Chapter 14: Deciding Upon the Community's Plan

Question 1

Formal/required steps in community plan:

Answer 1

1) Decide to prepare a plan (or amend it)
2) Solicit concerns and suggestions from community
3) Present a draft plan
4) Decide on plan bylaw
5) Province approves the plan
6) Implement plan using various tools
7) Review the plan

Question 2

Phases in developing substance of plan (informal):

Answer 2

1) Determine community preferences
2) Articulate goals and objectives
3) Plan writing
4) Implementing the plan
5) Clarifying the plan

Question 3

2 sides of decision making:

Answer 3

1) Objective: knowing who is involved in the stages of planning
2) Qualitative: how participants react, respond, behave and perform

Question 4

Formal vs Informal agents:

Answer 4

Formal: have defined functions in planning and have to participate (councillors, officials, PACs)
Informal: act in an individual capacity and choose to participate (planners, the public, developers)

Question 5

2 roles of public:

Answer 5

Proponents: support process
Challengers: feel that process is manipulative

Question 6

Visibility in planning:

Answer 6

processes made more visible with public participation programs, focus groups and advisory groups

Question 7

3 ways land development affects plan-making:

Answer 7

• differences between properties affect the type of development
• developers see potential of land differently
• landowners/public view development differently

Question 8

Variance:

Answer 8

permission for development that goes against zoning bylaws, usually because of unusual size or topography of the land; needs to be approved by a Zoning Appeal Board

Question 9

2 types of dispute resolution:

Answer 9

Negotiation: advocates on each side seek mutual solutions
Mediation: neutral third party helps find an agreeable solution

Question 10

Social cooperation:

Answer 10

for community planning to work, there needs to be sharing of information and the opportunity to refine proposals and bring in new solutions. It should allow for feedback, reexamination and modification.

Question 11

Corporate planning:

Answer 11

planning with a decision-making process similar to that of private firms, used in the past by commercial groups to keep politics out of planning

Question 12

New types of budgeting:

Answer 12

1) Performance budgeting: looks at output obtained by expenditures
2) Program budgeting: looks at output of groupings of expenditures
3) Zero-base budgeting: requires all operating units to annually justify expenditures against community goals

Question 13

Plunkett and Betts’ 4 stage model of corporate planning:

Answer 13

1) Policy planning: define priorities and set objectives
2) Action planning: establish program alternatives and budgets
3) Operations: carry out program activities
4) Feedback and review: assess program impacts

Question 14

Limitations of Plunkett and Betts’ Model:

Answer 14

time horizon is shorter, assumes top-bottom goals reflect all interests, assumes hierarchy that can’t exist in planning, assumes that participants can act independently

Question 15

Local political economy:

Answer 15

planning must incorporate the economic marketplace as well as the political arena

Question 16

Neoliberal model:

Answer 16

Promotes the economy more strongly than it does the political arena; discourages regulation in development and spending on social projects

Question 17

Long-standing ethic of planners:

Answer 17

utilitarian ethic - producing the greatest good for the greatest number; cannot ever be fully met

Question 18

Planning BY and WITH a community is important, BUT

Answer 18

the community is most often only consulted at the beginning, not throughout the process, and lack of community input in further stages leads to a vision disconnect and misalignment of citizen preferences

Question 19

Saskatoon Speaks (2011)

Answer 19

online discussions, forums and surveys, focus groups, voices sessions, etc.

After each, participants results were analyzed to check for underrepresentation. Efforts were made to engage underrepresented groups (immigrants, Aboriginals, at-risk youth, homeless, etc.)

Question 20

What is the purpose of the formal steps required of a municipality when making a plan?

Answer 20

Formal steps must be followed to adhere to provincial legislation.

Question 21

How do the formal and the informal steps of plan-making differ?

Answer 21

Whereas formal planning follows a legislative process, informal planning is concerned with rendering the substance of the plan and develops out of community interest, conventions and professional planning

Question 22

How are planning choices seen by participants in the economic marketplace as compared to participants in the political arena?

Answer 22

Economic marketplace: they take a neoliberal approach which believes politics should be kept out of planning, planning should be linked to market interests and social planning is not justified

Political arena: *****