Urban planning shapes our cities, influencing everything from housing and businesses to the aesthetics of our communities. As cities evolve, planning departments must ensure that new developments meet current needs and support future goals. This is where electronic plan review steps in, streamlining workflows and supporting collaboration across departments to keep urban planning efficient and aligned with the broader vision for a city.
We take a look at how planners can effectively tackle the challenges of today’s urban planning — from rapid growth and vacant commercial spaces, to foster healthy, sustainable communities.
At its core, urban planning manages land use to benefit the community, part of this responsibility means planning departments review proposals for new developments before construction begins. As Christine Brakefield, former professional planner and Director of Partner Mangement and Enablement at Avolve Software, explained, "There's a formal review process that happens where it goes before planning, fire, parks, engineering, and more. Planning involves many more stakeholders than building, because they're looking at the whole impact of the project."
Planners ensure developments comply with regulations and zoning laws while supporting the city's long-term vision. "Planners are responsible for this long-range vision, whether it's for new developments or revitalizing older areas to make them more pedestrian-friendly," Brakefield added.
Today's urban planners face a host of challenges. Some regions grapple with rapid growth and infrastructure strain, while others confront shrinking populations and vacant commercial spaces — particularly in downtown areas affected by remote work trends in the post-pandemic world.
Local agencies often struggle with inefficient processes and chronic staffing shortages. Other headaches include convoluted application processes that result in the need for multiple resubmittals, chasing citizens to get the right file type submitted, and managing the plan review process between internal and external stakeholders.
Simultaneously, urban planning professionals are trying to navigate the demands of answering to City Hall, while ensuring a smooth citizen experience for those interfacing with the local government. All of which is to say, they are contending with a lot.
Electronic plan (ePlan) review solutions help planning departments navigate these various complexities. When developers submit proposals, ePlan review allows staff to dive into detailed documents more efficiently, as tools like text-based markup, drawing overlays, and search functions simplify review and ensure proposals meet required standards.
"Pre-development meetings involve developers submitting applications with preliminary plans — like proposed subdivision plans or design documents. Planners review these documents before meetings and provide input based on development standards and long-range plans,” Brakefield noted. “The electronic plan review system helps them to manage and review these documents, making the process significantly more efficient,” she added.
The ability to seamlessly facilitate collaboration is another of ePlan review’s key strengths for city planners. Urban planning requires input from multiple departments, including public works, engineering, fire, parks and recreation, and economic development. An ePlan review solution enables seamless communication between these stakeholders, allowing them to share digital plans and gather real-time feedback. This not only shaves valuable time off the review process but also ensures development proposals are thoroughly reviewed and signed off on by all necessary teams.
As cities evolve, strategic urban planning becomes even more crucial. Planning departments are tasked with creating long-term visions for healthy, sustainable communities — this includes promoting green infrastructure and designing communities with public health in mind as the climate continues to change.
Electronic plan review plays a vital role in bringing these visions to life. By streamlining the review process, it allows planners to focus more on creative and strategic elements of their work, developing spaces that meet current needs and anticipate future challenges.
By enhancing collaboration, information sharing, and regulatory compliance, electronic plan review supports the development of efficient, sustainable, and future-facing cities. As planning departments continue to face complex challenges, these systems will be essential in ensuring our urban spaces remain vibrant, healthy, and resilient.