Re: "The Economic Benefits of Open Space" -Reply

[CHARLES PATRIZIA <CAPATRIZIA@phjw.com>]

I apologize in advance -- the message here includes the program and
agenda for the ABA standing committee on environmental law
conference that I mentioned in an ealier response to this thread.  In light
of Peter's comments, I wanted to give this group the benefit of the
program outline and a way to get more details.

Chuck Patrizia

Program follows:
It's not too late to sign up for the 28th National Spring Conference on the
Environment!!!

The American Bar Association Standing Committee on Environmental
Law will hold its 28th National Spring Conference, "Who Decides How Regional
Growth and Development Will Occur? -- Legal Issues and Legal Tools in
Harmonizing Growth and Environmental Protection" on June 4-5, 1999 at the
Bolger
Center in Potomac, Maryland.  The Conference will focus on the decision
process and legal tools addressing regional growth and development.  Sustained
growth is essential to local, regional and national economies, but
fostering that
growth, and deciding who will make the decisions about where it will be
fostered, implicates important environmental issues.  These issues include:

*    the allocation of resources as cities grow outward;
*    the advantages and disadvantages of concentrating growth within
     the urban cores (brownfields, greenfields, and grayfields);
*    the impact of development on farmers and farmland;
*    transportation and infrastructure issues;
*    "Smart Growth" or other "livability" programs, such as those espoused
by the Clinton Administration,  Maryland, South Florida, Portland, and others;
*       the rights of and impacts upon developers, including "takings" or
other restrictions;
*       how federal initiatives will affect state and local decisionmaking
and authority.

The decision process and even the decisions themselves about where
and how development and growth occurs are affected by its characterization as
"growth" or "sprawl."  Should those decisions be made by private parties
(developers and lenders), or by local governments (zoning authorities or
permitting agencies), or do regional effects require state or interstate
solutions -- perhaps federal ones?  How does the division or confusion
of authority affect legal practitioners?

Join us in hands-on discussion with an interdisciplinary audience and
speaker panels.

PROGRAM
FRIDAY, JUNE 4, 1999
12:00 Noon
CONFERENCE REGISTRATION OPENS

2:00 pm - 5:00 pm
WELCOME AND OPENING REMARKS
Sheila Slocum Hollis, Standing Committee Chair
Duane, Morris & Heckscher, LLP, Washington, DC

Session 1: The Big Picture: Growth or Sprawl, Who Ought To Decide?
This session outlines the major themes from contrasting perspectives.

Moderator: Andrew C. Cooper, Arent, Fox, Kintner, Plotkin & Kahn, PLLC,
Washington, DC
*       Susan Casey-Lefkowitz, Senior Attorney, Environmental Law
Institute,
Washington, DC
*       John DeVillars, Regional Administrator, U.S. EPA Region I, Boston,
MA
*       Ralph E. Grossi, President, American Farmland Trust, Washington,
DC
*       John McIlwain, Senior Managing Director, American Communities
Fund,
Fannie Mae, Washington, DC

6:30 pm - 8:30 pm
Conference Dinner
Participants and panelists continue Session I discussions and then
consider
the Clinton Administration's "Livability Initiative" and its implications
for growth.

INTRODUCTIONS
Charles A. Patrizia, Paul, Hastings, Janofsky & Walker, LLP, Washington,
DC

Opening Keynote Presentation
Keith Laughlin, Associate Director for Sustainable Development, White
House
Council on Environmental Quality, Washington, DC

SATURDAY, JUNE 5, 1999
8:30 am - 1:00 pm
Day 2 of the Conference moves the major themes introduced on Day 1 to
three
panels focused on the legal and practical aspects of the decision
process.

Keynote Presentation
Douglas M. Duncan, Montgomery County Executive, Rockville, Maryland

9:00 am - 10:15 am
Session 2: The Decision Process: Getting it Right -- State/Local/Regional
Considerations
This Session brings to bear the perspectives of current and former
public sector officials on how the decision process can and should address
the issues, and which level of government is the "right" level.

