Reflecting the author's many years of experience as a working planner, this volume focuses on public planning at the state, metropolitan, and particularly, the local level. Throughout, John M. Levy emphasizes politics, economics, ideology, law and the question of who benefits and who loses by particular decisions.

The first half of the book presents a history of planning, the legal basis and political setting of planning, some of the social issues in planning, and the basics of land use controls and comprehensive planning.

The second section contains chapters on various fields of planning - urban design, capital facilities planning, urban renewal and community development, transportation planning, economic development planning, growth management planning, environmental planning, and planning for metropolitan regions. The book concludes with a chapter on national planning and a chapter on planning theory.