Porter, David, and Chester L. Mirsky. Megamall on the Hudson: Planning, Wal-Mart, and Grassroots Resistance. Victoria, B.C.: Trafford, 2003.

"Megamall on the Hudson details the drama of environmental and land-use politics in a case study that pitted commercial 'big box' developers against community activists and environmentalists. The authors weave together legal and political analysis, theory and practice, from an insider's perspective that illuminates the interplay of community organizing and development pressures, state environmental policies and legal tactics, media coverage and electoral politics, persistence and personality too. Students of environmental planning, land-use development, and democratic politics more generally will find the book richly rewarding for years to come."
— John Forester, Professor of City and Regional Planning, Cornell University

Website for Megamall on the Hudson

Banovetz, James M., ed. Managing Local Economic Development: Cases in Decision Making. Washington, D.C.: International City/County Management Association, 2004.

Nine case studies reflecting major economic development activities — redevelopment, planning, balancing values and politics, and comparing costs and benefits. Suitable for use in a classroom and as stimulating discussion material in a local government setting, these cases set forth typical dilemmas facing local government managers — short term vs. long term advantage, the development-social equity balance, and costs vs. benefits. All depend on strong leadership and clear reasoning for successful resolution.

Perlman, Dan L., and Jeffrey C. Milder. Practical Ecology for Planners, Developers, and Citizens. Washington, D.C.: Island Press, 2005.

Volume introduces and explains key ecological concepts for planners, landscape architects, developers, and others involved in planning and building human habitats. The book is tailored to meet the needs of busy land use professionals and citizens seeking a concise yet thorough overview of ecology and its applications. It offers clear guidelines and a wealth of information on how we can protect species and ecosystems while at the same time creating healthy, sustainable human communities.

Moudon, Anne Vernez, and Michael Hubner. Monitoring Land Supply with Geographic Information Systems: Theory, Practice, and Parcel-Based Approaches. New York: Wiley, 2000.

Monitoring the supply of buildable land and its capacity to accommodate growth within urbanizing regions is an increasingly important component of urban planning and growth management. Recent developments in Geographic Information Systems (GIS) have opened up new opportunities for local and regional government to monitor land supply and capacity. Based on a study sponsored by the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, this book reviews the state of the art in land monitoring, particularly as it benefits from the introduction of GIS data and analysis capabilities at the level of individual land parcels.

Hettinger, William S. Living and Working in Paradise: Why Housing Is Too Expensive and What Communities Can Do About It. Windham, Conn.: Thames River Publishing, 2005.

As a means of addressing a community housing crisis, Living and Working in Paradise presents the Community Evaluation and Intervention Process, a systematic methodology for examining and evaluating the housing market in a community for the existence of market failure or for the factors and conditions that have been shown to lead to market failure, and for developing a vision, strategy, and plan for community intervention to address market failure and provide housing for community residents.

Costello, Dan. The Returning City: Historic Preservation and Transit in the Age of Civic Renewal. Washington, D.C.: National Trust for Historic Preservation, 2003.

This study illustrates how many different places can benefit by connecting historic preservation and transit. It shows how classic rail terminals such as Boston's South Station can be transformed into intermodal transportation centers that facilitate movement, and it documents how rehabilitating those stations encourages the kind of economic development needed to sustain transit and attract new riders.

Collins, Christiane Crasemann. Werner Hegemann and the Search for Universal Urbanism. New York; W. W. Norton, 2005.

This first full study of Werner Hegemann (1881–1936) recounts his contribution to the emerging discipline of international city planning and his influential position within the Modern Movement.

Mehrotra, Rahul, ed. Everyday Urbanism: Margaret Crawford vs. Michael Speaks. Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2005.

The Michigan Debates on Urbanism series features three in-depth, one-on-one debates designed to explore these self-conscious, disparate schools of urbanism that have emerged in the last decade: Everyday Urbanism features two world-renowned urban design theorists and/or Practitioners, carefully chosen to bring together the right mix of personalities and positions . Non-utopian, informal, and non-structuralist, Everyday Urbanism celebrates and builds on everyday, ordinary life and reality with little pretense about the possibility of a perfectible, tidy, or ideal built environment. It is populist and democratic by definition and design, and the most socially compassionate of the three paradigms discussed in this series, but does it overestimate the mythic aspect of the ordinary and over-praise the vernacular and commercial?

