There is no present way, (still - after 50 years of talking about this) to place a value on the view, waterfront, water quality, etc.
It's been a lot of years since I took the class, but those things can be valued. One of the things I did in my case study of Suisun Marsh was quantified how much the marsh cleans up the water and what it would cost if humans did it with a water treatment plant.
Suisun Marsh is also a historic birding area and the rails go through there for that reason. It brought tourism.
You can place dollar values on tourism, water quality and other things. It doesn't get done a lot but can be done.
A lot of places with such assets are small town or rural. Planning jobs tend to pay better in the big city so your best talent tends to end up designing cities and planners often hate their jobs because they don't get to do what they wanted to do.
Planning something good for people and the environment that makes economic sense and gets buy in from enough pertinent stakeholders is hard. So, all too often, "money talks" instead.
It's been a lot of years since I took the class, but those things can be valued. One of the things I did in my case study of Suisun Marsh was quantified how much the marsh cleans up the water and what it would cost if humans did it with a water treatment plant.
Suisun Marsh is also a historic birding area and the rails go through there for that reason. It brought tourism.
You can place dollar values on tourism, water quality and other things. It doesn't get done a lot but can be done.
A lot of places with such assets are small town or rural. Planning jobs tend to pay better in the big city so your best talent tends to end up designing cities and planners often hate their jobs because they don't get to do what they wanted to do.
Planning something good for people and the environment that makes economic sense and gets buy in from enough pertinent stakeholders is hard. So, all too often, "money talks" instead.