Public Participation Process in Urban Planning : Evaluation Approaches of Fairness and Effectiveness Criteria of Planning Advisory Committees

This book critically examines the public participation processes in urban planning and development by evaluating the operations of Planning Advisory Committees (PACs) through two meta-criteria of fairness and effectiveness.

Traditional models of public participation in planning have long been criticized for separating planners from the public. This book proposes a novel conceptual model to address the gaps in existing practices in order to encourage greater public involvement in planning decisions and policymaking. It assesses the application of the evaluative framework for PACs as a new approach to public participation evaluation in urban planning. With a case study focused on the PACs in Inner City area of Canberra, Australia, the book offers a conceptual framework for evaluating fairness and effectiveness of the public participation processes that can also be extended to other countries such as the United States, the United Kingdom, New Zealand, Canada, Scandinavian countries, the European Union, and some Asian countries such as India.

Offering valuable insights on how operational processes of PACs can be re-configured, this book will be a useful guide for students and academics of planning and public policy analysis, as well as the planning professionals in both developed and developing countries.

Kamal Uddin, a Town Planner by profession, has been working in academia and the public and private sectors for more than 20 years in Australia, Bangladesh and Thailand. His interests are in line with the broader traditional forms of town planning, urban design, strategic management, community consultation and environmental design.

Bhuiyan Monwar Alam is a professor in the Department of Geography and Planning at the University of Toledo, Ohio, USA. He has 30 years of work experience in Bangladesh, Thailand and the United States. His major research interests are in transportation planning and environmental planning.