AICP Exam Prep 3.0 Questions With Complete Solutions

19. The New York Court of Appeals case Golden v. Planning Board of Town of Ramapo (1972) resulted in an important decision in what area? a. Exclusionary housing b. Growth management c. "Takings" claims d. Environmental justice correct answer: B. Ramapo, NY established a growth management system that awarded points to development proposals based on the availability of public utilities, drainage facilities, parks, road access, and firehouses. 1. The Disaster Mitigation Act of 2000 required local governments to address potential hazards in a Hazard Mitigation Plan in order to remain eligible to receive certain federal funds before and following federally-declared disasters. Your community has integrated such a plan into the General Plan. Now the Safety Element of the General Plan is expanded to cover the following: I. Natural hazards II. Man-made hazards III. Fiscal responsibility for disasters IV. A development retreat from low-lying coastal areas a. II & III b. I, II, & IV c. I & IV d. I, II, III, & IV correct answer: B. FEMA HMA of 2000 seeks to expand pre-disaster planning to precipitate the widespread loss of life, damage to property, infrastructure and the environment. The Act does not assign any fiscal responsibilities of disasters to any entity. Most local Safety Element covers also man-made hazards. However, local jurisdictions are not burdened with the fiscal impact associated with disasters. 2. In the United States, the "Neighborhood Unit" concept is attributed to: a. Kevin Lynch b. Clarence Perry c. Ian McHarg d. Lewis Mumford correct answer: B. Clarence Perry lived in Forest Hills Gardens in Queens, NY and published an essay on the concept of the neighborhood unit in 1929. Forest Hill Gardens, developed by Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr. in 1911, inspired the neighborhood unit concept. Perry defined a neighborhood as a self-contained area within a 5-minute walking radius, bounded by major streets with shops at the intersections and a school in the middle. Kevin Lynch wrote Image of the City in 1960. Ian McHarg wrote Design with Nature in 1969. Lewis Mumford wrote Culture of Cities in 1929. 3. Which of the following court cases is/are concerned with takings? I. Nollan v. California Coastal Commission (1987) II. Associated Homebuilders v. City of Livermore (1976) III. First English Evangelical Lutheran Church v. County of Los Angeles (1987) IV. Lucas v. South Carolina Coastal Council (1992) a. I only b. I & II c. I & III d. I, III, & IV correct answer: D. In Nollan v. California Coastal Commission (1987), the state claimed that the Nollan's proposed house would interfere with visual and psychological access to the public beach. The state said that the Nollan's would be granted a building permit only if they allowed public access to the beach. The court said this was a taking because if the state wanted to provide access to the beach it should use the power of eminent domain and compensate the land owners. In First English (1987), a church had not been allowed to use its property temporarily because it had been flooded; the court said that the city must provide compensation for this taking, even though it was only temporary. In Lucas, the court found that a South Carolina state law which prohibited Lucas from building on two lots on a barrier island was a taking because it deprived Lucas of all economically viable use of the property. The Associated Homebuilders v. City of Livermore (1976) case was about growth management. In that case, the court said it was permissible to phase growth to allow for relief of overcrowded schools and sewer treatment facilities and to increase water reserves. 4. Ebenezer Howard is best known for promoting self-sufficient towns with mixed economies known as: a. New towns b. Planned unit developments c. Garden cities d. Suburbs correct answer: C. Ebenezer Howard, () published Tomorrow: A Peaceful Path to Real Reform in 1898; it was reissued as Garden Cities of Tomorrow in 1902. A garden city included about 6,000 acres of land and was surrounded with a rural belt. The first garden cities were in England: Letchworth in 1903 and Welwyn Garden in 1919. New Towns are a successor to garden cities. The New Towns of Columbia, MD and Reston, VA were built in the United States after World War II. A Planned Unit Development or PUD is planned and developed as a single entity containing residential and non-residential development such as public, commercial or industrial areas. PUDs allow for greater flexibility in locating buildings, combining land uses, and including open space than traditional development patterns. Suburban developments are located on the