Core Values of Planning

Question 1

Equity

Answer 1

Equity is about “being fair or impartial,” which might mean improving the equitable distribution of funding, or ensuring equal access to public resources like parks, or making investments so that needs are met in an equitable way. Addressing equity also requires that planners understand how discrimination has created inequities historically.

Question 2

Diversity

Answer 2

Diversity is about “valuing and including different perspectives.” Factoring in varying values and preferences, in addition to considering race, income, culture and ability, is difficult, but the goal should be to reflect multiples values and preferences where possible

Question 3

Inclusion

Answer 3

Inclusion is about “allowing people to participate in the process…. truly listening, understanding that every choice counts and incorporating a robust, open and diverse community process.”

Question 4

How can planning for diversity expand economic opportunities?

Answer 4

by supporting critical micro-entrepreneurship business models such as street vending, food trucks, home-based businesses, and day labor opportunities

Question 5

How can planners activate mobility?

Answer 5

by addressing significant issues such as transportation costs and affordability, the frequency and coverage of public transportation systems, and the impact of these transportation systems on public health

Question 6

How can planners offer housing options?

Answer 6

through policies like allowing accessory dwelling units, promoting incremental housing, requiring inclusionary housing, and establishing housing trust funds, community land trusts, and cohousing opportunities

Question 7

How can planners enhance placemaking?

Answer 7

through informal fixed or place-based practices (e.g., walls, interstitial spaces, vacant lots, parks), temporary or mobile practices (e.g., street or public performers, arts and crafts vendors), and formal placemaking practices (e.g., built community spaces, public events, and ongoing public projects and activities)

Question 8

Cultural Competency

Answer 8

Cultural competency is the ability to work effectively in cross-cultural situations. It means inserting policies and procedures that integrate cultural competency into each core function of an organization, such as hiring a diverse workforce, providing fiscal support and incentives for cultural competency, and practicing community engagement that results in the reciprocal transfer of knowledge among participants.

Question 9

What strategies does the Chicago’s Metropolitan Planning Council (MPC) report The Cost of Segregation suggest for “dismantling the barriers that create disparities and inequities by race and income.”

Answer 9

• Establishing a graduated real estate transfer tax (to generate revenue in a progressive way)
• Investing equitably across the region
• Making vacant lands an asset
• Improving health through publicly funded development (e.g., requiring developers responding to an RFP to detail how they will positively impact health)
• Using equity as a measure for transportation planning

Question 10

Why is housing a key area for planners to advance social justice?

Answer 10

Policies include providing affordable, multifamily housing options in high-opportunity areas, and protecting existing affordable housing.

Question 11

What are the required principles, processes and attributes for sustainable places according to the APA’s comprehensive plan standards for sustaining places?

Answer 11

The required principles are:

1. Livable Built Environment
2. Harmony with Nature
3. Resilient Economy
4. Interwoven Equity
5. Healthy Community
6. Responsible Regionalism

Required processes:

1. Authentic Participation
2. Accountable Implementation

Required attributes:

1. Consistent Content
2. Coordinated Characteristics

Question 12

Environmental justice

Answer 12

Environmental justice is about redressing environmental racism, which is the sad fact that race influences the location of hazardous waste, highways and other noxious land uses. The goal of environmental justice is to redress this inequity and work to improve the environmental conditions of poor communities and communities of color.

Question 13

An “Environmental Justice” plan might call for

Answer 13

• an overhaul of zoning, not allow auto services, manufacturing centers and warehouses to be mixed with residential neighborhoods.
• prioritize more compact, mixed-use development to foster affordable housing and connect with public transit.
• cleanup contaminated brownfield sites;
• direct the city to distribute parks more evenly through neighborhoods;
• direct officials to avoid siting new “sensitive land uses,” like schools and parks, within 500 feet of the centerline of a freeway — unless such a development “contributes to smart growth, open space, or transit-oriented goals.”