Written by authors with years of academic, regional, and city planning experience, the classic Planning Local Economic Development has laid the foundation for practitioners and academics working in planning and policy development for generations. With deeper coverage of sustainability and resiliency, the new Sixth Edition explores the theories of local economic development while addressing the issues and opportunities faced by cities, towns, and local entities in crafting their economic destinies within the global economy. Nancey Green Leigh and Edward J. Blakely provide a thoroughly up-to-date exploration of planning processes, analytical techniques and data, and locality, business, and human resource development, as well as advanced technology and sustainable economic development strategies.

Exploring the theories of local economic development that are relevant to dilemmas facing communities today, this third edition expands on issues such as the planning process, analytical techniques and high-technology strategies.

This book introduces community planning as practiced in the United States, focusing on the comprehensive plan. Sometimes known by other names—especially master plan or general plan—the type of plan described here is the predominant form of general governmental planning in the U.S. Although many government agencies make plans for their own programs or facilities, the comprehensive plan is the only planning document that considers multiple programs and that accounts for activities on all land located within the planning area, including both public and private property. Written by a former president of the American Planning Association, Community Planning is thorough, specific, and timely. It addresses such important contemporary issues as sustainability, walkable communities, the role of urban design in public safety, changes in housing needs for a changing population, and multi-modal transportation planning. Unlike competing books, it addresses all of these topics in the context of the local comprehensive plan. There is a broad audience for this book: planning students, practicing planners, and individual citizens who want to better understand local planning and land use controls. Boxes at the end of each chapter explain how professional planners and individual citizens, respectively, typically engage the issues addressed in the chapter. For all readers, Community Planning provides a pragmatic view of the comprehensive plan, clearly explained by a respected authority.

Economic Revitalization is unique in that it discusses leading revitalization strategies in the context of both city and suburban settings, offering case studies of program development and implementation. In Economic Revitalization: Cases and Strategies for City and Suburb Fitzgerald and Leigh answer the need for a text that incorporates social justice and sustainability into how we think about and practice economic development. It is one of the first to talk about how revitalization strategies are implemented in both cities and suburbs, particularly inner-ring suburbs that are experiencing decline previously associated only with inner-city neighborhoods. After setting the context with a brief history of economic development practice and its shortcomings, Fitzgerald and Leigh focus on six economic development strategies: sectoral strategies, Brownfield redevelopment, industrial retention, commercial revitalization, industrial and office property reuse, and workforce development. Each of these chapters begins with an overview of the strategy and then presents cases of how it is being implemented. The cases draw from Atlanta, Chicago and its suburbs, Emeryville, Kalamazoo, Louisville, New Haven, Portland, Sandy Springs, and Seattle (and suburban King County). They illustrate the tradeoffs often made in achieving one goal at the expense of another. Although they admit that some of the cases come up short in illustrating a more equitable and sustainable economic development practice, Fitzgerald and Leigh conclude with an optimistic view that the field is changing. The book is aimed at students and practitioners of economic development planning who seek to foster stronger economies and greater opportunity in inner cites and older suburbs. It is also meant to assist planners in thriving new towns and suburban communities seeking to avoid future economic decline as their communities mature. Economic Revitalization: Discusses practice in both suburban and inner-city settings Integrates the planning values of social justice and sustainability into the discussion of implementation strategies Includes cases that reveal the political nature of the planning process and the types of tradeoffs that often must be made Provides insights for planners seeking to adopt "best practice" programs from other localities

"Economic Development Finance provides a foundation for students and professionals in the technical aspects of business and real estate finance and surveys the full range of policies, program models, and financing tools used in economic development practice within the United States."--Jacket.