Sample Questions for a

Professional Planning Exam


A. Features of the Radburn, NJ, plan include all of the following except:

  1. superblocks with central greens
  2. Separation of pedestrian and automobile movement
  3. Park as a backbone of the neighborhood
  4. Diagonal streets
  5. specialized roads for one use instead of for all uses

B. Ebenezer Howard is best known for the concept of self-sufficient towns with mixed economies which is called

  1. new towns
  2. garden cities
  3. Planned unit developments
  4. suburbs

C. The new town of Columbia, MD, has which of the following planned features?

  1. Rail commuter system
  2. Neighborhood clusters and prior land assembly
  3. Rail commuter system & prohibition of industry
  4. Neighborhood clusters, prior land assembly, & prohibition of industry

D. Assume that you are the director of a local planning agency, and that you recognize the interdependency of the chief executive, the planning agency, operating departments and independent boards and commissions. In a hypothetical situation, a proposed expansion of a county airport and adjacent industrial areas is in opposition to the planning agency's proposal for a regional park location. The planning agency believes there are unique circumstances and sound reasons for preferring the regional park proposal along with future relocation of the airport to another site in the county. Which of the following strategies would likely place you, as the planning director, in the least effective coordinating role in resolving the conflict?

  1. Attempting to have the planning agency solely responsible for additional studies and recommendations
  2. directing planning agency staff to discontinue all studies of this issue and direct all inquiries regarding this matter to the director
  3. Recommending the study control be given to the staff of the chief executive's office
  4. Soliciting support of other departments and agencies for the planning agency's regional park proposal.

E. In 1926, the US Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of comprehensive zoning in the case of

  1. Eubank v. City of Richmond
  2. Berman v. Parker
  3. Village of Euclid v. Ambler Realty
  4. Hadachek v. Sebastian

F. A budget which organizes the items in relation to the governmental objective in view is called

  1. PPB or program budget
  2. Performance budget
  3. Line-item budget
  4. Zero-based budget

G. What is the smallest geographic area for which the US Census Bureau publications show the median family income from the decennial census?

  1. enumeration district
  2. block face
  3. block
  4. census tract

The following changes have been proposed in the form of organization of planning departments in city government:

  1. Provide sufficient revenues from fees and earmarked taxes (such as a motel tax) so that the local or matching share of the operating budget could not be cut by City Council
  2. Make the planning commission responsible for hiring and firing the planning director (and setting the salary)
  3. Decentralize the offices of the planning commission so that the majority of the staff are physically located in the neighborhoods rather than downtown
  4. Make the planning director a mayoral appointment rather than hired by the planning commission.

H. Which of the above options would most likely to produce conflicts within the staff of the planning commission?

I. Which of the above options would most likely to cause the planning director to lose his/her job as a result of the election of new political leadership?

J. Which of the above options would most likely to generate a jealous reaction from other agencies within city government?

K. Disjointed incrementalism has been proposed as

  1. an alternative to synoptic rationality
  2. a way of getting additional information about a proposed project
  3. a scenario which envisions a series of actions by one actor in an interactive system
  4. all of the above

L. The distinctive planner contribution to a capital improvement program is

  1. the cumulative effects of all projects over time
  2. costs of construction
  3. financing other projects
  4. creating the initial list of potential projects

M. Which of the following has/ve been proposed as source(s) of justification for planner authority?

  1. part of the bureaucracy
  2. professional values
  3. expertise
  4. all of above

N. Transactive planning focuses on

  1. face-to-face dialogue
  2. resource allocation
  3. conflicts among bureaucrats
  4. transportation planning

O. Distortions in communication are the major concern of

  1. permissive planners
  2. critical theorists
  3. advocacy planners
  4. incrementalists

P. You are the planning director of a medium-size city in an urban county sharing common boundaries with the regional council of governments. The COG has announced it will incorporate a development moratorium in its draft advisory regional plan. Your department has been working with local county property owners to incorporate a part of the undeveloped land a the boundary of the city in order to create an intensive business park. As the city's chief land use administrator, you should first:

  1. resign in protest over the continued interference by the COG in local matters
  2. call your COG representative to discuss the implications that the regional body's proposal could have on your city's annexation and economic development plans
  3. call the local newspaper editor to denounce the COG's action and fix the blame for any loss of jobs with COG officials
  4. review the draft advisory plan and policies to determine if the proposed moratorium affects your city's intended action.
  5. pay no further attention as the regional COG's proposal is only advisory.

