On June 24th, the BBC reported that the Parliament of the United Kingdom has introduced a planning bill, claiming that it will help streamline megaprojects in wake of the Heathrow airport expansion. However, some claim that this will alienate the public and not allow them to contribute to the design process.
According to the article, UK planners don't think this is a problem, because “People find planning very dull - until it affects them”.
That's the problem: Planning tends to affect people in ways that may not be apparent on the surface and may take years to develop. These kind of effects may not be noticeable in the design of a project, but can quickly come to light as a project is built and utilized.
While the purpose of this bill is supposedly to save money, there is a side-effect:
While this bill is currently limited to transportation projects, it could easily be expanded to encompass other things (such as housing projects), and half a century of planning activism would be gone, as a master planning committee could simply design unbounded without insight into public concerns and create developments that are ill-suited to public needs or usage.
While marginalizing public involvement may be seen by some as an appropriate (and some may say fair) way to deal with NIMBYism, it will mostlikely be a realization of many a NIMBYist's fears, making future planning efforts doubly difficult.
A better way to tackle NIMBYism would be to explain thoroughly to the public the rational behind a project or development and, when necessary, explain that there are no workable alternatives. Marginalizing public involvement does not lead to an optimal solution because it only takes into account the viewpoints and ideas of the few who initially designed the project and does not keep planners in touch with reality.
A link to the BBC article is here:
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