Cities with characteristic natural settings are facing the question of how
to promote development while preserving views of the natural amenity. The s
ize, shape and number of view corridors have been regulated while the view
amenity policy preferred by the general public was largely unknown. This st
udy explores public preference for urban views of a natural amenity using d
rawings. It was found that preserving a limited number of view corridors wh
ile restricting building height was preferred over policies for uniformly l
ow buildings or for taller buildings with multiple views. These results do
not agree with some recent recommendations of planners, (C) 1999 Elsevier S
cience B.V. All rights reserved.