Flora Crockett Stephenson (1914–1979): A life and professional partnership in planning

This article contributes to the growing literature on women's contributions to planning, especially in the UK, the USA, and Australia, and to research into the phenomenon of life partners who work together professionally. The subject is Flora Crockett Stephenson (1914–1979), the first woman to complete the Master in City Planning degree at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Presented as a biographical exposé, the discussion introduces Flora's background and reveals her largely unrecorded contributions as the life and professional partner of British architect-planner Gordon Stephenson (1908–1997), already the subject of several academic studies.     

BOOK REVIEWS

Book Review in this Articles
Safe Drinking Water: Lessons from Recent Outbreaks in Affluent Nations, by S. E. Hrudey and E. J. Hrudey.
Water Resources Management, by David Stephenson. Published by Balkema.
Water, Sanitary and Waste Services for Buildings, by A. F. E. Wide and J. A. Swaffield.     

British and American community design: Clarence Stein's Manhattan transfer, 1924–74

Clarence Stein and Henry Wright's 1928 design for the new town of Radburn, New Jersey, was much influenced by Hampstead Garden Suburb, designed by Barry Parker and Raymond Unwin. Radburn was written about and discussed as the ‘Radburn concept’ in the 1930s and 1950s, especially after Gordon Stephenson published Stein's community designs in the Town Planning Review in 1949. Lewis Mumford championed its cul‐de‐sacked traffic safety, continuous pedestrian systems and linear, open space structure of superblocks.

Stephenson, Arthur Ling and Hugh Wilson, joined by many UK town planners, designed many Radburnesque higher density layouts in many post‐World War II new town residential areas. The idea was a feature of Cumbernauld's pedestrianized design. It fell into disfavour in the mid‐1960s in Britain and at the same time was transferred again from Manhattan by Stein himself through Albert Mayer and Julian Whittlesey to Kittimat, British Columbia, Reston, Virginia, and via Stein's book, Toward New Towns for America, to the design process at Columbia, Maryland. In this third, most recent transfer, the idea loses its clearly modulated relationships: clustered housing to linear open space/pedestrian system and segregated traffic. It has faded into the texture of generic North American suburbs with clustered townhouses.     

Book Reviews

Book Reviewed in this article
Disinfection By-Products in Drinking Water: Current Issues. Edited by M. Fielding and M. Farrimond.
Membrane Bioreactors for Wastewater Treatment, by Tom Stephenson, Simon Judd, Bruce Jefferson and Keith Brindle.
Global Perspectives on River Conservation: Science, Policy and Practice. (Eds. Boon, P. J., Davies, B. R. and Petts, G. E.)
Playing Safe: Science and the Environment, by Jonathon Porritt.
International Environmental Management Benchmarks - 'Best Practice'Experiences from America, Japan and Europe. Edited by Hitchens, Clausen and Fichter.
Water Policy: Allocation and Management in Practice. Edited by Peter Howsam and Richard Carter.     

Renewal-A Planning Challenge

While renewal agencies are expanding the scope of their activity to include industrial and commercial redevelopment, their operations remain mired in slum clearance areas. Progress is de-pressingly slow and piecemeal because of relocation problems, high land costs, and inefficient procedures; the resulting density is too high for the city of the future. Planners can help renewal agencies break through this deadlock (the slum clearance preoccupation) by developing a planning framework for renewal on a comprehensive basis. We can build new communities on vacant land, reduce in-city densities, redevelop whole new in-city communities, and do it all in accordance with a comprehensive plan. The floundering renewal agencies need this guidance desperately; planning agencies have everything to gain by giving it to them. Citizens want a renewed city, and will support the effort.     

