Learning from landowners to improve collaborative land-use planning

Judy Colby-George and Kathleen P. Bell University of Maine Maine Water and Sustainability Conference 2014

Collaborative land-use planning

▪ Established tradition of collaborative research and engagement within urban planning (Innes & Booher, 2010; Ramasubramanian, 2010)

▪ Increased use of spatial data, modeling, and visualization tools (Bailey & Grossardt, 2010; Jankowski & Nyerges, 2003)

▪ Employed throughout the globe

Introduction 2

3

http://blog.cifor.org/10198/forest-communities-provide-a-new-perspective-on-climate-change-in-papua#.Uzh_j1cn4bY

http://aggieworkshop.com/about-2/

http://www.gatesfamilyfoundation.org/sites/default/files/styles/area_pages/public/tab_images/Rifle%20CommunityViz_1.jpg

https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/planning/processes/land_use/land_use_tools/#sect6

Introduction

Introduction 4

Impacts on Participatory Planning

▪ Adding to data describing humans impacted by these scenarios ▪ Land-owners

▪ Citizens

▪ Residents

▪ Visitors

▪ Understanding patterns in human perceptions, attitudes, and behaviors

▪ Implementing more and more participatory approaches

Introduction 5

Research Project

▪ Objective: Improve understanding of landowner attitudes, behaviors, and opinions ▪ Community change

▪ Community character

▪ Characteristics

▪ Direction of change

▪ Research questions: ▪ Understanding patterns of perceptions related to

community change ▪ How does scale of analysis impact on understanding

differences among land owners?

▪ How do perceptions compare to actual change on the ground?

Introduction 6

Methods Overview

▪ Study Area - Bangor and Portland Metropolitan Areas, Maine, USA

▪ Data - Survey of landowners (ownership and management objectives, management behaviors, perceptions of community change, demographics), GIS data (municipal and parcel boundaries, natural resources)

▪ Analysis

▪ Descriptive statistics

▪ Visualization

▪ Statistical testing

Study Area

Bangor Sample Towns

Portland Sample Towns

Population

Persons 90,283 267,875

Persons/km2 64 139

Housing

Units 54,396 154,243

Units/km2 38 80

Median Household Income ($)

46,753 60,368

Land Area (km2) 1330 1595

Water Area (km2) 75 326

Total Area (km2) 1405 1921

Data: 2012 Maine Landowners Survey

▪ SSI’s People, Landscapes, and Communities (PLACE) Project

▪ Survey design and implementation (Dillman, Smyth, & Melani 2008)

▪ Sample

▪ Frame: 900 landowners randomly selected from both the Bangor and Portland Metro Areas (1800 landowners in total)

▪ Parcel size: 3 to 1000 acres

▪ Towns: electronic assessment and parcel data

▪ Final sample (n=677) – complete surveys

▪ Response rate ~ 40%

Landowner concerns with different issues

Introduction 10

0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35%

Lack of land management information

Changing climate

Policies protecting wildlife habitat

Tresspass and liability issues

Invasive species (insects, plants)

Missing

Unsure

Not

Small

Moderate

Serious

Landowner concerns with different issues

Introduction 11

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60%

Restricted development options

Government regulations

Loss of property rights

Property taxes

Serious

Moderate

Small

Not

Unsure

Missing

Importance of community characteristics

Introduction 12

0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35%

Access to retail shopping

Access to transportation networks

Agricultural landscape

Employment opportunities

Recreation opportunities

Modest level of development

Missing

Not Important

Somewhat important

Somewhat important

Extremely important

Extremely important

Importance of community characteristics

Introduction 13

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60%

Good public services

Scenic views

Forested landscape

Access to water resources

Open spaces

Low property taxes

Privacy

Missing

Not Important

Somewhat important

Somewhat important

Extremely important

Extremely important

Change in characteristics over last 10 years

Introduction 14

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80%

Stock of forest lands

Stock of agricultural lands

Public water access

Scenic views

Privacy

Public services

Recreation opportunities

Missing

Decreased very much

Decreased somewhat

No change

Increased somewhat

Increased very much

Change in characteristics over last 10 years

Introduction 15

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60%

Vibrancy of downtown

Commercial development

Population level

Residential development

Traffic congestion

Cost of living

Property tax rate

Missing

Decreased very much

Decreased somewhat

No change

Increased somewhat

Increased very much

How much has you community changed since you first became an owner of this land?

Introduction 16

Map of community change responses

Introduction 17

Classification of Communities Along the Urban-Rural Gradient

Introduction 18

Classification of Communities Along the Urban-Rural Gradient

Introduction 19

Perceptions of Residential Development from

Introduction 20

Actual Changes by Town in Housing

Introduction 21

Actual Changes by Town in Housing

Introduction 22

Expected Results

▪ Identify what patterns exist among landowners relate to perceptions of land use change

▪ Provide information to planners related to perceptions

▪ Share results with key stakeholders and SSI teams

23 Conclusion

Thanks to:

▪ Kathleen Bell

▪ SSSIC, Bell Lab