Overparticipation: Designing Effective Land Use Public Processes

There are more opportunities for public participation in the planning and zoning process today than there were decades immediately after states adopted first enabling acts. As a result, today, participation, dominated by nearby residents, drives most land use decisions. Enhanced rights often seen as an unqualified good but is long history of community control cementing racial segregation, entrenching exclusion, preventing development affordable housing cities suburbs alike. Integrating engagement into effective administrative requires addressing various ways which existing processes have failed to serve their purported goals. This Article critically examines how operates approvals. It then proposes new model, drawing lessons from other processes, effort balance input, legal standards, expertise.