65 - A PLANNER'S CREED

Abstract

This chapter discusses a planner's creed during planning of a city. Anyone who has observed the behavior of men holding responsible positions in government must have noted the sensitivity of those officials to public opinion. Although members of a planning commission are not considered as officials in the normal sense, the fact is that they must render judgments and important recommendations to the councils to whom they are responsible. Pressures upon members of planning commissions can be tremendous. They can cause the commissioners embarrassment or place them in such awkward positions as to make life, momentarily at least, rather uncomfortable. The usual clichés come to the fore. The commission is told to be practical; to avoid the academic or idealistic; to remember the importance to the community of accommodating business because it is business that supplies jobs. In the light of these, many problems that must be faced by every planning commission, it is suggested that a creed is a guide that if followed, might keep a commissioner on the proverbial “straight and narrow path” and assist him in doing a job that would yield the greatest good to the greatest number.