Change comes to all communities. This change can take the form of growth or decline, but nonetheless, it will occur. The question is how communities deal with change. Planning is a process developed to prepare for change or to correct an existing problem deemed by the community to be undesirable. The lack of affordable housing, traffic congestion or where best to locate land uses such as parks, industry and so on are examples of both.
Planning is also a means of organizing complex communities. It serves a role in helping to coordinate the operations of infrastructure, schools, parks, housing commercial development and more. This process of deciding where land uses go and how they relate to each other allows communities to define there own direction and create the quality of life they envision.