Ethical Land Use: Principles of Policy and Planning

"That land is a community is the basic concept of ecology," wrote Aldo Leopold in 1933, "but that land is to be loved and respected is an extension of ethics." Since then, every generation has taken up Leopold's search for a "land ethic" to guide decision making which would balance economic considerations with concerns for beauty, sustainability and quality of life. Should a community preserve or develop the remaining wetlands within its jurisdiction? Should a local government allow low-income housing to be built in an affluent neighborhood? Does a farmer continue farming despite surrounding urbanization or does he sell the land for a profit and allow further development?

Ethical Land Use is the first comprehensive examination of the eithical dimensions of land-use decisions and policy. Its premise is that all land-use decisions—whether to build an interstate highway or maintain a suburban lawn with chemical fertilizers—invariably involve ethical choices. Historically Beatley observes, many such decisions were made on narrow legal, technical, or economic grounds rather than on a full consideration of their complex ethical and moral dimensions. Drawing on a combination of actual land-use conflicts and hypothetical scenarios, Beatley offers a full description and analysis of the difficult issues faced by policy makers as well as individual citizens. He concludes by proposing a practical set of principles for ethical land use to guide future policy and planning

Timothy Beatley is associate professor and chair of the Department of Urban and Environmental Planning in the School of Architechture at the University of Virginia. He is coauthor, with Philip Berke, of Planning for Earthquakes.