Olivia Smith
Angus Amy
Lewis Hopkins, the author of this
selection, is the Professor of Urban
and Regional Planning emeritus. In
addition to his work on the idea of the
plan, he has researched computerised
decision support systems in planning.
He has edited numerous texts and is a
member of Urbana Plan Commission.
A plan can work in one or several of the
following ways:
 Agenda
 Policy
 Vision
 Design
 Strategy
Is a tool that focuses the attention of a
constituency, put simply a list of things to
do. It effects the way decisions will be
made on important actions or issues.
Publicly advocating an agenda serves as
a memory device and a commitment to
the community.
A policy works by automating repeat
decisions to save time or by ensuring that
the same action is taken in the same
circumstances, which yields fairness or
predictability. It works in three ways:
saving decision costs, ensuring
consistency and fairness and increasing
predictability.
A vision is an image of what should be
and is used to compel actions. A vision
interpreted as a normative forecast: a
desired future that can work if people can
be persuaded that it can and will come
true. Visions are useful in situations in
which they can change beliefs and
thereby change investment actions,
regulations, or activity patterns of
residents.
A design is fully worked outcome. Designs
work by determining a fully worked
outcome form interdependent actions and
providing this outcome as information
before any action is taken. Designs fit
situations in which there are highly
interdependent actions, actions are easily
inferred from information about the
outcome and there is little uncertainty about
the implementation of actions.
Strategies work by determining what action
should be taken now contingent on related
future actions. Strategies fit situations where
there are many interdependent actions
under the authority of many actors and
occurring over a long time in relation to an
uncertain environment. Explicit about
relationships among interdependent
actions, consequences, intentions,
uncertainties and outcomes.
Investments in physical infrastructure or
facilities and regulations are widely
recognised as the two major components
of urban development plans. As in
political interpretations, these different
types of actions imply different tasks for
plans.
Regulations change rights and the range
of discretion in making decisions.
Regulations have two kinds of decisions;
decisions to regulate and decisions to act
given regulations. The decision to
regulate is usually collective whilst the
decision to act is individual. These
decisions must be pre-emptive as there is
no use in regulating once investment is
underway.
Investments change capital stock in
infrastructure and mediate between
geographic space and peoples behaviours.
Thus two kinds of decisions matter: the
decision to invest in infrastructure and the
decision to use the resulting infrastructure
in particular ways. The important point is
that investments occur in fixed locations and
they create the physical context within
which locational choice and daily
behaviours occur.
In relation to the explanation of how plans
work there are a number of points that we
should expect to observe:
 Plan-making behaviours
 Plans
 People using plans while making decisions
 Investments and regulations that may have
been affected by plans, and
 Outcomes in terms of activity patterns
resulting from these investments and
regulations
These observations provide opportunity
for assessment. There are four broad
criteria for assessing whether a plan
works:
 Effect
 Net benefit
 Internal validity
 External validity
Did the plan have any effect on decision
making, actions, or outcome? For
example, if it was intended to work as an
agenda, how many of the listed actions
were taken?
Was the plan worth making and to whom?
For example, if it was intended to work as
strategy were the gains over time
sufficient to compensate the costs of
making the plan?
Internal - Did the plan fulfil the logic of
how it was intended to work?
External – Did the outcomes intended or
implied in the plan meet external criteria
such a plans for a just society? Ethical
acceptability is a crucial component of
external validity.
Plans can work in more than one way.
Given explanations of how plans work it
is possible to assess to what extent plans
work in particular situations with respect
to their effects, net benefit, internal
validity and external validity. These can
also be used to predict what plans will
meet evaluation criteria and which plans
will be worth making.