WASHINGTON — A Cincinnati land-use lawyer Thursday defended a new national planning guidebook against critics who claim it fails to adequately recognize private-property rights.

        Robert Manley, a partner with Manley, Burke, Fischer and Lipton, told Congress that the “Growing Smart Legislative Guidebook” is a resource for state and local planners to consult when updating land-use plans.

        The American Planning Association drafted the guide over seven years with advisers from state and local governments and representatives from environmental and building interests. The federal government paid most of the $2.4 million cost to produce the document, which outlines planning models to discourage sprawl and protect farmland.

        The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development has accepted the guide as reference material, but it does not carry the weight of federal policy.

        “Smart growth is a set of public policies designed not to stifle growth but to promote development in ways that create communities of balance, consumer choice and lasting value,” Mr. Manley told the House Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on the Constitution.

        Critics, including several conservative lawmakers, believe property-rights advocates, small-business groups and others were left out of deliberations on the guide and that some state and local planners may misconstrue the guide's suggestions as federal policy.

        In November, several lawmakers, including House Majority Whip Tom DeLay, R-Texas, asked HUD Secretary Mel Martinez to oppose the guide. The lawmakers claimed the guide's provisions would “trample the rights of private-property owners by seizing their land without the just compensation that our Constitution requires.”

        Rep. Steve Chabot, R-Ohio, chairman of the subcommittee, said Thursday he also has reservations that the guide could evolve into rigid standards that undermine local control.

        “I have serious concerns about this approach,” he said.

        Harry Alford, president of the National Black Chamber of Commerce, said the guide's suggestions could lead state and local governments to adopt uniform planning in diverse minority and ethnic communities such as Over-the-Rhine in Cincinnati or Harlem in New York.

        “It's anti-freedom. It's anti-choice. It's anti-culture,” he said.

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