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

Abstract

By making local government more visible, could well-designed rezoning notification signs encourage engagement with development processes? This thesis is a comparative study of posted public notice for rezoning actions in twenty US cities. It investigates the public notice sign as a designed artefact and communicating device through the survey of municipal codes and planning practice, situating that work within the legal context of due process as well as the theoretical frameworks of open government and civic technology. Leveraging existing scholarship regarding public notice more broadly defined, this thesis develops a three-pronged framework for discussing the efficacy and impact of the posted public notice within the context of planning consisting of design evaluation, process evaluation and outcome evaluation.