American Planning Association

Planning and Zoning for Natural Resource Protection September 27, 2011 In recent decades, planners have continued to be involved in natural resource protection as a core area of both interest and expertise. However, in many places, mitigation takes precedence over more meaningful efforts to avoid or minimize environmental damage. When wetlands are disturbed or mature trees replaced with seedlings, it may take decades for the natural system to return to its prior value, and in terms of net carbon emissions, the debt may never be repaid. Now that planners are taking a renewed interest in sustainability, the time is right to rediscover planning and zoning principles to protect natural resources. Lane Kendig, founder of Kendig Keast Collaborative, discussed how planners can use performance zoning for resource protection.

Roger Hart and Ramona Mullahy in conversation. Hart is co-director of the Children's Environments Research Group at the City University of New York. His work focuses on the development of theory and research on children's relationship to the physical environment. He has been particularly concerned with the application of research to the planning and design of children's environments and to environmental education.

Roger Hart and Ramona Mullahy in conversation. Hart is co-director of the Children's Environments Research Group at the City University of New York. His work focuses on the development of theory and research on children's relationship to the physical environment. He has been particularly concerned with the application of research to the planning and design of children's environments and to environmental education.

The Role of Planning in Stabilizing Distressed Properties August 30, 2011 Many communities have a glut of entitled but unfinished development projects. Depending on the context and scale of the problem, traditional stabilization tools such as code enforcement may prove inadequate or ineffective. In some cases, the best solution for the community may involve relaxing certain regulatory requirements or renegotiating the terms of development agreements. Daniel Shapiro from Robbins, Salomon & Patt and Jessica Schramm from Thompson Coburn discussed a wide range of strategies planners can use to stabilize and reposition distressed properties. Specific strategies covered will include reviewing agreements recorded against property, negotiating development fees, and re-entitling property. They also addressed how planners can assist when development deals turn sour.

Symposium on Planning for Post-Disaster Recovery On February 10–11, 2011, the American Planning Association hosted a scoping symposium in its Chicago office to explore a number of essential issues in guiding the Planning for Post-Disaster Recovery: Next Generation project as it moves forward. Invited participants focused on helping APA to define the appropriate audiences and central issues for the project, delineate the guiding principles in planning for post-disaster recovery, refine the outline for the PAS Report, and identify criteria for best practices and potential case examples to study.

How did one woman change an entire profession in a few short years with such lasting effects? Listen as Max Page, co-editor of Reconsidering Jane Jacobs, discusses Jane Jacobs's lasting, global influence. Joining Page are contributors Rudayna Abdo, AICP, director of planning at Otak International's Abu Dhabi office, and Jamin Creed Rowan, assistant professor of English at Brigham Young University.

Arlington County's "Community Energy Plan" July 12, 2011 Arlington County's "Community Energy Plan" is a strategic planning effort to ensure economic competitiveness and energy supply security while reinforcing the county's environmental commitment. Through this process Arlington will transform the way it generates, distributes, stores, and uses energy. A nationally recognized leader in climate action, Arlington County is working to reduce energy use and greenhouse gas emissions from government operations through the Arlington Initiative to Reduce Emissions (AIRE) program. The county has broadened that effort into the community to chart a course toward a healthy, viable, sustainable Arlington for generations to come. The plan aims to sharply reduce energy use in Arlington, including an ambitious goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by more than 70 percent by 2050.

Tools for Great Lakes Planners in NOAA's Digital Coast July 19, 2011 The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Digital Coast partnership provides data, tools, and training on topics such as land use, coastal conservation, hazards, marine spatial planning, and climate change. Recently, planners in the Great Lakes have participated in two needs assessments to help build new tools and improve datasets and training courses for climate change adaptation and conservation planning. Panelists from APA, NOAA, and the Old Woman Creek National Estuarine Research Reserve presented the results of these assessments and shared how you can use some of the new tools and datasets in your community. Products featured included climate adaptation training for planners, easy-to-use land cover and elevation data, and a publicly available visualization tool.

Symposium on Planning for Post-Disaster Recovery On February 10–11, 2011, the American Planning Association hosted a scoping symposium in its Chicago office to explore a number of essential issues in guiding the Planning for Post-Disaster Recovery: Next Generation project as it moves forward. Invited participants focused on helping APA to define the appropriate audiences and central issues for the project, delineate the guiding principles in planning for post-disaster recovery, refine the outline for the PAS Report, and identify criteria for best practices and potential case examples to study.

Implementing Sustainable Cities in a Harsh Environment: Some Lessons Learned from Masdar June 21, 2011 Masdar City in the United Arab Emirates is envisioned as the world's first carbon-neutral, zero waste, car-free city. However, the harsh, desert environment and the prevailing planning and construction practices in Abu Dhabi pose special challenges for an inherently ambitious goal. Margaret Cederoth, AICP, will discuss the specific elements of sustainable cities incorporated into the plans for Masdar and the practical methods for implementing these ambitions in the first few buildings of the city. The presentation will highlight relevant master plan elements that are the foundation for sustainability and focus on the physical expression of those elements along with basic contractual and education activities necessary to realize the vision.

