AICP Exam Prep 3.0 – Latest 2025/2026 Study
Guide | Complete Practice Questions &
Verified Q&A
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 answerB. 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 answerB. 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 answerB. 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 answerD. 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 answerC. Ebenezer Howard, (1850-1920) 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 answerC. 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 answerD. 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 answerC. 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 answerC. 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 answerC. 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 Insurance Corporation (FSLIC) to
insure personal savings and established the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) to
provide mortgage insurance. The 1968 New Communities Act provided funding for
private development of new towns.
10. Which of the following established a system of rectangular survey coordinates for
virtually all of the country west of the Appalachians?
a. The Homestead Act (1862)
b. The Ordinance of 1785
c. The General Land Law Revision Act (1891)
d. Morrill Act (1862) - correct answerB. The Ordinance of 1785 provided for the
rectangular land survey of the Old Northwest. The rectangular survey has been called
"the largest single act of national planning in our history and . . . the most significant in
terms of continuing impact on the body politic" (Daniel Elazar). In 1862, the Homestead
Act opened the lands of the Public Domain to settlers for a nominal fee and five years
residence. In 1891, the General Land Law Revision Act gave the President power to
create forest preserves by proclamation. In 1862, Congress passed the Morrill Act,
which authorized that proceeds from the sale of land were to be used to found colleges
offering instruction in agriculture, engineering, and other practical arts.
11. Central Place Theory is a term attributed to:
a. Homer Hoyt
b. Harris and Ullman
Guide | Complete Practice Questions &
Verified Q&A
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 answerB. 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 answerB. 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 answerB. 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 answerD. 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 answerC. Ebenezer Howard, (1850-1920) 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 answerC. 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 answerD. 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 answerC. 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 answerC. 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 answerC. 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 Insurance Corporation (FSLIC) to
insure personal savings and established the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) to
provide mortgage insurance. The 1968 New Communities Act provided funding for
private development of new towns.
10. Which of the following established a system of rectangular survey coordinates for
virtually all of the country west of the Appalachians?
a. The Homestead Act (1862)
b. The Ordinance of 1785
c. The General Land Law Revision Act (1891)
d. Morrill Act (1862) - correct answerB. The Ordinance of 1785 provided for the
rectangular land survey of the Old Northwest. The rectangular survey has been called
"the largest single act of national planning in our history and . . . the most significant in
terms of continuing impact on the body politic" (Daniel Elazar). In 1862, the Homestead
Act opened the lands of the Public Domain to settlers for a nominal fee and five years
residence. In 1891, the General Land Law Revision Act gave the President power to
create forest preserves by proclamation. In 1862, Congress passed the Morrill Act,
which authorized that proceeds from the sale of land were to be used to found colleges
offering instruction in agriculture, engineering, and other practical arts.
11. Central Place Theory is a term attributed to:
a. Homer Hoyt
b. Harris and Ullman
