Leftist Critique of the Quiet Revolution in Land Use Control: Two Cases of Agency Formation

Abstract

The quiet revolution in land-use control has been debated among planners and legal scholars since its inception in the 1960s. The debate has consisted of attacks on centralized land-use regulation from the right, and defenses by liberal reformers. A third, but oft ignored, position in the debate is presented by leftist political economists. Authors working in this tradition emphasize the relative power of class interests in land use politics. They suggest that quiet revolution reforms frequently promote the interests of large-scale industrial capital. Two cases of quiet revolution reform from the northeastern United States, New York's Adirondack Park Authority and Maine's Land Use Regulation Commission, provide an opportunity to assess the leftist critique of the effects of centralized land use reform.