Interchange: When planning matters

What is planning's role in the modern era?

Admitted planning skeptic Samuel Staley addresses this very issue in Planetizen's Interchange blog.

Staley believes that planning should be strategic rather than administrative, that it's most effective when focused strategically on the public interest.

In other words, he believes that the job of planners is not to create demand, but to provide an environment in which public demand can be met.

Staley uses as an example Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) ordinances.

The ordinances themselves did not create demand for high-density uses around transit stops, but, by reducing the regulatory burden in these areas, they created an environment in which developers could capitalize on emergent demand.

In his view, these types of specific comprehensive plans work. But long-term "master" plans that try to control a development's outcomes do not.