Oral Abstract Details

Author(s):
Seong-Hoon Cho, Jiyoung Kim, Roland K Roberts, SeungGyu Kim

Affiliation:
Department of Agricultural Economics, The University of Tennessee

Presentation Type:
Oral

Topic Area:
Spatial/scale aspects of land-use change

Abstract Text:
The principal objective of this research was to examine whether the management of land use plans for agricultural-rural residential uses influences spatial development patterns in the Knoxville, TN area using rezoning approval model. It is hypothesized that rezoning approval from undevelopable land classifications to developable land classifications are affected by the land use plan for agricultural-rural residential use. To achieve this objective, we compared 1) the overall distance between parcels predicted to be approved for developable land classification and its closest parcels identified as preexisting development under the current land use plans and 2) the overall distance between parcels predicted to be approved for developable land classification and its closest parcels identified as preexisting development under hypothetical land use plan scenarios for agricultural-rural residential uses. The results show that the average distances between parcels predicted to be approved for developable land classification and its closest parcel identified as preexisting development drop under hypothetical land use scenarios with expanded agricultural-rural residential uses. The drop of the average distances is due to increases in the frequency of denials of rezoning petitions for development in the areas of expanded agricultural-rural residential uses. These results indicate that the management of land use plans, particularly a manipulation of the area currently designated for agricultural-rural residential use, encourages the rezoning for development closer to preexisting development. This research is unique in that rezoning approval for development, instead of land development, is modeled, to examine whether government land use plans affects spatial patterns of development associated with urban sprawl. Modeling rezoning approvals prevents bias that may be caused by redundant counting of each developed parcel within a subdivision under the land development model. The predicted changes in spatial patterns due to the manipulations of land use areas under the local land use plan, i.e. Sector Plan, provides a guideline for local government to improve the current land use plans to be consistent with the Growth Plan in Knox County. For example, the UGB, a core of the three types of land classification identified by the Growth Plan in Knox County, does not differentiate requirements from one region to another. Thus, there is a need to redraw more effective classifications of the three types of land. The boundaries for the three types of land may be redrawn by referencing the projections of rezoning approvals based on the current land use plans as well as the hypothetical land use plans. A need exists to focus future research on developing models that can provide more meaningful insights associated with land use plans under the Sector Plan and the three types of land classifications under the Growth Plan.