Symposium on Planning for Post-Disaster Recovery On February 10–11, 2011, the American Planning Association hosted a scoping symposium in its Chicago office to explore a number of essential issues in guiding the Planning for Post-Disaster Recovery: Next Generation project as it moves forward. Invited participants focused on helping APA to define the appropriate audiences and central issues for the project, delineate the guiding principles in planning for post-disaster recovery, refine the outline for the PAS Report, and identify criteria for best practices and potential case examples to study.

Recycling in Chicago: Past, Present, and Future May 17, 2011 As Chicago begins a new political era, much attention has been paid to the problems in Chicago's recycling program. Carl Zimring from Roosevelt University analyzed the public and private systems used to recycle post-consumer materials in Chicago over the past century, with discussion of how the current system evolved, problems with it, and ways in which future versions of recycling in Chicago might work based on historical precedents and programs in other cities.

Symposium on Planning for Post-Disaster Recovery On February 10–11, 2011, the American Planning Association hosted a scoping symposium in its Chicago office to explore a number of essential issues in guiding the Planning for Post-Disaster Recovery: Next Generation project as it moves forward. Invited participants focused on helping APA to define the appropriate audiences and central issues for the project, delineate the guiding principles in planning for post-disaster recovery, refine the outline for the PAS Report, and identify criteria for best practices and potential case examples to study.

Symposium on Planning for Post-Disaster Recovery On February 10–11, 2011, the American Planning Association hosted a scoping symposium in its Chicago office to explore a number of essential issues in guiding the Planning for Post-Disaster Recovery: Next Generation project as it moves forward. Invited participants focused on helping APA to define the appropriate audiences and central issues for the project, delineate the guiding principles in planning for post-disaster recovery, refine the outline for the PAS Report, and identify criteria for best practices and potential case examples to study.

In this podcast, Barry Checkoway and Ramona Mullahey discuss "The Future of Youth Engagement in Planning." Checkoway is a professor of social work and urban planning at the University of Michigan. He previously worked with the White House in launching AmeriCorps. Checkoway and Mullahey, along with Yve Susskind, are the authors of PAS Report 486, Youth Participation in Community Planning.

Symposium on Planning for Post-Disaster Recovery On February 10–11, 2011, the American Planning Association hosted a scoping symposium in its Chicago office to explore a number of essential issues in guiding the Planning for Post-Disaster Recovery: Next Generation project as it moves forward. Invited participants focused on helping APA to define the appropriate audiences and central issues for the project, delineate the guiding principles in planning for post-disaster recovery, refine the outline for the PAS Report, and identify criteria for best practices and potential case examples to study.

The Plight of Black Coastal Landowners in the Sunbelt South and Its Lessons for Post–Housing Bubble America April 26, 2011 At the turn of the 20th century, African Americans owned vast swaths of property along America's shores. By the post–World War II era, African American beaches and resorts served as important places for working families to escape from the daily indignities of Jim Crow and for a separate, seasonal black leisure economy to take shape. The death of Jim Crow coincided with the emergence of a pro-growth, corporate-friendly Sunbelt economy, which led to massive resort and residential development in coastal areas, and the targeting of black coastal landowners as the path of least resistance. From the 1960s to the present, African American property owners in areas targeted for leisure-based economic and real estate development have struggled to fend off various schemes deployed by developers and their allies in municipal, county, and state governments to expropriate and put to "best use" valuab

Re-Planning Crystal City As a 21st Century Urban Village April 26, 2011 The 2006 Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) action hit Arlington, Virginia, hard. The loss of 17,000 Department of Defense employees and 4.2 million square feet of leased space was the equivalent of losing five military bases, and most of the impact was in the Crystal City neighborhood. Developed largely in the 1960s and 1970s, Crystal City contained approximately 30 buildings aged 30 years or more, originally built to GSA specifications that not longer reflected the needs of the market. Arlington developed a plan to remove the older office buildings, add more than 30 new buildings, increase density by more than 60 percent, and substantially improve transportation and the entire urban environment. This discussion will address the planning process, the economic and transportation analyses that served as the basis of the plan, and the innovative financing plan developed to pay for the necessary infrastructure to make the plan a reality.

Symposium on Planning for Post-Disaster Recovery On February 10–11, 2011, the American Planning Association hosted a scoping symposium in its Chicago office to explore a number of essential issues in guiding the Planning for Post-Disaster Recovery: Next Generation project as it moves forward. Invited participants focused on helping APA to define the appropriate audiences and central issues for the project, delineate the guiding principles in planning for post-disaster recovery, refine the outline for the PAS Report, and identify criteria for best practices and potential case examples to study.