{"id":341221,"date":"2020-05-14T18:24:50","date_gmt":"2020-05-15T01:24:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/?post_type=arcuser&#038;p=341221"},"modified":"2020-06-01T17:58:24","modified_gmt":"2020-06-02T00:58:24","slug":"the-modern-role-of-gis-in-todays-planning-department","status":"publish","type":"arcuser","link":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/arcuser\/the-modern-role-of-gis-in-todays-planning-department","title":{"rendered":"The Modern Role of GIS in Today\u2019s Planning Department"},"author":1031,"featured_media":0,"menu_order":0,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"sync_status":"","episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","castos_file_data":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","itunes_episode_number":"","itunes_title":"","itunes_season_number":"","itunes_episode_type":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[401,25012],"tags":[451811,581,296542,351],"arcuser_issues":[445651],"class_list":["post-341221","arcuser","type-arcuser","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-government","category-managers-corner","tag-arcuser-spring-2020","tag-digital-transformation","tag-leadership","tag-planning","arcuser_issues-spring-2020"],"acf":{"short_description":"he most inspiring part of today\u2019s planning environment is that planners don\u2019t also have to be GIS professionals. \r\n","pdf":{"host_remotely":false,"file":"","file_url":""},"flexible_content":[{"acf_fc_layout":"pdf","file":341241},{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"In 1994, I started my career in GIS by working at a regional planning commission. I still think about it every time I work with planners, speak at a planning conference, or hold a workshop at the APA <em>[American Planning Association]<\/em>.\r\n\r\nThe concept I keep coming back to is how isolated GIS was from planning professionals. At the time, it required hefty investments in hardware, software, and training\u2014quite honestly at a level that didn\u2019t make sense for most planning professionals. They could more efficiently farm out their work to the GIS technician sitting in the back cubicle and teach him\/her about the right shade of yellow to use for single-family residential land use. (That was a fun lesson.)\r\n\r\nToday\u2019s planning department can\u2019t work like that. Technology and the expectations that go with it have changed exponentially. The most inspiring part of today\u2019s planning environment is that planners don\u2019t also have to be GIS professionals.\r\n\r\nThis bothers far too many GIS professionals who have been in this field a long time. They are unhappy they aren\u2019t the only ones who can leverage data science. It\u2019s an antiquated and unsustainable stance that will lead them to obsolescence in this field. That\u2019s not a theory. I\u2019ve seen it in real life more than a few times.\r\n\r\nOne of the things I learned while working in the planning field was how interconnected a planner\u2019s decisions were with other local and regional government departments. Even a rather simple subdivision review wasn\u2019t just signed off by yours truly. It required analysis and input from public works, parks, utilities, transportation, and sometimes public safety departments.\r\n\r\nThe evolution of Web GIS now means that planners can access the tools they need to design, analyze, and compare development scenarios before the first site plan enters the office. It means the legal requirements of public notification can be handled and recorded in-house. It means that the numerous stakeholders I mentioned, as well as local government administrators, have focused, secure apps to analyze and collaborate in this process. And all of this can occur without installing traditional desktop GIS software on the planner\u2019s desktop. It doesn\u2019t require weeks of training or a powerful machine to run, either.\r\n\r\nPlanning departments in local governments are increasingly being tasked with participating in resilience planning and economic development efforts in addition to their traditional roles of reviewing current planning projects and maintaining a long-range plan. This makes collaboration even more critical because more stakeholders are involved.\r\n\r\nWhether dealing with a variance, rezoning, or a complete update to the comprehensive plan, a planner has a story to tell. That\u2019s why I love ArcGIS StoryMaps. A planner can take a complex story and use story maps to make it visually appealing and relatable. This brings incredible value to the table. Instead of printing out dozens of pages that will likely never be read and putting them in a binder on a shelf, this easy web-based app can easily communicate the story to the public, administrators, developers, and the media.\r\n\r\nFinally, one of the more underrated benefits of Web GIS is the way it enables true citizen engagement\u2014a genuine partnership between citizens and their government. It meets modern expectations with modern technology. You can\u2019t tell the public anymore that the only way they can communicate with the planning department is to show up at the public hearing or make a call to the department.\r\n\r\nThe Web GIS pattern provides easy ways to generate purposeful open data centered around initiatives that matter to the public such as a downtown redevelopment project or a comprehensive plan update. It provides a way for residents to not only be notified, but to provide feedback through surveys, maps, and other apps. This pattern also provides a level of transparency for the planning department regarding its methodology by providing the data-driven approach behind decisions. I see the role and benefits of Web GIS in a smart system for planning from multiple perspectives: executive, planner, field staff, and the public.\r\n\r\nFor clarification, this doesn\u2019t mean that desktop GIS software is obsolete. It means just the opposite. It means that the content desktop GIS creates\u2014the data, analysis, models, and maps\u2014has a much wider audience than ever before. So, it\u2019s inspiring to learn how most planning students coming out of college programs have at least a nominal exposure to GIS in their curriculum.\r\n\r\nThis new pattern is not creating more work for planners. It\u2019s taking the workflows already in place and optimizing the way those workflows are completed. Moreover, these apps work together seamlessly. They are not a bunch of disparate apps that slow down overall processes.\r\n\r\nThis type of cohesive platform can foster an environment of collaboration between stakeholders and planners on initiatives\u2014something that planning departments have probably never really had before."}],"references":null},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v25.9 (Yoast SEO v25.9) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The Modern Role of GIS in Today\u2019s Planning Department<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Web GIS pattern provides easy ways to generate purposeful open data centered around initiatives that matter to the public such as a downtown redevelopment project or a comprehensive plan update. It provides a way for residents to not only be notified, but to provide feedback through surveys, maps, and other apps. 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