ABSTRACT
Consensual group processes are playing a growing role in planning practice in the United States. Nowhere is this trend more evident than in the seven states that since 1985 have instituted statewide growth management programs. 1 These programs entail strategies to coordinate and redirect the actions of the many players whose decisions affect the location, patterns, and types of development, as well as to create patterns of growth that will limit infrastructure costs, provide for economic development and housing, protect natural resources, and improve the quality of community life. In all seven states, governors, state agencies, regional commissions, and legislatures have created group processes to handle many of the key planning tasks. Where no groups were formed to do certain tasks or where groups were poorly designed, implementation of growth management has faltered.
