Robert E. Deyle

Local Government Compliance with State Planning Mandates: The Effects of State Implementation in Florida

Abstract State planning mandates have been used to achieve state policy objectives through the local planning process. Recent research has shown that plan quality is higher both in states with mandates for local planning and in those where state authority to review local plans and enforce mandates is greater. Florida is generally considered to be among the strongest of the mandate states. We examine the extent to which eighteen Florida communities comply with state mandates about coastal storm hazards. Compliance with the mandate requirements is highly variable—greater with some mandates than with others; and within mandate categories, local plans vary substantially in compliance. In examining why this variability occurs, we test two sets of factors: the interpretation and enforcement of the mandates by the state agency charged with their administration, and local community conditions. We find evidence that much of the variation in compliance is attributable to how the planning mandate was implemented by ...

Group Learning in Participatory Planning Processes: An Exploratory Quasiexperimental Analysis of Local Mitigation Planning in Florida

Scholars have identified group learning as both an outcome of effective participatory planning processes and as the means to achieving agreement on planning outputs and to building constituencies for plan implementation. This article examines the challenges of designing empirical studies of group learning in participatory planning processes that have strong internal and external validity and reports the results of a quasiexperimental analysis of how different degrees of participation increase mutual understanding of planning problems and solutions.

A parcel-based GIS method for evaluating conformance of local land-use planning with a state mandate to reduce exposure to hurricane flooding

This article illustrates how a parcel-based geographic information system can be used to identify and quantify land-use changes within subareas of individual planning jurisdictions as the basis for evaluating the implementation of local land-use policies. We describe a method for using property-parcel polygons and property-appraiser tax-roll data to analyze the effects of changes in land use on the exposure of people and property to hurricane flooding in coastal communities in Florida. This method allows us to test the conformity of local government growth-management practices to a state mandate which calls for the limiting of development in hurricane hazard zones. We apply this method to analyze hurricane hazard exposure in Okaloosa County, which is a coastal county located in the Panhandle of Florida.

The Proof of the Planning Is in the Platting: An Evaluation of Florida's Hurricane Exposure Mitigation Planning Mandate

Problem: Floridas 1985 Growth Management Act required the states coastal communities to include policies for two types of hurricane hazard zones in their comprehensive plans: to direct populations away from coastal high hazard areas (CHHAs) and to maintain evacuation times within larger hurricane vulnerability zones (HVZs). State law requires local governments to initiate measures to implement these policies within one year of state approval of the local plan. Have communities complied with these state mandates? Purpose: This research aims to determine the extent to which post-plan residential development intensities within hurricane hazard zones conform to the states policy mandate and the degree to which success in this regard can be explained by the quality of local plan maps and policies. Methods: We conducted graphical analysis of development trends, and undertook quasi-experimental analysis of pre- and post-plan residential development inside and outside CHHAs, as well as analyzing correlations between plan quality and post-plan residential development intensity. We also conducted interviews for case studies. Results and conclusions: We found residential exposure to hurricane flood hazards to have increased substantially in the majority of 74 municipalities and 15 coastal counties in Florida after the state approved local comprehensive plans. Residential development inside CHHAs did not slow after plans were adopted by most of these coastal communities. We found better maps and stronger policies to be correlated with lower post-plan development intensity, but the policy quality effect, though not the map quality effect, disappeared after controlling for pre-plan development intensities. These results may be due in part to vesting of development approved prior to adopting the plans, pre-existing zoning entitlements, and Floridas 1995 property rights law. Takeaway for practice: State planning mandates aimed at managing development in critical areas are likely to have only marginal effects because of prior entitlements and the legal and political inertia of existing local plan policies and land development regulations. Research support: Research support was received from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administrations Office of Sea Grant, the Florida Department of Community Affairs, and Florida State Universitys DeVoe Moore Center.

Collaborative Planning by Metropolitan Planning Organizations: A Test of Causal Theory

More than twenty years of case study research have produced a rich theoretical framework for understanding the outcomes that can be achieved through effective collaborative planning and the starting conditions, process characteristics, and participant attributes and behaviors that can facilitate achieving those outcomes. Multivariate modeling of collaborative development of draft long-range transportation plans by the technical advisory committees of 88 U.S. metropolitan planning organizations supports nearly all of the hypotheses that have emerged from this case study literature. In this context, however, while consensus building best practices contribute significantly to success, formal consensus-based decision making emerges as not critical.

Residential recycling in Mid-America: The cost effectiveness of curbside programs in Oklahoma

Abstract The cost-effectiveness of recycling for achieving proposed or mandated waste reduction and recycling goals in the U.S. is open to question in states where the costs of municipal waste disposal are considerably lower than in the densely-populated eastern states. In this study, twenty-year net present value analysis was used to assess the relative cost-effectiveness of curbside recycling versus current land disposal systems in four communities in Oklahoma. Two systems were modelled: (1) a municipally-operated program and (2) a program operated by a private-sector firm under municipal contract. Results indicate that curbside recycling may be marginally cost-effective under conditions somewhat more favorable than those assumed in the base analysis. Low land disposal costs limit the impact of avoided costs on cost effectiveness. The economics of curbside recycling are more sensitive to collection costs, recycling rates, recovered materials markets and, for the contract curbside option, the magnitude of the service charge per household. Achieving state or federal waste reduction and recycling goals of 25% of the composite municipal waste stream will necessitate recycling more than the post-consumer products amenable to curbside collection. Adding programs for composting leaves and grass may yield net diversion rates approaching 20%. In many communities, however, net costs per household would increase by

Low-Regrets Incrementalism Land Use Planning Adaptation to Accelerating Sea Level Rise in Florida’s Coastal Communities

1.45 to

Spillovers of state policy innovations: New York's hazardous waste regulatory initiatives

2.85 per month for a combined yard waste and curbside program. This could exceed the publics willingness to pay for the less tangible benefits of recycling and could necessitate financial subsidies to achieve public waste reduction and recycling goals.

Risk-Based Taxation of Hazardous Land Development

Sea level rise is one of the climate change effects most amenable to adaptation planning as the impacts are familiar and the nature of the phenomenon is unambiguous. Yet, significant uncertainties remain. Using a normative framework of adaptive management and natural hazards planning, we examine how coastal communities in Florida are planning in the face of accelerating sea level rise through analysis of planning documents and interviews with planners. We clarify that communities are taking a low-regrets incremental approach with increasingly progressive measures motivated by confidence in planning intelligence and direct experience with impacts attributable to sea level rise.

Are We Any Safer? Comprehensive Plan Impacts on Hurricane Evacuation and Shelter Demand in Florida

States are often seen as policy laboratories where innovations are tried that may later be adopted by other states or the federal government. Engendering such experiments may, however, promote spillovers on other states. We analyze several of New York States policy initiatives from the 1980s that were intended to influence the selection of waste management technologies by hazardous waste generators. Time series analysis of hazardous waste manifest data reveals that constraints on land disposal of certain wastes and a tax on hazardous waste generation and disposal were associated with shifts to lower-risk technologies for waste management. The policies also constrained imports to in-state land disposal facilities and may have led to increased exports for incineration and recycling, thus shifting some of the risks of hazardous waste to other jurisdictions with less stringent regulations or lower taxes on waste generation and management.