PLANNING CONTEXT & TYPESTOPIC 3

PLANNING & PLANNERSPLANNING TYPE

Theoretical bases

Goal or ends

Planner’s role

Planning areas

TRADITIONAL Organization theory &

Scientific management

Application of reason and facts

Scientist searching for the right way to plan

Physical planning

Land use

Capital facilities planning

DEMOCRATIC Democratic theory

Public participation

Planner as an educator of citizen’s choices

Across the board

PLANNING & PLANNERSPLANNING TYPE

Theoretical bases

Goal or ends

Planner’s role

Planning areas

EQUITY Socialism Social justice Planner as an advocate (pro bono)

Environment

Housing

Social planning

INCREMENTAL Liberal politics

Utility maximization by stakeholders

Planner as a mediator of the public and special interest

Across the board

STRATEGIC Corporate management

Oriented toward actions & results

Planner as a consultant

Economic development

PLANNING MODELS

THE RATIONAL APPROACH • Analysis of the

situation/problem formulation

• Goals formulation• Identification/design of

alternative strategies• Assessment of alternatives

by tracing their consequences

• Choice/decision• Implementation of the plan • Evaluation of the plan and

feedback

THE STRATEGIC APPROACH1. Scan the environment2. Select key issues3. Set mission statement or broad

goals4. Undertake external & Internal

analysis 5. Develop goals, objectives, and

strategies with respect to each other

6. Develop and implementation plan to carry out strategic actions

7. Monitor, update, and scan

STRATEGIC PLANNING

KEY QUESTIONS • What differences exist between strategic &

traditional planning? • What are the theoretical bases of strategic

planning? • What is the role of a planner in the strategic

planning? • What are the goals or ends in strategic

planning? • How would strategic planning be applied to the

El Paso-Juarez context? What are the strategic issues? What are the key SWOT in the El Paso-Juarez region?

CLASS QUESTIONS • Kaufman and Jacobs (1987:324) talk about a crisis in public

planning where traditional planning is being accused of not doing the job, a situation they contend could potentially take the urban and regional planning to a crisis of relevance and professional identity. Several questions come to mind. What is the nature and the outcome of this crisis that they do not fully explain; is the crisis it linked to Reaganomics in the 80’s and does this context have anything to do with the fact that they looked to corporate America for planning alternatives – finding the strategic planning model?

• Local planning has several political layers or contexts that shape policies. Which level –federal, state or city – weighs heaviest? In general? In Texas? In El Paso? (PICARD)

• IMCA, 2000 touch upon a series of subjects that are particularly relevant to the City of El Paso. On the one hand, it would seem logical that the local planning practice has probably followed the lines of traditional APA style planning, where minorities and women have had little say. What would a planning policy closer to Hispanic/Latino/ Mexican-American values look like? El Paso has edge cities, a deteriorated down town and the complexity of a metropolitan area that involves a greater number of levels of government than planners are usually faced with. How has it tended to approach this complexity through the years and why? (PICARD)

CLASS QUESTIONS• What can we do as planners to better assist the public with issues

concerning the lack of affordable housing? (ARLAN)• What are some ways to better assist with infill development? (ARLAN)• According to Fainstein and Fainstein, is El Paso dominated by the

liberal tradition?  The traditional value of individualism, accepting the primacy of private interests, and prefering minimal government (MONTERO)

• After reading "A Public Policy Perspective on Strategic Planning", I was interested in views expressed by planners that were particularly reticent in the strategic planning approach.  What would a planner have to lose by adopting a strategic planning process in their planning?  Wouldn't this process only add legitimacy to their work and how it's viewed by elected officials and the community at large? (LUCERO)

• City Planning and Political Values" offers the view that the United States has seen an absence of democratic planning because of the individual self interests and freedoms that our democracy holds as important.  This then implies that the social changes that we see will be limited to the extent that people can organize themselves and claim their special interests.  How do planners in the US make sense of this and negotiate the contradiction of somehow knowing what's best yet being held to the self-interests of those that yell the loudest?

CLASS QUESTIONS• Does legal authorization tend to lean towards having a socially conscience spin or does it tend to facilitate political and capital movements and or agendas? (RAMSEY) • Is there really a difference between Democratic Planning and

Equity Planning? (RODRIGUEZ)•   Isn't incrementalism or Incremental Planning at the root of all

Planning in a community, whereas you have to build upon or improve the old to improve the new? (RODRIGUEZ)

• Why haven’t Marxism and Post-Structuralism created planning theory steeped in the tenets of these philosophies? (URQUIDI)

• Although strategic planning has been the mainstay of the private sector, should it be applied to planning? After all, the goals and outcomes of both are fundamentally different, or aren’t they? (URQUIDI)

• Throughout the readings, it is very clear that a great deal of analysis takes place before the planning process.  Do planners factor in any type of error margin in anticipation of changes that may take place in the future? (i.e. population trends, traffic patterns, economic trends, housing patterns, demographic changes, etc...) (HARRISON)

CLASS QUESTIONS• . In Levy's chapter on Comprehensive Planning, he stresses how the land use tools

such as zoning and other regulations must positively coincide with the capital investments made in a city.  How can we be sure that this happens if there is such diffuse planning implementation mechanisms in place in America . . . the feds tell us what we need to do but offer little guidance, the local and regional areas conflict with one another at times, so is it possible to be sure that your land use tools are used consistent with investments when there is such little "true authority" when it comes to plan implementation? (GONZALEZ)

•  • 2. Follow up - should we have some broad national/federal planning board similar to

the one Gore once discussed as part of the Clinton/Gore agenda?  Would it be flexible enough to work with diverse life, family, and social cultures?  (GONZALEZ)

•  • 3. It is stated in the ICMA reading that femininst planning perspectives have brought

to life a renewed, social dimension to public planning, yet the female still faces many political blockades; should we believe that women have influenced planning, due only to their refreshing perspective or because of extensive schooling, financial capabilities, and solid social networks?  If so, does this woman provide for and represent all other women? (GONZALEZ)

•  • 4. There is alternatives or alterations that planners must make in their work when it

comes to full utilization of the rational action model; this is due to the fact, that the human race is not always so RATIONAL!!  What are some adjustments that a planner would need to make here in El Paso?  How do we not constitute the makings of rational man?  Is it our culture, our resistance to change, to adapt, to modernize, or all of these caused by the lack of capital investment here in El Paso, business wise?