Abstract
How bureaucrats exercise administrative discretion is an enduring question in urban planning and democratic governance. Conflicts between urban planners’ professional recommendations and community stakeholders’ demands play out especially in the sustainable development context, where planners confront value conflicts between environmental, economic, and social goals. This article investigates the sources of community resistance to sustainable development and the discretionary strategies planners employ to persuade communities towards a more sustainable future. Utilizing a descriptive case study design, we examine four Colorado cities experiencing growth and community resistance to sustainable development practices. We find that while planners face community resistance from a multitude of sources, including developer pressures, NIMBYism and density concerns, and distrust of the planning profession, planners also work within their discretionary space using interdepartmental coordination, communication and outreach, data and evidence, rule changes, and neutral stewardship to encourage sustainable development. Implications for planning practice and future research are discussed.
Highlights
While urban planning involves designing formal documents, regulations, and codes concerning land use and the built environment, it is much more about ethical judgment, consensus-making, communication, and participatory processes (Arnstein, 1969; Campbell, 2002; Forester, 1980, 1989; Innes & Booher, 1999)
To identify perceived sources of community resistance to sustainable development and discretionary strategies planners utilize to deal with such resistance, we interviewed city planners and asked them open-ended questions about a situation in the past when people stood in their way to make a particular decision regarding a development project, and what they did to deal with this situation
We find planners face multiple sources of community resistance and utilize a wide range of discretionary strategies aimed at persuading communities to pursue a more sustainable path in development
Summary
While urban planning involves designing formal documents, regulations, and codes concerning land use and the built environment, it is much more about ethical judgment, consensus-making, communication, and participatory processes (Arnstein, 1969; Campbell, 2002; Forester, 1980, 1989; Innes & Booher, 1999). Planners often tread carefully when making professional recommendations that challenge the tacit expertise of public officials, community stakeholders, and citizens (Hoch, 1994). Despite their subordinate status in governments, planners—like many bureaucrats (Lipsky, 1980)—operate within a discretionary space or “the area in which agents are at liberty to make practical judgments and choices about how to act” How do planners apply their limited discretion to promote decisions with “special concern for the long-range consequences of present actions” (American Planning Association, 2016)?
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