How Do Plans Work?

According to Lewis D. Hopkins in From Urban Development: The Logic of Making Plans (2001), a plan has five key purposes: they can provide agendas, policies, visions, designs, and strategies. An agenda is a set of objectives. It can be useful as a reminder to the public and decision-makers of the long-term goals of a project. Policies provide a set of standard responses to problems. They assist decision making by reducing the financial costs and improving the efficiency and consistency of responses to problems. The vision of a plan refers to the desired outcomes of change. They work by conceptualizing for people what the future could be like and inspiring them to believe it could be so. Hopkin’s describes a design as “a fully worked out outcome”. They work through a series of interdependent actions that lead to a desired outcome. Lastly, the strategy of a plan refers to a set of decisions that determine a course of action. In contrast to design, strategies are focused on the means of reaching an outcome, not just the outcome itself. The provision of all of the above (agenda, policy, vision, design and strategy) does not necessitate a plan. Rather, a plan can be exclusively concerned with one or several these purposes.

Hopkin’s considers plans to have two key components: regulations and investment. Regulations are enforced by the state and set the range of decisions that can be made in a plan (eg. restrictions on building height). They involve two kinds of decisions related to planning: to regulate and to act within those regulations. Investment is essential in planning as it creates the physical infrastructure and facilities. It also involves two decisions: to invest and to use the results of that investment in particular ways. For example, a zoning restriction specifies an area for residential development prompting investment in housing infrastructure for that area.

There are four broad criteria for assessing whether plans works: effect, net benefit, internal validity, and external validity. The effectiveness of a plan concerns whether it had any influence on decision-making, actions, or outcomes. Net benefit refers to the cost of the plan and compares it with the results achieved. Internal validity checks if the original intention of plan was fulfilled and external validity examines whether the plan was able to fulfill criteria outside its own purpose.

The Art of Planning

What is meant by the phrase “The Art of Planning”. The phrase implies that there is a specialized skill involved in and exclusive to the field of planning. In other words, there is something that a planner can do, that someone from a different field could not. To define the phrase is, in a sense, to distinguish it from the fields that contribute to it. Planning involves many aspects from other fields, for example: architecture, economics, law, economics, and environmental sciences. It is due to the eclectic nature of planning that is important to ask the question: what is a planner? Is it just a person who has an eclectic knowledge of other fields? Or is there also a specialized knowledge or expertise possessed by planners that enable them to create planning products? It is perhaps in the integrating or balancing of these various elements of other fields which is key to the Art of Planning.

In Birch’s article Practitioners and the Art of Planning, the evolution of the phrase is explored through literature produced by practitioners of planning from the 1930’s to the new millennium in the United States. These practitioners are those who work in the field and those who teach and research in academia. The article focuses on the “art” of planning but also includes examples of how science aspects have been involved in the practice of planning.

In Birch’s article, three meanings of the term “art” are used to define the phrase “The Art of Planning”. Derived from the term’s dictionary definition, they are design, craft, and presentation. According to Birch, the design aspect of planning ranges from the “physical planning or urban design involved in the arrangement of land and buildings to the creation of visions for ideal communities”. Or in other words, to in vision a desired outcome, whether it be physical or abstract. The craft aspect is described as the techniques or methods used by planners to apply their skill. It involves the knowledge of concepts pertaining to the field, for example: legal or geographic concepts. Lastly, the presentation aspect of planning refers to the personal attributes or skills of planners. So, for example, there ability to oversee a planning process or describe a planning product the public.

Tim Carne.

Welcome to the TC Planning blog

Hello. In this blog ideas and issues concerning Urban and Regional Planning will be explored. These ideas and issues will be based on those presented in articles published in The Urban and Regional Planning Reader (2009) edited by Eugenie L. Birch. Each week a short report will be posted as part of assessment for the unit Planning Theory and Process offered at the University of Canberra. Comments are welcomed and would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers, Tim Carne.