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Planopedia

Clear, accessible definitions for common urban planning terms.

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Pacific Electric streetcar

Streetcar Suburbs

Named after the mode of transportation that made their existence possible by dramatically reducing travel times, streetcar suburbs are communities located along streetcar lines farther out from city centers, on the periphery of the urban areas in the late 19th century.

Las Vegas Sprawl

Regional Planning

Regional planning addresses planning issues that cross local jurisdictional boundaries, like transportation or watershed protection. In other examples, regional planning offers a holistic approach to the interconnected systems and dynamics that shape physical and cultural landscapes.

Building Heights and Step-Backs

Height Limits

Height limits are a critical component of almost every zoning code in the United States.

Back Bay Boston

Multi-Family Housing

Often discussed in contrast with single-family zoning, multi-family housing includes buildings and complexes that house more than one household in the same property.

Plan Voisin

Le Corbusier

Part of a movement that sought to modernize cities through a rational reorganization of the urban form, "Towers in the Park" is a style of housing development that emphasizes a separation of uses and access to communal green space and amenities.

Singapore

Housing Subsidies

Housing subsidies can work in numerous ways, all with the common cause of easing the cost burdens of housing.

Gentrification

Displacement

Displacement—the forced relocation of existing residents and businesses was once a desired outcome of the "urban renewal" projects of the 20th century. In the 21st century, displacement is a highly contested, hard to trace, effect commonly linked to gentrification and urban revitalization.

Suburban development in Long Island, NY

Levittown

Known as the archetypal post-war American suburb, Levittown was the first mass-produced housing development and set a standard for planned subdivisions for decades to come.

Çatalhöyük, 7400 BC, Konya, Turkey

Çatalhöyük

Thought to be one of the first major urban centers in human civilization, Çatalhöyük was a Neolithic settlement that, at its height, reached a population of close to 10,000 at a time when most humans still lived in small hunter-gatherer bands of several hundred people.

New York Development

Upzoning

Upzoning is a term used to describe changes to a zoning code made to increase the amount of development allowed in the future.

Los Angeles Density

Floor Area Ratio

Floor area ratio (FAR) is a critical measurement to the field of planning. FAR defines development intensity and determines numerous other regulations and development outcomes.

San Francisco Apartments

Inclusionary Zoning

Inclusionary zoning refers to a range of policies and practices that mandate or provide incentives for the inclusion of affordable housing units in new developments to encourage mixed-income neighborhoods and increase the supply of affordable housing.

Los Angeles in 1939, as determined by the  Home Owners’ Loan Corporation (HOLC).

Redlining

Redlining is the practice of restricting investment in areas deemed high-risk by banks. The term refers to the red color used to denote undesirable areas on maps used by lending institutions to determine loan eligibility.

Brooklyn Construction

Market-Rate Housing

Market-rate housing is a term used to define housing generated by the real estate market without direct subsidy. The price the market sets for housing, even without subsidies, is a direct outcome of policies and practices of planning.

Suburban Home

Single-Family Zoning

Single-family zoning is by far the most common form of zoning in the United States, but it's facing increasing criticisms both for its discriminatory origins and its sprawling effects.

Greenwich Village, Manhattan

Density

Density is a controversial topic, but public opinion on the opportunities and risks of density have shifted in recent decades. To many, density now has a positive connotation.

Wheelchair ramp

Americans With Disabilities Act

The effects of the landmark Americans With Disabilities Act are visible throughout the built environment—on sidewalks, on buses, and in almost every building and public facility in the country.

Marina City House of Blues parking

Parking Requirements

Parking requirements determine by law the amount of parking developers must include when building new developments. Though a standard of zoning and development codes nationwide, parking requirements are undergoing a process of reform.

Suburban Neighborhood

Exclusionary Zoning

Criticized as a key factor in perpetuating housing inequality in the United States, exclusionary zoning refers to a range of policies that, explicitly or implicitly, seek to prevent people of certain races, ethnicities, or income levels from buying homes in specific neighborhoods.

Tassafaronga Village Oakland California

Affordable Housing

The term affordable housing refers to housing units that cost less than a predetermined percentage of household incomes. Planners use affordable housing as a general term to describe housing that doesn't put an excessive financial burden on occupants.

Gentrification

Gentrification

Gentrification is a process of neighborhood change, usually resulting from an influx of relatively wealthy, white residents to a neighborhood. But that definition, and the controversies that follow, vary greatly by location, and there is no universally accepted definition of the term.

Bronx Apartments

Affordable Housing

The term affordable housing refers to housing units that cost less than a predetermined percentage of household incomes. Planners use affordable housing as a general term to describe housing that doesn't put an excessive financial burden on its occupants.

Crowd

the American Community Survey

The American Community Survey offers a treasure trove of social, economic, housing and demographic data.

Paris Skyline

Central Business Districts

A central business district (CBD) is a geographic area sometimes referred to as downtown, but with key distinctions critical to an understanding of city and regional planning.

Seaside Entrance

New Urbanism

New Urbanism is one of the most influential planning and urban design reform movements of recent decades.

Compton, California

Specific Plan

Specific Plans are unique to the state of California, but come up frequently in media coverage of planning. Understanding the purpose of Specific Plans can also open a window to understanding of how planning works all over the country.

Complete Street

Complete Streets

Complete streets prioritize the safety and mobility of all users instead of the speed of cars and flow of traffic. After a century of prioritizing automobile travel, the concept of complete streets offer a chance to make streets a place to be used and enjoyed rather than glimpsed through a windshield.

urban planners look at Biloxi plans

Urban Planning

Urban planning is the most common term used in the contemporary United States to describe the professional and academic field of planning, but understanding the implications of the term requires a discussion about the history of the word urban and the changing politics of planning.

Delaware

Euclidean Zoning

Euclidean zoning is responsible for the sprawling, suburban character of much of the built environment in the United States.

Zoning Code

Form-Based Codes

Form-based codes are a variety of development regulation that departs significantly from the land use control approach of most zoning codes in the United States.

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