Legal Problems Confronting the Effective Creation and Administration of New Towns in the United States

Abstract

The purpose of this 1976 article is to determine what has contributed to the success of the British New Towns program and whether a similar approach may be taken to the construction of New Towns in the United States. Professor Hemingway has focused on the legal problems inherent in the creation and administration of New Towns instead of the social and other environmental aspects of town planning. This study concludes that the building of new towns is in an emerging stage where location and character is determined more by profit than by housing relief. For a similar approach to the British program to work, local areas must have their say, finance and construction should be left to the private sector, and programs must be rationally conceived while addressing conflicting local interests.