Master of Urban & Regional Planning

Planning - A Professional Degree

Urban planning is a recognized profession by the U.S. Department of Labor that has its own set of skills and expertise, separate from any other profession.  It is described by the Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning (ACSP) as “a systematic, creative way to influence the future of your neighborhood and city, your country and the world”.  According to the American Planning Association (APA), the goal of planning is “to further the welfare of people and their communities by creating convenient, equitable, efficient, and attractive environments for present and future generations.”

Planners plan within a highly collaborative process.  Working with local residents, politicians, and special groups, planners help establish a vision of the future community and the means to achieve that vision.  Planners not only participate in the process, but also contribute to it fundamentally, analyzing current conditions and projecting into the future.  They then lead in the development of strategic alternatives for solving problems and achieving results in a coordinated and comprehensive manner, integrating relevant groups and incorporating relevant information.

Planners use their professional skills to enable a community to respond in a comprehensive and integrated fashion to social, economic, and environmental challenges by:

• Preserving and enhancing the quality of life of communities
• Protecting the natural and built environment
• Promoting equity and equality
• Improving services to disadvantaged communities, and
• Dealing effectively with growth and development of all kinds.

It is the planner’s unique responsibility to understand how all of the dimensions and dynamics that comprise “community” are inter-related, to make explicit those inter-relationships, and to organize a process of planning that is comprehensively constructive.  Thus, planning involves both a procedural, as well as a substantive, strategic dimension, requiring expertise in the full range of community functions, from the political (how decisions are made) and the social (who is involved and empowered) to the economic (how wealth is generated) and the environmental (how natural systems can be protected)

To achieve such integration of substance and process, planners are educated to perform a variety of roles, including the following:

• Planners formulate plans and policies to meet the social, economic, and physical needs of communities, and they develop the strategies to make these plans work
• Planners develop plans for land use patterns, housing needs, parks and recreation opportunities, highways and transportation systems, economic development, and other aspects of the future.
• Planners must be technically competent and creative and show both hardheaded pragmatism and an ability to envision alternatives to the physical and social environments in which we live.
• Planners work with the public to develop a vision of the future and to build on that vision.
• Planners often function as mediators among conflicting community interests; they may also become facilitators, using their professional judgement to identify the best resolutions to the issues creating conflicts.
• Planners analyze problems, visualize futures, compare alternatives, and describe implications, so that public officials and citizens can make more knowledgeable choices.
• Planners design and manage the planning process itself, in order to involve interested groups, citizens, and public officials in stimulating and thought-provoking ways.

Planners work in government, with non-profit agencies, and in private industry.  Those who work in the public sector often work for city or county governments, but there are also planning jobs at the state and Federal level.  International organizations like the United Nations and the World Bank also hire planners.  Planners who work in the private sector can be found in utility companies, real estate development companies and consulting firms.  Planners also work in the non-profit sector or with non-governmental agencies like the United Way or advocacy groups for the elderly, the environment, or community development organizations.

The quality of the planning profession is maintained through a professional certification process administered by the American Institute of Certified Planners (AICP).   AICP certification is a stamp of professional competence that must be earned and then maintained.  It is earned by being employed in the field of planning for a minimum of two-to-eight years (depending on education) and by passing a written examination.  After being certified, planners are expected to continue their professional education and skills-development through participation in the AICP’s Continuing Professional Development Program (CPDP), which requires the earning of credits through the completion of approved CPDP courses.

Planners are also required to adhere to a professional Code of Ethics that has been formulated and adopted by the AICP.  This clearly outlines the unique skills and responsibilities that planners have in society, including:

• having special concern for long-range consequences
• paying attention to the inter-relatedness of decisions
• striving to provide full, clear and accurate information
• striving to achieve true citizen participation
• especially striving to plan for the needs of disadvantaged groups and individuals
• striving to protect the natural environment

As a result of the set of skills that planners develop, the responsibilities they assume, and the commitment they are required to have to rationality, efficiency, and equity in public decision making, the planning profession is unique and unlike any other.