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Do Practicing Planners Value Plan Quality? Insights From a Survey of Planning Professionals in Ontario, Canada

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  • Dave Guyadeen

Abstract

Problem, research strategy, and findings: Researchers have developed conceptualconsensus on core plan characteristics that contribute to plan quality, but rarely assess how practitioners view plan quality. I explore how Canadian planners view the characteristics thought to create quality plans. I asked planners in 290 municipalities across southern Ontario (Canada) their view of the importance of plan quality and asked that they identify additional plan quality characteristics, rate the infl uence of various plan characteristics, and explain why they omitted certain characteristics in their offi cial plans. I find that practitioners valued quality plans because they facilitate implementation and help inspire the community while adding credibility and legitimacy to planning processes and the planning profession. Planners did not value all plan elements equally; they felt that clear and enforceable polices were crucial, but that it was less important to report participation in plan preparation or discuss monitoring or interorganizational cooperation in the offi cial plan. Planners did not always include important plan quality elements in their offi cial plans because they lacked suffi cient resources to prepare comprehensive plans and rarely signifi – cantly updated older plans. These case study findings may not be generalizable to other jurisdictions in Canada or internationally, but still offer useful insights.Takeaway for practice: Scholars should ensure that planning practitioners have a key role in shaping understanding of plan quality. Academics and practitioners should work together to create refl ective practitioners who use plan quality characteristics to guide them as they create or update plans. The profession needs to better train current and future planners on how to prepare and evaluate quality plans through improvements in planning curricula and professional development courses offered by the American Planning Association and the Canadian Institute of Planners.

Suggested Citation

  • Dave Guyadeen, 2018. "Do Practicing Planners Value Plan Quality? Insights From a Survey of Planning Professionals in Ontario, Canada," Journal of the American Planning Association, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 84(1), pages 21-32, January.
  • Handle: RePEc:taf:rjpaxx:v:84:y:2018:i:1:p:21-32
    DOI: 10.1080/01944363.2017.1404486
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    Cited by:

    1. Guyadeen, Dave & Henstra, Daniel & Kaup, Shivani & Wright, Grace, 2023. "Evaluating the quality of municipal strategic plans," Evaluation and Program Planning, Elsevier, vol. 96(C).
    2. Qiao Hu & Zhenghong Tang & Martha Shulski & Natalie Umphlett & Tarik Abdel-Monem & Frank E. Uhlarik, 2018. "An examination of midwestern US cities’ preparedness for climate change and extreme hazards," Natural Hazards: Journal of the International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, Springer;International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, vol. 94(2), pages 777-800, November.
    3. Christine Quattro & Thomas Daniels, 2022. "The Constellation of Plans: Toward a New Structure of Comprehensive Plans in US Cities," Land, MDPI, vol. 11(10), pages 1-16, October.
    4. Reckien, Diana & Buzasi, Attila & Olazabal, Marta & Spyridaki, Niki-Artemis & Eckersley, Peter & Simoes, Sofia G. & Salvia, Monica & Pietrapertosa, Filomena & Fokaides, Paris & Goonesekera, Sascha M. , 2023. "Quality of urban climate adaptation plans over time," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 3, pages 1-14.
    5. Dave Guyadeen & Jason Thistlethwaite & Daniel Henstra, 2019. "Evaluating the quality of municipal climate change plans in Canada," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 152(1), pages 121-143, January.
    6. Clemente J. Navarro-Yáñez & María-Jesús Rodríguez-García & María José Guerrero-Mayo, 2020. "Evaluating the Quality of Urban Development Plans Promoted by the European Union: The URBAN and URBANA Initiatives in Spain (1994–2013)," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 149(1), pages 215-237, May.
    7. Ivan A. Antipin & Natalya Yu. Vlasova, 2022. "Assessing strategic planning in municipalities: Methodological, practical and managerial aspects," Upravlenets, Ural State University of Economics, vol. 13(5), pages 67-84, November.
    8. Stelios Grafakos & Kate Trigg & Mia Landauer & Lorenzo Chelleri & Shobhakar Dhakal, 2019. "Analytical framework to evaluate the level of integration of climate adaptation and mitigation in cities," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 154(1), pages 87-106, May.

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