Urban and regional planners, often called community or city planners, develop programs to provide for growth and revitalization of urban, suburban, and rural communities and their regions. Planners help local officials make decisions on social, economic, and environmental problems.
Planners usually devise plans outlining the best use of a community's land where residential, commercial, recreational, and other human services should take place. Planners also are involved in various other planning activities, including social services, transportation, and resource development. They address such issues as central city redevelopment, traffic congestion, air pollution, and the impact of growth and change on an area. They formulate capital improvement plans to construct new school buildings, public housing, and sewage systems. Planners are involved in environmental issues including pollution control, wetland preservation, and landfills. Planners also help find solutions to social issues such as the needs of an aging population, sheltering the homeless, and meeting the demand for drug and alcohol treatment centers, correctional facilities, and abortion and AIDS patient clinics.
Planners examine community facilities such as health clinics and schools to be sure these facilities can meet the demands placed upon them, and help resolve differences over their location. They keep abreast of the economic and legal issues involved in community development or redevelopment and changes in zoning codes, building codes, or environmental regulations. They ensure that builders and developers follow these codes and regulations. Planners also deal with land use and environmental issues created by population movements. For example, as suburban growth has increased the need for traveling between suburbs and the urban center, the planner's job often includes designing new transportation systems and parking facilities. In conjunction with these new systems and facilities, planners also may develop transportation management plans designed to control traffic, not just accommodate it. For example, developers may be required to provide public transportation facilities, or cities may be required to set up van pool transportation systems.
Urban and regional planners prepare for situations that are likely to develop as a result of population growth or social and economic change. They estimate, for example, the community's long-range needs for housing, transportation, and business and industrial sites. Working within a framework set by the community government, they analyze and propose alternative ways to achieve more efficient and attractive urban areas.
Before preparing plans for long-range community development, urban and regional planners prepare detailed studies that show the current use of land for residential, business, and community purposes. These reports include such information as the location of streets, highways, water and sewer lines, schools, libraries, and cultural and recreational sites. They also provide information on the types of industries in the community, characteristics of the population, and employment and economic trends. With this information, along with input from citizens' advisory committees, urban and regional planners propose ways of using undeveloped or underutilized land and design the layout of recommended buildings and other facilities such as subway lines and stations. They also prepare materials that show how their programs can be carried out and what they will cost.
As in many other fields, planners increasingly use computers to record and analyze information and to communicate their findings and recommendations to government leaders and others. For example, computers are widely used to determine program costs, map land areas, and forecast future trends in employment, housing, transportation, or population. Computerized geographic information systems enable planners to overlay maps depicting different geographic variables, and to combine and manipulate the data to produce alternative plans for land use or development.
Urban and regional planners often confer with land developers, civic leaders, and other public planning officials. They may function as mediators in community disputes by presenting alternatives that are acceptable to opposing parties. Planners may prepare materials for community relations programs, speak at civic meetings, and appear before legislative committees to explain their proposals.
In large organizations, planners usually specialize in areas such as physical design, transportation, housing supply and demand, community relations, historic preservation, environmental and regulatory issues, or economic development. In small organizations, planners must be generalists, able to do various kinds of planning.
Urban and regional planners deal with land use and environmental issues created by population movements.
Urban and regional planners spend a great deal of their time in offices. To be familiar with areas that they are developing, however, they periodically spend time outdoors examining the features of the land under consideration for development, its current use, and the types of structures on it. Although most planners have a scheduled 40-hour workweek, they frequently attend evening or weekend meetings or public hearings with citizens' groups. Planners may experience the pressure of deadlines and tight work schedules, as well as opposition from interest groups affected by their land use proposals.
Urban and regional planners held about 28,000 jobs in 1992. Local government planning agencies city, county, or regional employed 2 out of 3. An increasing proportion of public agency planners work in smaller suburban jurisdictions reflecting population movements in recent years. Others are employed in State agencies that deal with housing, transportation, or environmental protection. Federal employers include the Departments of Defense, Housing and Urban Development, and Transportation.
Many planners do consulting work, either part time in addition to a regular job, or full time for a firm that provides services to private developers or government agencies. Private sector employers include architectural and surveying firms, management and public relations firms, educational institutions, large land developers, and law firms specializing in land use.
Employers usually prefer workers who have advanced training in urban or regional planning. Most entry level jobs in Federal, State, and local government agencies require 2 years of graduate study in urban or regional planning, or the equivalent in work experience. A bachelor's degree from an accredited planning program, coupled with a master's degree in landscape architecture or civil engineering, for example, also is good preparation for entry level planning jobs. A master's degree from an accredited planning program provides the best training. Although graduates having an accredited bachelor's degree in planning qualify for many beginning positions, their advancement opportunities may be limited. Courses in related disciplines such as demography, economics, finance, health administration, and management are highly recommended. In addition, familiarity with computer models and statistical techniques is critical because of the increasing use of computerized modeling and geographic information systems in urban and regional planning analyses.