Planning Consultants and Local Planning

Problem, research strategy, and findings: Planning consultants are a vital part of the local government planning process. We explore who hires consultants, the types of tasks that they typically perform, and differences in the values of planning consultants and their clients. We conduct parallel surveys of planning consultants and local government officials, and find that the use of consultants is widespread: They are hired primarily to reduce the costs of maintaining in-house planning staff and to provide as-needed technical expertise. Both planning officials and consultants agree on the priority given to well–accepted planning principles, even though each group thinks they hold planning principles in higher esteem than the other. Yet, we find that the actual differences between the self-professed values of the two groups are negligible.

Takeaway for practice: This study suggests that both consultants and their clients believe that the advantages of hiring consultants, including supplementing in-house staff, providing workforce flexibility, and offering technical expertise, outweigh the disadvantages of possibly higher costs and lack of local knowledge. The study provides reasons for optimism that outsourcing planning work does not change the underlying planning values of the agencies employing the consultants, or the goals and objectives of the planning work.

Research support: Wayne State University College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.     

Transformations of Planning Rationales: Changing Spaces for Governance in Recent Dutch National Planning

Dutch national planning has acquired an international reputation because it provides strong planning guidance while simultaneously being responsive to the particular spatial and political circumstances of different regions and areas. Spatial concepts, like the Randstad, are important vehicles for sustaining this approach. Such concepts incorporate select spatial planning rationales that justify operational decisions. Concepts can, however, also be ambiguous, and this can allow for different interpretations and deliberations about how guidance should take effect in different situations. In this paper we assess the degree of ambiguity contained in concepts outlined in Dutch national plans between 1988 and 2012. By focusing on the dimensions of spatial concepts, and the room for interpretation these create, we demonstrate how concepts were modified to accommodate a shifting appreciation of deliberation and, as a result, collaboration and governance. On a theoretical level, we propose a method that analyses in detail the ambiguity (“fuzzyness” or “softness”) of spatial concepts. We argue that such sophisticated understandings contribute to explaining the variety of governance responses that these geographies produce in practice. On an empirical level we seek to increase understanding of change in recent Dutch national planning.     

New Directions in Planning Theory Introduction

We have always been unsure about planning theory. We have argued whether there could be a theory of planning, what form it would take, and how it would relate to practice. We have never resolved these issues to the satisfaction of our professional community or even to the satisfaction of those, mainly in planning education, who worry about the state of theory in planning. In recent years there has been increasing criticism of the ruling planning theory—the rational planning model, or rational action model. But the rational model remains in force because no competitive set of ideas has attracted sufficient support to supplant it. We continue to teach the rational model to new entrants to the planning field. When asked what our “theory” is, we are inclined to talk about the four (five, six, or seven) steps of the rational model; but when we practice our profession, we operate from some amalgam of experience, intuition, technique, context, and personality. There are many who argue that the rational action model is the right theory for planning. There have been many criticisms of the rational model. Many modifications of, and alternatives to, the rational model have been proposed to guide planning. Arguments on all these positions are very familiar to readers of this Journal. No set of concepts or ideas has emerged that convinces a majority of practitioners or theorists that the theory of planning has been found. Some even scoff at the idea of a single theory of planning and recommend that planners pack up a kit bag of theories to go with their kit bag of tools, and get on with responsible adhocery.     

Trust and Collaborative Planning Theory: The Case of the Scottish Planning System

The chief objective of this paper is to introduce trust as a new component of the collaborative planning theory and discuss its significance in respect of the newly introduced joint structure plan-making system in Scotland. To achieve this, we briefly discuss the main components of collaborative planning theory in the second section as its main protagonists have comprehensively discussed these aspects of collaborative planning theory elsewhere. Then we develop the indicators of trust in the third section. The fourth section outlines the newly introduced system of joint structure plan making in Scotland. It is in the fifth section that the trust indicators are applied to the system of joint structure plan making in Glasgow and the Clyde Valley, Scotland. The last section sums up the main conclusions. A new system of joint structure plan making was introduced in Scotland after the reorganization of local government in 1995. While this system exhibits some traces of collaborative planning, indications are that this joint arrangement could develop into a high trust partnership among the stakeholders involved jointly in the production of structure plans. Most of the trust indicators developed in this paper show positive results when applied to the case study. The stakeholders expect that high trust will result in better understanding among them leading to sustained collaboration. It is expected that as collaboration matures, trust will further develop. We have thus argued that both trust and collaboration reinforce each other. Collaboration is understood as willingness to work together to attain shared objectives through formalized horizontal organizational arrangements.     

