Winter 2006

STRATEGIES

The Newsletter of the City Planning & Management Division

Printer version (pdf)

Contents

• Reorganization Takes Root in Chicago
• News You Can Use
• A Strategic Business Approach to Planning
• Introducing Poverty and Social Justice Issues in Planning Organizations and Processes
• St Louis Wins International Urban Renewal Award
• Phascinating Philadelphia Phacts
• A Word from the Editor

Reorganization Takes Root in Chicago

By Peter Strazzabosco
Public Information Coordinator
Chicago Department of Planning and Development

In a city where urban planning starts and ends in local neighborhoods, Chicago's neighborhood project managers (PM's) have always had a lot on their plates. Now they have even more.  The Chicago Department of Planning and Development's recent reorganization makes project managers responsible for virtually every aspect of city-assisted and city-reviewed development projects. The changes mean that project managers could be fielding calls about industrial development incentives while finalizing a property tax break for a local landmark and also orchestrating a city land sale for a new grocery store. And that's all before coffee.

Under the leadership of Commissioner Lori T. Healey empowering the project managers, the nearly 200-person department is more client-oriented, efficient and easier to navigate. The added responsibility means they more effectively implement citywide planning initiatives where they matter most: on the streets where people work, live and play.  "PM's have much broader skill sets now and they have more opportunities during the development process to use their specialized training in meaningful, productive ways. The change is good for our staff, it's good for customers and it's good for the city," Healey said.

Prior to the reorganization about a year ago, real estate developers, business and other organizations would interface with specialized divisions within the department.   For example, projects that required Planned Development (PD) zoning would deal directly with PD staff.  Projects that required Tax Increment Financing (TIF) assistance would deal with TIF staff.  For more complicated and multi-phase deals, the lack of designated point people caused unnecessary confusion within the development community.  "Developers could have two or three different people to deal with from this one department, and contacts would sometimes change as proposals moved through the approval and construction process," Healey said. "It was too much, both for our staff and for the private sector to keep up with. Too many phone calls, too many meetings and not enough progress."

The increasing complexity of mixed-use projects, legislative procedures that often coincide with larger deals and Chicago's ongoing building boom only exacerbated issues involving the missing stewardship. Healey added, "Instead of working piece-meal with developers under the old system, our new, single point-of-contact method automatically ensures a more comprehensive approach to every deal."

All of the PM's prepared for the added responsibilities by participating in a variety of training sessions, seminars and classes to gain better understanding of every aspect of  urban improvement projects. The graduate business school at Chicago's Roosevelt University provided classes in project feasibility and analysis, cost estimation, finance and market analysis. DePaul University presented management techniques to help keep projects on track. Classes by the Chicago Architecture Foundation helped PM's look critically at proposed designs, materials and their potential impact on the context of local neighborhoods.

A variety of seminars were also arranged on topics like Chicago's new zoning code, sustainable development, as well as green building techniques, which all city-assisted projects now must incorporate. One seminar provided tips on public speaking, which is useful for sometimes relentless presentations to community groups, City Council committees, the Landmarks Commission, the Community Development Commission and the Chicago Plan Commission.

The empowerment trend started 15 years ago, shortly after Mayor Richard M. Daley took office, with the joining of what were then two separate departments; one for planning, one for economic development. Their marriage created a single entity that could simultaneously implement strategies and leverage public financing. "The previous system sometimes resulted in communication inefficiencies and multiple, sometimes contrasting redevelopment objectives," Healey said.

"All the changes,"  Healey said, "are intended to make it easier to implement economic development and planning projects in the more than 200 neighborhoods across town." As part of the reorganization, the department consolidated several of its specialty divisions into a single-deal support group that provides PM's with specialized resources on a case-by-case basis, and always with projects involving financial assistance, zoning review and tax incentives.

