The adoption of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by the UN General Assembly in September 2015, particularly SDG 11, reiterated the importance of sustainable planning in cities. This study evaluates the contribution of four pre-existing major local planning initiatives towards increasing the capacity of Brazilian cities to deliver sustainable development. A conceptual framework was designed to evaluate four dimensions of sustainable development: social, environmental, economic and political. This evaluation draws lessons to develop an action framework to facilitate the implementation of SDG 11 at the local city level. The evaluation of planning initiatives in 15 Brazilian municipalities was based on a mixed methods and triangulation approach and seems to be helpful for enhancing and facilitating implementation of SDG 11 in Brazilian municipalities. In contrast, due to lack of systematic data from Brazilian municipalities it will be necessary to foster the development of adequate indicators to evaluate the effectiveness of SDG 11. Despite this, SDG 11 can become a referential goal to enhance sustainability in some cities and create opportunity to influence the Brazilian municipalities about the importance of sustainable planning.