Urban Planning Policies - Essay Example

Urban Planning Policies Urban planning policies can help reduce the adverse effects in different property market inefficiencies. Such planning is essential due to the fact that in the global market whether it belongs to micro or macrocosm, the key to success in any business and organizational venture relies on how a certain plan is executed in accordance to the anticipation of problems that might arise and several peripheral concerns which is the prime reason why the plan is conceptualized. Also, it is very important to understand that majority of feasible businesses, organizations and the likes are situated in urban areas primarily because its accessibility in the market and in different necessities. Before we delve on the importance of urban planning policies, let us first determine the meaning of urban planning in order for us to be aware of the subject that is being tackled. Also, determining the words or phrases that are synonymous to the word policy is also important to know the essence of the focal point of this paper which is the urban planning policies. The website wisegeek.com (2007) defined urban planning as "Urban planning is a mixture of science and art. It encompasses many different disciplines and brings them all under a single umbrella. The simplest definition of urban planning is that it is the organization of all elements of a town or other urban environment. However, when one thinks about all the elements that make up a town, urban planning suddenly seems complicated - and with a broad topic to discuss with" Urban Planning Policies 2 Furthermore, the website illustrates that "Real urban planning is a relatively new concept. It gained popularity beginning in the mid-to-late 19th century, when it became obvious that there should be some kind of plan or larger goals for the growth of big cities like New York and Philadelphia. Before this time, cities very often grew as they had need, and the surrounding land was just swallowed up. London, Paris, and Tokyo - none of these world cities had much urban planning, and even now, the addresses and streets in their older sections can be confusing even to natives" If we are to deal with the above-mentioned example, the said planning revolves around goals and prime concerns of key and big cities which aim to achieve development in their areas. Looking in to this kind of situation, the main concern here is growth particularly on markets and industries where these key cities generate its income. If there is indeed a well-defined plan, then it is also understood that marketing irregularities would be limited due to the fact that sociologists deem that irregularities are results of a vague regulation. True enough, if there are no specific urban planning, and then it is next to impossible to achieve order. Upon determining what urban policy is, the next thing that we must do is to define what policy is. The website fao.org (2007) defined policy as "A "policy" is very much like a decision or a set of decisions, and we "make", "implement" or "carry out" a policy just as we do with decisions. Like a decision a policy is not itself a statement, nor is it only a set of actions, although, as with decisions, we can infer what a person's or organization's policy is either from the statement he makes about it, or, if he makes no statement or we don't believe his statement Urban Planning Policies 3 from the way he acts. But, equally, we can claim that a statement or set of actions is misleading and does not faithfully reflect the "true" policy." In this particular case, we establish that urban planning policy could be defined in a simpler way as a plan in key city in order to determine the course of action and decision to be made in order to address several concerns in urban planning policy. If we are to further plunge with the topic, one might say that urban planning policy is beneficial in different marketing areas on the basis that it would lessen if not totally curtail monopoly on several markets due to the fact that it would give equal opportunities to several stores and establishments. For example, in the United States, the policy for intervention helps several transport companies to have free competitions. "Transport policy has been developed to prevent or control the inherent monopolistic tendency of many transport modes. Unrestrained competition leads to market dominance by a company thereby achieving monopoly power. Such dominance brings into question many issues affecting the public interest such as access (in a port would smaller shipping lines be excluded), availability (would smaller markets continue to receive air service by a monopoly carrier) and price (would the monopolist be in a position to charge high prices). Other reasons for policy intervention include the desire to limit foreign ownership of such a vital industry. For example, the US limits the amount of foreign ownership of its domestic airlines to a maximum of 49%, with a maximum of 25% control. Other countries have similar restrictions( Slack 2006)" Urban Planning Policies 4 In that particular case, it is established how urban planning helps to prevent monopoly in a certain market sector which is the transportation. Information dissemination is also vital in promoting and developing Urban Markets due to the fact that information and communication is the key to understand and establish several markets particularly in the business sector. However, imperfect information could also lead to downfall of a certain market and urban planning policies could also help to avoid such a scenario. In this case, the participation of the people involved is also vital. Also, the likes of misdeclaration of land, properties and several products could be avoided if there are policies which make the dissemination of information compulsory. The outmost advantage of urban planning policies is that it would prevent external costs due to the fact that it would ensure and pre-empt unnecessary expenditures and ventures due to detailed foresights which are included in the plan. For example the U.S. government deemed that "From a societal perspective, it is desirable for all transportation users to pay their full social (private and external) costs. We estimate four general types of external costs for intercity freight trucking and compare them with the private costs incurred by carriers. Estimated external costs include: accidents (fatalities, injuries, and property damage); emissions (air pollution and greenhouse gases); noise; and unrecovered costs associated with the provision, operation, and maintenance of public facilities. The analysis reveals that external costs are equal to 13.2% of private costs and user fees would need to be increased about threefold to internalize these external costs. Forkenbrock J (2006)" Rerence: 1) wisegeek.com (2007). What is Urban Planning Opened March 3, 2008. URL available http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-urban-planning.htm 2)fao.org (2007) Definition of Policy. Opened March 3, 2008 URL available http://www.fao.org/Wairdocs/ILRI/x5499E/x5499e03.htm 3) Slack B (2006). Monopoly in Transportation. "The Geography of Transport Systems" 4) Forkenbrock J (2006). External costs of intercity truck freight transportation. Public Policy Center. University of Iowa. Read More