INTRODUCTION

Planning is balancing the built and natural environment, community needs, cultural significance, and economic sustainability, planners aim to improve our quality of life and create vibrant communities. The work planners do is becoming more important as society places greater emphasis on environmental sustainability, liveable communities, high quality urban design and managing urban growth effectively in order to build a nation worth inheriting for future generations. Planners are at the centre of complex debates about the places in which we live and specialise in the areas of planning that include: balancing the built and natural environment, community needs, cultural significance and economic sustainability, planners aim to improve our quality of life and create vibrant communities.

WHAT PLANNING MEANS TO SOCIETY

A plan is typically any diagram or list of steps with timing and resources, used to achieve an objective. See also strategy. It is commonly understood as a temporal set of intended actions through which one expects to achieve a goal. For spatial or planar topologic or topographic sets see map (Taylor, 2007). Plans can be formal or informal: Structured and formal plans, used by multiple people, are more likely to occur in projects, diplomacy, careers, economic development, military campaigns, combat, or in the conduct of other business. In

most cases, the absence of a well-laid plan can have adverse effects: for example, a non-robust project plan can cost the organization time and money. Informal or ad-hoc plans are created by individuals in all of their pursuits. The most popular ways to describe plans are by their breadth, time frame, and specificity; however, these planning classifications are not independent of one another. For instance, there is a close relationship between the short- and long-term categories and the strategic and operational categories. It is common for less formal plans to be created as abstract ideas, and remain in that form as they are maintained and put to use. More formal plans as used for business and military purposes, while initially created with and as an abstract thought, are likely to be written down, drawn up or otherwise stored in a form that is accessible to multiple people across time and space. This allows more reliable collaboration in the execution of the plan. The term planning implies the working out of sub-components in some degree of elaborate detail. Broader-brush enunciations of objectives may qualify as metaphorical roadmaps. Planning literally just means the creation of a plan; it can be as simple as making a list. It has acquired a technical meaning, however, to cover the area of government legislation and regulations related to the use of resources. Planning can refer to the planned use of any and all resources, as in the succession of Five-Year Plans through which the government of the Soviet Union sought to develop the country (Raymond, 1909). However, the term is most frequently used in relation to planning for the use of land and related resources, for example in urban planning, transportation planning, etc. Thus, in a governmental
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context, "planning" without any qualification is most likely to mean the regulation of land use. While urban planning as a form of governmental practice can be found in most parts of the world, its role and form, and perceptions of what it should achieve, vary significantly and there are debates on this within regions and countries. Even the term used to describe the activity of planning varies: spatial planning, land-use planning, physical planning, city planning, town (and regional) planning, and development planning are English-language terms in use. The French term urbanisme and the Spanish urbanization (to make urban) refer more broadly to economic and social relations rather than just physical factors and are closer to the term development planning. And in Nigeria the terms master plan, comprehensive city plan and detailed plan are in current use. More recently, attempts to change conventional physical planning to be a more strategic and integrated activity of government have resulted in terms such as urban (public) management, now including the activity of urban planning. To complicate matters further, the emergence of environment as an important concern of government has resulted in the term environmental planning/management, sometimes referring to environment in the broadest sense, to include both the natural and built environment. Earlier definitions of urban planning which described it as an activity of government also require modification in some parts of the world. The change from government to governance in liberal democracies has meant that

urban planning is now often initiated and carried out in the context of partnership between the state, the private sector and civil society organizations. In many cities, property developers now play a bigger role in urban planning than does the state. Also possible, where states are weak and ineffective, are situations in which communities and households plan, service and develop their own areas. By contrast, in countries such as Nigeria where state, civil society and economic actors are highly integrated, urban planning can still be described as an activity of government. While the activity of urban planning is recognized and practised in most parts of the world, the contexts within which it operates vary greatly. Different urban issues, different political, economic and institutional systems, and different cultures and value systems all shape the planning system in different ways. It would therefore be incorrect to assume that a single new model or approach to planning could be developed, which could then be introduced in all parts of the world. Rather, the approach taken here is to suggest a list of normative principles against which all planning systems can be assessed. Planning systems in different parts of the world may meet these principles in different ways, using different institutional structures and processes, and different methodologies and outcomes. Some of these principles may be more appropriate in certain contexts than in others. Some cities or regions may have particular priorities or values not reflected here.