By taking complete responsibility for all phases of every project within their community areas while assimilating qualified guidance from the deal support group, PM's are more knowledgeable, effective and proactive in catering to neighborhood needs.  "Historically, project managers were more like deal specialists, where a lot of their special knowledge involved getting a deal through the system Now, they're more like planners, which is what Chicago needs to continue moving forward," said First Deputy Commissioner Kathleen Nelson.  She continued, "They're much more astute about the projects they're working with, how they can improve them, and what does and doesn't contribute to the city's objectives, whether it's industrial, commercial, residential or mixed use."

News You Can Use

Sessions Relevant to Planning Directors at 2007 APA National Conference in Philadelphia

New Directors Institute
Saturday, April 14
7:30 a.m.–5:30 p.m.

Planning Directors Hospitality Suite
Sunday, April 15–Wednesday, April 18

City Planning & Management Division Networking Reception
Monday, April 16,
5:45–7 p.m.

City Planning and Management Division
Breakfast and Business Meeting
Tuesday, April 17
6:15–7:30 a.m

APA & AICP Annual Meeting and Awards
Tuesday, April 17
2:30–3:45 p.m.

A Strategic Business Approach to Planning

By Peter Chacko, AICP
Planning Manager, Long Range Planning
City of Dallas Development Services Department

The city of Dallas prides itself on its pro-business image and has long projected its pro-developer stance towards land development. Yet, the planning process has been perceived as anti-business or anti-development in this city.

Consequently, the planning function has been kept under a tight rein and maintains a low profile. This has resulted in a reactive rather than a proactive approach to the management of planning activities. Not surprisingly, this has served only to exacerbate the situation.  Reactive planning is practically a contradiction in terms and, rather than fostering a favorable environment for development, this approach has fed the frustrations of the development community.

During the past few years we have been making a concerted effort to change our approach to planning management through concrete actions. We have introduced two initiatives in particular that focus on how the Department of Development Services functions and responds to the needs of our clients while engaging proactively in the business of planning for development:

• A monitoring system to track and measure planning and development activity
• A two-year work plan for long range planning projects tied closely to the forwardDallas! — Comprehensive Plan and to the annual budgeting process.

Monitoring system: In 2004 we introduced a quarterly reporting system that tracked information on key indicators tied to activities and outcomes.  Its primary purpose was to introduce among managers a discipline of tracking the cumulative impact of the activities they were responsible for, and equally important, enabling executive management to see patterns of demand and identify regulatory issues that needed to be addressed.

In 2005, we began the phased implementation of an electronic land management system (recipient of the URISA award for exemplary systems in government) to enable tracking of all aspects of the development process. To date, building permits, building inspections, zoning variances and special exceptions and certificates of appropriateness review for historic districts have gone live on the system.

Zoning, platting, engineering review and real estate licenses and abandonments will follow over the next year. In addition to providing better customer service through features such as on-line permitting, this system has greatly enhanced
our ability to reliably monitor our activities and inform our business decisions. To view the online permitting system, visit www.developdallas.dallascityhall.com.

Two-year work plan

In June 2006, adoption of the forwardDallas! Comprehensive Plan (recipient of the Comprehensive Planning Award from the Texas Chapter of the American Planning Association), gave us, for the first time, the benefit of a clearly articulated vision for future development.  Besides the obvious shot in the arm this provided to the image of planning in the city, the comprehensive plan also introduced the discipline and framework for establishing strategic planning activities to advance the future vision. Since adoption of the plan, we have taken a two-year work plan to the council for approval and have been able to focus resources on a set of strategic planning activities. These include key amendments to the Dallas Development Code and area plans for acknowledged growth areas.

From a management standpoint, the introduction of the two-year work plan has provided some important benefits. We are able to better manage the continual stream of requests for planning studies and special projects. While this stream continues, we have a way to manage resources according to priorities established by the Council as a whole. Another key benefit is our ability to coordinate these long range planning projects better with other departments that have important roles in planning and implementation such as Economic Development, Public Works and Transportation and Dallas Water Utilities.  For more information about forwardDallas! and the two-year work plan, visit www.forwarddallas.org.

These two initiatives have enabled us to make significant strides in changing the negative perceptions associated with planning in the development community and improving our customer service in tangible ways. The two-year work plan is proving to be a responsive way to address pressing issues related to regulatory changes and long range planning needs for areas of growth. The monitoring program we introduced two years ago has rapidly evolved and become integrated into a citywide monitoring program for all services provided by the city that is now also tied closely to the annual budget cycle.

