Planning In the Face of Conflict: Negotiation and Mediation Strategies in local Land Use Regulation

Abstract

This article shows how planners can simultaneously play negotiation and mediation roles in local land use conflicts. Extensive interview data suggest how planners perceive those roles and the associated problems and opportunities. Six mediated-negotiation strategies presented indicate the discretion that planning staff often have. The strategies require that planners have not only substantive but emotional and communicative skills. Administratively, the strategies may be systematically adopted without changes in local regulations. Politically, mediated-negotiation strategies need not simply perpetuate power imbalances.