ABSTRACT
Oak Ridge, Tennessee, is not a typical American city. It was secretly created by the United States Army during World War II on a remote site 25 miles west of Knoxville. Using TVA power, Oak Ridge provided the refined uranium for the atomic bombs of the Manhattan Project. Forty years later, Oak Ridge was no longer an Army camp of 75,000, but an incorporated city of 28,000. Martin Marietta's executives, and those of other national corporations with branches in Oak Ridge, were enthusiastic about the concept of strategic planning. The assistant city manager was assigned responsibility to design and implement a master planning effort for the community. In March 1984, a proposal to develop a comprehensive plan was presented to the city council as part of the city manager's proposed budget. The city staff initially envisioned that the desired integration of long-range planning and existing administrative and budgetary processes could be accomplished with minimal outside assistance from planning consultants.
