Regional Focus
Adirondack Park
Dr. Ross S. Whaley, Chairman, Adirondack Park Agency
Brian Houseal, Executive Director, Adirondack Council
One of the nation's oldest and most famous regional land use planning
initiatives is the Adirondack Park. The Park's 6 million acres encompasses
vast public and private land holdings, spectacular natural areas and long-standing
communities. The Adirondack Park Agency oversees the Adirondack Park Land
Use and Development Plan, which guides land uses on both public lands and
on 3.4 million acres of private land in the Park. The Plan aims to protect
the Adirondacks natural resources and character while ensuring the
continued vitality of its 130 towns and villages. Back
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Cape Cod
John Lippman, Chief Planner, Cape Cod Commission
Maggie Geist, Executive Director, Association to Protect Cape Cod
Cape Cod (Barnstable County) possesses unique natural, coastal, historical,
cultural and other values across its 416 square miles that are threatened
by uncoordinated or inappropriate uses of the region's land and other resources.
The Cape Cod Commission was established in 1990 as a regional planning and
regulatory agency to prepare and implement a regional land use policy plan
for the 15 Cape Cod towns, review and regulate Developments of Regional Impact,
and recommend designation of certain areas as Districts of Critical Planning
Concern. Back to seminars
Chesapeake Bay Region
Richard Hall (moderator), Director of Land Use Planning & Analysis, Maryland Department of Planning
Robert J. Etgen, Executive Director, Eastern Shore Land Conservancy
Dru Schmidt-Perkins, Executive Director, 1000 Friends of Maryland
The Chesapeake Bay is the nation s largest estuary, but it's
once lavishly productive waters have suffered badly from the impacts of agriculture
and urban and suburban sprawl. The region continues to see tremendous pressure
for new development. Since 1983, the federal government and states of the
Bay's watershed have sought to work together through the Chesapeake
Bay Program to restore the Bay's health. NGOs and citizens have worked
tirelessly to press government and raise public awareness. All these efforts
have focused attention on land use in the watershed, as nutrients and other
nonpoint source contaminants represent the greatest human impacts on the
Bay s natural communities. This seminar will discuss initiatives of
state and county government's to control land use on a regional scale
in order restore the Bay. Back to seminars
Lancaster
County, Pennsylvania
Ray D'Agostino, Township Manager, West Lampeter Township
Terry Kauffman, Borough Manager/Authority Administrator, Mount Joy Borough
At nearly 1000 square miles, Lancaster County in south-central Pennsylvania
boasts some of the most fertile farmland in the world and is the cultural
center of the Amish. The Lancaster County Planning Commission (LCPC) balances
the desire to preserve the uniqueness of Lancaster County with a changing
economy and built environment in a suburbanizing region. The Lancaster County
Comprehensive Plan seeks to reconcile urban growth, agriculture, and natural
resource conservation. It also advocates the use of traditional neighborhood
design techniques to accommodate new growth within Urban and Village Growth
Boundaries. Back to seminars
Long Island Pine Barrens
James Tripp (moderator), General Counsel, Environmental Defense
Ray Corwin, Executive Director, New York Central Pine Barrens Joint Planning & Policy Commission
Peter Scully, Chair, Central Pine Barrens Commission, and Regional Director, NYS Department of EnvironmentalConservation Region 1
John Turner, Director of the Division of Environmental Protection, Town of Brookhaven, New York
The Long Island Pine Barrens boast the greatest diversity of plant and animal
species anywhere in the State of New York. Three towns in New York's southeastern-most
county (Suffolk) host the 100,000+ acre region known as the Central Pine
Barrens. The Long Island Pine Barrens Protection Act established the Pine
Barrens Joint Policy and Planning Commission in 1993, which oversees the
Comprehensive Management Plan (CMP) that covers two major regions within
the 100,000 acre area - a 53,000 acre Core Preservation Area where no new
development is permitted and a 47,000 acre Compatible Growth Area - where
limited, environmentally compatible development is allowed. Back
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National Heritage Areas: Schuylkill River and
Blackstone River Valley
Larry Gall, Executive Director, John H. Chaffee Blackstone River Valley National
Heritage Corridor
Kurt D. Zwikl, Executive Director, Schuylkill River National & State
Heritage Area
The National Heritage Area program provides a structure for cooperative regional
planning sponsored by the National Park Service. The Schuylkill River National
Heritage Area was designated by Congress in 2000. It encompasses the Schuylkill
River watershed in 5 Pennsylvania counties, home to 3.2 million residents.
Through a regional management plan, the program seeks to provide a vision
and process for public and private agencies to protect and enhance the region's
historic and scenic resources. Created by an Act of Congress in 1986, the
Blackstone River Valley National Heritage Corridor is designed to enable
the National Park Service to assist state and local governments, citizens
and NGO's to cooperate in preserving the region's historic and scenic
values. The Corridor encompasses 400,000 acres of public and private lands,
about 1 million residents, and a wide variety of land uses across two states. Back
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New Jersey Highlands
James Tripp (moderator), General Counsel, Environmental Defense
Julia Somers, Executive Director, New Jersey Highlands Coalition
John Weingart, Chair, Highlands Council
In 2004, the state of New Jersey adopted the Highlands Water Protection and
Planning Act, creating the Highlands Council as a new state agency to develop
a regional land use plan for an area of 800,000 acres. The Regional Master
Plan is to be implemented through regulations of the state Department of
Environmental Protection. The overriding purpose of the Act and the Master
Plan is to protect the abundance and quality of this rural area's water
resources, on which much of the state's urban population depends for
drinking water. The Council, made up of planners, local government officials,
residents and NGO representatives, is slated to release its initial Regional
Master Plan in the fall of 2006. Back
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New Jersey Meadowlands
Debbie Lawlor, Chief Planner, New Jersey Meadowlands Commission
Capt. Bill Sheehan, Hackensack Riverkeeper
Established by the state of New Jersey in 1968, the Meadowlands Commission
is charged with achieving environmental protection, economic development and
solid waste management in one of the world's most intensively exploited and
economically dynamic watersheds, including extensive estuaries of New York
Harbor having great ecological and economic importance. In developing an integrated
Master Plan and set of land use and economic development tools, the Commission
has pioneered the use of municipal tax sharing and redevelopment of brownfields.
Back to seminars
Pinelands National Reserve
Betty Wilson (moderator), Chair, New Jersey Pinelands Commission
John Stokes, Executive Director, New Jersey Pinelands Commission
Emile DeVito, Director of Science & Stewardship, New Jersey Conservation
Foundation
The New Jersey Pinelands is the country's first National Reserve and a U.S.
Biosphere Reserve of the Man and the Biosphere Program. At 1.1 million acres,
the National Reserve encompasses globally important pine barrens ecosystems
and occupies 22% of New Jersey's land area, covering portions of seven counties
and all or parts of 56 municipalities. In 1979, New Jersey formed a partnership
with the federal government to preserve, protect and enhance the natural
and cultural resources of this special place. Today, with the Pinelands Comprehensive
Management Plan (CMP), under the administration of the NJ Pinelands Commission,
the region enjoys the benefits of a mandatory regional land use plan that
aims to protect its unique ecology while permitting compatible development. Back
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Other Seminar Topics:
Resource-Based Regional Planning
Regional Planning Tools
Strategies for Regional Planning
Impacts of Regional planning