The Limits Of Regulation: Evidence From Local Plan Implemen

Planners at local government planning agencies in California perceive implementation primarily in terms of land use regulation. Dependence on regulation as the primary form of plan implementation can: 1. reinforce a decision-making process that emphasizes bargaining and negotiation with applicants, 2. result in "capture" of the implementing agency by the development industry, 3. leave the initiative for implementation in developers' hands rather than planners', and 4. subject distributive and redistributive policies to the limits of regulatory policy. Planning agencies can identify ways to minimize the effects and limitations of land use regulation. For example, they can recognize the implicit distributive and redistributive policies incorporated with current regulatory policy, and can adjust those techniques to improve their ability to meet social goals as well as to reduce inequitable impacts. As planners become more conscious of the limits of a regulatory approach to implementation, they can deal with these limits directly.