Planning as stipulated by Levy is necessary for complexity and interconnectedness (1). The fact that the population in our cities is numerous and the technologies used so complex makes it important for good planning. Planning affects everyone living in the specified area. The type of housing on a specified land will determine the traffic flow. The material used for pavements will also determine the flow of rainwater (Niemelä 125). In one way or the other, city planning affects their life of the dwellers everyday. Poor planning and unsustained planning causes other social problems such traffic jams, flooding poor housing among others.

Williston is the largest city in Williams County. The county is rich in oil and in its 2013-2015 budget of 14 billion US dollars, 6.5 % was carried by oil extraction and a 5% production tax. This is filtered into the state general funds. Within a span of ten months in the late 2013 and early 2014, the state managed to accumulate 2.6 billion dollars from oil tax revenues (Killelea 26). All this shows how rich the Williams County is enabling it to sustain development. Much growth is visible in Williston city and this has affected other cities. In the county, a larger part of the land is used for industrial purposes and agriculture. Heavy traffic because of sand hauling, oil, water and machinery results in road damages and safety concerns.

It is estimated that around 450 drilling rigs are usually moved to new sites every month. This causes heavy gravel roads breaks, and other crews in the county struggle when using the same roads. In addition, more than ten thousand workers live in man camps. Since such camps are located along city boundaries, they require pumping in of water and pumping out of sewerage to the community treatment plants, which are very few in the county (Killelea 26). The county rural areas have also undergone heavy residential subdivisions, which are scattered. This puts new homes further away from infrastructure and emergency services. Competition for housing has also increased thereby increasing prices for land, rental units and houses.

Development in one city affects other surrounding areas. As a major area of planning concern as put by Levy (3), the growth pattern that will result in achieving an attractive and sensible land use should be a concern. This means separating activities that are incompatible like residential areas and commercial activity. There should also be a concern with the location of public facilities such as hospitals, schools and social service centers. As stipulated above, the Williams County is rich in terms of revenue generated but has failed in planning. Scattered subdivisions in rural areas make it hard for new home dwellers to access infrastructure and emergency services. This is due to unplanned development and unmonitored development. Planning is not all about generating new facilities but also maintaining and improving the already existing facilities. The county has not done well in the maintenance of roads. The movement of drilling rigs destroys roads making other county crews to struggle while using the same roads.

Increased competition for housing signals an increase in population. Population control is also part of planning since increased population requires larger social management funds. It also requires more housing and infrastructure. Another concern for planning is the maintaining a clean environment (Gu 80). The development of housing close to industries poses a threat to the population in terms of environment pollution. In an attempt to mitigate these problems, the county hired new planning, directors. The first line of mitigation was to conduct traffic studies. Conducting studies on existing problems is very helpful in determining what needs to be done.   The city officials striving to accommodate a population of at least 50,000 within a decade chose to appropriate the Northland rather than proliferating random locations. Industrial development was guided to the north with the traffic being guided to the west with the use of a permanent track bypass.

More people have been employed in the planning development with their salaries coming from sales tax, permit and oil revenues. This has reduced unemployment rates, which is also part of planning (Healey 1536). The planning department has also sought mixed density developments thus linking residential and commercial uses.

Though facing a few problems, the county of Williams is doing well in terms of planning. The separation of industrial land from the residential land has reduced environment pollution. Again, the linking of residential and commercial uses makes it easy for the people to access services. Also, the permanent track bypass has reduced damages on other residential roads easing the movement of other county crews. The Williston city has also planned for a population of at least 50,000 for a decade. This ensures proper planning for social services centers like hospitals, schools among others (Reps 30). Interconnectedness has been provided in the complex county. Traffic is well planned with different roads for different vehicles based on weight.

 Work cited

Gu, Chaolin, et al. “A Study on Climate Change, Carbon Emissions and Low-carbon City Planning [J].” Urban Planning Forum. Vol. 3. 2009. Print

Healey, Patsy. “Building institutional capacity through collaborative approaches to urban planning.” Environment and Planning a 30.9 (1998): 1531-1546. Print

Killelea, Eric. “Boom Town USA.” Planning 1 Aug. 2014: 24-28. Print.

Levy, John M. Contemporary Urban Planning. 10th ed. Hoboken: Taylor and Francis, 2015. Print.

Niemelä, Jari. “Ecology and urban planning.” Biodiversity & Conservation 8.1 (1999): 119-131.

Reps, John William. The Making of Urban America: A History of City Planning in the United States. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton UP, 1965. Print.

 
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