Has planning (and planning lingo, planning problems) become mainstream?

[Flying Monkeys]

Has planning (and planning lingo, planning problems) become mainstream?

I hear planning lingo all over the airwaves these days….not just NPR. Consider the following examples;

I hear presidential hopefuls and commissioners spouting planning jargon when giving speeches. Example:” We need to curb sprawl, integrate our land uses and support public transit. If you elect me I promise a free bus pass for everyone…”

I saw Evan Almighty – the premises are that evil, cheap developers have pissed off God. The message about development was vivid.

Or, is planning coming in on the back of environmental issues….

Example: E-insurance cartoon where the evil robot is cutting down all the trees to feed the all other insurance companies with paper. Hero knocks out robot, then tells sidekick, “Quick, into the hybrid!’ and they zoom away in a Pirus.

Also, at parties where there are two or more people who own hybrids, they seem to congregate and try to out do each other with how much mileage their hybrid gets.

Have we turned a corner in getting the message out to the public? Do you have other examples?

[Jeff]

why is this an issue regarding developers?

why isnt it an issue for planners to write better ordinances that address these issues?

[Tide]

I think planning has always been mainstream, just the jargon is "in" now.

If you go to a party and people are talking and they find out you're a planner they also feel like they can talk to you about things that affect every person, land issues will always affect every person alive. You get questions like "they're putting a new stop light in here, do you think that's right?", or "what can they do about the traffic on the highway?" or "my neighbor has a shed that is just falling down, what can I do?" or "can I add a bedroom above my garage?" or "my HOA says this but the town allows that, is that allowed?"

However if you have someone at the party who is a genetic engineer, bus driver, accountant, or chef what can you really talk about and relate... oh that's nice you make new strains of grass, so how 'bout those Cubs huh?

I'm glad to see planning getting a push in the top levels of government, however what is smart growth to you or me isn't to a presidential or senate hopeful.

[Mercer]

why is this an issue regarding developers?

why isnt it an issue for planners to write better ordinances that address these issues?

"Whaaaaaa! Why won't the good for nothing planners tell me how to make a nice development." Can't developers make a good project that goes ABOVE and BEYOND just the bare minimums?

Back on topic... I think that the planning language is becoming more mainstream. The average joe at the counter seems to understand a lot more of the common terms than they did years ago. Setbacks, impervious surfaces, drainage issues, etc. The dad trying to add onto his house seems to get these issues.

[Tobinn]

I think planning has always been mainstream, just the jargon is "in" now.

If you go to a party and people are talking and they find out you're a planner they also feel like they can talk to you about things that affect every person, land issues will always affect every person alive. You get questions like "they're putting a new stop light in here, do you think that's right?", or "what can they do about the traffic on the highway?" or "my neighbor has a shed that is just falling down, what can I do?" or "can I add a bedroom above my garage?" or "my HOA says this but the town allows that, is that allowed?"

I must go to the wrong parties. When I tell people I'm a planner they generally ask what I plan like I'm a wedding planner or something along those lines. When I say that I'm an urban planning I usually get a blank look.

[CJC]

It all depends on what you consider "planning jargon". I've heard the term "sprawl" used in other circumstances for years - by now I don't really consider it planning jargon, but more lingo of the "New Environmentalism". In many places, planning and protecting the environment are now seen as two things that clearly impact one another - and environmental matters are now en vogue.

[Monamogolo]

I worked in the Baltics after the fall of the Soviet Union. Then "planning" was a super dirty word. It was the epitomy of centralised control, and now these three countries (and many other too) were "free" of all that. It didn't take long before people began to realise that planning, however imperfect, is so far our best tool for trying to get a handle of the uncertainties of the future - at least with respect to WHERE it (the future) should happen - and the conflicts of the present.

But in my side of the world, the current planning buzz words are "sustainability" "strategic planning" "planning by negotiation" "participatory planning." One aspect that is coming in, and will be increasingly important I believe are vulnerability analysis. Where there are lots of natural hazards or course hazard management is also being increasingly built into physical/spatial/urban planning.

[nrschmid]

I think planners are also guilty of throwing around terms with each other. In Illinois, planning jurisdiction has a very specific definition within the Illinois compiled statutes. However, I have seen comprehensive plans from several communities that use the phrase planning area and it goes far beyond the 1.5 miles from the corporate limits. Cities are mistaken for villages or town and vice-versa (when it doubt, use municipal...)

Planners call themselves site designers when they put together a land use plan (which is long range planning, not site design). Corridor land use plans are mislabeled as streetscapes. Urban design has been used to refer to everything from land use planning to residential site design to design guidelines. New urbanism and traditional neighborhood design are used interchangeably. Gross density and net density are not separated. Community planners (those dealing with social justice, housing, NGO's, and many areas of planning that have nothing to do with land) consider themselves experts in land use planning. My alma mater is a bachelors program in urban & regional planning but my diploma says I have a bachelors in [I]urban planning [/I.

If someone asks me what do I do, I say I am a land use planner. I never say I am an urban planner because several of my clients are in rural communities and I do rural planning as well. I think it also distinguishes me from community planners, wedding planners, and financial planners.

[Flying Monkeys]

But in my side of the world, the current planning buzz words are "sustainability" "strategic planning" "planning by negotiation" "participatory planning." One aspect that is coming in, and will be increasingly important I believe are vulnerability analysis. Where there are lots of natural hazards or course hazard management is also being increasingly built into physical/spatial/urban planning.

"planning by negotiation" "participatory planning." are becoming vouge here also.... but I really do belive in these and have seen them to be very usefull. For example, we have performed 'modeling by negotiation', bringing together all affected parties to negotiate and agree to the inputs for the model before we start producing output from the model. This has helped cut down on points of contention about modeling results later on.