应用于区域交通战略规划中的情景规划

本文简要回顾了情案规划从商业战略规划活动中产生后的历史，对其目标与局限性进行了综述。然后文章回顾了情景规划在区域交通规划中的应用背景和先例、介绍了情景规划在休斯敦大都市区交通中应用和深化的工作框架，讨论了这一应用的主要成果和教训，并对进一步的发展潜力和改进措施提出了作者的观察和结论。     

Planning for Unplanned Pork

Problem, research strategy, and findings: To understand how communities use zoning ordinances to achieve sustainability goals, we identify nine sustainability principles and 53 associated regulatory items that might be included in a zoning ordinance to achieve sustainable development and then examine the zoning ordinances of 32 randomly selected communities to determine if they included these principles and their associated items. We find both wide variation and some consistency in how zoning ordinances address sustainability goals, independent of city size or location in the country. Some of the identified principles and regulatory items are found in many ordinances; others appear in only a few. However, there is an inverse relationship between the age of the ordinance and the extent to which it includes sustainability principles. As ordinances are updated, it is likely that they will address more topical sustainability concerns. We study only ordinance content, not implementation; moreover, sustainability can be achieved in ways other than zoning. However, zoning ordinances that directly address sustainability in many dimensions are more likely to achieve these goals. We conclude that planners can more effectively use zoning ordinances to achieve sustainable development.

Takeaway for practice: This review of zoning ordinances can alert local planners to the many ways in which zoning ordinances could be used to achieve sustainability goals and suggest how planners can assess the contribution of their zoning ordinance to the sustainable development of their communities.     

柳士英与苏州近代城建规划

利用史料和文献，介绍近代建筑师柳士英及其主持下的苏州近代城市规划和建设，研究其社会背景和历史影响。通过对苏州这时期城市规划和建设情况的探讨，不仅可了解和认识苏州早期现代化建设的历程，而且作为较早开埠的传统中心城市的范例，对中国近代城市规划和建设的研究具有特殊的意义。     

引进一种可持续的景观规划模式

介绍了美国景观规划师雷陶和阿赫恩共同提出的一种基于景观生态学原则与指数的可持续的景观规划模式。该模式由横向和纵向两个途径构成,它适用于所有的景观规划,通过在不同的规划过程中运用不同的景观指数,以增加规划中生态知识的可接受性与使用,增强规划者之间的交流,从而促进景观规划的可持续性。     

Planning The Expo

Problem, research strategy, and findings: Many cities have adopted minimum parking requirements, but there is relatively poor information about how parking infrastructure has grown. We estimate how parking has grown in Los Angeles County (CA) from 1900 to 2010 and how parking infrastructure evolves, affects urban form, and relates to changes in automobile travel using building and roadway growth models. We find that since 1975 the ratio of residential off-street parking spaces to automobiles in Los Angeles County is close to 1.0 and the greatest density of parking spaces is in the urban core, while most new growth in parking occurs outside of the core. In total, 14% of Los Angeles County's incorporated land is committed to parking. Uncertainty in our space inventory is attributed to our building growth model, on-street space length, and the assumption that parking spaces were created as per the requirements.

Takeaway for practice: The continued use of minimum parking requirements is likely to encourage automobile use at a time when metropolitan areas are actively seeking to manage congestion and increase transit use, biking, and walking. Widely discussed ways to reform parking policies may be less than effective if planners do not consider the remaining incentives to auto use created by the existing parking infrastructure. Planners should encourage the conversion of existing parking facilities to alternative uses.     

