ABSTRACT
Through the years, the design and layout of urban developments have become increasingly regulated. Professional and governmental bodies have developed standards for the built environment that dictate all aspects of the form and shape of urban American communities. Furthermore, the methodical administration of public works, the centralized supervision over land development, and the influential rise of the engineering and urban planning professions have established many of these design standards as absolutes. Although simple and familiar standards for subdividing land, grading, laying streets and utilities, and configuring right-of-way and street widths may seem innocuous, when they are copied and adopted from one place to another they have an enormous impact-good and bad-on the way our communities and neighborhoods look, feel, and work.
