ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the ecology of form in community planning, and highlights the importance of designing around the "green infrastructure" of wetlands, watercourses, and wildlife habitat in creating a healthier habitat for both wildlife and humans. Other excellent resources in the American Planning Association's Planning Advisory Service report series are Design Review; Aesthetics, Community Character, and the Law; and Meeting the Big Box Challenge: Planning, Design, and Regulatory Strategies. Unlike most planners, who generally have been educated primarily in policy matters and secondarily in design issues, Unwin and others of his generation emphasized the significance of building locations and road arrangements in terms of creating visually interesting town designs. Harold Williams, former president of the Rensselaerville Institute, has articulated nine organizing principles for "those who envision settlements as more than subdivisions. When officials realized the zoning was inappropriate and began to rezone the tract, the developer sued, and a consultant was engaged to help.
