Good planning provides private landowners and developers with information about where and what type of development the community will allow. With good information, private actors can adequately assess the costs and benefits associated with selling or developing land in certain ways. Good planning also provides a standard process by which development proposals are accepted or rejected. This standardization increases the consistency and the fairness of the development process. Treating private actors fairly also serves to enhance the public good.
Planning saves money.
As mentioned earlier, communities can save money by good planning. Not only can planning prevent the expenditure of public resources on unneeded facilities, it can help to organize new growth in more financially efficient ways. It is less expensive for a local community to provide public services to an orderly and phased pattern of development than it is to provide those services to scattered low density development. Saving money in an era of tight budgets serves the public good in several ways. Two are especially important.