ICMA - RESEARCH REPORTS

Local Impacts of Commercial Cannabis Report

Tue, 10 Feb 2026 08:25:20 GMT

Local Impacts of Commercial Cannabis Report
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Strategic Planning in Small Communities: A Manager's Manual

Tue, 10 Feb 2026 08:07:52 GMT

Strategic Planning in Small Communities: A Manager's Manual
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Strategic plans can be valuable tools that guide managers and their governing bodies in making complex decisions and navigating challenging periods. And yet, financial constraints, limited staff capacity, and lack of buy in from elected officials are just a few examples of the numerous challenges to strategic planning faced by managers of small local governments.

In this report, ICMA Local Government Research Fellow Stephanie Davis, Ph.D., combines new research and practical experience in a practitioner-oriented guide to making strategic planning work in your community, no matter how small. Its insights are useful to first-time administrators or those championing a strategic plan for the first time.

Inside is an in-depth exploration of:

The benefits of having a strategic plan from managers who have them, use them, and encourage them.

Guidance on “how to” and items to consider before starting the process.

Detailed case studies directly from managers of communities ranging from less than 20,000 to less than 2,000 residents on how they built the case for, created, and implemented their own strategic plans.

Even a simple plan is better than no plan, and managers have found ways to tailor planning processes to fit their community’s constraints and needs.

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Leadership Before, During, and After a Crisis

Tue, 10 Feb 2026 07:55:00 GMT

Leadership Before, During, and After a Crisis
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The leadership and management skills of professional local government managers are tested when confronted with an emergency or crisis situation. Natural disasters such as floods, hurricanes, tornadoes, and wildfires can cause severe disruptions to the local government organization and to the community for days or years. The same is true for human-created crises such as mass shootings, violent protests, and industrial accidents.

In this Leading Edge Research report, Ron Carlee, D.P.A., captures the ideas, feelings, and stories of the professional managers who were involved in different crises. By analyzing the common and effective leadership and management skills and techniques that professional managers deploy when a crisis strikes, we can better understand the lessons learned from managers and identify leading or promising practices that can be adopted by others.

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Governing for Equity: Implementing an Equity Lens in Local Government

Tue, 10 Feb 2026 07:46:08 GMT

Governing for Equity: Implementing an Equity Lens in Local Government
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The United States has a long history of public efforts aimed at social and economic inequality. While many of these programs were developed at the national level, it has become increasingly evident that inequality manifests itself most clearly at the local level. Thus, many cities and counties had sought to address inequality through local policies and programs. Lessons about the better practices regarding the local pursuit of equity, however, remain difficult to come by. This report provides such lessons by summarizing the results of the Governing for Equity Project.

In this Leading Edge Research report, ICMA Research Fellow Benoy Jacob, Ph.D., highlights local governments that excel in increasing diversity and fostering inclusiveness. This report examines how American local governments—cities and counties—are actively addressing social and racial inequity in their communities. In particular, it considers the challenges and opportunities faced by public administrators when adopting an equity lens in their day-to-day operations.

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Revitalizing First Suburbs: A Manager's Manual

Tue, 10 Feb 2026 07:27:07 GMT

Revitalizing First Suburbs: A Manager's Manual
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Problems generally associated with the inner city—loss of population, declining commercial activity, increasing poverty, deindustrialization, declining property values, blight, and increased crime—are manifesting with increasing frequency and severity in America’s first suburbs. Findings of research in Hamilton County, Ohio, show that a decade after the end of the 2008 Recession, the recovery among Hamilton County’s first suburbs has been incredibly uneven. This report introduces the challenges faced by first suburbs, provides tools to assess the state of a community, and offers strategies for local government managers to address these challenges in their own community.

In this Leading Edge Research report, ICMA Research Fellow Tom Carroll builds a compelling case on the condition of America's first suburbs by examining the Cincinnati, Ohio, region and urges first suburban leaders to take actions to reverse—or at the very least arrest—the spreading decline of first suburbs.

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PM Supplement: Local Government Leadership for Economic Mobility & Opportunity Supplement

Tue, 10 Feb 2026 07:15:39 GMT

PM Supplement: Local Government Leadership for Economic Mobility & Opportunity Supplement
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Our aim has been to raise awareness among local decision makers about opportunities to influence conditions that make it possible for all residents to move up the economic ladder and lead healthy, prosperous lives.

As evidenced by responses to ICMA’s recent survey, we understand that the phrase “economic mobility” might not be one you routinely use to describe your priorities or service areas. Or you might think of it as just a large-city issue, beyond the capacity of smaller communities to address. But as senior program manager Bailey Barnett notes in her summary of survey findings, you might be doing (or have capacity to do) more than you think.

