88 



Environmental Quality looks forward to continuing its contributions to this 

 debate. 



Statement op Commissioner John A. Carver, Jb. 



This statement is submitted on the basis of my experience as Assistant Sec- 

 retary for Public Land Management and as Under Secretary of the Department 

 of the Interior, and as a member of the Advisory Council of the Public Land Law 

 Review Commission. The Chairman of the Federal Power Commission will testify 

 with reference to the institutional interests of the Commission on which I now 

 serve. 



401(a) 1; 401 S. 3354 looks toward a system of public action for a better 



icik<*U2)^^ ' quality of land-use decisions in this country. A central feature 



of the bill is the dominant role assigned to the States. Provision 



is made for interstate agencies to participate in the benefits of 



403(a) ^^^® program of technical and financial assistance, but in the bill 



^) ' as presently drafted, detailed attention is given to a Statewide 



Land Use Plan to be prepared by a "single State agency." 



The system of public action starts, of course, with a Con- 

 gressional authorization of a program and a means of carrying 

 it out. I approached the contents of the bill in a different order 

 than the one used in the bill. Since I consider the key to an 

 understanding of the bill to be the Statewide Land Use Plan 

 (Plan), an appropriate starting point is to glean from the bill a 

 40fi(h] I2) ' summary of the attributes of the "Plan." 



^^) It apparently is to cover all of the land area of a State, with 



the discretionary exception of lands within the boundaries of 

 incorporated municipalities which have exercised land use plan- 

 406(b)(2) ning and authority. The only other authorized exceptions are 



(B) ^ those provided in its rules and regulations by the entity au- 



thorized by the bill to administer its provisions, the Federal 

 Land and Water Resources Planning Council. These rules ap- 

 .„_ , > . parently could be of specific rather than of general application. 



406(b)(1) The Plan must identify the boundaries of the State .subject to 



the Plan, but it would seem that this is not a grant of author- 

 400(b) (3) '^^ ^^ ^^^^ State to make additional exclusions. 



(^) A plan is required to classify land areas, in the sense of re- 



flecting qualitative judgments of several kinds: Areas where 

 40fi(b)(3) ecological, environmental, geological, and physical conditions 



(B) dictate that certain types of land use activities are undesirable 



406(b) (3) are to be identified as are areas where the highest and best use 



406(b)(3) ii^ recreation oriented use and those best suited for agriculture, 



(U) mineral, industrial and commercial development. 



A classification finiction may be involved in the bills require- 

 ment that the Plan identify present and future transportation 

 and utility corridor locations. The bill seems to recognize that 

 roads, electric transmission lines, and gas lines are going to 

 have to be located somewhere. The Plan al.so requires identifica- 

 406(b) (3) tion of areas which furnish amenities and ba'^ic essentials to the 



(E) development of new towns and the revitalization of existing 



communities. 

 406(b)(8) Flood plain identification and management must be provided 



for in the Plan. 



A number of the explicit requirements for the contents of 

 the Plan are framed in such a way as to preclude the State 

 from taking a narrow or parochial view of the contribution its 

 land resources and its own State governmental action can make 

 for the good of the Nation. For example, a Plan must include 

 406(b)(4) "appropriate" provisions, designed to "insure" that regional re- 



quirements for material goods, natural resources, energy, recre- 

 ation and environmental amenities have been given "considera- 

 tion." It must include provisions designed to insure consistency 

 406(b)(5) with both regional and federal standards (as well as local and 



State) relating to onvironmontal quality and resource conser- 

 vation. Explicitly, it must include provisions to "insure" that 



1 The numberlnj? of section rpferences is to the new Title IV, proposed to be added to 

 the Water Resources Planning Act. In S. 3354, Title IV is added by Section 1. 



