Democratizing Strategic Planning in Master-Planned Communities

Abstract: This paper introduces a strategic planning tool for master-planned communities designed specifically to quantify residents' subjective preferences about large investments in amenities and infrastructure projects. Drawing on data obtained from brief online surveys, the tool ranks alternative plans by considering the aggregate anticipated utilization of each proposed amenity and cost sensitivity to it (or risk sensitivity for infrastructure plans). In addition, the tool estimates the percentage of households that favor the preferred plan and predicts whether residents would actually be willing to fund the project. The mathematical underpinnings of the tool are borrowed from utility theory, incorporating exponential functions to model diminishing marginal returns on quality, cost, and risk mitigation.