To further illustrate this point, this supplement highlights examples of how ICMA members, along with their colleagues and partners, in a wide range of communities are working together to (explicitly and implicitly) address economic mobility challenges faced by residents.

A number of these examples come from participants in our first Economic Mobility and Opportunity peer learning cohort. This group of 10 diverse localities included rural and urban communities; towns, cities, and counties; and small to large geographies and populations. The teams of local government leaders and community partners chose to focus on specific challenges related to housing, job opportunities and business development, engaging vulnerable populations, support for working families, and more. They worked to carve out appropriate and feasible roles for their local governments relative to other types of local and regional partners with different budgets, authorities, and expertise.

For further inspiration, we invited colleagues with deep expertise in policy and programming in support of livable communities and smart growth to offer their commentary on how economic mobility issues show up in their work.

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Brownfield Redevelopment for Equitable and Resilient Communities

Tue, 10 Feb 2026 06:56:09 GMT

Brownfield Redevelopment for Equitable and Resilient Communities
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Even though the definition of a brownfield site is just a few decades old, the longer lens of history shows that redevelopment is a constantly occurring event in municipalities and communities. Today, brownfield redevelopment is a critical practice for community revitalization, involving identification and realization of economic, environmental, and social goals.

Beyond perpetual challenges to redevelopment, communities are contending with urgent concerns related to recovery from a global pandemic, a warming planet, and heightened attention to social and economic disparities. However, public and private stakeholders are modeling innovative practices, programs, and projects that support brownfield redevelopment and more resilient and equitable communities.

To assist local governments, developers, and other stakeholders, this guide is designed to:

Provide an overview of the enduring and more recent challenges related to brownfields and their redevelopment.

Highlight emerging and leading redevelopment practices that advance community resilience and equitable development.

Help local leaders identify national, regional, state, and local technical assistance, tools, and resources available to support effective and sustainable redevelopment.

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Financing Green Infrastructure: Lessons From the Chesapeake Bay Watershed

Tue, 10 Feb 2026 06:48:57 GMT

Financing Green Infrastructure: Lessons From the Chesapeake Bay Watershed
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Green infrastructure refers to strategies that complement traditional “gray” infrastructure (pipes, tunnels, etc.) in managing stormwater. This additional capacity to filter and absorb stormwater is needed given increasing precipitation rates and sea level rise, as well as the limitations of aging gray infrastructure.

Examples of green infrastructure range from local bioretention areas to regional greenways. Regardless of scale, green infrastructure has proven environmental, economic, and social benefits for communities. This report is a practitioner’s guide on developing a green infrastructure program.

Inside you will find:

Green infrastructure definitions, benefits, and challenges

Steps to develop a funding and financing strategy for long-term investment

Lessons in success from local governments of all sizes.

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Local Libraries Advancing Community Goals, 2016

Mon, 9 Feb 2026 12:17:30 GMT

Local Libraries Advancing Community Goals, 2016
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Local Libraries Advancing Community Goals, 2016 (with Aspen Institute and the Public Library Association)

The International City/County Management Association (ICMA), in partnership with the Aspen Institute and the Public Libraries Association, conducted a nationwide survey in the spring of 2016 focused on the evolving role of public libraries in advancing community goals. The goal of this research was to understand how public libraries can be leveraged to advance community goals and how government agencies can partner with library leaders to better engage, inform, and empower residents. The survey was conducted as part of the Aspen Institute’s Dialogue on Public Libraries, and in follow-up to ICMA’s 2010 Public Library Initiative Survey.

The Aspen Institute commissioned follow-up research using the ICMA survey data to examine key factors influencing local government engagement with public libraries. This follow-up study also compared the perceptions of local government leaders on the role of libraries to the perceptions of the public as collected in a 2016 survey conducted by Pew Research Center.

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Bring Solar to Your Community: Themes, Summaries and Insights from 27 Case Studies (with DOE)

Mon, 9 Feb 2026 12:15:25 GMT

Bring Solar to Your Community: Themes, Summaries and Insights from 27 Case Studies (with DOE)
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Bring Solar to Your Community: Themes, Summaries and Insights from 27 Case Studies (with the U.S. Department of Energy)

This document was developed by the SunShot Solar Outreach Partnership to distill themes and insights of roof-top solar PV deployment gained from 27 case studies of local government efforts regarding policies, planning, investments, financing mechanisms, partnerships, and education.

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