Carissa Schively
Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs
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New development offers
many potential benefits, such as the availability of modern housing,
improved traffic flow, and access to shopping and entertainment
venues. However, some projects, such as affordable housing, road
widening, or power plant construction, can produce a "not in
my backyard" reaction from citizens. This phenomenon is becoming
so common that its acronym NIMBY is now a part of our lexicon.
Urban planners need to address such public concerns before they
implement proposed projects that constitute "locally unwanted
land uses" (referred to as LULUs). Carissa Schively, an assistant
professor in the Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs, studies public
participation in planning and environmental decision-making processes.
"We want to understand the way people think about planning
and environmental problems, and how we can use that information
to build better processes," says Schively. Her research focuses
on finding the best methods for planning decision-making and public
involvement. She suggests that education is a key aspect of effective
processes. Schively points out that "planners play an essential
role in providing citizens with the tools and information that they
need to be effective participants and actually have an impact on
planning decisions."
Numerous techniques are available for facilitating public participation
in planning processes. However, not all techniques are equally effective
in increasing consensus and decreasing conflict, which are two goals
of public participation processes. For example, stakeholder advisory
committees, which allow a variety of interested parties to be continuously
involved in planning over the course of time, may be more effective
than a public hearing, where an individual citizen may get only
a few minutes to register his or her concerns. Schively has recently
received funding for a project to assess the effectiveness of various
public participation techniques that have been used by MnDOT in
its transportation planning and development.
Schively is also about to embark upon a new project focused on evaluating
the effectiveness of Minnesota's Alternative Urban Areawide Review
(AUAR) tool, which is used to assess the environmental impacts of
future development. She will assess the extent to which communities
use environmental impact information in making decisions about how
and where to grow. A former urban planner in both Las Vegas and
Minneapolis, Schively sees great regional differences in the politics
of urban planning. In Las Vegas, with its rapid growth, she found
that planning functions as a "necessary evil" that is
required before development can occur, while in Minnesota, planning
is largely accepted as a legitimate government activity that advances
broader community goals. Schively's AUAR study will help our state
and local agencies maximize the potential of the AUAR tool, continuing
Minnesota's legacy of placing great value on urban planning.
Carissa Schively's departmental Web page: www.hhh.umn.edu/people/cschively/.
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