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Balancing Different Interests in Aesthetic Controls

Department of Urban and Regional Planning at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, varkki{at}uiuc.edu

Marcia Caton Campbell

Department of Urban and Regional Planning at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, mcatoncampbe{at}facstaff.wisc.edu

Aesthetic controls present a specific instance of a general problem faced by planners: balancing the interests of an individual (in altering the physical environments they in-habit) against the interests of the collective (in protecting the visual quality of cities). In this article, the authors discuss the use of aesthetic controls in the United States and review the case for and against restricting architectural expression. The authors then examine two questions: what is the rationale for protecting such expression, and to what extent is this protection warranted? They find two very strong but conflicting interests—one in controlling design expression and the other in not doing so. How might this conflict be resolved? The authors propose a middle ground that is characterized by four criteria: a clearly articulated and demonstrable public interest, demonstrable links to the stated intent, application early in the design or decision process, and allowing and encouraging a variety of acceptable decisions.

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