Procedure
We began our search for exemplary planning practices by considering indicators of three major types of planning: general planning, economic development, and environmental planning. While we realize the importance of other planning aspects such as transportation or waterfront planning, due to time constraints, we did not include these in our search.
Our team split into three groups, each focusing its research on one of these three planning types. Each group investigated and compared indicators among the communities. For instance, the group focusing on general planning chose the following indicators to research:
- Updated master plan (with compatible zoning regulations)
- Downtown revitalization
- Taking a regional perspective
- Addressing the issues of affordable housing
- Amount of community participation
- Proactive v. reactive planning
- Pursuance of grantsSimilarly the economic development group sought signs of strong economic health in the communities and focused its search on:
- Growth or decline in the number of jobs and new businesses
- Job creation programs
- Municipal bond ratings (i.e. Moody's)
- Brownfield redevelopment
- Pursuance of grants
Finally, the group addressing environmental planning looked for ways to measure how a community was encouraging environmental awareness and planning. They focused their research on the following indicators:
- Change in recycling rates
- Whether the community had passed the Community Preservation Act
- Preservation of open space
- Brownfield redevelopmentEach group investigated these indicators to find changes or patterns in the data for roughly a ten-year time period. Later in our project this data was used to help narrow down and finally select communities with exemplary planning practices. The first phase of the study was merely exploratory in nature, and these criteria were not necessarily those that were used for the final selection.
Half-way through our project we presented our findings to our client and were instructed to limit our search even further to communities falling within four categories: those communities with the highest and lowest incomes, with declining populations, and with the fastest rates of growth. We therefore only investigated communities falling into these groups and did not look at those in the middle-range.
Four groups were then created to represent each type of community. Each of the four groups established a different set of criteria relative to their communities as they continued the elimination process. With this limitation the groups were able to research a more manageable number of cities and towns in greater depth. These specific criteria are listed below.
The Fastest Growing communities group focused on the following criteria to select an exemplary planning community:
- An awareness of growth
- A commitment to affordable housing
- Regional approach to planning
The Wealthiest communities group focused on the following specific criteria to select an exemplary planning community:
- Affordable housing stock
- Economic development
The Declining Population group focused on the following criteria to select an exemplary planning community:
- Participatory planning important.
- Pro-active planning.
- Historic preservation.
The Lowest-income group focused on the following criteria to select an exemplary planning community:
- Job creation & retention
- Leadership
- Grant awards
- Downtown revitalizationAfter each group determined their set of criteria to identify an exemplary planning community, the first part of the elimination process began by conducting research on Lexis-Nexis, a database of U.S news articles and journals. Through this process each group was able to identify "hot planning issues" or the lack of planning issues within the 45 communities under investigation. This research also allowed each group to identify communities who have been recognized for their planning efforts, successes or failures.
At this point each group was able to eliminate additional cities and towns and further narrow down the list of possible communities. The next phase of research was conducted by telephone and personal interviews with planning professionals and other local officials within the communities. The types of questions asked were: What are good indicators of exemplary planning? What are the exemplary planning qualities of your community that others may want to follow? Although most of these questions were generally answered with a certain degree of bias, valuable information was gathered through this interviewing process. Each group was able to get a better understanding of the character and leadership structure of each community. The information received through these interviews allowed each group to confidently select the communities they felt were exemplary enough in their planning activities to be seriously considered for final selection.
The final selection process was an examination of the remaining communities and a comparison of their planning achievements, unique qualities and innovative planning practices worthy of emulation by similar types of communities. During this evaluation process several communities were eliminated for various reasons. For example, some communities have location, density, seasonal populations, or other circumstances that are so unique to that specific city or town that no other community could follow them as a planning model.
After each team discussed and debated on the strengths and weaknesses of each finalist community, the winners were selected. Five communities in total were chosen based on their exemplary planning achievements and practices, and the winners are: Andover, Arlington, Barnstable, Gardner and Mansfield.
