Repurposing the Green Belt in the 21st Century

Abstract

There is perhaps no need of the poor of London which more prominently forces itself on the notice of anyone working among them than that of space. ... How can it best be given? And what is it precisely which should be given? I think we want four things. Places to sit in, places to play in, places to stroll in, and places to spend a day in. Octavia Hill (1838-1912), founder of The National Trust The Green Belt boundary cannot be drawn with perfect rationality. There is no clear divide between town and country on historical or geographical grounds. The only division we can see today is the one we have caused to be drawn on the map. It has, in a way, acquired the significance of its own history: just because we have once drawn the line, it has become part of the southeastern structure. Tomorrow's London-Background to the GLDP, 1974 And yet, this 65 acres of exhaust-smudged scrub on the outskirts of St Albans has become the battleground for a clash between ambitious developers, who want to turn it into a care home, and a community who like things the way they are. The dispute is typical of the intractable discussions happening across Britain, as the population struggles to balance the need for development with a passion for rural preservation. Ed Hammond commenting on a dispute regarding development in St Albans, Financial Times, 2012 vii Contents List of figures viii List of tables xiii Introduction 1

Beyond growth management: A review of the wider functions and effects of urban growth management policies

“…For example, different GBs models include traditional prewar GBs, modernist post-war GBs and a new generation of GBs emerging in the 1990s and 2000s; each with differing policy goals and motivations for implementation (Macdonald et al, 2021a). Pre-war GBs, such as those in England, primarily aim to prevent urban sprawl by keeping land permanently open (Bishop, Perez, Roggema, & Williams, 2020). In contrast, other GBs have broader policy goals, including environment protection and ecosystem service (ES) provision, such as, the GGH GB in Canada (L. Taylor, 2019).…”

“…A notable development in the discourse around wider functions of GBs was the special issue of Planning Practice & Research on Green Belts (Amati & Taylor, 2010). Multiple key academic books have in part collated some UGMPs research, exploring policy implementation (Elson et al, 1993), the development, performance, and future of GB policy (Bishop et al, 2020;Sturzaker & Mell, 2018) best practice growth management approaches in the US and influence on urban America (Rusk, 1999) and comparative assessments in selected international contexts (Amati, 2008) opposed to their wider functions and effects.…”

“…New and old discourses are once again (re)emerging around the purposes of UGMPs, including as spaces for housing, access to greenspace and adapting to the urgency of climate change (Bishop et al, 2020;Han, Daniels, & Kim, 2022;L. Taylor, 2019).…”