Citizen Input and Professional Responsibility

Abstract

Input to planning desicions comes from many sources, including public meetings and citizen opinion surveys. Often data from such sources are in conflict with each other as well as at odds with professional recommendations, and planners and public officials must evaluate the veracity of dif ferent inputs. This article illustrates how citizen input can vary depending upon the method used to obtain it, discusses the reasons for these differences, and sug gests factors that must be considered when using citizen input in practice and when educating planning students. The article holds that planners have an obliga tion to face up to tough, possibly unpop ular planning decisions that cannot be derived by averaging out citizen opinion.