- In property-owning democracies of the Anglo settler society kind, ‘landown-
ership’ is the cornerstone to land taxation, and land-use regulation through
zoning. - A sophisticated extension to the ownership basis for operational planning
acknowledges the ‘interests’ which lie behind formal titles: these include
indigenous peoples’ residual rights and values, community aesthetic interests,
airspace-above and below-ground ownerships, pleasure-using rights, and per-
ceived feral rights – and there are surely others.^19 - Another mode involves engagement of a ‘control of effects’ basis for the man-
agement of planning operations via attachment to the land title registration
and land tax systems.^20
An undeniably beneficial and everlasting outcome of all planning is the conser-
vation of open area humanized landscapes for aesthetic appreciation, food and
fibre production, visitor enjoyment, and sustainable-as-possible urban residency.Urban-rural growth patterning
(Refer also to the Urban Sprawl Control passage in chapter 5.)Constraining urban sprawl is frequently addressed
from the heart rather than the head, springing from the
‘urban harbours evil’ and ‘rural is clean, green and
good’ sets of generalization.^21 An economic case for aes-
thetic preservation, and against gridded and podded
urban sprawl onto rural land can be made out. The eco-
nomic-aesthetic concerns derive also from the simple
fact that recreation and tourism activities throughout
the rural landscapes of the Anglo New World are often
as economically significant as agricultural production.
There are three, often fiscally comparable, ‘crops’ to be
harvested from the city fringe estate – food, water and
fibre production dollars, tourism commodity dollars,
and residential sprawl dollars.
The typical urban-into-rural crossover (also known
as ex-urban, edge-city and peri-urban development)
has taken place mostly by a succession of extensions to
the urban growth boundary (UGB) on a 20-year look-
ahead and leapfrog basis. The result: decreased densi-
ties even for situations where the stated objective was
density increase.^22 The physical outcome is illustrated
as the urban-rural and rural-urban outliers in figure 4.3
Periphery-to-centre city montage. This depicts the
befuddled territory which lies between the clearly
‘inner suburban’ and the clearly ‘outer agricultural’156 Practice
Gridded and podded sprawl, NZ