Community Planning encourages the integration of transportation and land use planning with community values through programs, policies, and projects that help create more livable communities. Community Planning encourages development that mixes land uses, increases land use density, provides travel choices, and promotes public participation and the building of partnerships. Community Planning helps create communities that have a neighborhood feeling or a "sense of place." Other common names for Community Plannig include smart growth, sustainable development, walkable communities, neo-tranditional design, new urbanism, traditional town planning, and livable communities.

One of the primary goals of the Division of Planning and Local Assistance is to fully integrate community planning principles and practices into all of its functions and products. There are six components to the Division's Community Planning Program:

Intergovernmental Review (IGR)

Regional Planning

System Planning

Advance Planning

Grant Administration

Mass Transportation