NYPF Book Store

  The Short Course: A Basic Guide for Planning Boards and Zoning Boards of Appeals in NYS by Harry J. Willis, David Church, and James W. Hotaling. 2004, (73 pages, illustrated), sixth printing. A review of the full range of knowledge and skills needed by any planning or zoning official. Received the 1996 Public Education Award from the American Planning Association Upstate New York Chapter.
$18 (members) / $20 (non-members), plus $3 shipping. Bulk rates for 5+ copies.

  All You Ever Wanted to Know About Zoning... 4th edition by Sheldon Damsky and James Coon (154 pages). Update to the 2000 volume termed "the most widely used source of the zoning information of New York State." Includes key legislation and case law through the 2004 legislative session. $50 (members) / $60 (non-members) + $3 shipping. Bulk rates for 5+ copies.

  A Practical Guide to Comprehensive Planning By David Church & Cori Traub. 2nd edition, 2002, 88 pages. An overview of the importance of planning and the steps involved in preparing a comprehensive plan. Case studies, informational appendices. Funded in part with support from New York State Council for the Arts. $16 (members) / $18 (non-members) plus $3 shipping. Bulk rates for 5+ copies.

  Rural Development Guidelines, Hamlet Design Guidelines and Building Form Guidelines 3-vol. set by Joel Russell and Anne Tate with the Dutchess Co. Dept. of Planning, et.al., 1994 (illus.). Helpful principles and numerous illustrations demonstrating better design in development. $6/single volumes or $15/3-vol. set, plus $3 shipping

  Software Provider Directory by NYPF staff. A six-page brochure describing companies that sell planning and zoning board software. Free to members, $2 for non-members.

  The Interaction of Commercial Forestry with Town Government in New York State by NYS Forest Resources Development Council. 1995. Results and analysis of a survey on local attitudes and regulations addressing timber harvesting. $6, plus $3 shipping

  Adult Entertainment Technical Memo A12-page brochure prepared by Rebecca Lubin, AICP, and Lydia R. Marola, attorney for the Village of Scotia, N.Y. Free to members. $5 for non-members.

Cities Back from the Edge: New Life for Downtown Many of America's downtowns are coming alive--again--through redevelopment to sustain growth into the 21st century. This 1998 book chronicles stories of how dozens of communities, downtowns, neighborhoods, main streets and big city business districts have revitalized buildings and businesses. By Roberta Brandes Gratz and Norman Mintz. 347 page. $19.95, plus $3 shipping.

Pace University Land Use Law Center - Starting Ground Series

The Land Use Law Center of Pace University School of Law offers 12 small books on local land use and conservation practices. Each of these books responds to questions that have been asked by local officials, citizens, land developers, environmentalists, and their professional advisers in the dozens of training sessions, workshops, and conferences that the Center has conducted over the past five years. These books ($15.95 each for members, $17.95 for non-members, plus shipping and handling) can be ordered through the New York Planning Federation using the order form below.

Each book is a concise and readable summary of research papers prepared by professors, staff attorneys, or senior law students written in response to local questions. The books contain appendices including references to additional readings, New York statutes and cases, and other information that supplements the text’s clear and concise description of the subject matter. The books range in length from 75 to 340 pages.

These local leader guidebooks cover the following subjects:

Basics of Land Use Practice - This book explains how local governments regulate the development and conservation of the land. It covers planning, zoning, subdivision and site plan approval, special permits, permitted and accessory uses, and the basics of local board practice. It also explains how meetings are conducted and how development projects are approved, conditioned, or rejected. $15.95 (members), $17.95 (non-members), plus $3 shipping.

Ground Rules: Answers to Common Smart Growth Questions - Over two dozen questions raised by local leaders concerning the implementation of smart growth practices are answered in a few pages. The book provides the reader with a clear understanding of strategic local responses to a host of local dilemmas: how to conserve open space, preserve farmland, develop growth districts, and use floating zones, overlay zoning, planned unit development districts, traditional neighborhood districts, and a variety of additional techniques to achieve the community’s plan for its future. $15.95 (members), $17.95 (non-members), plus $3 shipping.

Smart Growth Strategies - Smart growth is the current label applied to integrated strategies employed by localities to encourage growth in appropriate places and to preserve critical environmental areas. This complex subject is made understandable by clear descriptions of what smart growth is and how communities achieve it. $15.95 (members), $17.95 (non-members), plus $3 shipping.

Smart Growth Case Studies - A good complement to Smart Growth Strategies, this book presents case studies of New York communities that have adopted noteworthy smart growth initiatives. $15.95 (members), $17.95 (non-members), plus $3 shipping.

Local Environmental Strategies - New York law is unique in the nation for giving its 1600 local governments vast authority to protect the physical and visual environment. This book fully describes that authority and explains, in detail, how local governments can use it to protect specific environmental resources. $15.95 (members), $17.95 (non-members), plus $3 shipping.

Local Environmental Ordinances - This book describes and contains extensive text of several local environmental ordinances adopted and enforced by communities in New York. It complements the reader’s understanding of Local Environmental Strategies and illustrates precisely how local laws can protect environmental functions and natural resource - including the all-important matter of enforcing their provisions. $15.95 (members), $17.95 (non-members), plus $3 shipping.

