Does planning matter?

This is the current poll question for the Washington Business Journal:

SURVEY QUESTION:

Do city and regional plans make a difference in a region's development?

After getting input from the public, D.C. officials are ready to complete a new comprehensive plan. For the first time, the plan will include a regional element that acknowledges there is, in fact, a Greater Washington. At the same time, other cities are getting their comprehensive plans in gear, and the National Park Service is launching its own planning process to update the National Mall. But the big question: Is anyone in the private sector listening?

Do city and regional plans make a difference in a region's development?

__ Yes, we'll be forever lost in sprawl and chaos without a strong regional plan!
__ Maybe, if the planners are practical, and not too "visionary."
__ Maybe, but only if the planners think big and visionary!
__ No, no one really listens to city planners anymore.
__ I don't care. It depends on what the plan says about my neighborhood.

Comments:
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Taking a planning theory class, it's really disconcerting to come to the conclusion that not much has changed in 100 years, and that there were serious radicals and serious conservatives in terms of their perspectives on planning, from the very beginning.

Index Keywords: planning