Professional Planners and Exclusionary Housing Practices Arthur C. Nelson, Ph.D., ASCE, FAICP
	Session:Fair Growth: Connecting Sprawl, Smart Growth, and Social Equity (March 13, 2:30pm)

AICP Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct A. 5) A planner must strive to expand choice and opportunity for all persons, recognizing a special responsibility to plan for the needs of disadvantaged groups and persons, and must urge the alteration of policies, institutions and decisions that oppose such needs. Definition of Exclusionary Housing Practices Overt or covert decisions affecting development that has the effect of depriving people of the opportunity to live within the very community within which they work. Overt or covert decisions having the intended or unintended consequence of rendering other communities and/or the region as a whole worse off in terms of fiscal capacity and/or environmental quality. Overt Actions Large minimum lot size zoning. Any minimum house size restriction. Habitat for Humanity not welcome. Infeasible apartment density zoning. Insufficient or no land actually zoned for affordable housing. Expensive exterior treatment requirements. Onerous landscaping requirements. Covert Actions Granting densities lower than allowed. Granting approvals conditioned on large minimum house sizes. Granting approvals conditioned on onerous exterior treatment and landscaping standards. Granting development approvals conditioned on onerous community improvement requirements. Delaying project review through incremental requests for information and design changes, public hearings, remands, rehearings and so forth. Effects Air quality nonattainment More expensive infrastructure, roads, water, sewer, drainage Loss of agricultural land; open spaces Higher dependency on automobiles Destruction of neighborhoods Schools close No life cycle housing Neighborhood stagnation [back to Fair Growth Symposium] Author and Copyright Information Copyright 2001 by Author Arthur C. Nelson, FAICP, is a professor of City Planning and Public Policy at the Georgia Institute of Technology. He is a nationally known expert in growth management, urban containment, resource land preservation, infrastructure finance, and urban development policy. Dr. Nelson is currently serving as an expert consultant to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) on smart growth policy. His books on growth management and impact fees are standard texts. Recent sponsors of his research include the Fannie Mae Foundation, National Academy of Sciences, National Science Foundation, HUD, the U.S. Department of Transportation, the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, and the American Planning Association. His awards include election to the College of Fellows of the American Institute of Certified Planners, teacher of the year, researcher of the year, professional educator of the year, and advisor to students winning the national AICP student project award. Dr. Nelson’s current research interests include methods to measure exclusionary zoning, rethinking the composition of land uses within neighborhoods and communities, evaluating alternative urban containment institutional structures, and measuring the effect of different growth management regimes on regional development patterns.