Policy, Director's Order, and Program Standards for Park Planning

What follows is a draft revision of the National Park Service’s park planning policy and guideline. This guidance will replace the park planning policies included in the National Park Service Management Policies (1988) and the Planning Process Guideline (NPS-2, 1982). The revised guidance, organized as Policy, Director’s Order, and Program Standards, is intended to provide the information needed by park superintendents and managers throughout the National Park Service to direct effective and efficient park planning in cooperation with the public and our partners. More detailed information about specific procedures, techniques, and tools will be compiled in a separate source book for planning practitioners.

This draft was developed over the past year in close consultation with an advisory group of park superintendents and program managers representing natural and cultural resource management and visitor services as well as NPS strategic planning and park planning. The draft is now being circulated for concurrent review within the National Park Service and by the public. Comments will be accepted until August 15, 1997. These comments will be addressed in the final policy, director’s order, and program standards scheduled for approval by September 30, 1997.

Background

Since 1982, when the current guideline was published, we have experienced substantial changes in how park resources are managed, how visitors experience parks, how parks relate to adjacent lands, how the National Park Service is organized, and how programs and projects are funded. The new draft policy, director’s order, and program standards reflect particularly the influences of

• The Government Performance and Results Act, enacted in 1993, requiring agencies to be accountable for program performance and results
• Restructuring of the National Park Service in 1994 to empower employees, broaden the base of agency decision making, enhance partnerships, manage resources as parts of ecosystems and cultural contexts, and eliminate layers of review and oversight
• A new program strategy for park planning, developed in 1994 by park managers, planning professionals, and experts from outside the NPS, focusing on the need (1) to more actively consider the parks as parts of larger ecosystems, cultural contexts, and socioeconomic regions, and (2) to better support an ongoing, interactive, decentralized process of long-term and short-term decision making
• A reinvention laboratory in the Denver Service Center that recommended improved business processes, especially separation of the resource planning and facility development lines of work
• Government-wide direction to reduce the quantity of internal rules and regulations

The planning practices described in the revised draft have been evolving over the past 15 years and reflect ideas being developed and tested by NPS, other federal land managing agencies, states, local governments, and the private sector.

Major Changes

The revised draft policy, director’s order, and program standards consolidate more than 190 pages of guidelines for the park planning process that have been issued since 1982. Compared to the revised draft now on review, the previous NPS-2 was more of a planning product outline with relatively detailed requirements for formats and review procedures. The revised draft shows how various elements of NPS planning and management interrelate and provides general standards to be met, while allowing greater flexibility for planners and managers in how they meet those standards. The revised guidance emphasizes that the outcome of planning is a not just a written document, but a shared understanding of why the park was established, what conditions for resources and visitor experience are desirable, and how those conditions might be achieved.

The revised guidance provides a starting point for achieving those results. Park planning projects and practices are also strongly influenced by past experience with planning in the National Park Service, relationships with other programs, interpretations of legal requirements including the National Environmental Policy Act and National Historic Preservation Act, and how funds are allocated and managed. Implementation of the new policy and guidance will require cooperation among many different programs and functions in the field.

The major changes compared to the NPS-2 guideline approved in 1982 include

• Better integration of planning and management: Describes planning as a dynamic and continuous decision-making process integral to management rather than an "event" to take place every 10-15 years.
• Broader scope of guidance: Provides general direction for all types of planning, emphasizing linkages among general management planning, strategic planning, implementation planning, and annual performance planning. Linkages are described in an effort to avoid duplicative efforts and potential inconsistencies.
• Greater emphasis on linkages: Illustrates how different types of plans and decisions are integrated, and how broad visions for future conditions should be linked to decisions about allocation of funds and staff.
• Improved management flexibility: Envisions general management plans that provide a rationale for future decisions without preempting management initiative and ability to respond to changing conditions. Within the planning and decision-making framework managers have flexibility within clearly defined limits of agreement about the park’s mission and the desired resource conditions and visitor experiences to be created and maintained.
• More timely decision making: Defers detailed implementation planning until action is likely in the near future, thus reducing the likelihood that implementation plans become out of date before they are used.
• Streamlined processes and documents: Defines the minimum legal and policy requirements for each of the four basic planning processes. New requirements for park strategic plans and annual performance plans and reports (needed to implement GPRA) are offset by dropping requirements for duplicative documents including statements for management and outlines of planning requirements.

Foreword

Why the National Park Service Plans

NPS Park Planning Policy

Director's Order #2: Park Planning

Comments

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