Seasholes, Nancy S. Gaining Ground: A History of Landmaking in Boston. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 2003.

The story of landmaking in Boston is presented geographically; each chapter traces landmaking in a different part of the city from its first permanent settlement to the present. Seasholes introduces findings from recent archaeological investigations in Boston, and relates landmaking to the major historical developments that shaped it. At the beginning of the nineteenth century, landmaking in Boston was spurred by the rapid growth that resulted from the burgeoning China trade. The influx of Irish immigrants in the mid-19th century prompted several large projects to create residential land — not for the Irish, but to keep the taxpaying Yankees from fleeing to the suburbs. Many landmaking projects were undertaken to cover tidal flats that had been polluted by raw sewage discharged directly onto them, removing the "pestilential exhalations" thought to cause illness. Land was also added for port developments, public parks, and transportation facilities, including the largest landmaking project of all, the airport. Reviewed in February 2004 Planning magazine.

Eagle, Steven J. Regulatory Takings, 3rd ed. S.L.: Lexis-Nexis, 2005.

Mandelker, Daniel R., et al. Planning and Control of Land Development: Cases and Materials. 6th ed. S.L.: Lexis-Nexis, 2005.

Planning and Control of Land Development gives special attention to new model planning and land use legislation proposed by the American Planning Association's Growing Smart project. Excerpts and references to this legislation appear throughout the book.

Frumkin, Howard, Lawrence Frank, and Richard Jackson. Urban Sprawl and Public Health: Designing Planning, and Building for Healthy Communities. Washington, D.C.: Island Press, 2004.

Three of the nation's leading public health and urban planning experts explore an intriguing question: How does the physical environment in which we live affect our health? For decades, growth and development in our communities has been of the low-density, automobile-dependent type known as sprawl. The authors examine the direct and indirect impacts of sprawl on human health and well being, and discuss the prospects for improving public health through alternative approaches to design, land use, and transportation. Link to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Active Community Environments Initiative. March 2005 review in Planning magazine.

Pack, Janet Rothenberg, ed. Sunbelt/Frostbelt: Public Policies and Market Forces in Metropolitan Development. Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution Press, 2005.

Sunbelt/Frostbelt examines the role of government policies and market forces in shaping growth patterns in five metropolitan areas: Chicago, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Phoenix, and Pittsburgh. It concludes with a look at how these different areas have tried to put in place policy reforms to address their unique growth challenges.

Southworth, Michael, and Eran Ben-Joseph. Streets and the Shaping of Towns and Cities. rev. ed. Washington, D.C.: Island Press, 2003.

The topic of streets and street design is of compelling interest today as public officials, developers, and community activists seek to reshape urban patterns to achieve more sustainable forms of growth and development. Originally published in 1997, this edition includes a new introduction that addresses topics of current interest including revised standards from the Institute of Transportation Engineers; changes in city plans and development standards following New Urbanist, Smart Growth, and sustainability principles; traffic calming; and ecologically oriented street design.

Richardson, Harry W., and Chang-Hee Christine Bae, eds. Urban Sprawl in Western Europe and the United States. Aldershot, Hants.: Ashgate, 2004.

Urban sprawl is one of the key planning issues today. This book compares Western Europe and the U.S., focusing on anti-sprawl policies. The U.S. is known for its settlement patterns that emphasize low-density suburban development and extreme automobile dependence, whereas European countries emphasize higher densities, pro-transit policies and more compact urban growth. Yet, on closer inspection, the differences are not as wide as first appears. A key feature of the book is the attention given to France; its experience is little known in the English-speaking world. The book concludes that both continents can offer each other useful insights and perhaps policy guidance.

Diers, Jim. Neighbor Power: Building Community the Seattle Way. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2004.

Neighbor Power chronicles Jim Diers’s involvement with Seattle's communities. This book not only gives hope that participatory democracy is possible, but it offers practical applications and invaluable lessons for ordinary, caring citizens who want to make a difference. It also provides government officials with inspiring stories and proven programs to help them embrace citizen activists as true partners. Planners Library review of April 2005.