Book review : City rules – how regulations affect urban form

Abstract

This fascinating book is concerned with the impact of planning rules on the outcome ‘on the ground’. It is an appropriate time to be discussing this. The connectivity between rules and their tangible realization has been lost for too long, at the expense of the quality of the public realm and the impoverishment of the urban fabric. In the author’s words, rules have been reduced from “hopeful means of urban redemption to legalistic burden” (p. 1), tending to be negative and restrictive in nature rather than positive and proactive. The book focuses on those rules that allow an easier study of the mutual relationship between them and their outcome namely zoning, subdivision regulation and public facility standards. The central question addressed is whether rules could produce good urban form and, if so, how.