Introducing Poverty and Social Justice Issues in Planning Organizations and Processes

By Steven A. Preston, FAICP
Deputy City Manager
City of San Gabriel, California

Editor's Note:  During the holiday season, thoughts are drawn to the less fortunate.  For 2007, let's consider making this a year-round professional endeavor.  A recent recap of the California Planning Roundtable session at the 2006 CCAPA conference published in the "Northern News" the monthly newsletter of Northern Section, California Chapter APA, provided some suggestions that all of us in leadership can employ.

• Create a safe harbor for discussion. Create opportunities and places within your organization in which your colleagues and clients know there is a safe place where the issues can be discussed creatively, with an open mind, without fear of censure or retribution. It requires conscious effort to create that safe place.

• Provide opportunities for introducing poverty and social justice issues in your work.   Don't rely solely on a standard "checklist" of items to be covered in staff reports.  Instead consider a report format that includes a section called "other issues for consideration," in which the unintended consequences of an action, social equity aspects of the matter being considered, effects on gentrification, housing affordability, environmental justice concerns, etc can be considered and discussed.  Always go beyond "checklist thinking" in your analysis and create that same expectation for all planning analysis in your organization.

• Build a common discussion language that reflects the community. Often, a lack of communication skills among stakeholders can permeate discussions, and there are disparate power bases which can be reflected in the language.  Learn to discuss and frame ideas in a language that is common with your audience, that unites rather than alienates them.  Move your clients, audiences and colleagues beyond "fear-based reactions."

• Build relationships first. Much of the hard work of addressing these issues can be lessened by building strong personal relationships of trust, credibility and civility that can then open the door to more meaningful exchanges. Use visioning and facilitation exercises to help lay the groundwork for these discussions.

• Don't forget the AICP Code of Ethics. While the code requires your analysis to be assiduously impartial, that same code insists that once the impartial analysis shows a need for action, that you not be afraid to advocate for that need.  In this respect, AICP's canons differ from those of other professions, but you should keep that imperative to action in mind as you do your work.

• Build the values into the general plan process.  The California Governor's Office of Planning and Research would like to learn more about how social equity, environmental justice, poverty and related issues can be better addressed in the general plan framework.   They are seeking suggestions (e-mail Julia Lave Johnston at julia.johnston@opr.ca.gov) and their final product, as well as what you may have to suggest, may be useful to all of us.  

• Use the resources available through APA. The APA website is one of the deepest resources you can find.  Use the search features at www.planning.org to find a wide variety of resources. Tell APA how it can help forward the ball on these issues; contact Paul at pfarmer@planning.org. 

• If you are a manager, show leadership: mentor your staff. Provide training and volunteer opportunities. Help individual staff members pursue their interests in these issues.  Make sure the everyday work of the department does not simply ignore issues of poverty and social justice.

• If you are a transportation planner, don't forget obvious and simple linkages. Put bus loading in places where people need and will use them. Base service and facility decisions on access and proximity to mass transit.

What can you do personally? 

• Raise the issue. Take a stand. Use the credibility you have worked hard to build to take stands on social justice, poverty and environmental equity issues.

• Move the discussion beyond "diversity." Instead, expand the discussion to the issues and opportunities that this subject is meant to embrace.

• Prevent Balkanization. Develop tools and tactics that help find common ground for discussion. But make sure the issue gets discussed.

• Make your employment choices based on the values of your organization. If your organization already shares these values then great.  If you can change an organization for the better without professional risk, do so; but consider if your employer is truly capable of sharing your vision.  If not, perhaps it's time for a change.  

• Go outside your workplace. Many planners keep their values alive through professional and community service outside the workplace. Join a homeless shelter organization, work for a nonprofit housing provider, lobby for changes or use your passion in some other way that advances the ball.

• Build alliances and relationships with other organizations that care about the issues. Don't forget the value of groups like Planners Network, which focuses strongly on these issues in its publications and services.

