American Planning Association

July 22, 2014

APA's Community Planning Assistance Team (CPAT) initiative provides pro-bono planning assistance to communities with a demonstrated need and a lack of planning resources and expertise. Each CPAT pairs a multidisciplinary team of expert planning professionals from around the country with community members, key stakeholders, and relevant decision makers to foster community education, engagement, and empowerment.

In this program, Rich Roths, AICP, and Douglas Martin, AICP, shared insights from their respective CPAT experiences and demystifyed the process for potential participants. In September 2013, Roths led a CPAT looking at the potential future of a gateway commercial corridor located in a floodplain in Franklin, Tennessee. The previous year, Martin lent his expertise to a CPAT for Wakulla Gardens, a small-lot subdivision in otherwise rural Wakulla County, Florida. After summarizing these projects, Roths and Martin highlighted lessons learned for future CPATs.

June 17, 2014

Many contemporary conversations about sustainable design and development emphasize walkability. But, in terms of the potential effects of walkability on carbon emissions, it's important to separate fact from fiction. While there is no argument that walking contributes to health, pedestrian-friendly districts and neighborhoods may not be enough to significantly reduce vehicle miles traveled (VMT).

In this program, Lane Kendig, from Kendig Keast Collaborative, explored how the concept of walkability relates to four types of trips: commuting, shopping, recreation, and child-related. He discussed the connections between density, intensity, transit, and significant reductions in VMT. Through a series of case studies, Kendig made a case for the necessity of zoning reforms that prohibit auto-oriented urban development.

May 20, 2014

Emerging manufacturing technologies, such as 3-D printing, promise to revolutionize the way things are made. Will they also revolutionize the spatial pattern of metropolitan development? Could these technologies lead to a radical decentralization of manufacturing through the proliferation of artisan-type shops within the next decade?

In this program, Howard Wial, from the University of Illinois at Chicago, uses concepts from economic geography to assess the ways in which emerging manufacturing technologies are and aren't likely to reshape the physical form of U.S. metropolitan areas and the location of manufacturers within them. He discusses how these technologies have the potential to create new opportunities for small and medium-sized manufacturers and the most likely locations for new manufacturers. Finally, Wial highlights some of the freight transportation and workforce development issues related to increased adoption of emerging manufacturing technologies.

April 22, 2014

As one of the largest single land uses in our municipal "footprints," parking deserves more attention than is typically bestowed upon it. Besides encouraging auto use, having an excessive supply of parking influences the character, form, function and flow of our communities. It makes walking and bicycling unpleasant and unsafe, it adds to flooding and pollution problems, and it makes housing more expensive. At the same time, parking is necessary to support a community's local businesses; finding the right balance between supply and demand — as an economist would — is the next step.

In the Chicago area, the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning (CMAP) has been working with several communities through its Local Technical Assistance program to understand the unique parking challenges and identify potential solutions.

In this program Lindsay Bayley, from CMAP, discussed parking management strategies and presented the findings from two very different projects: downtown suburban Hinsdale, Illinois, and the Chicago neighborhood of Wicker Park/Bucktown.

March 18, 2014

Both theorists and practitioners see design standards as shaping the "look" of the community and built environment over the long run — with significant underlying ideology. Planning professionals may view design guidelines and review processes as useful tools to communicate local preferences and resolve issues. And, design standards and form-based codes have become powerful branding and placemaking tools for suburbs in the Chicago metropolitan area and nationwide.

This program and discussion served to highlight contrasting perspectives on the benefits of design review. Drawing on observations from public architectural review commission hearings in local suburbs, Professor Robert Rotenberg, from DePaul University, considered case studies of how design standards work to shape the development decisions by stakeholders in Cook County, Illinois. Attorney and consultant John Hedrick summarized the regulatory background and recent developments in the Chicago metropolitan area regarding best practices in utilizing design guidelines.

The Missing Metric

March 4, 2014

With the multiple crises of municipal insolvency, climate change and citizen pushback against government regulation at all levels, it makes sense to consider a new "balance-sheet" approach to granting development approvals. Such an approach would screen for more compact, high-value development that would pay back government's up-front infrastructure investments on a more rapid basis.

On first blush, the regulatory strategy would not seem compatible with Smart Growth and New Urbanism, both of which are strongly driven by urban design and physical form. Such models, which have gained wide acceptance among planners as preferred models for more sustainable community development, have proved difficult to implement within the regulatory structures that prevail in the United States and Canada.

By incorporating the "missing metric" into development review, municipalities may be able to reduce and even eliminate many cumbersome and highly subjective development regulations, and at the same time make it easier to achieve more amenable, resource-efficient and economically stable communities. For a recent article by speaker Peter Katz on the approach, visit

February 25, 2014

The Calumet Region of Indiana and Illinois at the southern end of Lake Michigan has great ecological significance, cultural diversity, and economic might but is now grappling with questions of regional direction in the wake of widespread deindustrialization.

The idea of designating the Calumet as a National Heritage Area grew from a 1998 feasibility study by the National Park Service.The Calumet Heritage Partnership, formed as a result of the study, has worked to keep the Heritage Area idea alive.

Drs. Mark Bouman, from the Field Museum, and William Peterman, professor emeritus at Chicago State University, introduce the concept of National Heritage Areas with examples of successful NHAs in other parts of the country; discuss why NHAs should be of interest to planners; and show how the creation of a Calumet NHA would be consistent with and augment existing and evolving plans for the Calumet region.

January 28, 2014

The HUD Choice Neighborhoods Initiative employs a comprehensive approach to neighborhood transformation through the revitalization of distressed public housing and the creation of economic, social, physical, and educational initiatives. Through this initiative, planners and community groups are working to turn distressed housing and long neglected neighborhoods into viable and sustainable mixed-income communities that support positive outcomes for families.

In this program, Adam Rosa, AICP, of Camiros compared and contrasted planning efforts in two different Choice Neighborhoods. He shared the strategies that are being employed in the troubled Ellis Heights neighborhood of Rockford, Illinois, to foster positive neighborhood change through the arts and online entrepreneurship (including a strategic relationship with Etsy.com). In addition, he discussed the creative techniques being used to address the distinct challenge of gentrification in the rapidly changing Rosewood community of Austin, Texas.

January 7, 2014

For the past three years, APA has been working in Latin America to promote urban planning. The most recent grant from the U.S. Department of State's Energy and Climate Partnership of the Americas has focused on four innovative housing and community development demonstration projects in Bolivia, Brazil, Mexico, and Peru.

This presentation explains the background of the region's planning issues and showcases the progress of the four projects.