308 CONFERENCE ON NATURAL BEAUTY 



about the importance of statewide comprehensive land use planning 

 as a factor in preserving open space and natural beauty in the rural 

 landscape. 



The State planning agency is the only unit that looks at all the 

 land urban, suburban, and rural. Metropolitan planning agencies 

 are confined to the area that is presently urbanized. It is the area 

 outside the suburban fringe, where growth pressures will be experi- 

 enced in coming decades, that needs attention now before the 

 deluge of new subdivisions, expressways, industrial parks, and shop- 

 ping centers descends. Rural county governments are most often 

 ill-equipped to anticipate this growth ; in most cases they do not have 

 the facts necessary to resist pressures of large developers. These facts 

 are developed by the planning process through the rigorous research 

 and design process by which competing land uses are balanced so 

 that the whole landscape contains each legitimate activity in its right- 

 ful place. In the absence of effective rural regional planning in most 

 of the Nation, planning in what has been called "exurbia" or the 

 rural fringe is done primarily by the State planning agency. 



Another point is that conservation, agriculture, and recreation are 

 indeed becoming recognized as legitimate uses of land, entitled to 

 equality in the comprehensive plans. However, this puts conserva- 

 tion in competition with other uses residential, industrial, and com- 

 mercial which traditionally have been considered higher uses in 

 direct economic return both to the landowner and to the community 

 as a whole. Criteria other than strict economic costs and benefits 

 must be applied to justify reserving large tracts of land for those uses 

 which are so important to human existence. This justification can 

 never come without cooperation between central city interests and 

 the farm areas. City residents benefit from a more beautiful land- 

 scape just as much as those fortunate enough to live in daily contact 

 with nature. And therefore city support is necessary in securing land 

 for these purposes. The State comprehensive planning process is the 

 mechanism for assuring that all uses of land receive due consideration 

 in future growth patterns. 



Conversely, it behooves conservationists and persons concerned 

 with recreation to insist on proper recognition for these important 

 uses. State planning agencies should retain staff members with ex- 

 perience and competence in resources planning. Advisory commit- 

 tees of knowledgeable citizens should review plans while they are 

 being made, not after they are published and all the decisions made. 

 Conservationists should impose themselves into the planning process, 