Q. As manager of neighborhood planning you have been vaulted into a major advisory role to the newly-elected Mayor even though you remained neutral during the election and your former boss, the Director of Community Development, was her opponent in the race. Her supporters are rapidly being appointed to key positions in the department and also surround the Mayor in various policy roles. Her Honor has no clear neighborhood policy but is publicly thought to have one, therefore most of her policy people also think one exists. It has been difficult for you to get your point across in staff meetings that what is needed is more attention to neighborhoods, not less, or even status quo. You are coming to the conclusion that this must mean there will be no support for neighborhood planning and projects at the levels you believe to be necessary, despite your division's previous state APA award-winning activities. Further, you continue to hear rumors that one of the Mayor's campaign workers openly covets your job and is expecting to be appointed to it soon. You have enjoyed much success as division manager and have had aspirations of becoming director of the department. After several weeks of consternation you have decided to

  1. quietly organize a number of "neighborhood receptions" for the Mayor put on by your supporters in various parts of town where your division's presence has been strong. This will give the Mayor a chance to see what you have done and the support neighborhood planning has in your town.
  2. hold your breath and your tongue so as not to "rock the boat" further, going about your job as if no major change has occurred.
  3. tender your resignation, explaining that the Mayor should have the discretion to choose her own division manager as this position is a key one in the carrying out of her policies for the next four years.
  4. ask the Deputy Mayor (the Mayor's former campaign manager who has taken a liking to you) to lunch to review your accomplishments, discuss policy development, and afterward try to assess where you stand with this administration.
  5. Arrange to meet with the Mayor alone, perhaps on the way to a meeting requiring both of you to attend. You probe her for her intentions toward neighborhood policy, what she wants to see accomplished, and who she wants to carry out her ideas.

R. As the new county planning director you have initiated the updating of the county comprehensive land use plan. You have decided to divide the county into planning districts so as to phase the assignment of your staff and to schedule the plan reviews with the planning commission and the County Commissioners. One area is essentially the "backwoods" of the county; it is known that folks in this area, although not organized, generally are anti-government and anti-regulation. This sentiment has been exacerbated by a recent dispute between a property owner and a building department inspector. You assume that if there is a turnout at the first area planning workshop, it will likely be hostile. Although you're committed to citizen participation, you believe there's little likelihood that a productive planning workshop will result. Therefore, you decide to

  1. tell your project planner of your concerns, wish her luck and point her towards the door.
  2. cancel the meeting and direct the staff to develop the area's plan in-house to avoid any unpleasant confrontation.
  3. call the editor of the paper, tell him of the need to get the word out about how pressing the problems are in that area and how planning will help alleviate them.
  4. enlist the aid of the county Commissioner form that area to get the names of people likely to be supportive of the planning effort. Meet with them to enlist their participation.
  5. due to the recent building department dispute, reschedule the area for a later place on the schedule in hopes that the anti-government sentiment will die down.

S. The first "comprehensive plan" adopted in the United States was in 1925 in

  1. New York City
  2. Cincinnati, OH
  3. Philadelphia, PA
  4. Boston, MA
  5. Chicago, IL

T. The American Greenbelt towns were built in the 1930s by

  1. the City Housing Corporation
  2. the Resettlement Administration of the US Department of Agriculture
  3. the US Department of Housing and Urban Development
  4. the PWA Housing Division