Putting the ‘Smart’ in smart growth: Survey looks at effective strategies
Released: October 21, 2004
When it comes to “smart growth” planning, costly consultants and oversized committees appear to erode public confidence in the process, based on a new survey of about 40 communities that have completed their long-range plans.
But surprisingly, planning committees that take their time often end up with greater community buy-in, the study also found.
The study, led by University of Wisconsin-Whitewater economist Russ Kashian, mined the experiences of Wisconsin municipalities that are ahead of the game in Wisconsin’s comprehensive planning mandate. About 140 of Wisconsin’s more than 1,000 municipalities have already filed comprehensive growth plans with the state, ahead of the 2010 deadline.
With the vast majority of plans still in development, the researchers want to identify some of the common ingredients of successful finished plans. The study is supported by the state Department of Administration and includes economists and survey experts from Marquette University and UW-Stevens Point.
“Our main question here is, can we find ways to predict the eventual community buy-in and support of these plans?” Kashian said. “We looked at questions like committee size and structure, length of the process and money spent on plans.”
Some of the key findings include:
Expensive does not translate into successful. Kashian said the survey respondents’ range of spending on plans was from $10,000 minimum to $600,000 maximum, with local costs varying from a low of $5,774 to a high of $300,000. There was a negative correlation related to the amount of community money spent on the plan.
Bigger isn’t necessarily better. Kashian said the survey found a remarkable range in total committee sizes, with as few as five members and as many as 60. The average size was about 12 members. There was a negative correlation between committee size and effectiveness. “Problems were perceived when members saw their impact as watered-down and minimal,” Kashian said.
< em>Regardless of committee size, committees that reported togetherness and cooperation gave a higher rating to the end results.
Based on the findings, Kashian said that planning committees comprised of independent public citizens likely will be more successful than those relying on outside consultants or elected planning commissions. While the latter approaches may speed up the process, it may be seen as less applicable to the community, he said.
“Money spent will speed up the process, but a more gradual approach creates time for the community to digest the results,” he said.
Findings of the study will be published in “Proceedings of the 15th Conference on the Small City and Region,” which was held in September at UW-Stevens Point. Heather Kohls, an economist at Marquette University, co-authored the paper.
Kashain said more than half of the study respondents received state DOA grants to assist with planning, and more than $1.2 million is earmarked annually for planning grants. The DOA has strong interest in the study, Kashian said, to insure that its investment in these plans is leading to strong community buy-in.
The smart growth initiative, enacted as part of the 1999-2001 state budget law, is major legislation aimed at encouraging strong land use practices across the state. It requires plans to be in place by 2010 and creates financial incentives for communities that meet state land-use goals.
- Brian Mattmiller,npa@uww.edu
