The goal of city and regional planning is to further the welfare of people and their communities by creating convenient, equitable, healthful, efficient, and attractive environments for present and future generations. Planning is city building.
Planners plan within a highly collaborative process. Through this collaborative process they help to define the community's vision for itself. Working with local residents, politicians, and special groups, planners help establish the vision. Planners work with many types of communities — small villages, large cities, suburban towns, even counties, states, and federal agencies. This vision is created not only from what the community members want, but based on an understanding of the problems and resources at hand. The planner provides this analysis and helps the community look at the options it has for development and change.
Through the analytical planning process, planners consider the physical, social and economic aspects of communities and examine the connections between them. Professionally trained planners also analyze the existing conditions and future trends in the area. They analyze issues such as transportation, land use, housing, recreation and open space, natural and cultural resources, community services, population, and economic development. In addition to generating their own data, planners draw upon the work of others to create a comprehensive overview of the community. Once planners have conducted their analysis, they develop strategic alternatives for solving problems in a coordinated and comprehensive manner. These alternatives will guide future development based on the established goals and the systematic analysis.
The Plan consists of these alternatives presented in a formal document. Plans can take several shapes, from comprehensive plans to historic preservation plans. Plans are presented to community officials, who review, revise and adopt them for action. Plans are required at different levels of government. Once the plan is adopted, the planners job becomes the implementation of the plan, coordinating work among many groups. The tools of planning implementation include such things as land use controls and economic develop strategies.
Former American Planning Assocation President, Stuart Meck, FAICP summed it up: "Planning is the application of foresight to action."
What Do Planners Do?
The planning process typically involves the performance of a number of roles. Some planners function primarily as technical analysts or researchers, others as designers or program developers, others as agents of social change, and still others as managers or educators. Some planners will make a career in only one of these roles; most, however, will perform several of them at different stages of their lives.
- Planners formulate plans and policies to meet the social, economic, and physical needs of communities, and they develop the strategies to make these plans work.
- Planners develop plans for land use patterns, housing needs, parks and recreation opportunities, highways and transportation systems, economic development, and other aspects of the future.
- Planners must be technically competent and creative and show both hardheaded pragmatism and an ability to envision alternatives to the physical and social environments in which we live.
- Planners work with the public to develop a vision of the future and to build on that vision.
- Planners often function as mediators among conflicting community interests; they may also become facilitators, using their professional judgment to help identify the best resolutions to the issues creating conflicts.
- Planners analyze problems, visualize futures, compare alternatives, and describe implications, so that public officials and citizens can make knowledgeable choices.
- Planners design and manage the planning process itself, in order to involve interest groups, citizens, and public officials in stimulating and thought-provoking ways.
Copyright by American Planning Association. Used by permission.