Community Planning

Technical assistance, research and strategic collaboration to create livable neighborhoods

The Pratt Center works with community organizations in all five boroughs that seek to influence the shape of the local built environment and helps develop strategies for preserving and creating affordable housing, decent schools, desirable retail, accessible open space, and authentic neighborhood character.

We help build consensus in diverse communities, and collaborate with residents, business owners, and other stakeholders to identify their needs and the tools--including zoning, historic preservation and economic investment--that will help them build the neighborhood they want to see.

Our community planning work involves a delicate balance. We must make sure that neighborhoods remain or become livable. Communities and their spaces must be strengthened and preserved, rather than displaced. But ultimately neighborhoods need development in order to provide housing, economic opportunity and much more. The Pratt Center advises groups on how to build livable, affordable, and sustainable neighborhoods.

Pratt Center's Community Planning services include:

Visioning

We facilitate a process in which communities identify their needs and workable strategies for addressing them through the urban planning process.

Education

Pratt Center staff hold workshops, testify at hearings, and speak at other public events to inform local groups and officials about challenges and opportunities confronting their neighborhoods.

Research

Planners collect data and generate reports, presentations, and maps to document neighborhood needs.

Community Plans

We provide recommendations for action and support advocacy efforts to advance them.