Democratic debates in land use planning and decision-making: A case study of public participation in Wisconsin.

摘要

This thesis explores the use of public participation in land use planning and decision-making as a potential way to alleviate and/or avoid the conflicts that have hindered efforts to protect environmental resources in this country. It draws on an interdisciplinary theoretical literature in order to understand the issues at hand. Despite centuries of debate in democratic theory about the use of public participation, fundamental questions remain open to discussion. Although other bodies of literature, such as dispute resolution and procedural justice, help to provide a more comprehensive picture of public participation, they also reveal additional questions. This research addresses some of these uncertainties, including questions of who participates and why, how communication in participatory planning takes place, and what are the outcomes of participation.;Using a comparative case study approach, I examine a recent initiative by the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR) to include local communities in developing a plan for protecting both state lands and productive farms. This initiative took place in two pilot areas in two different parts of the state. From DNR's perspective, the success of the proposal hinged entirely on consensual acceptance at the local level. While the agency ultimately decided that there was insufficient local support to proceed with its plan, the process itself revealed important insights into public participation.;The conclusions drawn from this research emphasize the importance of context in understanding and coordinating public participation efforts and in anticipating their likelihood of success. Factors such as the history of an agency's activities in an area and the level of trust people in the area have in that agency prove to be extremely influential in the way participatory processes unfold. Other key factors include the degree of controversy concerning the proposal is question and the extent to which people in an area are accustomed to and prepared for participating in a planning and decision-making process. Future efforts to include public participation in planning and decision-making should consider these contextual factors in order to design more effective processes. To this end, a template that incorporates these factors is presented.