Effective public participation in the formulation of plans for designing or altering the local environment requires local citizens to have an understanding of the physical setting and spatial relationships within the area in which proposed development is to take place. The method of plan presentation is vital to the achievement of the objectives of public planning participation. The presentation of plan information succeeds to the extent that it permits the local citizens to visualize how a proposed development fits into the existing physical setting with which they are, by experience, quite familiar. The most widely used visualization tool is the planning map. The purpose of the research reported herein is to create and test the relative communication efficiency of two alternative planning map designs.
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