making change legible: public notices and the visual communication of planning in the U.S.

This thesis is a comparative study of public notice of rezoning actions in twenty US cities. It investigates the posted notice sign as a communicating device and interface through the study of municipal codes and planning practice. It situates that work within theoretical and practical frameworks of visual communication and civic technology, ultimately asking if in making local government more visible, could well-designed zoning signs encourage engagement with the development process, potentially strengthening sense of ownership over place?

There exists no survey of planning public notice signs in the literature, so the intent of this thesis is to both build a descriptive catalog that can be useful to planning practioners as well as develop a framework with which to assess the design and materiality of the posted notice sign and notice process.  Twenty cases were selected using the US Census data from 2018 regarding number of residential permits, which was used in order to select municipalities experiencing more contentious development processes. Both actual and per capita figures were used in order to capture cases that ranged in population size and planning department capacity, and states were represented at maximum twice to ensure geographic diversity.

It takes as its focus re-zoning and map amendments, and builds a catalog of public notice processes for these twenty cases. For each city, legal text concerning the notice requirement for rezoning is collected from the municipal code, zoning ordinances, and state code and serves as input for a matrix of criteria (for example: if a sign is required, how many are required, for how long, if there is specified information to be included, material requirements etc.). The rezoning process and the actors involved are then diagrammed, highlighting the role of notice and hearings. Sample rezoning applications are included and associated fees noted.