10 Important factors that go into city planning.

“Space and light and order. Those are the things that men need just as much as they need bread or a place to sleep.” -Le Corbusier

City planning is a complex endeavor, with myriad considerations that shape the best form and function of the community for its residents. Even more challenging, city planners have to not only work to create a city that meets today’s needs, but also anticipates growth and fits the longterm vision of the municipality.

To do so, city planners factor in three major sectors of their urban environment:

·      Physical environment

·      Social environment

·      Economic environment

·      Cultural environment

In part one of this blog, we outlined a timeline of city planning in the United States, and how the vocation grew out of the profound needs of a rapidly growing nation, and then profound industrial, economic, and social shifts of the 20th century.

Today, we're going to cover some of the ideals, best practices, and guidelines that modern-day city planners adhere to when developing our urban centers.

1.     A big part of successful city planning involves consideration of transportation and the layout of streets, canals, railroads, and public transport services. As we see with our modern cities, increases in population and the number of drivers on the road can cripple its infrastructure, and become one of the biggest daily concerns for residents. 

Therefore, major highways, through-ways, and surface streets should be carefully planned to ease the flow of traffic, with secondary streets and aesthetics garnering less importance. The hierarchy of roadways is also so important because it’s extremely difficult – and far more costly – to expand or fix later on.

2.     City building departments need to always keep safety in mind, following all guidelines and regulations for fire codes, building construction safety, health codes, placement of public facilities (like not putting an elementary school next to a prison or an airport). This includes the placement and zoned routes of mail carriers, fire departments, police, and hospitals.

3.     City planners need to carefully consider the best use of open land and public spaces, especially parks but also recreational spaces and facilities, jogging trails, river trails, waterways like lakes, rivers, and ponds, protected lands, and other natural resources.

4.     Other community assets like public libraries, recreation centers, civic buildings, and community halls need to considered and strategically placed. While some city planners choose to concentrate many town buildings in one complex, they are often purposely spread out over the city, so all residents have equal access.

5.     Proper delineation of zoning is crucial for any well-functioning city, with clearly defined areas that serve as commercial zones, industrial zones, and residential zones, with specific regulations for each. 

6.     Most cities have a Greenbelt Zone, which is an area on the outskirts of town, or servicing as the transition from urban and suburban to rural. It usually serves as the border – officially or unofficially – to contain the urban sprawl within and prevents further building and population of this natural wildlife area.

7.     Parking is a major consideration, at least as important as the roadways and transportation infrastructure. Street widths, street parking rules, public lots, and private pay-for-parking lots and facilities are all necessary, creating adequate options that can keep up with the inflow of automobiles every day.

8.     With all of these important items on our city planning TO Do list, we almost forgot about housing all of the city’s residents! Every city needs plenty of housing alternatives that are affordable (in theory). These days, a mix of single-family homes, townhouses, multi-family units like duplexes, condominiums, apartment buildings, and other rentals fill that need. City planners hold major sway on the direction housing will take with its use of zoning, building regulations, construction permits, development deals, and other ordinances. Most cities also provide some sort of public housing, either[ through actual facilities or through support programs.

9.     A city needs citizens, but it also requires plenty of businesses to hire all of those citizens, providing vital jobs and income to support prosperity. Therefore, cities carefully balance the interests of the public good with the incentives needed to attract private employers, like tax breaks, land deals, and other special considerations.

10.  We have our city’s layout, roads, parks and green spaces, businesses, and civic buildings. But we can’t forget some very important necessary aspects of daily life. Any city’s governance is responsible for ensuring utility companies provide electricity, water, and telecommunications, as well as sewers, trash pickup, recycling, snow removal, tree cutting and landscaping of public areas, street cleaning, maintenance of public areas, and just about every other minute detail of keeping the city functioning well. What a massive endeavor!

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Look for the next installment in this blog series, when we cover the technology, environmental control, and planning that will go into our smart cities of the near future.