In 1992, about 80 colleges and universities offered an accredited master's and about 10 offered an accredited bachelor's degree program in urban or regional planning. These programs are accredited by the Planning Accreditation Board, which consists of representatives of the American Institute of Certified Planners and the Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning. Most graduate programs in planning require 2 years. Graduate students spend considerable time in studios, workshops, or laboratory courses learning to analyze and solve urban and regional planning problems and often are required to work in a planning office part time or during the summer. Local government planning offices offer students internships that provide experience that often proves invaluable in obtaining a full-time planning position after graduation.
The American Institute of Certified Planners (AICP), a professional institute within the American Planning Association (APA), grants certification to individuals who have the appropriate combination of education and professional experience and who pass an examination. Data on AICP membership indicate that certified planners tend to hold the more responsible, better paying positions in their field.
Planners must be able to think in terms of spatial relationships and visualize the effects of their plans and designs. Planners should be flexible and able to reconcile different viewpoints to make constructive policy recommendations. The ability to communicate effectively, both orally and in writing, also is necessary for anyone interested in this field.
After a few years' experience, urban and regional planners may advance to assignments requiring a high degree of independent judgment such as designing the physical layout of a large development or recommending policy, program, and budget options. Some are promoted to jobs as planning directors and spend a great deal of time meeting with officials in other organizations, speaking to civic groups, and supervising other professionals. Further advancement occurs through a transfer to a large city with more complex problems and greater responsibilities, or into related occupations, such as director of community or economic development.
A master's degree from an accredited planning program, or a master's degree in civil engineering or landscape architecture coupled with training in transportation or environmental planning, provide the most marketable background. Certified planners have the best job prospects. Graduates with only an accredited bachelor's degree in planning may have more difficulty finding a job in this field, but their employment prospects still are relatively good.
Employment of urban and regional planners is expected to grow about as fast as the average for all occupations through the year 2005. Most job openings, however, are likely to arise from the need to replace experienced planners who transfer to other occupations, or retire or leave the labor force for other reasons.
The continuing importance of transportation, environmental, housing, economic, and energy production planning will spur demand for urban and regional planners. Specific factors contributing to job growth include commercial development to support suburban areas with rapidly growing populations; legislation related to the environment, transportation, housing, and land use and development, such as the Clean Air Act; historic preservation and rehabilitation activities; central city redevelopment; the need to replace the Nation's infrastructure, including bridges, highways, and sewers; and interest in zoning and land use planning in undeveloped and nonmetropolitan areas, including coastal and agricultural areas.
Most new jobs for urban and regional planners will arise in rapidly expanding communities. Local governments need planners to address an array of problems associated with population growth. For example, new housing developments require roads, sewer systems, fire stations, schools, libraries, and recreation facilities that must be planned while considering budgetary constraints. Job growth also is expected to occur in smaller cities and towns in established areas for example, in the Northeast undergoing preservation and redevelopment, and in tourist resorts. Changes in the level of government funding for planning services could greatly affect demand for these workers.
Salaries of planners vary by educational attainment, type of employer, experience, size of community in which they work, and geographic location. According to a 1991 survey by APA, urban and regional planners earned a median annual salary of $42,000. Planners with a Ph.D. in planning earned a median salary of $57,000; those with a master's degree earned $43,000; and bachelor's degree holders earned $39,200.
The median annual salary of planners in city governments was $40,100; in county governments, $38,000; in joint city/county governments, $36,000; and in State governments, $43,000; Planners in land development firms earned $65,500; in colleges and universities, $51,900; in private consulting firms, $49,000; and in nonprofit foundations, $42,000. For planners with over 10 years' experience, local government agencies paid $47,700 annually, while private businesses and consulting firms paid $58,000. Directors of public planning agencies within local governments earned 13 percent more than staff members at comparable levels of experience, while directors or chief executive officers of private consulting firms earned only 7 percent more than staff members. Salaries of planners in large jurisdictions may be as much as $6,000 a year higher than their counterparts in small jurisdictions.
Planners with a master's degree were hired by the Federal Government at a starting average salary of $27,800 a year in 1993. In some cases, persons having less than 2 years of graduate work could enter Federal service as interns at yearly salaries of about $18,300 or $22,700. Salaries of urban and regional planners employed by the Federal Government in nonsupervisory, supervisory, and managerial positions averaged about $52,400 a year in 1993.
Urban and regional planners develop plans for the orderly growth of urban and rural communities. Others whose work is similar to the work of planners include architects, landscape architects, city managers, civil engineers, environmental engineers, and geographers.
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Reprinted with Permission of U. S. Department of Labor