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The Topic
Land Use refers to the ways the city's built environment is used, preserved and developed. City planning is a discipline concerned with the present and future use of land and the quality of urban life. Zoning refers to a set of regulations that determine such matters as which areas will be deemed residential, commercial or industrial, how tall buildings can be in a specific area, how much open space will be required. The law governing zoning, New York City's Zoning Resolution first passed in 1916 and was substantially revised in 1961.
The Context
New York City has over 200,000 acres of land, and we fight over every square foot. The city's land use policies set the stage for that fight. Will there be parks? And where? How high can Donald Trump build? All these questions and more are are addressed by the city's land use policies and community planning. The City Planning Commission sets land use and planning policies through the Uniform Land Use Review Procedure (ULURP). Community boards may prepare neighborhood plans for approval by the City Planning Commission and the New York City Council.

Best Books About Land Use

Sort books by: Author | Title | Publisher | Year

THE DEATH AND LIFE OF GREAT AMERICAN CITIES
Jane Jacobs
(Vintage, 1961.)

The classical critique of urban renewal, official city planning, and monumental Robert Moses-style plans. more info...

 

The Encyclopedia of New York
by Kenneth Jackson (Editor) (Yale University Press, 1995.)

A complete reference guide to New York City history and development. more info...

The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York
by Robert A. Caro (Alfred A. Knopf, 1974.)

The indespensible starting point for anyone who wants to understand New York's urban environment and the role of power politics in shaping it. more info...

Reader Submissions / Others.

• A New Deal For New York by Mike Wallace. Mike Wallace sets forth a bracingly optimistic program for regenerating not just Ground Zero but the whole metropolitan region. This mini-manifesto of fewer than 100 5-by-7-inch pages calls for an all-out government-supported program modeled after the sweeping initiatives of Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal. New York Times Book Review

• After The World Trade Center: Rethinking New York City by Michael Sorkin and Sharon Zukin (Editors). An architect and critic, Michael Sorkin, and Sharon Zukin, a sociologist at the CUNY Graduate Center, assemble a collection of 19 wide-ranging essays on reconceiving and reconstructing the site of the Twin Towers. New York Times Book Review

• City: Rediscovering the Center by William H. Whyte. In writing this book William Whyte is trying to come up with ideas on how to make public spaces more appealing without the use of abstract theory. He watches parks, bus stops, and town squares in an effort to figure out how to make them safer, more accessible, and cleaner.

• Out Of Ground Zero: Case Studies in Urban Reinvention by Joan Ockman (Editor). Architectural historian Joan Ockman has commissioned a superlative series of instructive case studies of cities that have suffered greater loss of life and property than New York did last year.New York Times Book Review

Interested in other books about NYC? Visit our NYC Books section.

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