Planning also encourages public input , and is concerned with both providing a means for citizens to have a say in what is happening, typically through public hearings, and also to dispurse information to the community and about the community. In that way, it helps direct efforts toward resolving local problems. Through such information gathering and dispersal, planners encourage a community to think beyond specifics to more general issues of importance. Planners are also integral members of city government, and are instrumental in framing local codes and ordinances . By drafting master plans, zoning ordinances, capital improvement budgets and other regulations, they help in an important way to establish the rules by which a city lives.
Planning helps prevent wasteful expenditure of public and private funds .
Planning enables local governments to anticipate service demands and to plan, locate, and build public service facilities accordingly. Costly mistakes are thus eliminated or at least reduced. Planning helps to protect property values largely by controlling the impact of one land use on a different use on adjacent or nearby land. Planning contributes to economic development . It provides information and data to those considering investments in a community.