Mandating Citizen Participation in Plan Making: Six Strategic Planning Choices

In addition to requiring that local governments plan for and manage urban development, state growth management laws require that citizens be given an opportunity to participate in the local planning process. In this article, we examine the strengths and weaknesses of citizen involvement mandates and the degree to which mandates and related local planning practices have resulted in broader citizen participation in plan making. We show that mandates do indeed affect local government attention to citizen involvement and that the choices planners make in crafting citizen involvement programs do affect the resulting level of public participation. Based on these results, we make suggestions for improving the efficacy of state growth management legislation and local planning practice directed toward enhancing citizen involvement in local planning.