Designerly Argumentation in Boulder, Colorado.

This paper argues that postmodern planning favours increasing informalization of traditional controls over land use and building whereby planning and design strategies are reconstructed and reinterpreted by means of a high level of communication among the stakeholders. In such an environment, significant issues are the integration of planning and design, the effectiveness of communication, and the role of designerly argumentation in development review. This study looks at the city of Boulder, Colorado, where the worldview and the emergent review processes show the dominant characteristics associated with postmodernity. The administrative structure of development review in Boulder, Colorado is discussed and the interaction that takes place in the review processes is analysed. The level of discretion used by the parties, the nature of the communication, the role of middle-scale plans, and the level of design argumentation are described. Finally, problems expressed by the reviewers and new strategies that are currently being tested are considered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]