Planning in the face of conflict

This weeks reading  was called“Planning in the face of conflict" by John Forester.

This weeks article presents local planners own accounts of the challenges they face as simultaneous negotiators and mediators in local land-use permitting processes.Planning Directors and staff in New England cities and towns, urban and suburban, shared their viewpoints on a series of extensive open ended interviews with John Forester.

The article next explores a range of mediated negotiation strategies that planners use as they deal with local land-use permitting conflicts.How local planning organisations encourage effective negotiation and how mediated negotiation strategies give power to the powerless.

The above picture highlights the role of a planner in the situation where a resident and developer are arguing over a planning decision affecting there neighborhood. It is the job of the planner to create meetings and mediate discussions between the two parties, to ensure all viewpoints are heard and that a middle ground or mutual decision can be found.

In the face of conflict, planners also give power to the powerless, most of the time this is referring to local citizens.For example a planner could mediate a discussion between residents and developers on an issue effecting there neighborhood. In this case, the planner is giving the residents more power as they have the opportunity to speak directly to the people who want implement the change .

In one of the many interviews that John Forester undertook, a planning director suggested that planners and developers often share a common language. They have the ability to pinpoint technichal and regulatory issues and understand what one another sare saying. He also pinpoints the need to teach special terms of local zoning code to affected neighbors before tackling the issues that are at hand.

If the planner, developer and resident are all able to speak in a professional language in which they can all understand one another, then the chance of reaching a mutual agreement is drastically increased and reduces the chance of conflict.



 Creating successful plans in the face of conflict is a challenged faced by thousands in the planning profession, dozens of different strategies are used by different individuals in order to mediate discussions between developers and residents. The planners role in these discussions is essential if residents and developers alike want to continue to work together to keep creating successful plans for the future.