What Type of Governing Structure is Appropriate?

Very few regional initiatives are designed to "govern" land use, natural resource, and environmental issues – where govern means formulating, implementing, and enforcing some type of regional plan or policy. Nevertheless, some regions do mature to the point where they determine that it is in their interest to develop a system of regional governance.

Recent research and practical experience suggests that the four following models capture the range of experience and emphasize the most relevant distinctions:

Models for Regional Governance

• Voluntary, Non-binding Easier
• Voluntary, Binding
• Strict Compliance
• Consolidation Harder

Voluntary, non-binding models are the easiest approaches – politically and otherwise – while consolidation tends to the hardest approach to regional governance. The two other models fall somewhere between these extremes.

Regional governance, as defined here, is neither necessary nor desirable in all regions. When and where it is, regions may choose from a menu of models or create some type of hybrid. The general trend at the beginning of the 21st century, if there is one, seems to embrace the following prescriptive elements:

A Prescriptive Framework for Regional Governance

1. Allow and encourage the affected jurisdictions to help shape and revise the regional plan.
2. Make participation by local jurisdictions voluntary, not mandatory.
3. Provide incentives for local jurisdictions to voluntarily comply with regional goals and aspirations, and make the provision of funding, technical services, and other incentives contingent upon implementing regional goals and aspirations.
4. Allow local jurisdictions to select their own representatives to regional governing bodies.
5. Encourage regional governing bodies to make decisions on the basis of consensus.
6. Provide an appropriate fallback mechanism when consensus cannot be reached and disputes need to be resolved. Perhaps the best option here is to create a system that moves from mediation to non-binding arbitration to deferring the decision to a third party. (Of course, this element is only critical in cases where implementation of a regional plan is mandatory on local jurisdictions).
7. Allow local jurisdictions to propose changes to the regional plan to balance local and regional needs and interests.