Columbia Star

1963        Celebrating 60 Years      2023

City of Columbia celebrates National Community Planning Month



The City of Columbia is celebrating National Community Planning Month this October. The City of Columbia prioritizes planning, working to improve our public space and parks, planning for preservation and sustainability, and helping formalize a vision for the future of our city and our communities. National Community Planning Month is a time to highlight the important role of planning in our communities. Planning can be summed up as comprehensive, and community-focused while enhancing choices. While many people may not realize it, planning has a significant impact on their day-to-day life. From where they live, to how they commute, to the type of home they live in, planning plays a vital role in a person’s life and well-being.

How to participate

Please follow the City of Columbia on social media to partake in the month-long celebration of planning. You can also learn more about the national celebration by visiting planning.org/ncpm/.

Why celebrate?

Planners help create communities of lasting value. Planning helps leverage public and private funds that lead to business growth, job creation, and economically resilient communities.

Planners are skilled at balancing the varied interests and viewpoints that emerge as a community plans its future. Planners consider what is best for the entire community— senior citizens, workers, children, people living with disabilities, business owners, and elected officials. How do they arrive at these community-wide decisions? Through conversations with residents and thoughtful outreach to community stakeholders.

Planners work for the greater good. Planners work with professionals from different fields such as public health, recreation, and engineering to make communities safer, stronger, and healthier. Planning does not stop at a geographic border. Communities are served best when planners take a broader viewpoint, encompassing regional and statewide perspectives.

Planners have the unique expertise to comprehensively address the impacts of today’s actions on tomorrow’s communities. Planners do not just focus on where to locate (or site) a building but also consider how that decision impacts the safety of the community, existing character of the community, environmental resiliency, and encourages social and economic diversity.

For more information about community planning efforts in Columbia, visit planninganddevelopment.columbiasc.gov/city-plans and www.columbiacompass.org or contact the Planning and Development Services Department, Planning Division at 803-545-3222.

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