Comprehensive planning

Comprehensive planning is a process that determines community goals and aspirations in terms of community development. The outcome of comprehensive planning is the Comprehensive Plan which dictates public policy in terms of transportation, utilities, land use, recreation, and housing. Comprehensive plans typically encompass large geographical areas, a broad range of topics, and cover a long-term time horizon. The term comprehensive planning is most often used by urban planners in the United States.

In Canada, comprehensive planning is generally known as strategic planning or visioning. It is usually accompanied by public consultation. When cities and municipalities engage in comprehensive planning the resulting document is known as an Official Community Plan or OCP for short. (In Alberta, the resultant document is referred to as a Municipal Development Plan.

During the earliest times of American history, cities had little power given to them by State governments to control land use. After the American Revolution, the focus on property rights turned to self-rule and personal freedom, as this was a time of very strong personal property rights. Local governments had simple powers which included maintaining law and order and providing basic services. Cities had little power, if any at all, to direct development in the city.

Cities began to focus on the provision of basic services during the 1840s at a time known as the Sanitary Reform Movement. During this time it became clear that there was a strong relationship between disease and the availability of a quality sewer system. Part of the movement included the development of sanitary survey planning to help bring sewer systems to infected parts of cities. From this planning also developed a new consciousness of townsite location. People began to understand the environmental and social impacts of building cities and developed ways in which to further lower the spread of deadly diseases. Frederick Law Olmsted was a firm believer in the relationship between the physical environment and sanitation, which helped lead to the development of grand parks and open spaces in communities to bring not only recreation, but sanitation as well. The Sanitary Reform Movement is seen by many as the first attempt at comprehensive planning, however it failed to be completely comprehensive because it focused on only one aspect of the city and did not consider the city as a whole.

During the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, cities began to urbanize at very high rates. Cities became very dense and full of disease. As a response to the over population and chaotic conditions, planning became a major focus of many large American cities. The City Beautiful movement was one of the many responses to the decaying city. The movement began in Chicago in 1890 with the World's Columbian Exposition of 1893 and lasted until about the 1920s. The focus on the movement was the design and architectural characteristics of the city. Leaders of the movement wanted to push the vision of the ideal city, and demonstrate to the world what cities could look like if they were created to be works of art. The White City was created for the exposition which embodied the visions of the movement with neoclassical designed buildings set against landscaped streets. Visitors to the exhibition began to realize that cities could be much more than dirty, overcrowded places. The movement spread across the United States and influenced many major American cities.

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