Some people think they know all the answers. They know how far you should live from your job. They know how big your backyard should be. They know how cities and forests should grow. Government planners claim to know all of that and more. They say that if you want to live in pleasant communities, enjoy beautiful wilderness, and get to work on time, you should put them in charge. But 30 years of research has convinced Randal O'Toole—one of Newsweek's top 20 "movers and shakers in the West"—that they're wrong. In The Best-Laid Plans, he shows in case after case that government planning frequently causes the very problems it is intended to solve.

Combining theory with case studies to underscore his analysis, O'Toole calls for repealing federal, state, and local planning laws and proposes reforms that can help solve social and environmental problems without heavy-handed government regulation. The Best-Laid Plans is a powerful challenge to the conventional wisdom about public lands, urban growth, and government planning.