B. Pusuic INVOLVEMENT IN New Community DEVELOPMENT: 
JUSTIFICATION, PROBLEMS, AND A PROPOSAL 
(By R. Stephen Browning, Harvard University) 
Editors Note: This is an excerpt of Mr. Browning’s paper. Within 
we present part of chapter 1 and the entire chapter 2 which deals 
with public involvement in new community development, as well as 
his accompanying bibliography. 
New communities are a vast paradox. Many urban writers claim 
that new communities can provide a better way of life. Yet, with all 
the publicity given to the concept of new communities, very little 
positive action has been taken by either the public or the private 
sectors to help develop them. Is it because new communities in fact 
cannot produce the manifold advantages claimed for them by their 
advocates? This paper takes the position that it is not a lack of 
capacity in providing the claimed advantages; on the contrary, the 
problem with the new community concept is more political and legal 
in nature. That is, new communities have not been developed because 
institutional structures do not exist which would be capable of success- 
fully undertaking such a large-scale task. Moreover, it is not yet clear 
that even if these institutions were to be created tomorrow, they would 
have the constitutional authority to act. 
This paper will approach the problem in three ways. First, it will 
present a general analysis of the concept of new communities and the 
strategies for their implementation. Second, it will examine the more 
significant legal and political issues which constitute the bulk of the 
problems now impeding public development of new communities. 
Third, it will present a proposed statute which seeks to formalize a 
reconciliation of these issues into a proposed political structure for 
the development of new communities. 
Both the legal analysis and the proposed statute are based largely 
on Massachusetts case and statutory law, not because it is particularly 
typical, (although much of what is said does have broader application) 
but because the State is among the first to broach these issues. More- 
over, solutions arrived at in Massachusetts may serve to some extent 
extent as prototypes for other State new community programs. 
Tur New Community CONCEPT AND STRATEGIES FOR ITS [MPLEMENTA- 
TION 
A. THE NEW COMMUNITY CONCEPT 
1. A brief look at the record 
New communities are not new. Conceptually, they doubtless date to 
the dawn of human settlements. One of the earliest expressions of the 
contemporary new town concept has been attributed to Leonardo da 
Vinci, who suggested that the city of Milan be ringed with eight 
(57) 
