AICP Trivia 4 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: What is the name of the zoning technique that allows developers to exceed standard height or density limits in exchange for providing public amenities?
- Overlay zoning
- Incentive (bonus) zoning (Correct answer)
- Form-based coding
- Planned Unit Development
Correct answer: Incentive (bonus) zoning
Incentive or bonus zoning grants density or height bonuses to developers who voluntarily provide public benefits such as plazas, affordable housing, or public art.
Question 2: What is 'smart growth' primarily concerned with?
- Maximizing economic output from industrial zones
- Concentrating development in existing urban areas to reduce sprawl and infrastructure costs (Correct answer)
- Prioritizing agricultural preservation over housing development
- Expanding highway capacity to accommodate suburban growth
Correct answer: Concentrating development in existing urban areas to reduce sprawl and infrastructure costs
Smart growth promotes compact, transit-oriented, walkable, and mixed-use development to curb sprawl and create more sustainable communities.
Question 3: Which U.S. Supreme Court case upheld the constitutionality of comprehensive zoning in 1926?
- Penn Central Transportation Co. v. New York City
- Village of Euclid v. Ambler Realty Co. (Correct answer)
- Kelo v. City of New London
- Tahoe-Sierra Preservation Council v. Tahoe Regional Planning Agency
Correct answer: Village of Euclid v. Ambler Realty Co.
Village of Euclid v. Ambler Realty Co. (1926) is the landmark Supreme Court decision that upheld the constitutionality of municipal zoning ordinances.
Question 4: What does the acronym 'LOS' stand for in transportation planning?
- Level of Service (Correct answer)
- Length of Segment
- Load on Structure
- Line of Sight
Correct answer: Level of Service
Level of Service (LOS) is a grading system (A through F) used to describe the operating conditions of a roadway or intersection.
Question 5: Which theory, developed by Homer Hoyt in 1939, describes urban growth as expanding outward in wedge-shaped sectors along transportation routes?
- Concentric Zone Model
- Sector Model (Correct answer)
- Multiple Nuclei Model
- Central Place Theory
Correct answer: Sector Model
Homer Hoyt's Sector Model (1939) proposed that cities grow outward from the center in pie-shaped wedges or sectors based on transportation routes and land use patterns.
Question 6: What is a 'charrette' in the context of urban planning?
- A French term for a mandatory environmental review process
- An intensive, collaborative workshop where stakeholders design solutions to a planning challenge (Correct answer)
- A type of zoning overlay for historic districts
- A rapid infrastructure cost estimation tool
Correct answer: An intensive, collaborative workshop where stakeholders design solutions to a planning challenge
A charrette is an intensive, multi-day design workshop that brings together community stakeholders, planners, and designers to collaboratively develop planning solutions.
Question 7: Which federal program, established in 1956, fundamentally reshaped American cities and suburbs through massive highway construction?
- Urban Mass Transportation Act
- Federal Aid Highway Act (Interstate Highway System) (Correct answer)
- Housing Act of 1954
- Public Works Administration program
Correct answer: Federal Aid Highway Act (Interstate Highway System)
The Federal Aid Highway Act of 1956 authorized the Interstate Highway System, which dramatically restructured American land use and accelerated suburban sprawl.
AICP Trivia 4
What is the name of the zoning technique that allows developers to exceed standard height or density limits in exchange for providing public amenities?