Pacific Southwest

Title: The interface of legal and esthetic considerations

Author: Smardon, Richard C.

Date: 1979

Source: In: Elsner, Gary H., and Richard C. Smardon, technical coordinators. 1979. Proceedings of our national landscape: a conference on applied techniques for analysis and management of the visual resource [Incline Village, Nev., April 23-25, 1979]. Gen. Tech. Rep. PSW-GTR-35. Berkeley, CA. Pacific Southwest Forest and Range Exp. Stn., Forest Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture: p. 676-685

Station ID: GTR-PSW-035

Description:  This paper is an overview of development of legal/policy factors affecting visual resource management. Review of major legal issues, court cases, laws and administrative decisionmaking reveals that the "action" regarding legal and aesthetic issues is currently in the public arena as managed by administrative agencies. Analysis of key court cases reveals that the courts always go back to the "context" at hand to make a decision, and that existing legislation mentioning and/or providing inclusion of aesthetic or visual resources in environmental planning and decisionmaking creates a "protective net" over much of the Federal and common trust lands and resources. Failure to consider adequately visual resources in many cases could be grounds for citizen suits although legal action is diminishing and more activity lies within agency administrative discretion. Detailed legislation, citing the contextual aesthetic properties and management prescriptions of an individual area, and/or detailed agency inventory, analysis and management are sound strategies.

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Citation

Smardon, Richard C.  1979.  The interface of legal and esthetic considerations.   In: Elsner, Gary H., and Richard C. Smardon, technical coordinators. 1979. Proceedings of our national landscape: a conference on applied techniques for analysis and management of the visual resource [Incline Village, Nev., April 23-25, 1979]. Gen. Tech. Rep. PSW-GTR-35. Berkeley, CA. Pacific Southwest Forest and Range Exp. Stn., Forest Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture: p. 676-685.