Since its emergence in the early part of this century, planning in the United States has been predominantly urban. Regional planning of watersheds, has received some attention but planning for rural areas has not been widely practiced, nor has it been taught in planning schools. Support for this generalization may be found in planning texts which consider 50,000 population a “small” municipality. Further evidence is found in town plans prepared through support of federal “701” funds during the past decade. These plans are usually for expansion of urban facilities and services and ignore exclusively rural land uses. Planning in England presents a contrast. It is appropriately referred to as “town and country planning” as it covers the range of land use intensities from agricultural to the highest value urban block as interrelated and interconnected parts of a single fabric.
“QEP”–A New Method of Rural Planning