While many authors have written about what urban plans should contain and how they should be used, this comprehensive book leads you step by step through the entire plan preparation process.

Citing examples from across the country, Larz Anderson shows how to prepare, review, adopt, and implement urban plans. He explains how to identify public needs and desires, analyze existing problems and opportunities, and augment long-range general plans with short-range district and function plans.

Anderson presents these guidelines as tasks. For each task, he explains the rationale behind it, recommends a procedure for completing it, and identifies the expected results. Throughout, Anderson encourages improvisation — he urges planners to adapt the guidelines to meet local needs. Excerpts from recently adopted general plans illustrate Anderson's points and provide examples of variations even within his recommendations.

A related glossary gives comprehensive definitions to words that, though not technical, have meanings specific to the urban plan.