115 



have brought to this critical issue provide a sound and useful basis for your 

 Committee, the Senate Interior and other interested Committees, and the Ad- 

 ministration to go forward with legislation that will give unified direction to 

 State Governments in a coordinated national policy to implement this needed 

 reform. Thank you. 



Statement of the DEPARTivrENT of Housing and Urban Develop- 

 ' MENT Before the Senate Committee on Commerce, IVIay 5, 1971 



STATEMENT OF HON. SAMUEL JACKSON, ASSISTANT SECRETARY METROPOLI- 

 TAN PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT, DEPARTMENT OF HOUSING AND UR- 

 BAN DEVELOPMENT, ACCOMPANIED BY FREDERICK A. MCLAUGHLIN, OF- 

 FICE OF PLANS, PROGRAMS, AND EVALUATION, AND ROBERT PAUL, DIRECTOR 

 OF THE DIVISION OF PROGRAM DEVELOPMENT, OFFICE OF COMMUNITY 

 PLANNING AND MANAGEMENT 



Mr. Jackson. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 



It is a pleasure to appear before the committee, I am accompanied 

 this morning by Mr. Fred McLaughlin, the Director of our Office of 

 Plans, Programs, and Evaluation on my lift; and, on my right, 

 Kobert Paul, the Director of our Division of Program Development 

 in the Office of Community Planning and Management. 



We appreciate this opportunity to present the views of the Depart- 

 ment of Housing and Urban Development on S. 582 and S. 638, the 

 coastal zone management bills, and on other bills, including S. 992 

 as proposed by the administration, to establish a national land-use 

 policy. 



Your committee is aware of the time and effort that has been de- 

 voted to the whole problem of national land use planning and man- 

 agement, both witliin and without the Federal Government, since 

 legislation concerned with coastal zone management was first intro- 

 duced. The President's first environmental report, for example, 

 stressed the importance of developing a national land use policy. 

 There is no question but that the coastal zones should receive high 

 priority consideration under any national land use policy. 



The Department of Housing and Urban Development is deeply 

 interested in the development of the coastal regions. Many of our ma- 

 jor cities and densely populated urban areas are located within areas 

 defined as "coastal zones" in this legislation and it is certain that 

 many urban areas — and particularly man}' areas of crucial importance 

 for imminent urban growth — could be covered by the proposal coast- 

 al zone legislation. One of the most difficult of national problems is 

 thi achievement of a proper balance between the preservation oi 

 coastal lands and their development whether for commercial, indus- 

 trial, residential, or reci-eational pur]ioses. 



The rising concern with the quality of the enidronment has been 

 largely prompted by the recognition that the process of converting 

 land to urban use is perhaps the single greatest force on the natural 

 environment. Although urban land in the coastal zone is only a very 

 small fraction of our total land area, it is, and will be, occupied by an 

 overwhelming majority of our people, and its develo])ment and main- 

 tenance consumes much of the Nation's annual capital and the impact 

 and needs of urbanization go far beyond urban boundaries. 