Earlier definitions of urban planning which described it as an activity of government also require modification in some parts of the world While the activity of urban planning is recognized and practised in most parts of the world, the contexts within which it operates vary greatly. Definitions of planning have changed over time and are not the same in all parts of the world. Earlier views defined urban planning as physical design, enforced through land-use control and centred in the state. Current perspectives recognize the institutional shift from government to governance (although in some parts of the world planning is still centred in the state), the necessarily wider scope of planning beyond land use, and the need to consider how plans are implemented. Urban planning is therefore currently viewed as a self-conscious collective (societal) effort to imagine or re-imagine a town, city, urban region or wider territory and to translate the result into priorities for area investment, conservation measures, new and upgraded areas of settlement, strategic infrastructure investments and principles of land-use regulation. It is recognized that planning is not only undertaken by professional urban and regional planners (other professions and groupings are also involved); hence, it is appropriate to refer to the planning system rather than just to the tasks undertaken by planners. Nonetheless, urban (and regional) planning has distinctive concerns that separate it from, for example, economic planning or health planning. At the core of urban planning is a concern with space (i.e. with the where of things, whether static or in movement; the protection of special places and sites; the interrelations between different

activities and networks in an area; and significant intersections and nodes that are physically co-located within an area). Planning is also now viewed as a strategic rather than a comprehensive, activity (Charles, 1994). This implies selectivity, and a focus on that which really makes a difference to the fortunes of an area over time. Planning also highlights a developmental movement from the past to the future. It implies that it is possible to decide between appropriate actions now in terms of their potential impact in shaping future socio-spatial relations. This future imagination is not merely a matter of short-term political expediency, but is expected to be able to project a transgenerational temporal scale, especially in relation to infrastructure investment, environmental management and quality of life. The term planning also implies a mode of governance (a form of politics) driven by the articulation of policies through some kind of deliberative process and the judgment of collective action in relation to these policies. Planning is not, therefore, a neutral technical exercise: it is shaped by values that must be made explicit, and planning itself is fundamentally concerned with making ethical judgments.

ELEMENTS

OF

PLANNING

AS

APPLICABLE

IN

THE

PLANNING FUNCTIONS

A planning has a number of characteristics which include:

Visionary. A major function of planning is to anticipate the future, and to provide the means for the City to create the future it desires.

Long Range. Even though the future is not easy to predict, a general plan recognizes that effective planning is based on a long-term view so that trends can be anticipated and managed, and negative effects can be reduced.

Comprehensive. Planning reflects an effort to coordinate all of a communitys major components. The relationship between the intensity of land use development and transportation needs is one obvious set of community components that must be coordinated. The general plan is also comprehensive in that it addresses and resolves both short-term and longterm issues.

General. Planning is long-range and comprehensive and, therefore, necessarily broad in scope. A general framework must be established as part of the plan, based on recognized trends, best available projections, and community values regarding the future that is desired by the community. Although the General Plan is a general guide for decision making, it is the lead legal document within a community for planning and development decisions. State law requires that zoning and development approvals be consistent with the General Plan.

Oriented to the Community. Plan is intended to be reflective of the needs and desires of existing and future residents.
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Fiscally Responsible. Planning is intended to achieve and maintain economic strength and vitality, and to provide plans and implementation programs that are within the Citys means.

Pragmatic. Planning is based on a realistic assessment of community issues, along with practical, workable programs to resolve those issues.

Action-oriented. In addition to framing a vision for Loma Lindas future, the General Plan works to translate that vision into action, and thereby provide the means to achieve desired outcomes.

Usable. The plan is intended to provide practical guidance for development review, environmental management programs, economic expansion, and capital improvements planning. Although the future cannot be known, the General Plan strives to be comprehensive and flexible enough to accommodate unique situations and provide practical guidance in unanticipated situations.

Coordinated.

Reliable. Although the planning is, by definition, general, the plan strives to provide sufficient detail and explanation of its policies and programs so as to provide clear, consistent policy direction, and to promote certainty for all participants in the development review process. To be effective as a decision-making tool, the various elements of the general

plan must integrate the management of the communitys future physical, social, environmental, and economic environments.
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Community issues that the planning addresses include:

Achieving and maintaining a vibrant community in which all residents enjoy a wide range of employment, shopping, and recreational opportunities;

Achieving a closer balance between jobs and housing by providing areas for new residential development that will serve local employees, including executive and upper-end housing, as well as housing for workers, students, seniors, and young adults who are starting their careers and forming families, and additionally establishing areas permitting mixed uses, both residential and commercial;

Providing opportunities to establish a community downtown area that could provide a focal point for the community, and enhance the Citys identity;

Improving the design quality of the community by establishing guidelines for community development;

CONCLUSION
Each element in planning provides a summary of existing conditions, a discussion of trends and issues, followed by guiding and implementing policies. The guiding policies provide a broad direction that the community proposes to achieve. The implementing policies provide actions, programs, and specific techniques to achieve and implement the guiding policies.

REFERENCES
Raymond Unwin, (1909): Town Planning in practice.

Frederick Winslow Taylor, (1911): The Principles of Scientific Management.

Charles Hoch (1994): What Do Planners Do?: Power, Politics, and Persuasion, American Planning Association.

Taylor, Nigel, (2007): Urban Planning Theory since 1945, London, Sage.

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