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“QEP”–A New Method of Rural Planning

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 May 2017

Frederic O. Sargent*
Affiliation:
Department of Resource Economics, The University of Vermont
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Extract

Since its emergence in the early part of this century, planning in the United States has been predominantly urban. Regional planning of watersheds, has received some attention but planning for rural areas has not been widely practiced, nor has it been taught in planning schools. Support for this generalization may be found in planning texts which consider 50,000 population a “small” municipality. Further evidence is found in town plans prepared through support of federal “701” funds during the past decade. These plans are usually for expansion of urban facilities and services and ignore exclusively rural land uses. Planning in England presents a contrast. It is appropriately referred to as “town and country planning” as it covers the range of land use intensities from agricultural to the highest value urban block as interrelated and interconnected parts of a single fabric.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Northeastern Agricultural and Resource Economics Association 

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References

1/ “The Glackmeyer Report of Multiple Land-Use Planning” by G. A. Hills and A. N. Boissonneau, Ontario Department of Lands and Forests, 1960.Google Scholar

2/ The cost of QEP is small no matter how the cost is calculated. Three graduate students who conducted QEP's spent 200 hours on each project. Additional costs are estimated at 10 professional man days. The present practice is to charge towns up to $750 to defray costs of the attitude survey, publication of the final plan, and mileage for town surveys.Google Scholar

3/ For a detailed description of the QEP process, see “Guidelines for Quality Environmental Planning,” by F. O. Sargent, Pamphlet #38, Vt. Ext. Ser., 1973.Google Scholar

4/ See “Alternative Methods for Keeping Land in Agriculture,” by F. O. Sargent, Journal of the Northeast Agricultural Economics Council Proceedings, 1973. Also, see “Farmland Assessment in Vermont,” by G. J. Kirchner and F. O. Sargent, mimeo, February 1974.Google Scholar

5/ An example of a dramatic action directly resulting from a QEP is provided by the first project in South Burlington, where a 100-acre park on Lake Champlain was acquired by a town that was previously landlocked.Google Scholar