CAN PLANNERS TAKE THE LEADERSHIP IN LOCAL ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT?

There is an increasing demand for environmental leadership in the planning process. In collaborative planning models, planners have a distinct role as a bridge between citizens, politicians, and scientists. However, there is limited research evaluating the leadership role of planners in the process of creating high quality environmental plans for local jurisdictions. This study proposes and tests a conceptual model with measurable indicators of planners' use of leadership to facilitate the creation of plans that can benefit the environment. This paper examined two distinct roles for planners: as an information source and as a facilitator. The descriptive results suggest that planners are exercising limited environmental leadership in local land use planning. The explanatory results highlight that the key to improve planners' leadership abilities lies with increasing planning capacity. Several policy recommendations are provided to improve planner's use of leadership processes in environmental planning and management.