The Dilemma of Local Land Use Control: Power Without Responsibility

Land use planning and control has traditionally been perceived as a set of issues best dealt with by local government. State governments historically have been called upon to provide nothing more than a suitable framework of planning and land use control enabling legislation. In recent years some states have sought to address land use issues having regional or statewide impact. This has usually been done on an intra-state basis, however, and meaningful interstate or multi-state approaches to land use problems, though much discussed in the literature, are almost non-existent in practice. Federal involvement in land use issues has also been limited. This invariably leads individual towns to promulgate land use control ordinances and regulations that make it difficult, if not impossible, for large, unsightly, potentially troublesome, but nonetheless essential, development activities (in an overall social sense) to locate within the town. It is increasingly apparent that if the land use needs of essential and unwanted activities are to be met, a new ingredient must be added to our present construct of land use control mechanisms. As unpopular as it may be, this new ingredient must involve a higher level of government (probably the state) in land use decision-making. Local powers cannot be absolute. This does not mean that local land use decision making must be totally preempted, but it does mean that local interests and larger social interests, which higher levels of government recognize and articulate, must be balanced. Though an argument can be made for extensive federal involvement in land use decision making, involving large or difficult to locate development types and activities, such an approach seems both politically unwise and unnecessary. A limited federal role in certain circumstances can be defended, but in most situations the state government is best situated to provide locational alternatives for development activities which individual towns for some reason cannot accommodate. The remainder of this Article will deal with ways in which this delicate problem in inter-governmental relations may be solved.