From Local to Global: One Hundred Years of Neighborhood Planning

Abstract

Problem: Over the past 100 years, city planners have used neighborhood planning to address a variety of vexing social problems such as community disintegration, economic marginalization, and environmental degradation. To date, there has been no comprehensive review and critique of these planning initiatives and how they have influenced the profession.

Purpose: This article traces the history of neighborhood planning in the United States to learn from past experience and to identify its contributions to the planning profession.

Methods: I review the literature on the various forms of neighborhood planning, which I define as planning initiatives that focus on altering the physical environment of one or more neighborhoods in pursuit of larger social objectives.

Results and conclusions: Each of the six forms of neighborhood planning discussed in this article has made important contributions to the planning profession. Perry's neighborhood unit formula provided planners with a template for good neighborhood design and introduced the idea that neighborhood design could affect the sense of community. Urban renewal taught the profession about the limits of physical solutions to social problems, the precious nature of neighborhood social networks and the importance of involving citizens. The community action programs created a new norm for citizen participation and showed its limits, as well as introducing truly comprehensive redevelopment planning. Community economic development showed that some planning and implementation activities can be successfully delegated to community-based organizations. Municipal neighborhood planning provided a mechanism for ongoing citizen involvement. The most recent forms of neighborhood planning create neighborhoods that encourage walking, use of mass transit, social interaction, and a sense of community.

Takeaway for practice: Neighborhood planning programs have made a number of important contributions to the planning profession, including focusing attention on how neighborhood design influences urban livability and social behaviors, institutionalizing citizen participation in plan making, and going beyond physical development to address social, economic, political, and environmental issues. Neighborhood planning is currently more important than ever, as it now addresses global issues such as energy conservation and greenhouse gas emissions in addition to its historic focus on social equity issues such as poverty and social alienation.

Research support: None.

Keywords:

• neighborhood planning
• planning history
• community planning
• neighborhood revitalization
• community development

Notes

1. This is not to say that forms of neighborhood planning were not practiced before this time. Mumford (1954, 1961) has shown that the planning of both classic Greek and Medieval cities was based on neighborhood units. Rohe and Gates (1985), Silver (1985), and others discuss forms of neighborhood planning practiced in the late 1800s such as the settlement house movement.

2. A thorough review of the various definitions and means of defining neighborhoods is beyond the scope of this article. For a discussion of these issues, see Chaskin (1995), Keller (1968), and Rohe and Gates (1985).

3. I exclude initiatives or strategies that do not include a physical planning component and discrete planning strategies such as inclusionary zoning or mixed-income housing that may be used to achieve goals defined in neighborhood plans. I do not include the settlement house movement because it began before the time period I address and because physical planning was not one of its central concerns.

4. He also argued that planned neighborhoods were for those who could afford them, although they might benefit lower-income families by providing a “needed object lesson in improved housing environment and community organization which will … ultimately aid the reform of slum areas” (Perry, 1929, p. 128).

5. Two relatively small demonstration programs first implemented the principles of citizen participation, coordination, and innovation underlying the community action approach: the Gray Areas Projects funded by the Ford Foundation, and the Juvenile Delinquency and Youth Crime Prevention programs proposed by the President's Committee on Juvenile Delinquency and Youth Crime (Hallman, 1984; O'Connor, 1999; Rohe & Gates, 1985). The much larger CAP and MCP programs were built upon these principles.