The Issue Of Governance In Neighborhood Planning Programs

Abstract

Neighborhood planning programs are a kind of initiative cities all across the country utilize to engage communities in planning processes affecting their own neighborhoods and to target resources and city initiatives within these spaces more effectively. These programs also represent a governance process, where publically relevant affairs are regulated at the interface of public, private, and civic sectors. Because these programs are highly variable between cities and are structured based off of local needs, trends, and agendas exploring governance contexts and relations at the urban and neighborhood level is helpful for explaining these differences in program goals and outcomes. At the center of these governance relations are the ways planners themselves understand the neighborhood planning process, how these understandings interact with formal structures to guide the direction of these programs. This study utilizes a comparative case study approach looking at the neighborhood planning programs of both Dallas and Fort Worth TX to examine divergent institutional frameworks and their effects on who is included in the neighborhood planning process, what their roles are, and what kinds of relationships planners are involved with.