Kunstler Predicts Extinction of City Planning

20 March 2009 - 12:00pm

In a discussion about how graveyards fit into new forms of urbanism, James Howard Kunstler predicts that city planning departments are not long for this world.

"WPTG: There seem to be nearly as many zoning designations for cemeteries as there are communities. In my town, Winslow Township, NJ, they're a "non-conforming use." Two towns up the highway, they have specs down to lot size, frontage, percent of paved surface, and the like. So what's the best way to include cemeteries in master plans and the like? Is there a need for some uniformity?

JHK: You may find this answer impertinent, but I genuinely believe that the disorders of "The Long Emergency" will be such that planning departments will be dismantled for lack of government funding and the public will ignore the zoning laws as the motoring experience and all its niggling demands shrinks into history."

Source: Whistling Past the Graveyard, March 19, 2009

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assumption

He's assuming that the American way of planning/zoning is the only way things can be done.. other countries have much higher energy prices yet somehow still have planning departments.

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Yet, understanding the positive impact of the informal sector, many planners and officials still worry about the resulting urban blight.