periphery of urban areas and are not associated with Ebenezer Howard. Riverside, IL is considered the earliest example of suburban development. Riverside is located outside of Chicago and was developed in 1868 by Frederick Law Olmsted, Sr. 5. Which of the following is a landmark housing case? a. Hadacheck v. Sebastian (1915) b. Berman v. Parker (1954): c. Southern Burlington NAACP v. Township of Mt. Laurel (1975) d. Village of Euclid v. Ambler Realty Co. (1926) correct answer: C. Southern Burlington NAACP v. Township of Mt. Laurel came before the New Jersey Supreme Court. In the 1975 decision, the court required that a township provide the opportunity for low-income housing development through the zoning ordinance. A second case, known as Mount Laurel II, came before the court in 1983; this time, the courts instructed townships to provide their fair share of low-income housing, which led the New Jersey legislature to pass the Fair Housing Act in 1985. Hadacheck v. Sebastian considered whether some restrictions on activities in a brickyard in Los Angeles constituted a taking; the Supreme Court ruled that the restrictions did not constitute a taking. Berman v. Parker considered the ability and scope of the government to take and transfer private property to private developers as part of a project to clear blight from an entire area. In Euclid v Ambler, Alfred Bettman argued that it was right for government to use zoning to restrict the use of private land to protect the integrity of a residential neighborhood; the Supreme Court agreed and zoning regulations were upheld. 6. Cities in the U.S. were densely settled in the late nineteenth and very early twentieth centuries. Each of the following is a consequence of this high density development EXCEPT: a. Threat of communicable diseases b. Great traffic congestion c. Reform-mindedness d. Federal aid programs for cities correct answer: D. Large scale federal aid programs did not begin until the 1930s and were implemented to spur recovery from the Great Depression. In 1900, population density in Manhattan averaged 100,000 people per square mile. Although there were few automobiles, this nevertheless led to congested streets. By 1990, it averaged 68,000 people per square mile. Note that Frederick Law Olmsted thought that planning was to be judged by the extent to which it reduced disease; thus he favored sunlight, good air circulation and open space. The crowding and haphazard development of many nineteenth century cities gave rise to a series of reform movements, the most significant being the sanitation and housing reform movements. 7. In his 1991 book Edge City: Life on the New Frontier, Joel Garreau defined an edge city as: a. being within 2 miles of another city b. having a population of at least 100,000 c. a place that was nothing like a city as recently as 30 years ago d. being adjacent to a city with a population of 1 million correct answer: C. An edge city is also described as a form of urban center which contains jobs, housing, shopping, entertainment, and office space and in a spread out form. These cities are built at the "automobile scale" rather than the human scale and usually have at least 5 million square feet of leasable office space and 600,000 square feet of retail space, and have more jobs than bedrooms. 8. The Federal Highway Act of 1956: I. included funding for scenic byways and historic preservation. II. was the largest U.S. public works program ever undertaken at the time. III. extended the road system by 41,000 miles. IV. required public investment in the infrastructure to do as much as possible to favor those who are most disadvantaged. a. I & IV b. II only c. II & III d. I, II, III, & IV correct answer: C. The Federal Highway Act of 1956, also known as the National Defense Highway Act, resulted in the interstate highway system. The 1991 Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act, ISTEA, included funding for scenic byways and historic preservation. John Rawls (1971) principle of justice is that infrastructure investments should do as much as possible to favor those who are the most disadvantaged; this was not part of the 1956 Act. 9. Which of the following pieces of federal legislation focused on slum clearance? a. 1906 Antiquities Act b. 1934 Federal Housing Act c. 1949 Housing Act d. 1968 New Communities Act correct answer: C. The 1949 Housing Act focused on slum clearance. It inaugurated the idea of urban redevelopment. The 1954 Housing Act modified this approach to focus more on slum prevention. The 1906 Antiquities Act was passed to protect archeological sites. In 1934, during the Great Depression, the Federal Housing Act instituted the Federal Savings and Loan Insura