Planning 101

What is Planning? Why Do We Plan?

Planning is important to communities because it provides order and direction to the development and redevelopment of the community. It also provides a basis and structure to assure that adequate infrastructure such as roads and water lines are available to serve the development. And, it provides a common basis of discussion in a community about how the future of the community will be shaped.

Without planning, the development of a community is likely to be haphazard and unpredictable. It will not likely have the infrastructure available that is necessary to support it.

Key Principles in Planning: Vision and Values

The important thing to remember about Planning is that there is no “perfect plan.” Planning decisions are a matter of choice, style, conditions, and resources. This means that there are a number of elements that tend to guide a city, a city’s planners and developers, the developers in the area, etc. in the decisions they make when submitting/reviewing plans.

Key Steps to Consider
  • Developing a vision is a key step, which can be done by a single visionary or through community collaboration.
  • Using community values to guide planning is another key. Being mindful of the collective values of the community reflected in written and unwritten laws, traditions, and customs, can help a city conform its planning to these values; therefore, creating a community that all citizens can appreciate.

Key Principles in Planning: Process and Patience

Planning can be perplexing for those watching from the outside. The process is sometimes flexible and the results of the process cannot always be predicted. One thing to keep in mind about the process is that there are no guarantees or absolutes; there are countless variables that affect planning decisions, and the decisions that are made and the results that follow do not always adhere to particular patterns. The planning industry is not static, but dynamic.

Key Points to Consider about the Planning Process
  • Planning processes are made to adapt to changing times and conditions.
  • Politics will shift over time.
  • Public attitudes change.
  • Unforeseen and outside changes occur that can stimulate the need to change plans.
  • Crises come and go.
Key Points to Consider about Planning Results
  • No one lives “in the future.”
  • It takes a long time for plans to result in actual physical elements.
  • Planning results do not respond easily to the “nice guy” or to “quick fixes.”
  • Planning takes commitment and perseverance.
  • Planning deals with results that are hard to pinpoint; they do not show a “bottom line” easily.

How are These Visions and Values Put into Action?

  • Planning can stimulate a desired action.
  • The city has some controls and limitations on planning.
  • The city and stakeholders must communicate.
  • The community must take a leadership role in implementing city planning.

How Does Planning Add Value to the Community?

  • Residents feel satisfied and secure when key systems that support the function of the community work well, and when infrastructure is in place and adequate.
  • People are willing to pay to live and work in a well-planned community.
  • Services can meet the needs of the residents and businesses.
  • There is a sense of predictability and protection when property rights are established and recognized by a local government.
  • When the general community feels satisfied and protected, residents tend not to harm their neighbors.

Appendix

Historic Roots of Municipal Planning

  • “Law of the Indies,” 1573
  • Thomas Jefferson – creating regularity and simplicity of land ownership / opening up the “West”
  • Frederick Law Olmstead – avoid disease and pestilence of urban areas / lead to the “City Beautiful” movement
  • Resistance to the ills of industrialization – zoning begins in upstate New York and Ohio
  • Method of land speculation in the West
  • Suburban explosion after WWII – major highways, separation of uses, home ownership, industrialized home construction

Arizona Planning History

  • Early zoning stages

-1930s – 1950s, early attempts at deed restrictions

-1960s – 1970s, modern zoning

  • General Planning

-1961 – Freeway Plan

-1967 – Eisner Plan

-1971 – State Law

-1998 – 2000 Growing Smarter updates[VGC1]

Fall 20051 of 3

[VGC1]1 Appendix?