Mark Seasons

Monitoring and Evaluation in Municipal Planning: Considering the Realities

Abstract If monitoring and evaluation are recognized parts of the planning canon, why are they overlooked and underused? This article attempts to answer this question by exploring the state of monitoring and evaluation practice and the key factors that contribute to or impede monitoring and evaluation activities in municipal planning departments. The findings of a study of evaluation practice in regional planning departments in Ontario, Canada, are reported. The study examined how the realities of organizational culture and competing demands for limited resources, among many other factors, affect the potential for monitoring and evaluation practice. The article concludes that, in principle, monitoring and evaluation would enhance municipal planning activities. However, there are significant obstacles that must be addressed for them to be implemented effectively. The findings should interest planners who are considering introducing monitoring and evaluation processes in municipal planning departments.

Indicators and core area planning: applications in Canada's mid-sized cities

Urban core areas are complex places that present multiple challenges to planners. In many cities, core areas are stressed, and their viability is affected by changing retail trends, suburbanisation, and myriad social, environmental and economic forces. These areas are a source of concern to local politicians and community residents. There are calls for action, significant investments of public monies are made, and expectations of success are high. In this difficult context, planners responsible for core areas need a clear understanding of the forces at play, and of the impacts of their decisions. Monitoring and evaluation processes, supported by a foundation of indicators, can meet these needs. This paper explores indicator use when planning in core areas of Canada’s mid-sized cities. Mid-sized cities (50 000–500 000 population) have received little attention from the research community, which tends to focus on large metropolitan centres (Robertson, 1999). As a consequence, we know very little about planning practice in mid-sized cities. The evolution of indicators is reviewed, and the context for planning core areas in mid-sized cities is discussed. The paper then reports on findings from a survey of indicator use by planners responsible for core areas of mid-sized cities.

Roles of environmental movement organisations in land-use planning: case studies of the Niagara Escarpment and Oak Ridges Moraine, Ontario, Canada

The paper explores the roles of environmental movement organisations (EMOs) in land-use planning, including domain creation (establishment of new or modified landscape planning boundaries) and regime change (adoption of new or modified legal and planning rules). The research involved two case studies of land-use planning processes: the Niagara Escarpment and Oak Ridges Moraine, Ontario, Canada. The two cases together reveal an evolution of land-use planning towards collaborative processes on mainly private lands in Southern Ontario during the period from 1960 to 2002. The results suggest that EMOs can create new planning domains through agenda setting activities, build landscape value and vision, educate governments and the public, and work to maintain and alter regimes. Collaborative planning has emerged as an important process in which some EMOs are now participating.

Monitoring of indicators in local and regional planning practice: concepts and issues

Widespread public sector reform and the rapidly changing information economy have provided great impetus for increased monitoring in municipal and regional planning practice. The application of indicators or, more accurately, monitoring strategies which track indicators, has great potential to assist planning practice in many aspects of the planning endeavour. Regional and local planners take a communitywide perspective in their efforts to coordinate the various dimensions of social and economic life within the physical environment. Because of this comprehensive view, any attempt to monitor a community must address the difficult task of determining how to monitor its conditions and its changes. Unfortunately, there are no universal solutions to this challenge. Planners must respond to various critics and, accordingly, planning practices and outcomes can be monitored and evaluated in many different ways. Planning can be monitored internally, i.e. within the planning organisation or municipality, to assess its adherence to its own stated policy goals and objectives (e.g. plan conformance (Talen, 1997)) or to the performance standards of the organisation within which it operates (Jackson, 1988). External evaluators such as community groups, development industry participants or higher levels of government also may critique municipal planning in reference to broader community-wide goals such as sustainability (Maclaren, 1996, 2001) or performance standards such as municipal benchmarks (Kouzim et al., 1999). In their responses to both internal and external critics, planners need to consider a broad range of monitoring approaches. The development and application of indicators in monitoring has sky-rocketed during the past decade. A wide range of organisations and government agencies have explored and applied indicators to a variety of functions, providing abundant sources of experience and relevant models. However, the field of indicators is enormous; a simple internet search yields hundreds of indicator projects sites and thousands of potential indicators, covering all sectors of society, at various levels of analysis. Despite the widespread interest and application of monitoring indicators, literature regarding their application to regional and local urban planning practice is scant. Although several articles have addressed specific indicator types (e.g. sustainability (Maclaren, 1996; Cartwright, 2000; Briassoulis, 2001); performance (Houghton, 1997); waste (MacDonald, 1996); neighbourhood (Sawicki & Flynn, 1996)), none considers the planner’s difficult task of developing a comprehensive monitoring strategy from the vast array of concepts and models. This paper takes one step towards distilling the overwhelming mass of information on indicators into practical lessons for planning practice. An important starting point in this task is

