Reflecting on Regional Planning—50 Years Later

The planning world celebrated Jane Jacobs's 100th birthday earlier this month, and has already begun commemorating the centennial of New York's first zoning code. But did you know regional planning rose to prominence 50 years ago?

1 minute read

May 25, 2016, 10:00 AM PDT

By James Brasuell @CasualBrasuell


Portland

Sung Choi / Shutterstock

Mariia Zimmerman reflects on 50 years regional planning. The anniversary isn't as hard and fast as some other anniversaries, but Zimmerman ties the rise to prominence of regional planning back to 1962, with the Federal-Aid Highway Act, 1967, with the creation of the Metropolitan Council and Metropolitan Transit Commission in the Twin Cities region, and 1966, with the creation of the Columbia Region Association of Governments (CRAG)

Zimmerman begins the article by noting the "continued need for regions to work together to address an increasingly complex set of problems," which is happening in some places, while "parochialism continues to impede progress" in other places. Zimmerman lists examples from both side of the regional planning spectrum, while maintaining rhetoric speaking to the potential of regional planning. 

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