Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of City Planning

PLANNING IN ITS POLITICAL CONTEXT: Developing Organizational Strategies for the Planning Agency by Daniel Stephen Greenbaum Submitted to the Department of Urban Studies and Planning on August 9, 1974, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of City Planning. Planners are trained to provide rational technical analysis of public policy issues to guide governmental action. However, planners have often been faced with the dilemma of having their technical analyses ignored by political decision-makers. It is proposed here that to resolve this dilemma, planners must seek to identify a new role for themselves which recognizes that (1) despite the seeming irrationality of political decision-making which planners perceive, the processes of public policy development and implementation possess elements of a 'political rationality,' and (2) planners should seek to shape their activities and the roles they play to complement this ongoing political decision-making process, rather than replace it with their 'technically rational' master planning process. This research attempts to illustrate what type of role planners should seek to play and how that role might be implemented. First, based on a review of the literature on political decision-making and on planning experience, a role concept for the planner is proposed which envisions the planner as a type of overseer of the political decision process. In this role, the planner concentrates (1) on linking his or her technical knowledge to specific public decisions as they emerge and (2) on ensuring that all interest groups which have a stake in a particular decision can have their interests expressed and considered in that decision. The research then uses this role concept as a theoretical basis for resolving a major question: How can a city or region develop a continuing planning capability to carry out this role? The research focuses on the analysis of the Metropolitan Transportation Commission in the San Francisco Bay Area. The agency's political context is analyzed and its current organizational structure and planning activities are reviewed. Based on this analysis, suggestions are made for changes in the agency's organizational structure and set of planning activities to provide improved technical guidance for the ongoing political decision processes in the region. Finally, the applicability of this approach to developing organizational strategies for planning agencies in other metropolitan areas, other planning disciplines and in local governments is briefly reviewed. Thesis Supervisor: Ralph Gakenheimer Title: Associate Professor