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  - process of planning for the improvement of urban centers in order to provide

healthy and safe living conditions, efficient transport and communication, adequate public
facilities, and aesthetic surroundings. Planning that also includes outlying communities and
highways is termed regional planning.


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Many ancient cities were built from definite plans. The fundamental feature of the plans of
Babylon, Nineveh, and the cities of ancient Greece and of China was a geographical pattern
of main streets running north and south and east and west, with a public square or forum in
the center. Such a gridiron plan was used in the ancient Peruvian city ofChan Chan. It was
also followed by the Romans, as in Lincoln and Chester in England; in all their towns the
Romans emphasized drainage and water supply and practiced zoning. In medieval cities, built
with military security in mind, the only relief from the extremely narrow streets was the space
formed by municipal and church squares. The living conditions of the poorer citizens were
given little attention.

With the Renaissance came the truly monumental views²wide avenues and long approaches
creating vistas of handsome buildings. The new aim is seen first in special sections of a city,
such as Michelangelo's grouping on the Capitoline at Rome and Bernini's piazza of St.
Peter's. In most European cities through the 17th and 18th cent. there was fragmentary
replanning of medieval streets. After the fire of 1666 in London, Sir
Christopher Wren devised a superb plan for a complete rebuilding of the city, but the plan
unfortunately was not carried out. In the 18th cent., Mannheim and Karlsruhe, Germany,
were laid out geometrically; Emmanuel Héré planned Nancy, France; John Wood produced
grand architectural streets and squares at Bath; and the new part of Edinburgh was laid out. In
the early 19th cent. John Nash planned certain sections of London; central Vienna was
improved; and Baron Haussmann remodeled Paris to produce the celebrated boulevard
system with its spokes-and-hub design.

Legislation that enabled cities to make and carry out planning designs was enacted earlier in
Europe than in the United States. Such laws were passed in Italy in 1865, in Sweden in 1874,
and in Prussia and Great Britain in 1875. Planning in Great Britain was especially concerned
with slum elimination; its greatest exponent was Sir PatrickGeddes. At the turn of the century
Sir Ebenezer Howard was the founder of the modern garden city movement. The first
English garden city, Letchworth, was begun in 1903.

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In the United States, early New England towns, formally disposed along wide elm-lined
central roadways or commons, exhibit a conscious planning. Annapolis, Md., Philadelphia,
and Paterson, N.J., were built after plans; but the most celebrated example is the city of
Washington D.C., laid out according to the plan devised (1791) by Pierre Charles L'Enfant,
under the supervision of George Washington and Thomas Jefferson²a rectangular plan with
diagonal main thoroughfares superimposed and the Capitol as the central feature.

In the 19th cent. Frederick Law Olmsted was a pioneer in city planning, especially in
developing parks. State legislation enabling cities to appoint planning commissions and in
some cases giving them authority to carry out the plans began in Pennsylvania in 1891. The
work of Daniel Hudson Burnham for the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago, 1893,
was a stimulus to city planning, and Burnham, with Edward Bennett, drew up a plan for
Chicago, much of which was put into execution. In 1901 a commission composed of
Burnham, Charles Follen McKim, and Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr., devised a scheme for the
modern development and beautification of Washington, D.C., adhering to L'Enfant's original
plan as a basis for all new operations.

A wide influence on planning in U.S. cities was exerted by the zoning laws adopted in New
York City in 1916, which controlled the uses of each district in the city and regulated the
areas and heights of buildings in relation to street width. The important Regional Survey of
New York and Environs, completed in 1929, took into consideration legal and social factors
as well as internal transit problems and various modes of approach to the metropolitan area.

Governmental efforts to provide employment during the depression of the 1930s led to the
building (under the Federal Resettlement Administration) of three experimental model
communities²Greenbelt, Md., Greendale, Wis., and Greenhills, Ohio. Among the many
subsequent planned communities built by private developers are Columbia, Md., and Reston,
Va. The increase of traffic and crowding together of tall buildings have crippled the street
plans of many cities²especially U.S. cities that have been handicapped by their rectangular
or checkerboard layouts.

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In the larger U.S. cities, physical deterioration, crowding, and complex socioeconomic factors
have produced vast slums. Most urban renewal programs of the mid-20th cent. were aimed at
clearing these slums through the demolition of decayed buildings and the construction of
low-income and middle-income housing projects. It was found, however, that the mere
replacement of old buildings with new structures did not eliminate slum conditions.

In contrast to traditional planning, which concentrated on improving the physical aspects of

buildings and streets, modern city planning is increasingly concerned with the social and
economic aspects of city living. The process of city planning is a highly complex, step-by-
step procedure, usually involving a series of surveys and studies, development of a land-use
plan and transportation plan, preparation of a budget, and approval of a unified master plan
by various agencies or legislative bodies. City planners are usually part of an urban planning
board or governmental agency that must take into account the characteristics and long-range
welfare of the people of a particular urban community²their employment opportunities,
income levels, need for transportation, schools, shopping areas, hospitals, parks and
recreational facilities. They must face the problems of traffic, congestion, and pollution; they
must also consider the availability of police, fire, and sanitation services, the limitations
posed by zoning and other regulations, and the problems of funding. In recent years, residents
of many communities have demanded greater participation in the planning of their own
neighborhoods, and some planners have worked closely with community groups during
various stages of the planning process.