ABSTRACT
Community-level planning plays an important role in shaping the physical and social identities of towns and cities. One method of community-level planning, known as community strategic visioning, is a deliberative process that brings diverse interests together into a common conversation about the future of the community (Walzer, 1996b). Using collaborative planning and consensus building techniques, community strategic visioning can result in a common vision for the community and energize stakeholders engaged in the process to implement changes that will make the vision a reality (Innes, 1996; Klein, 1993). As most planners who have led such visioning processes can attest, the intensity of public participation in these processes often falls far short of planners’ goals. However, there are also examples of successes in community strategic visioning processes. What determines whether a community strategic visioning process succeeds or fails?
