What is Planning? Origins of a Profession
by Carolyn Ristau
Zoning is one facet of the multi-faceted profession of Planning. In my biased opinion, it is the most powerful facet besides the money trail. Zoning is a black box within Planning — a profession that is frequently misunderstood even by those who interact with planners daily.
The American Planning Association defines Planning thus:
Planning Provides a Vision For the Community Today - And in the Future
The goal of planning is to maximize the health, safety, and economic well-being of all people living in our communities. This involves thinking about how er can move around our community, how we can attract and retain thriving businesses, where we want to live, and opportunities for recreation. Planning helps create communities of lasting value.
This is an ambitious goal. It necessarily encompasses a wide variety of specialties that affect the places where we live, work, play, and move. I anticipate diving more into these specialties in future posts. For now, I suggest that the key aspects of the Planning profession are visioning, community engagement, and the development of plans — plans that are ideally implementable to reach the visions and goals of the community in the future.
People have been planning the spaces and places where we live, work, play, and move for centuries — probably since the first settlements, although there must have been some measure of planning in hunter-gatherer societies as well. — However, the acknowledgement of Planning as a distinct profession is of much more recent origin. Below is a brief timeline on the development of Planning as a profession:
1909: the first National Conference on City Planning in Washington, D.C. (there has been a conference every year since then)
1917: the first professional organization created — American City Planning Institute (ACPI)
1934: the American Society of Planning Officials (ASPO) formed — by this point there were enough Planning Officials between planners on staff of local governments, Planning Commissions, and Zoning Boards to justify an organization
1939: the ACPI was renamed the American Institute of Planners (AIP)
1978: the AIP and ASPO merged to form the American Planning Association (APA)
Today: there are over 40,000 members of APA of which 17,000 are certified by APA’s American Institute of Certified Planners
Source & Inspiration:
Episode 5: “How Did We Get Here?” from the Very Unofficial AICP Study Guide podcast