Moderator: John M. Barkett, Coll, Davidson, Smith, Salter & Barkett, P.A.,
Miami, FL

*       Hon. Judith M. Dworkin, Special Water Counsel, City of Tucson,
Tucson, AZ
*       Dan Thompson, former General Counsel, State Department of
Environmental Protection, FL
*       Carol Whiteside, President, The Great Valley Center, Modesto, CA

10:30 am - 11:30 am
Session 3: Controlling Growth: Whose Authority, Whose Rights?
This Session focuses on whether growth controls are a proper exercise
of authority, and whether some kinds of limits that disturb expectations or
property values can be a "taking."

Moderator: Charles A. Patrizia, Paul, Hastings, Janofsky & Walker, LLP,
Washington, DC
*       James Noonan, Coordinator, Smart Growth Policy Planning Team,
Maryland Office of Planning, Baltimore, MD
*       Roger Platt, National Policy Counsel, National Realty Committee,
Washington, DC

11:45 am - 12:45 pm
Session 4: Brownfields, Grayfields, Greenfields -- Using What We Have,
and the Environmental Justice Effects of Alternative Growth Locations
"Growth" can mean moving industry, development and jobs to greenfield
(relatively untouched) sites outside of urban locations, or involve
"reusing" brownfield (formerly developed but contaminated) sites, or
renovating "grayfield" sites (developed sites, often in the first ring
around urban cores, which have declined but are not contaminated). 
Each imposes impacts on populations.  What are the benefits and the
environmental justice implications of the alternatives?

Moderator: Cynthia A. Drew, U.S. Department of Justice, Environmental &
Natural Resources Division, Washington, DC
*       Barry E. Hill, Director, Office of Environmental Justice, U.S. EPA,
Washington, DC
*       Joseph M. Schilling, Director of Economic Development, International
City/County Management Association, Washington, DC
*       Sam Staley,  Director, Urban Futures Program, Reason Public Policy
Institute,
Los Angeles, CA & Dayton, OH

12:45 pm - 1:00 pm
CLOSING SESSION

Registration forms can be found at
http://www.abanet.org/publicserv/28natspg.html or call 202-662-1694 to
receive a brochure.

In cooperation with
Bar Association of Montgomery County, Maryland
Environmental Law Institute
George Washington University Law School - Environmental Law Program
Maryland State Bar Association - Section of Environmental Law
National Environmental Policy Institute (NEPI)
Prince George's County Bar Association
Virginia State Bar -Environmental Law Section

UNDERWRITERS
We extend a special thank you to our Underwriters

ARENT, FOX, KINTNER, PLOTKIN & KAHN, PLLC

DUANE, MORRIS & HECKSCHER, LLP

PAUL, HASTINGS, JANOFSKY & WALKER, LLP


>>> "Peter B. Meyer" <pbmeye02@athena.louisville.edu> 05/19/99
02:47pm >>>

Emery Graham raises the question of "environmental justice" when public
efforts to stimulate open space preservation result in windfall profits
for some... His point is well taken. I agree this is an issue, but Emery
leaves out the other side of the coin, which is the impact on the poor
and landless of inbcreasing intensification of land use. This compounds
the problem of inequality.

More intense land use - more housing per unit land - is rarely
experienced by the more afflent, with more dollars available to spend on
housing. It is those less capable of competing for housing who will
suffer. Consider this: 
1. open space has value
2. people want to be near open space
3. people compete for housing with their dollars
4. those with more dollars will get closer to the open space than those
with fewer dollars
5. thus the number of housing units per acre near open space will be
lower than further away - because those with more money can also buy
more land, not just housing closer to amenities
6. Therefore, when we provide more open space, we add to the "open
space" the relatively rich would provide for themselves anyway - and to
make room for that open space, we need to pack the relatively poor into
denser housing -- and move them further away from the open space
since
they can only afford to live on low cost land...
	HOW TO WE CHANGE THIS PATTERN?
That's the puzzle for those of us who would like to see more public
green space available... 
	HOW ABOUT WORKING FOR INTENSE LAND USE REQUIREMENTS
ALONG PARKLANDS?

 .... just an idea - but who's got others?  We need them if the efforts
to contain sprawl and preserve/provide open space are not to be
pursued
on the back s of those already suffering on the negative side of the
environmental justice scales...

Peter	
-- 
Peter B. Meyer
Professor of Economics and Urban Policy
Director, Center for Environmental Management
 and EPA Region IV Environmental Finance Center
University of Louisville
426 W. Bloom Street / Louisville, KY 40208
(502) 852-8032    Fax: (502) 852-4558