Identify and Locate Your Local Planning Agency

Use these guidelines to help you get in touch with local planners.

Plan It

Read the background piece on "Plan It: What is Planning?" (pdf)

Who Does Planning?

Local Governmental Planning Agency

Find out if your city, town, or community has a planning agency. Most often the agency is a department of city, county, or city/county government. This agency that oversees and coordinates planning may be called different things in different communities. Here are come examples:

1. Planning Department
2. Planning & Zoning Department
3. Neighborhood Planning & Zoning Department
4. Community Development & Planning
5. Planning & Development Services
6. Department of City Planning

Planners who work in the planning agency are government employees. The work they do is overseen by the elected officials, such as city council members and the mayor. Planners also work with an advisory planning commission, whose members are volunteers from the community.

Local or Regional Non Profit Planning Organization

Many other organizations also contribute to the planning of the community. In large cities, there is often a non profit group that promotes good planning through public education and advocates for important issues such as preserving the environment. One example is the Metropolitan Planning Council in Chicago.

Other non profits will promote the use of bicycles, greenways, historic preservation, children's health, and many other issues in which planning is involved. An example is the Greenbelt Alliance: Marin & Sonoma Countiesin California.

Regional Planning Agencies

Large cities, as well as some other regions, have regional planning entities. In large cities a major focus of the agency will be public transportation and the movement of thousands and millions of people and pounds of freight around the metropolitan region as well as in and out of the region. These agencies may also focus on growth and development, the environment, and creating a vision with the community members for the future of the region. An example of this type of agency is the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning (CMAP).

Google or Other Internet Search

Now that you have an idea of what you are looking for, here is how to use the Internet to find these agencies and organizations.

Search Using: city of Anytown, USA + planning

Enter the name of your community, but add the words "city of" and add (+) "planning." Here is what you find if you search on "City of Chicago + planning."

Planning and Development

This is the site for the city's planning agency. On this page, you will find:

1. An explanation of the agency and the government structure
2. Lists of plans
3. Public notices of upcoming meetings and hearings
4. Programs and services provided by the department
5. New
6. A link to the online "Zoning Map" in the Department of Zoning
7. A link to Chicago Landmarks.

Search Using: Anytown, USA + planning

In this second example, using only the name of the "community and state" plus "planning," yields a broader list of sites. In this example, we searched on "Santa Rosa, California + planning" and this is what displayed:

Santa Rosa County Planning and Zoning

The city's planning agency is organized as part of county government. On this page you find:

1. Meeting notices
2. Addresses
3. Plans and codes
4. Current projects.

The Internet search also displayed information that will be useful in researching the 2008-09 High School Essay project. For examples, the City of Chicago + planning search displayed "The Plan of Chicago," an encyclopedia entry on the famous 1909 plan prepared by Daniel Burnham. For those interested in looking into a career in planning, they would also find a listing for the University of Illinois at Chicago' City Design Center and the College of Urban Planning and Public Affairs.

What to Look for on These Websites

As you conduct your research for your essay, you will want to review the city plan, sometimes called the comprehensive plan, the city's vision, or long-range plan. Next, look for historic preservation plans (also called "landmark" or "community character" plans).

Some communities have even more information on neighborhood projects or preservation projects.

Other Searches

Next you will want to research historic preservation projects, programs, and plans in your community.
Search using: Anytown, USA + historic preservation
Search using: Anytown, USA + landmarks

Historic Preservation Organizations

Use the Internet to learn more about these organization and the resources they may have to help you in your essay.

• National Trust for Historic Preservation
• National Park Service, National Register of Historic Place