While many authors have written about what urban plans should contain and how they should be used, this comprehensive book leads you step by step through the entire plan preparation process. Citing examples from across the country, Larz Anderson shows how to prepare, review, adopt, and implement urban plans. He explains how to identify public needs and desires, analyze existing problems and opportunities, and augment long-range general plans with short-range district and function plans.

Anderson presents these guidelines as tasks. For each task, he explains the rationale behind it, recommends a procedure for completing it, and identifies the expected results. Throughout, Anderson encourages improvisation--he urges planners to adapt the guidelines to meet local needs. Excerpts from recently adopted general plans illustrate Anderson's points and provide examples of variations even within his recommendations. A related glossary gives comprehensive definitions to words that, though not technical, have meanings specific to the urban plan. Anderson's clear and readable style makes this book a must, not only for the professional, but for the student bewildered by the complexities of forming urban plans.

Guidelines for Preparing Urban Plans is a valuable textbook for undergraduate, graduate, and professional courses in planning theory and planning administration, as well as workshop-style "studio courses."

Foreword


1. Introduction
2. The planning process
3. Plans
4. Introduction to task descriptions
5. Phase I: Identify the client and participants; Draft and review the planning program
6. Phase II: Identify issues; Collect and analyze data
7. Phase III: Prepare, review, and adopt the general plan
8. Phase IV: Implement the general plan
9. Phase V: Prepare, review, and adopt district plans
10. Phase VI: Implement district plans
11. Methods used in implementing plans


Appendices
Bibliography