Environmental Review of Land Use Projects - New York’s environmental review law provides local governments with broad authority to insure that the environment is protected as projects are reviewed and approved by local land use agencies. It also provides local governments with the means of conducting area-wide environmental planning as well as streamlining the development review process in areas where development is encouraged. $15.95 (members), $17.95 (non-members), plus $3 shipping.

Open Space Preservation - This book describes in detail how local governments have used their regulatory and financial authority to create comprehensive approaches to open space preservation. It explains how to attract widespread support for conservation practices and avoid regulatory takings challenges by treating landowners fairly. The book contains a chapter detailing how development affects the functioning of the environment: this helps local land use boards understand how to approve development projects while retaining critical environmental benefits. $15.95 (members), $17.95 (non-members), plus $3 shipping.

Meeting Housing Needs - Social and economic factors have caused a housing crisis in many parts of the state. While the need to accommodate young families, seniors, and the workforce has been mounting, local governments have been adopting a large number of strategies to meet their local housing needs. This book explains the relationship between comprehensive planning and achieving demographic balance and how a desirable balance of income groups, workers and retired, young and old can be achieved by effective local housing initiatives. $15.95 (members), $17.95 (non-members), plus $3 shipping.

Intermunicipal Land Use Cooperation - New York leads the nation in providing local government with legal authority to create intermunicipal land use compacts and councils. These agreements are needed to manage intermunicipal environmental resources such as watersheds, to provide a vibrant regional economy, and to avoid border wars where projects in one community adversely impact others. In recent years, several groups of adjacent communities have formed land use councils to tackle critical intermunicipal land use issues. All of this is explained and illustrated. $15.95 (members), $17.95 (non-members), plus $3 shipping.

Common Ground: Land Use Mediation - Local leaders, citizens, developers, and advocates report serious frustration with the traditional land use approval process, which often makes them adversaries and achieves compromised results that fail to meet the interests of the parties. Recent studies and real experiences with land use mediation show how the participants can use mediation methods to supplement the land use approval process and achieve much more satisfactory results when faced with controversial decisions. The recent success of consensus committees involving developers and those affected by their proposed projects is highlighted. $15.95 (members), $17.95 (non-members), plus $3 shipping.

Significant Land Use Cases - New York courts have handed down a large number of cases over the years that define what local governments may and may not do to achieve their land use objectives. Whereas most summaries of court decisions are limited to recent cases, this book assembles the most significant appellate court cases in the state’s history and describes them clearly so that lay readers and professionals can understand the state’s judge-made law of development and conservation. $15.95 (members), $17.95 (non-members), plus $3 shipping.

To order, please complete the order form and return it with a check/voucher to: "New York Planning Federation"

NYS taxable orders subject to 8.25% sales tax.

If tax exempt, include NYS Form ST-119.1 or your Purchase Order

Fax - 518 270-9857 (fax) / e-mail: nypf@nypf.org

American Planning Association planning resources

These book are available through the APA bookstore, www.planning.org/apastore:

The Small Town Planning Handbook, 3rd ed. 2007
by Daniels, Keller, Lapping, Daniels and Segedy
A step-by-step guide to drafting a comprehensive plan that is sensitive to local character and limited resources, with emphasis on local economic development. This handbook shows how to implement the plan through zoning, subdivision regulations and capital improvement programs and includes new sections on GIS and design review.

The Environmental Planning Handbook, 2003
by Tom Daniels and Katherine Daniels
Hands-on and thorough, this handbook shares how to assess local environmental conditions and create an action plan. Pro-active environmental planning can prevent ill-sited projects and reduce a community’s SEQR burden. Among the environmental issues covered are planning for public health (air, water, land), natural areas, working landscapes and the built environment.

West Publishing planning resources

The following publications can be ordered online through West Publishing:

Zoning and Planning Law Handbook, 2003 ed.
By: Patricia E. Salkin

Stay on the cutting-edge of all the latest land use law developments and trends. Opens with a survey of recent developments in zoning and land use law, including Supreme Court and lower court decisions and legislative and administrative activity. Gives you a cutting-edge perspective on the most critical land use, zoning law, and conservation issues of our time. Offers thorough, expert treatment of evolving and projected trends, significant developments, and relevant case law concerning such key topics as special zoning districts and discretionary development review, site plan review and approval, and neighborhood opposition as a factor in zoning decisions.

New York Zoning Law and Practice, 4th
By: Patricia E. Salkin

This resource discusses the creation and enforcement of state zoning regulations, including organizational and substantive changes and updates. All phases of zoning, planning, subdivision control, and the evolution of land-use controls are covered with respect to administrative and judicial considerations. Hundreds of cases noted in previous annual supplements have been integrated into the text, as well as new chapters on issues impacting the field. Includes extensive forms, zoning definitions, ordinance and charter provisions, and web sites of interest to land-use lawyers.

Zoning and Planning Law Report
By: Kenneth H Young and Patricia E. Salkin Editor

Provides a succinct, practical treatment of important developments in zoning and planning law, through timely articles, decisions, and reviews of recent cases. Recent examples of areas covered in the past include: Testing the Constitutionality of Land-Use Exactions in Two U.S. Supreme Court Decisions, Dealing With the Dolan Decision Practically and Jurisprudently, How to Cope With, or Without, "Big Box" Retailers, Compensation For Billboard Removal in Eminent Domain Proceedings, and New Developments in the Effective Preclusion of Adult Businesses, by Zoning Ordinances.