Recent and planned reforms to the system of land use planning the first comprehensive zoning code in the united states was enacted in 1916 in new york city and zoning ordinances were held constitutional by the us supreme court in 1926 afterwards zoning spread rapidly across the country in large part due to the standard state. Land policy in the united states david e dowall the usa lacks a coherent and explicit policy towards land use and develop ment instead land use policies are set unintentionally by a myriad of federal programmes and uncoordinated local and state programmes and policies the diversity of land use policies and problems in growing and stagnating areas is illustrated the paper con cludes by suggesting that more coor dinated and flexible land use policies are needed and that the . A primer on land use in the united states land use and land use change have important economic and environmental implications for commodity production and trade soil and water conservation and other policy issues changes in land use occur for various reasons and some changes are less reversible than others. The land use policy problems discussed certainly havent been solved today and although land use conflicts in the us havent always been resolved equitably the big step forward taken by the united states during the last one hundred and fifty years in the age long struggle of man towards the ideals of mutuality and equity has been the working out of a system wherein the sovereign superior who prescribes the working rules for land use and decision making have become himself a . Starting in the early twentieth century cities have used their power of land use control to determine the location and availability of housing amenities such as parks and negative land uses such as garbage dumps the result has been segregation first within cities and more recently between them documenting changing patterns of segregation and their political mechanisms trounstine argues that city governments have pursued these policies to enhance the wealth and resources of