Expanding the Scope and Impact of Collaborative Planning

Problem: As planners grow increasingly confident that they have settled on the right concepts and methods to conduct stakeholder-based collaboration, they are not considering what can be achieved through other collaborative approaches.

Purpose: We aimed to explore how creating a network of place- and stakeholder-based collaboratives using communities of practice could strengthen individual collaboratives and achieve network synergies.

Methods: Using a case study approach, we draw out lessons for collaborative planning from our research on the U.S. Fire Learning Network (FLN), a collaborative initiative to restore ecosystems that depend on fire. We analyzed data from over 140 interviews, hundreds of documents including restoration plans, newsletters, meeting summaries, maps, and various other reports, and observations at more than a dozen regional and national meetings.

Results and conclusions: We conclude that the FLN nurtures expertise in ecological fire restoration and collaborative planning by linking multi-stakeholder collaboratives to regional communities of practice. Moreover, this linkage creates and sustains a network of collaboratives that amplify the potential for fundamental change in the culture and practice of fire management.

Takeaway for practice: A community of practice is an effective approach to collaboration in situations where the purpose is to expand expertise rather than to resolve conflict and reach consensus. Moreover, a community of practice can link stakeholder-based collaboratives to create a whole greater than the sum of its parts. Realizing this potential requires questioning the universality of some of the core principles of stakeholder-based collaborative planning and diversifying the collaborative planning toolkit.

Research support: This research was supported by the Northern Research Station of the U. S. Forest Service and The Nature Conservancy.     

多层次的城市规划参与机制探讨

在中国城市快速发展的背景下,必须改变中国城市规划管理机制的现状,探讨合理的城市规划参与模式,建立系统的、多方位的、多层次的规划参与机制,确定规划参与的法定性,使规划参与机制在规划决策、编制、实施和监督检查过程中发挥更大的作用,更好地综合协调社会、经济、环境关系。     

城市规划中的市政工程规划

城市用地资源愈发紧张,人们赖以生存的城市空间也就越来越需要良好、科学地规划用地建设,从而才能在当前投资多元化的城市经济下,为市政基建、服务设施、项目建设提供系统、科学的立项建设依据。基于此,本文结合了当前市政工程中一些主要基建项目规划问题展开了探讨。     

Transformation of Urban Planning:Thoughts on Incremental Planning,Stock-Based Planning,and Reduction Planning

According to the current context of China's new urbanization and urban and rural transformation,this paper defines incremental planning,stock-based planning,and reduction planning.It further discusses the socio-economic foundation of incremental planning,the transformation of incremental planning to stock-based planning,and the emergence of reduction planning,as well as the characteristics of these three types of urban planning.Based on that,it finds that incremental planning is determined by China's unique urban growth pattern,and that the change of the urban growth mode leads to a transformation of urban planning.In addition,reduction planning can effectively cope with urban decline.After over 30 years of rapid economic development,more and more cities in China are approaching the bottleneck of growth.Therefore,the transformation of urban planning is unavoidable and will definitely become an important topic in planning circles.     

广州城市发展与规划

广州城市发展曾经过城市封闭式扩张、开敞式扩张、曲折发展等阶段。现有的城市规划方案着眼大的区域,提出“北优、南拓、西联、东移”方针,以期形成多中心、网络型的城市结构。未来广州城市发展与规划还应当充分考虑广州在区域发展中的核心地位,并采取措施巩固与提升这一优势;应顺应人口与产业郊区化发展的趋势,加强城市区域绿地和环城绿地的建设。     

建筑遗产保护规划与规划体系

进入21世纪以后,建筑遗产保护产生了许多新的需求。保护规划应建立统一的、多环节的制度体系。在这个体系中,任何依据都应经过调查和测算：解决社会矛盾与需求应成为工作重点;实现多专业的整合．社会资源的利用应以制度的方式确立下来。