Why Cities Need Strategic Planning

Strategic planning is concerned with the formulation and evaluation of urban development policies and the mechanisms put in place in for implementing those policies, whilst strategic planning in urban development is generally referred to as a process that allows the articulation of the initiatives of public and private stakeholders which seek synergies for the development of a city (Steinberg, 2003). The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of strategic planning for government administration and discuss the importance of strategic planning in cities. Strategic plans are typically long term plans that consider different scenarios in order to test assumption, set specific goals, investigate strengths and examine weaknesses. Derived those functions, it will be argued that cities need strategic planning because it is a helpful tool for building consensus on future urban model, an effective mechanism to administer land development as well as an important instrument to promote progressive forms of governance.

The concept of strategic planning is treated differently by urban planners and a researcher in history is because it was not originally intended to be used in urban development. As it will be evident throughout this paper strategic planning are regularly used in the private business sector, whereby businesses will use strategic planning for dealing complex and ongoing process of organizational change. Even when strategic planning did begin to be adopted in urban planning it received mix remarks because it was very different to conventional planning in that "conventional planning tends to be oriented toward looking at problems based on current understanding, or an inside-out mind set. Strategic planning requires an unde...

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