Retrofitting a stormwater management facility with a wetland component

Abstract The City of Toronto has built a stormwater management system, the Etobicoke Stormwater Management Facility (ESWMF), along the Lake Ontario shoreline. The Facility represents an innovative stormwater management solution that integrates two previously separate water quality improvement technologies ‐stormwater wetlands and flow balancing systems. The facility, besides improving water quality, will provide aesthetic, recreational and educational benefits. A conceptual plan to retrofit a wetland component within the ESWMF using three wetland design options is presented. The application of this ecotechnology at other stormwater discharges along the Toronto waterfront is discussed. The paper concludes with a review of the policy implications.

Plan Evaluation: Challenges and Directions for Future Research

Abstract Plan evaluation is a well-established part of the planning canon. While this subject has received considerable attention from planning scholars in recent years, plan evaluation methods are not commonly used in practice. This paper examines the factors that contribute to the underuse of plan outcome evaluation in local government planning practice. The concept of evaluation is explained, and the relationship that exists between program evaluation and plan evaluation is explored.

Evaluation Theory and Practice: Comparing Program Evaluation and Evaluation in Planning:

This article reviews the major approaches of program evaluation and evaluation in planning. The challenges to evaluating plans and planning are discussed, including the reliance on ex ante evaluations, a lack of outcome evaluation methodologies, the attribution gap, and institutional hurdles. Areas requiring further research are also highlighted, including the need to develop appropriate evaluation methodologies; creating stronger linkages between program evaluation and evaluation in planning; examining the institutional and political contexts guiding the use (and misuse) of evaluation in practice; and the importance of training and educating planners on evaluation.

Effectiveness of Boundary Structures in Limiting Residential Encroachment into Urban Forests

Abstract Urban forests provide essential functions in support of human communities; however, studies indicate adjacent residential land uses degrade urban forests following development. The resulting impacts are known as encroachment. Local Ontario governments rely primarily on passive management, such as boundary structures (e.g. fences) to limit this degradation but do not know whether they are effective for limiting the area of the forest floor covered by these impacts. Transect and quadrat sampling of 40 forest edges adjacent to 186 residential properties were sampled in six Southern Ontario municipalities to determine impact frequency and area cover of encroachment. The results indicated some structures are effective in reducing the frequency and area cover of some encroachment behaviours. Other behaviours were not significantly reduced by any structural treatment. Furthermore, some behaviours were increased by structures. Substantial areas of encroachment continued to occur under even the most effective boundary treatments. The treatment most successful in reducing frequency and area was ungated fencing in combination with a mown grass strip. It was found to reduce the incidence of yard extensions and concentrate encroachments closest to forest edges.

Evaluation of planning and management approaches for limiting residential encroachment impacts within forest edges: A Southern Ontario case study

Studies increasingly document degradation and loss of publicly owned urban forest area following adjacent development due to residential encroachment. Little is known about prevailing approaches for limiting these impacts. Taking Southern Ontario as a case study, long interviews were conducted among Ontario planners, landscape architects, forest managers and bylaw officials within six Ontario municipalities to determine prevailing goals, tools, and strategies for addressing residential encroachment. Few municipalities had explicit goals, and none had objectives for addressing encroachment. Bylaws were the primary tools for addressing existing encroachments, but field studies indicated infrequent enforcement. Boundary-focused structures, such as fences, were the primary means of preventing encroachment; however, they were applied to a minority of forests with adjacent housing. None of the municipalities had a strategy for implementing their tools to protect targeted ecological, social or economic services provided by urban forests. Recommendations for improved approaches for managing residential encroachment impacts within forest edges are provided.

Planning Supported Housing A New Orientation in Housing for People with Serious Mental Illness

There is a new role for planning in housing for people with serious mental illness. It involves the development of partnerships and protocols between mental health agencies and housing providers. This new role is not concerned with zoning and mitigating not-in-my-backyard responses. Supported housing is the newest and most popular model of housing and support for people with serious mental illness. It involves affordable integrated housing paired with flexible individualized mental health support services. Focusing on the Canadian experience, the authors review where past research on housing for people with serious mental illness has taken us. Supported housing and the new roles that planners can play in implementing this model are discussed.