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The Northeast Regional Center for Rural Development
The Pennsylvania State University
7 Armsby Building, University Park PA 16802-5602
814/863-4656(phone); 814/863-0586(fax)
Please send questions and comments to:
nercrd@psu.edu

Land Use in the Northeast US:

Ten Things Members of Every Rural
Community Need to Know About Land Use...

Edited by Stephan J. Goetz and
Timothy W. Kelsey
June 2003

1. No other region of the country faces greater pressure on its land base than the Northeast US.
2. Once traffic gridlock occurs in a community, it is almost always too late to do anything about it (The Brookings Institution).
3. Planning is usually the only way in which unpleasant surprises related to land use can be avoided.
4. The smaller the unit of local government, the greater the potential local control of land use and planning.
5. Generally speaking, the nation's food supply is at this time not under threat from land conversion to new housing development.
6. Compared to previous economic expansions, and given the amount of population growth during the last decade, developers are currently undersupplying new stocks of housing.
7. There is no clear-cut relationship between land preservation efforts and the supply of housing (The Brookings Institution). We also know little about the long-term effectiveness of farmland preservation programs.
8. Conventional cost of community services studies need to be used with caution - and they are often misused.
9. Some individuals claim that residential development is always beneficial to a community because of the increased tax dollars it brings; others claim costs of residential development are always negative because new school expenses offset any potential tax benefits.
10. Property rights are granted to individuals by the community in which they reside.

The Northeast Regional Center for Rural Development is located at the Pennsylvania State University and collaborates with land grant institutions in the northeast U.S.