What is Urban Planning?

It is 11:00 a.m. the sun is shining bright, you are fully rested, and are packing to go to the beach because today is your day off. Everything is going according to plan and you know in your heart that today is going to be the best day of your life! Then, all of a sudden, the sounds of drilling, beeping, hammering and engines turn your smile upside down. You try to tune it out, but the sounds only get louder and louder until your alarm clock goes off. You wake up in a panic only to realize that you were still in bed dreaming, and it’s actually 6:00 am and today is not your day off. 

You begrudgingly slither out of bed to look outside your window to a circus. The circus being construction which abuts your property. You think why is this development being constructed right next to my property? Why couldn’t the abutting parcel remain vacant forever? More importantly you begin to get upset and think why did the City allow this happen? 

This is Urban Planning in a nutshell. However, it does not have to be so dramatic and upsetting once you understand the fundamentals of what urban planning is, how it came to be, and why it is here to stay. So, let’s begin to break down what Urban Planning is.  

Planning Includes 

The term planning is an all encompassing term that includes various different subsects of the planning profession, but generally when you hear someone talk about the planning profession they are generally referring to Urban Planning or Regional Planning. However, do not be fooled planning can also include the following:

What Urban Planning Is Not

As you can see Urban Planning covers a broad range of areas, but let us begin by breaking down “urban planning”  into simpler terms. When looking at the term “urban” what are the first thoughts that cross your mind (I will give you a moment to think).  Throughout my journey as an urban planning student, intern, and professional I have heard many things from people regarding what they believe urban planning to be. Such as I have been called a wedding and event planner, an urban economist, gentrifier, and due to urban radio many people believe urban planners plan “the hood” whatever that means. Yeah, let that last one marinate for a moment. 

Breaking Down The Term Urban

In my earlier years, I found it very frustrating that people did not know what urban planning was, but as I matured into my profession, I quickly understood why no one knew exactly what urban planning was. Quite simply, urban planning is one of those mysterious phenomenons that impacts your everyday life, however, most people cannot put it into words what it is because it is not as widely known as architecture, engineering or project management. To put simply, it is not a sexy profession as the preceding professions. To add, it is very comprehensive/broad profession, as can be seen in the table above. 

Now that we know what urban planning is not, now we will dive into what Urban means. To put simply urban means city. That’s right all of you who listen to urban radio you are listening to city slicker music. 

Breaking Down The Term Planning

Now, let’s define planning. Planning is the method or scheme of processing, making, and doing. You may be asking, “Doing what, processing what, making what?” The process, doing, and the making of a scheme. A scheme or schematic is architectural lingo for a layout or design. 

Combining Urban and Planning

So, when you put both terms together urban planning means city design or city layout. I hope you had a mind blowing moment there, and if not that’s okay. But, that is it in a nutshell folks urban planners are responsible for designing cities and when you look at all the subsets of urban planning each is important because they have a responsibility of aiding in the design of a spatial location, and regional planning is urban planning but on a larger scale. 

Urban Planning History

According to archaeologists who have been studying the ruins of ancient cities near  Mesopotamian, Indus Valley, Minoan, and Egyptian civilizations, there is evidence of of paved roadways that were laid out in grid patterns and right angles. Therefore indicating that urban planning and designed communities date back to times BCE. 

Arrangement of Land Uses

When analyzing the breakdown of urban planning it is important to understand that urban planner’s are not designing buildings that is what architects do. Instead urban planning entails public and private entities determining the intensity and spatial/geographical arrangements of various land uses such as residential, commercial, office, industrial, open space, etc.  Yet, In addition to determining the arrangements of land uses, urban planning also assigns development standards such as lot coverage, setbacks, density, height, floor area ratio, and landscape percentages to the aforementioned land uses. This is called zoning, and no worries we will cover this in another blog. 

But to wrap this up, when looking at the bigger picture,  urban planning is responsible for fostering economic stability, sustainability, and community development to an area by strategically mapping out a community. You can find out more about the buildout of your city by looking at your city or county’s general plan (to know more about what a general plan is, visit this blog). 

Conclusion

Now, I cannot promise you that since you have this new found knowledge of what urban planning is, that all of a sudden all the construction near your residence will cease (although in a later blog I will discuss citizen participation), but at least now you have a general idea of what urban planning is, when it came to be, why it is here to stay and how it is connected to development that is occurring in your community. 

To obtain more knowledge on urban planning practices please check out our email list, and if you have any comments, questions and or concerns please do not hesitate to contact the Friendly Neighborhood Planner.