paterson, 2008). Publications focused on sustainability often begin with common defi nitions of sustainability, such as the oft-quoted Brundtland Report: "Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs" (World Commission on Environment and Development, 1987, p. 8).However, we fi nd little focus in the planning literature on the integration of sustainability into planning implementation tools such as zoning ordinances. The aim of this research is to gain a sense of how U.S. communities include sustainability principles in their zoning ordinances to help them achieve their sustainability development goals. Among communities in the United States that have adopted sustainability goals, to what extent do zoning ordin...
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