Give us your ideas to help build this list at strategieseditor@lasvegasnevada.gov.

St Louis Wins International Urban Renewal Award

By Rollin Stanley, AICP
Planning Director
City of St. Louis

The city of St. Louis has won the 2006 World Leadership Award in the category of Urban Renewal.  The city was short listed along with Manchester, England,  Kolkatta, India and Kansas City, Missouri. Mayor Francis Slay and Planning Director Rollin Stanley made the presentation in London, England, to a panel of judges who decided which submission best exemplified a coordinated strategy for overcoming urban blight.

The World Leadership Awards cover several categories from architecture to environmental policy.  The awards are intended to showcase urban examples that can be a model for cities around the world.  This year's urban renewal category was the most competitive category.

The St. Louis presentation included illustrating the issues they are overcoming as well as measures to show what progress has been made.  Mayor Slay emphasized the city's efforts are not "just bricks and mortar." The judges were impressed with the comprehensive nature of the renewal strategy, which include health, education and recreation issues in the strategy to rebuild neighborhoods.

The mayor had a positive story to tell, as St. Louis now has a growing population after 45 years of decline, and included major projects such as the new baseball stadiumand adjacent mixed usedevelopment under construction. The coordinated application of incentives and city owned property have resulted in a booming downtown loft market, with retail activity growing at rates unseen in decades.

In accepting the award, the mayor noted the benefits of sharing information with cities around the globe and how we can all learn from each other.

Five American cities were finalists, with Albuquerque, New Mexico the other U.S. city to take home an award in the category of "public utilities." Other winning cities included Stuttgart, Germany, Lima, Peru and Krakow, Poland.

Phascinating Philadelphia Phacts

By Richard Wassmuth
Statistical Analyst II
City of Las Vegas Planning & Development Department

Philadelphia was founded in 1682 by William Penn.  The city was laid out in a simple grid pattern that included five public squares.  In that respect, Philadelphia was the first "planned city" in North America.  Philadelphia was recently named the safest of the 12 largest cities in the U.S. by the FBI.  Perhaps most importantly, Philadelphia is home to the cheesesteak sandwich, Italian ice, soft pretzels and Tasty Kakes.

Other Philadelphia Phirsts

• It was the capital of the U.S. from 1790 to 1800
• Betsy Ross made the first U.S. flag in 1777
• The first daily U.S. newspaper was published on September 21, 1784
• Established the first U.S. grammar school in 1728, now known as the William Penn Charter School
• The first person to ride in a balloon 1793 (1st city to encourage alternative modes of travel?)
• America's first botanical gardens established in 1728
• The first computer, the ENIAC, was built at the University of Pennsylvania in 1946

A Word from the Editor

It's the New Year and a fresh start.  Many of us are updating or creating their first strategic plans. Some may wonder if it's valuable or effective.  The effective ones are so because of performance measurement.  Measuring how a city and its departments' day-to-day operations, policies and programs, and capital investment advance its objectives and/or priorities provides clarity and opportunity for evaluation.  Evaluation yields adjustment and hinders complacency and inconsequence.

It sounds simple enough; yet it's the execution that challenges. Developing, selecting and refining the performance measurements require the insight, creativity and concentration of staff members.  We've just updated both the city of Las Vegas and the Planning and Development Department's strategic plans.  Both include performance metrics developed by the staff themselves and results are routinely reported.  Nothing focuses the mind quite like results in black and white.   The strategic plan is therefore real, every day, and not a tome stashed away on a bookcase.

I certainly think about every implementation strategy, capital investment, proposed program or policy revision and whether it advances the priorities of our strategic plans.  The priorities are what our community wants to focus on and where our attention, resources and talent are to be applied.   And we know how we're doing and so does our community.  Communicating our progress and effectiveness toward meeting the community's priorities engenders trust, and, I believe, upholding the public trust is our ultimate duty.  Making planning relevant, internally and externally to our organizations advances our profession. 

See you in Philly,
Margo Wheeler, AICP
Director, Planning & Development Department
City of Las Vegas