Federal Incentives and the Growth of Local Planning, 1941-1948

Abstract

During the early and mid-1940s, America experienced a dramatic upsurge in urban planning. In dozens of major cities, planning departments that had limped along since the 1920s were reorganized and greatly expanded. In many smaller communities, governments created professionally staffed agencies for the first time. Much impetus for this sudden growth came from Washington. An array of federal programs—from Lanham Act public works grants to FHA/VA mortgage regulations—provided incentives to planning. By winning the support of local economic leaders, the incentives helped establish planning as a municipal priority and shaped the sort of work the profession would do.