Planning is Communication: 1

Planners have what I consider to be one of the toughest jobs in government. They are charged with charting long range courses that are often beyond visualization to all but a few dreamers, and often those very dreamers are either cranks or, well, other planners. (Please hold all cynical remarks, thank you!) But what makes their job so difficult is a bigger issue than that: planners promote change. It may seem strange that this would prove difficult in a country as young and as malleable as the U.S., but change adversity is a common cultural norm, especially communal change. To an average American, the ability to change themselves at will is a plus, but the ability of the environment to change at will is intolerable.

Unfortunately for planners, not only are they agents of change, but they are also tasked with talking about and displaying those proposed changes to the public at large, and this is where it gets sticky. Envision the average public meeting or open house for, say, a new zoning plan. There are maps, diagrams, and charts up on the walls, and at them, local citizens and stakeholders are stooping, putting a nose against the paper and saying things like “where are we? Oh, there we are. We’re colored green now, guess that means we’re a skyscraper soon!” Those of you who are civics junkies like me have seen this, I know.

The worst offense is when a new building type, form, or other physical restriction is put in place. For example, in the case of a new building height allowance, the public will generally assume that all buildings will be built to the maximum, ignoring the pragmatic restrictions of real estate economics, developer interest, property ownership and varying property values due to location and other physical constraints. This is an impediment that planners need to surmount. On average, however, planners fail to do so, and instead illustrate idealized outcomes rather than practical ones.

When someone is change adverse, it’s not the final outcome they fear, it’s the transition from here to there. People fear change when they don’t know when or how it will happen, or what their role in that change is, or if they even have a role or any power at all. Planners must remember that their job is not just drawing idealized outcomes, it is also communicating how, when, what and why these outcomes may occur. This is especially true of illustrations! When a new building mass is proposed, for example, it should be illustrated alongside the existing building masses in the area. Illustrations should show how these buildings would infill and mix with the existing uses, and illustrate the transition.