Author(s)

S. D. Brody

Abstract

While the principles of sustainable planning are well recognized, little empirical research has been done on the degree to which policies are being implemented after plan adoption and the factors contributing to the variation in plan implementation. This study tests the efficacy of land use planning and plan implementation in southern Florida, USA by measuring the degree to which wetland development over a ten-year period conforms to the original design of adopted comprehensive plans. First, I spatially identify concentrated areas of wetland alteration permits and compare these locations with the adopted future land use maps for county and city jurisdictions in the southern portion of the state. Second, I examine the major factors influencing nonconforming development patterns across the study area. Results indicate a well-defined spatial pattern of nonconforming wetland development and isolate specific socioeconomic, demographic, and geographic variables impacting these deviations from the original spatial intent of local plans. Keywords: plan implementation, Florida, wetlands, sprawl. 1 Introduction While a large amount of research has been conducted on the measurement and prediction of environmental plan quality, there has been little systematic empirical work to determine the quality of plan implementation subsequent to

Keywords

plan implementation, Florida, wetlands, sprawl.