Growth as an American ideal is a fundamental component of the expansive pioneer spirit. It is vital to the maintenance of class mobility. But it is a truism whose hold upon the American approach to land use planning, or lack thereof, is being challenged for the first time in courts throughout the nation. Too long neglected as a potentially manageable area of environmental quality control, land use planning is gaining increasing recognition as the key to eliminating or controlling all environmental evils—that is, if one manages the land properly, the problems of air and water pollution, solid waste, noise, and energy shortages will be avoided, or their effects significantly lessened.

Local governments, however, have traditionally sidestepped the issue of comprehensive land use planning. Unhappily, the absence of effective planning is reflected in the leap-frog developments, the sprawl, the "Denverization" so distastefully characteristic of the majority of our urban regions. Because of the crisis orientation of our governmental response mechanisms, however, many political entities have abruptly about-faced from "GNP—Full Throttle" to "STOP GROWTH."