Lesson 18 - Institutional Planning and Siting

Question 1

School districts need trained planners

Answer 1

Disjointed planning and parallel play. Who does planning within the typical school district? The answer, frankly, is that much of that planning is reactionary, framed by arising issues, and seldom long range.

Separate departments often focus on separate priorities: curriculum programs, student demographics (assignment to schools, drawing attendance boundaries, and student assignment concepts), bus transportation, and planning for closing, enlarging, and building schools. The different entities do not coordinate their efforts when considering impacts.

Controversial school attendance plans. Nothing is more contentious in school districts than redrawing attendance boundaries. The tools used are primitive by city planning standards, often including paper maps, estimated student numbers, and poor enrollment projections.

Poor enrollment projections. I have reviewed massive redistricting and construction programs founded on straight-line projections of historical enrollment data for the whole district — not even for individual school zones. But even in a growing district there will be declining schools, along with various distributions of births and migration and cohort survival from grade to grade.

Long-range capital planning.Many states require a five-year capital plan for school districts while providing little planning support or review, treating this plan largely as a local political matter. The plan report can be a page of enrollment projections, followed by a thick notebook detailing all the school construction programs.

Planning processes. Educators are experts in education. Planning to them is about planning a school layout or curriculum. They are not trained in long-range planning processes or real public involvement. They tend to make decisions and then present them to the public.

Question 2

Base Realignment and Closure

Answer 2

a process to reorganize military bases to best support operational readiness.
BRAC Commission

The BRAC Commission recommendations for reshaping the Defense Department’s infrastructure and force structure became official on November 9, 2005 and are available at www.brac.gov/finalreport.html.

The National Defense Authorization Act for 2014 specifically prohibited authorizing future BRAC rounds until the Department of Defense completed a formal review of the overseas military facility structure, including overseas basing consolidations.

Question 3

FAA Land Use Planning Initiative

Answer 3

The objective of aviation-related land use planning is to guide incompatible land
uses away from the airport environs and to encourage compatible land uses to
locate around airport facilities.

Question 4

Hospital Planning

Answer 4

1. Definition and planning for hospital
2. Preparation of plans for local approval and OSHPD approval
3. Bidding construction licensing evaluation