Which U.S. city has best planners?

Which city in the country has the best planning department?
I’m on the e-mail list for a group of planners-architects-landscape architects-nonprofit activists and journalists who’ve all taken part, as I did in 2005-06, in the Knight Program in Community Building at the University of Miami. A question went out recently to the group:

  • Which mid-sized to large cities have the best planning departments in the country?

I was interested in the dozen or so responses that came in. They went about like this:

  • “Nashville?”
  • “Denver?”
  • “Rick Bernhardt Nashville” [That was from a Tennessee developer. Bernhardt is Nashville’s planning director.]
  • “Montgomery, Ala.” [From the same developer. He had a lovely quote at the end of his e-mail, which is worth repeating here: “Every increment of construction should be done in such a way as to heal the city.” — from Christopher Alexander, architect and author. ]
  • “I think Portland, Oregon, probably belongs on this list.”
  • “Portland has done some great things. … A list of other forward thinking departments should include Fayetteville, Arkansas.”
  • “Now that Harriet Tregoning is heading the DC Planning Department, that could very well join the list.”
  • “One would hope Milwaukee qualifies, having had John Norquist as mayor and Peter Park (now in Denver) as head of planning.”
  • “The cities of West Palm Beach and Stuart, Fla., might be worth looking into.”

There you have it. Totally unscientific and based as much on reputation as on reality, but interesting nonetheless. Any planner-types out there care to second the above opinions, or disagree, or brag on their own cities?