Lessons Learned About Planning

The author summarizes the most important lessons he has learned in more than 40 years of studying planning from the perspectives of planning theory, planning methods, and computer applications in planning. He suggests that planner's traditional -professional roles, models, and methods often fail to adequately consider alternative futures and unnecessarily restrict meaningful public participation. He proposes that these problems can be overcome, but not easily, by adopting more community-centered -approaches of planning with the public and using simple, easy-to-use, and -understandable models and methods. The author recognizes that following his advice in practice raises many difficult questions that he cannot currently answer. Research support: None.