The effectiveness of planning for a small town : a case study of gearing up for the 21st century : planning strategies for Rockwood, Tennessee

Planning for small towns (population under 10,000) is similar to planning in any other large or medium size city in that their plans have varying effects on the growth or lack of growth and the extent of the effects often rely on the extent of implementation. However, small town planning has to deal with some issues that are not dealt with in larger cities. This thesis studies the effects that one particular strategic plan conducted by the Graduate School of Planning at The University of Tennessee has had on Rockwood, Tennessee. The plan is titled Gearing Up for the 21^st Century; Planning Strategies for Rockwood, Tennessee and was published in the spring of 1992 providing a time span of nine years for changes to take place in the town. The goal of this thesis was to determine whether the plan provided an effective tool for the guidance of the City of Rockwood's development strategies or not. The research has been completed and the results lie within the text.