Although loeal governments have traditionally exereised almost exclusive
regula- tory eontrol over land development within their jurisdictions,
throughout the 1970s state governments began to amass eonsiderablc
authority over loeal land use deeisions. Studies of the implementation
of these new programs, however, have generally had the drawbacks of not
being integrated into theoretieal litera- tures in the soeial seien ces
and suffering from substantial mcthodologieal prob- lems. On the basis
of a review of literatures on poliey making by regulatory ageneies, the
implementation of federal soeialldistributive programs, and the
situational variables affecting ageney behavior, in this study we
develop a general eoneeptual framework of the implementation proeess of
regulatory statutes. The framework is then applied to the implementation
of one of the more novel and eomprehensive state-levclland use statutes,
the California Coastal Zone Conser- vati on Act of 1972. In this
undertaking we reeeived eonsiderable assistanee in the design stage and
later in review of preliminary drafts of our report from aNational
Advisory Committee eomposed of persons actively involved in the
implementation ofland use poliey, representatives of groups affected by
land use regulation, and seholars in the field. For serving on the
eommittee we are indebted to James Carroll, California Couneil for
Environmental and Eeonomie Balance; Paul Culhane, Department of
Politieal Seience, U niversity of Houston; Grant Dehart, Office of
Coastal Zone Management, Washington, D. C.