One of my proudest moments as an elected official was when the City of Liberty Lake passed its first comprehensive plan. On the cover, the city declared that the plan was "preserving our past and preparing for our future" (City of Liberty Lake Planning and Building Services 1). One of the priorities in creating the plan was to provide the great care with which public participation was nurtured and integrated into its core values. In American history, public participation has not always been a priority, but significant effort by the planning community has been expended to improve plans through informed public input.
It is easy to find references in planning literature to the utility of public participation in city planning efforts. Eric Damian Kelly states that "[t]he best plans are those that represent the collective will of the community" (91). Stern, Gudes, and Svoray argue that "[it] is widely agreed that increased public participation in planning produces many benefits. Dissent in this case is rare...." (1068). Public participation is widely argued to expand trust, earn credibility for the plan, generate commitment for implementation, build a community’s social capital, empower the participants, increase community knowledge, create ownership, and reduce long-term conflict. (Stern, Gudes, and Svoray 1068).
Though there is near consensus within the city planning industry in favor of public participation, it is not universally embraced by the leaders of the political systems that city planners are often employed to serve. "The social forces surrounding many planners seem simultaneously to produce dialogical ideals pulling them in one direction and efficiency-obsessed realpolitik pushing in the opposite direction" (Sager 65). Planning is an inherently political process. While efforts to reform American government throughout the 20th century attempted to mitigate the intensity of political intervention, planning issues can be driven by local politics, to its detriment (Kelly 53-54).
The planning community’s response to such challenges was to establish a code of ethics for city planners. In the case of the United States, the code of ethics was established and is enforced by the American Planning Association (APA). All certified city planners are expected to conform to the spirit of the code, an element of which does establish the importance of public participation. The relevant section states, in part, that city planners are to "[r]ecognize the rights of citizens to participate in planning decisions…and the opportunity to have a meaningful role in the development of plans and programs" ("Ethical Principles"). This ethical standard supersedes the vagaries of political debate, and is intended to guide and protect city planners in a heated environment.
Recognizing the importance of public participation motivates city planners to interact with the community at large. The interest is great enough that studies have been performed to find how various demographics affect participation in community activities. For instance, Besser and Ryan found that communities with a higher percentage of full time workers, college graduates, and employment within the community increased public participation. However, since these demographic factors cannot be manipulated directly, city planners must modulate their public participation opportunities to best fit the community within available resources.
The planner’s goal is to make public participation in the planning process representative and meaningful (Kelly 91). For participation to be representative, it must have as its source a wide variety of people with respect to age, income, marital status, geography, education, race, and other measurable demographics (Kelly 91-92). For it to be meaningful, there must be a chance that participation can affect the outcome of the plan. With confidence that meaningful, representative participation is possible, city planners create a public participation plan to include all affected individuals and groups. Accordingly, many techniques, each with their strengths and weaknesses, are considered traditional if not statutory.
Public hearings are often required by state laws (Kelly 96-97). Public hearings are a highly structured and formal public participation technique, and guarantee that all interested persons may participate in one form or another. However, public hearings are generally the last step in the adoption of plans. Consequently, while this form of participation may be representative, it may not be meaningful. Other public meetings, such as neighborhood meetings, may be more meaningful, but because multiple meetings are often necessary to make it representative, it is resource intensive, and many communities lack the means necessary to conduct them (Kelly 97-98).
More personal forms of public participation include stakeholder group meetings, key person interviews, and focus groups. Stakeholders, such as business groups, homeowners associations, and environmentalists can be gathered for the city to receive input. When experts or highly active members of the community are available, they can be interviewed directly. Cities may also hire trained facilitators to interview groups of randomly selected individuals to get a cross section of the community’s ideas. Because the people who participate in these forms are chosen by the planning government, the potential for unrepresentative input is high. However, because the participants can be chosen by some group identity or participation in local governance, they can be highly meaningful. There is a priority to make the selection process appear fair, and early inclusion of these forms of participation can be useful in issue identification (Kelly 98-99).
A more representative method of participation is the community survey. Most people do not attend public meetings of any kind, so a professionally designed public survey can provide useful information. Open surveys are less expensive, but they suffer from the potential that some groups may distort the results through coordinated responses, even if they do not intend to do so (Kelly 99). Scientific surveys are more reliable. However, such surveys cannot be scaled since small communities require approximately the same number of survey responses as large communities to be considered valid (Kelly 100).
With the newly ubiquitous nature of web-based social interaction, planning is going online. A study conducted by Stern, Gudes, and Svoray indicates that while providing opportunities for participation in planning through the web increases involvement, it does not increase the participant’s sense of involvement (1076). Web-based planning participation may increase trust in the plan and the city planners (Stern, Gudes, and Svoray 1079). However, in both of these measures, and in the feeling of empowerment felt by the participants, web participation was not nearly as powerful as a combination of web-based and traditional planning outreach (Stern, Gudes, and Svoray 1083). The other, more traditional, forms are still necessary.
City planners recognize the importance of public participation because it is both ethical and practical. Planners seek input which is representative and meaningful, so they can generate plans which serve their communities. Because each neighborhood is different, various methods are practiced and new methods are being added as technology advances. If history is any indication, an expansion of public participation will continue into the future resulting in ever better planning for the cities of tomorrow.
Besser, Terry L. and Vernon D. Ryan. "The impact of labor market involvement on participation in the community." Journal of the Community Development Society of America. 31.1 (2000): 72-88. Print.
City of Liberty Lake Planning and Building Services. "City of Liberty Lake Comprehensive Plan 2003 – 2022." City of Liberty Lake, WA. City of Liberty Lake, 18 Dec. 2007. Web. 9 Feb. 2010.
"Ethical Principles in Planning." American Planning Association. American Planning Association, May 1992. Web. 9 Feb. 2010.
Kelly, Eric Damian. Community planning: an introduction to the comprehensive plan. 2nd ed. Washington: Island Press, 2010. Print.
Sager, Tore. "Planners’ role: torn between dialogical ideals and neo-liberal realities." European Planning Studies. 17.1 (2009): 65-84. Academic Search Complete. Web. 8 Feb. 2010.
Stern, Eliahu, Ori Gudes and Tal Svoray. "Web-based and traditional public participation in comprehensive planning: a comparative study." Environment and Planning B: Planning and Design. 36.6 (2009): 1067-85. Academic Search Complete. Web. 8 Feb. 2010.
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