Creating a future city vision

The world is rapidly changing. Massive disruptions are occurring as a result of COVID-19; climate change, technological advancements, and growing inequality. With rising uncertainty, the task of long-term planning is becoming more intimidating and complex. Many cities recognise the value of creating a shared long-term vision to bring communities together, generate creative responses to challenges, and harness finite resources towards shared goals.

It is accepted practice in democratic societies that a community inspired city vision has more support and a much longer life span than a top-down government introduced plan. The most outstanding examples have incorporated innovative and strategic community and stakeholder engagement, and engaged directly with broader shared community values.

This article provides a contemporary resource for government planners who are contemplating or commencing the preparation of a city vision or plan.

We reviewed over 30 plans and interviewed people responsible for delivering them around the world in order to investigate what a successful city plan looks like and how they come together.

What does a successful plan do well?

The following ‘success factors’ have been drawn from our research. They represent intersecting practices of ideology and methodology.

Importantly, the ‘pre work’ that was undertaken by the good practice examples set the scene for the mature conversations that needed to occur as part of the development of the city plan itself. This was frequently underpinned by a commitment to a collaborative approach to project ownership.

While there was frequently an identified project lead organisation, there was also an identified egalitarian ethos to ownership that underpinned the successful models that we reviewed. In many cases, this ethos was translated into agreed governance practices that provided a framework for a collaborative approach that continued through to the implementation of the plan.

Key findings

The preparation of the plan is as important as the plan itself

The development of a city plan can initially present as an irrelevant activity for the general community. It is important to translate the need for a long-term vision or plan into topics that connect to community values and aspirations. The preparation of a plan takes considerable resources and commitment. It provides a unique opportunity to hold a meaningful conversation about the city that people want.

The importance of both the process and the outcomes was a key finding of a comprehensive review of City Plans published in 2015:

'The research highlights that the value of constructing the vision for a future city is two-fold, one at the process level and one at the outcome level. At the process level the research presents the visioning exercise - and the resulting vision - as a participatory dialogue about the future city that will contribute to the planet and the people being well ... At the outcome level... for a future vision to be transformative, it should not be defined in terms of projects, budgets or foresighted trends or indicators but as a conceptual characterisation of a city where its people can live and be well' [1]

Harnessing the enthusiasm of key partners to send united messages to a broad audience, and linking these messages to key drivers was essential to spark community curiosity and obtain eventual buy-in. Establishing and maintaining these strategic partnerships from the outset and for the duration of the plan proved to be a key strength.

Don't worry about not having the answers - focus on the purpose

Being transparent about not knowing exactly what the future will hold - but being open to what it might be - creates an open and inviting way to start the conversation. Drawing on current research into existing context and community issues makes practical sense and assists in identifying key stakeholders and potential collaborators.

Building from this to ground the city plan with a well-articulated community vision is essential. Establishing a commonly held ‘desired future state’ provides a safety net for the city plan conversations by harnessing aspirations and promoting a sense of collectivism.

Good examples emerged of city vision and plan development linked to both objective and subjective success measures. Balancing the high-level aspirational thinking, with a more pragmatic approach to city plan implementation, and linking it to and referencing it in other corporate strategies such as community, industry, and business plans, is important to ensure that a city plan does not become a redundant document.

Tailor your approach

There isn’t one solution or ‘right’ approach – it must be tailored to your community and place in response to the issues and key drivers which need to be defined with the community.

Each community has its own culture, conditions, and set of shared values. Knowing your community, who people are (ages, background etc.), where they live (a community within a community for example), and how they congregate and like to receive information are all key factors in developing a city plan.

Information and messages may need to be tailored for specific communities in response to their most pressing needs and issues. A comprehensive community engagement plan will help to guide the approach to framing the conversations with the community. It will also provide clarity of expectations early on and build confidence in the project by being clear about the community’s role and level of influence in shaping the city plan.

Establish trust by being clear about what you are promising and accepting that it will take time

Be clear about the level of influence that the community and stakeholders have. Those cities that generated a high uptake of community involvement could demonstrate the ‘promise’ for how their contributions would influence the process, and for how their input would help to shape the final result.

A large-scale complex project, like the development of a city vision and plan, justifies a thorough and comprehensive approach to its development. Obtaining consensus, so that the plan is accepted, honoured, and has longevity, requires conscious and deliberate efforts to ensure its success.

Realistic timelines are needed to allow this to happen. This allows for relationships to be developed, for trust to be established, and space for competing interests at the outset of a process to be overcome through a process of discussion, dialogue, and deliberation. The sifting and filtering of ideas and priorities that many cities went through frequently required expert facilitation and the identification of resources to support the dialogue and to broker negotiation and agreement.

An established consensus approach will infiltrate both the decision makers and the broader community and build faith in the plan’s integrity, and the opportunities it can deliver.

Make it interesting and imaginative

In order to capture the imagination of the community in developing a city plan, the research identified countless examples of innovation. These ranged from the development of board games to stimulate creative thinking to help solve an affordable housing problem, to collaborations with the technology and arts sectors to develop role playing and virtual reality models that facilitated ‘out of the box’ thoughts and responses.

Use positive language: the underpinning ideology in all case studies was that, in co-creating our future, we are seeking the best possible and the most soulful outcomes. This approach was attractive and motivating.

Make sure it's focused on the issues that matter to the community

The range of plans that we reviewed were addressing a wide variety of issues - global and local challenges that would affect each city's future. Keeping the plan connected to the issues that people care about is the best way to creating an inclusive and meaningful document. Many of the challenges that we face in planning city futures are not new – they are shared by other cities, communities, and organisations.

An extraordinary amount of resources has been spent through the preparation of city plans across Australia and the world over the past decade. It is hard to know where to start looking. Listed below are 15 of the best examples that we found. For each plan we’ve highlighted what is its strength and the key issues that it is focused on addressing - these are summarised in the key.

Do you have other great examples?

Email us and let us know what you think the plan's strength is and a summary of the issues that it addresses. We will update the library below with your recommendations.

Brisbane's Future Blueprint

Bristol One City Plan

Co-create Copenhagen

Christchurch Central Recovery Plan

Detroit Future City Plan

Dublin 2050

The Game of (Freo) Life

Hobart: A Community Vision

Logan City Futures Strategy

Newcastle 2030

OneNYC 2050

Playford Community Vision 2043

Reading Vision 2050

Reykjavik Municipal Plan 2010 - 2030