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Show and local government under the Housing Act of 1954,38 the availability of these funds is limited, and the Commission believes that, to the extent required, additional funds should be made available for planning encouragement in areas where Federal lands constitute a large part of the state and local land base. Federal funds should be available on a matching basis, with a major part contributed by the Federal Government. Regional Commissions Recommendation 15: Comprehensive land use planning should be encouraged through regional commissions along the lines of the river basin commissions created under the Water Resources Planning Act of 1965. Such commissions should come into existence only with the consent of the states involved, with regional coordination being initiated when possible within the context of existing state and local political boundaries. At present there is little comprehensive regional or area wide planning. Except for a few county and regional efforts, no agency or combination of agencies-Federal, state or local-has developed broad plans integrating regional needs, land and resource use, public facilities, and development projects for both public and private lands within logical planning areas. Without such information and guidelines, there is no adequate way to determine the extent to which public lands can be used for the maximum public benefit. Therefore, regional coordination within the context of existing state and local political boundaries must be encouraged. We believe the information clearinghouses that have been established in each state are not designed, staffed, or otherwise equipped to participate with Federal agencies in land use planning on the scale necessary to give adequate representation to state and local impacts and needs as they may be affected by public land use. While they could well provide the nucleus of a statewide land use planning effort that could speak with certainty for the state on the proposed plans for public land use, we believe a legally sanctioned institutional arrangement is necessary where the Federal-state-local interface can be brought into phase in public land use planning. Regional commissions created to facilitate continuous joint participation in land use planning would bring state and local planning and zoning for private and non-Federal public lands into a continuum with Federal land use planning, on a regional scale. Although such an arrangement would not assure 38 68 Stat. 590, codified in scattered sections in Titles 12, 18, 20, 31, 38, 40, and 42 U.S.C. (1964). 64 genuine integration of planning for different classes of Federal lands in the region as long as their regional administration remains organizationally separated, the regional commission arrangement would at least provide a single point of contact for states with the different Federal agencies engaged in planning. As long as the agencies remain separated at the field level, involvement of the state may, in fact, provide a point for bringing their diverse objectives in focus in public land use decisionmaking. The river basin commissions created pursuant to the Water Resources Planning Act of 1965 39 serve as the principal agencies for the coordination of Federal, state, interstate, local and nongovernmental plans for the development of water and related land resources in an area. Water resource development has predominated in the deliberations of the commissions established to date, and responsibility for related land resources has been narrowly interpreted. Recognition of the regional nature of resources problems is of major importance in the land use planning process. The Commission recommends that regional commissions along the lines of the river basin commissions established under the 1965 Act be created, with the consent of the affected states, to encourage comprehensive land use planning on a regional basis. The key element in the transition from an intra-state to an interstate regional planning organization will be provided by the recognized interdependence among state planning organizations. Thus, creation of interstate regional planning commissions must be timed to the needs of the various geographical regions as the states of the regions become aware of the need for multistate organizations. Therefore, such regional commissions should come into existence only as the states find a need for such organizations. We also note favorably the use of the interstate compact as a device to permit planning and action on an integrated basis as in the case of the Regional Planning Agency established by California and Nevada to protect the rare beauty and environment at Lake Tahoe. Such compacts will be strengthened if formal coordination also takes place with Federal land management agencies, although we are pleased that information developed as part of the staff research program demonstrates a high degree of such voluntary coordination at the present time at Lake Tahoe. Alaska A joint Federal-state natural resources and regional planning commission should in any event be 39 n. 35, supra. |