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BEYOND REGULATION:
SPECIAL IMPROVEMENT DISTRICTS, DESIGN REVIEW,
AND PLACE-MAKING IN NEW JERSEY
by
Ramzi Raif Farhat
A Dissertation Presented to the
FACULTY OF THE USC GRADUATE SCHOOL
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
In Partial Fulfillment of the
Requirements for the Degree
DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
(POLICY, PLANNING, AND DEVELOPMENT)
August 2010
Copyright 2010 Ramzi Raif Farhat
Object Description
| Title | Beyond regulation: special improvement districts, design review, and place-making in New Jersey |
| Author | Farhat, Ramzi Raif |
| Author email | rfarhat@usc.edu; ramzi.farhat@gmail.com |
| Degree | Doctor of Philosophy |
| Document type | Dissertation |
| Degree program | Policy, Planning & Development |
| School | School of Policy, Planning, and Development |
| Date defended/completed | 2009-12-15 |
| Date submitted | 2010 |
| Restricted until | Unrestricted |
| Date published | 2010-08-09 |
| Advisor (committee chair) | Banerjee, Tridib |
| Advisor (committee member) |
Tang, Shui-Yan Noble, Douglas |
| Abstract | The New Jersey state legislature has devised a process through which municipalities can delegate design review to Special Improvement Districts (SIDs). Conceiving of the program as a form of ‘self-help’ in urban revitalization, the state offered local government little guidance and wide discretion as to how SIDs may structure the review process. Other than the issue of why some municipalities lent their authority to SIDs while others did not, this program raises the following important questions: How can we understand how the different review processes took the shape that they did? What are the consequences of this delegation of authority in terms of the public interest?; ‘Beyond Regulation’ probes these questions by showing how the study of design review can be advanced when treated within the general perspective of the regulatory process and the language of organization theory. More specifically, I argue that a politics of regulation, delegation, and agency shapes the nature of discretion in design review. To the extent they are considered, pragmatic (popular), regulative (legal), and normative legitimacy constraints create countervailing pressures that channel these imperatives in the public interest.; From a consideration of two SID-administered processes in the City of Bayonne and the Township of Maplewood, I make the observation that compromises between political imperatives may necessitate the institution of a discretionary process irrespective of the legal capacity of a locality to exercise strict oversight. From the two case studies, I also find evidence that the SIDs used this discretion to be proactively involved in the guidelines promulgation, project design, and review processes beyond the typical roles of a review agency.; This proactive involvement is advantageous in that it can increase efficiency and infuse the process with expertise. This involvement, however, also raises important concerns about the accountability of the process to all relevant stakeholders, the right to individual and cultural self-expression, and the adherence to standards of due process in the administration of review. These concerns are further amplified by the limited accountability of SIDs to community residents given the 'special district' status of SIDs.; As evidence from other examples of SID-administered processes in the state shows, SIDs can and do promulgate prescriptive, even stylistic guidelines. An SID might however use discretion to be proactively involved in interpreting fairly generic guidelines in a prescriptive manner, as evidence from the two cases suggests. In the context of New Jersey’s balkanized and racially and socially polarized geography, delegation might be an approach of strategic value in the defense of community, especially when securing consensus on prescriptive guidelines at the municipal level is not politically feasible. |
| Keyword | urban design; design review; urban governance; planning theory; business improvement districts |
| Geographic subject | countries, 3rd order divisions: Maplewood |
| Geographic subject (city or populated place) | Bayonne |
| Geographic subject (state) | New Jersey |
| Language | English |
| Part of collection | University of Southern California dissertations and theses |
| Publisher (of the original version) | University of Southern California |
| Place of publication (of the original version) | Los Angeles, California |
| Publisher (of the digital version) | University of Southern California. Libraries |
| Provenance | Electronically uploaded by the author |
| Type | texts |
| Legacy record ID | usctheses-m3359 |
| Rights | Farhat, Ramzi Raif |
| Repository name | Libraries, University of Southern California |
| Repository address | Los Angeles, California |
| Repository email | http://www.usc.edu/isd/libraries/services/ask_a_librarian/email/ |
| Filename | etd-Farhat-3480 |
| Archival file | uscthesesreloadpub_Volume51/etd-Farhat-3480.pdf |
Description
| Title | Page 1 |
| Full text | BEYOND REGULATION: SPECIAL IMPROVEMENT DISTRICTS, DESIGN REVIEW, AND PLACE-MAKING IN NEW JERSEY by Ramzi Raif Farhat A Dissertation Presented to the FACULTY OF THE USC GRADUATE SCHOOL UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY (POLICY, PLANNING, AND DEVELOPMENT) August 2010 Copyright 2010 Ramzi Raif Farhat |
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