Planners as Researchers: Can a Community Science Approach Benefit Planning Research and Practice?

Community science involves volunteers in research to democratize it and increase its relevance, scope, and impact. In this study, we use a community science research project that evaluated equity in local comprehensive plans to test whether a community science approach provided the purported benefits for researchers and practitioners. We found that although initial quality from volunteered data was lower, we could validate it to a high standard. We found that the community science approach increased the researchers’ capacity, ensured relevance, and helped disseminate practical knowledge about planning equity.