American Planning Association

Hazard Mitigation Planning

Is your community prepared if disaster strikes? John Wilson from Lee County, Florida, and Julia Burrows from Roseville, California, discuss how their respective communities created hazard mitigation plans. Roseville and Lee County are two featured case studies in the new Planning Advisory Service report, Hazard Mitigation: Integrating Best Practices into Planning (PAS 560).

Penny Wise, Pound Fuelish:

Under the traditional definition of housing affordability, seven out of 10 U.S. communities are considered "affordable" to the typical household. But in almost all metro regions of the country, when the definition of affordability includes both housing and transportation costs, the number of communities affordable to households earning the area median income decreases significantly.

The Center for Neighborhood Technology (CNT) has developed the Housing+Transportation (H+T) Index to address this shortcoming. The index is a publicly available database that demonstrates the transportation costs associated with a home's location thereby providing a more accurate measure of a community's affordability.

Peter Haas from CNT provided an overview of the H+T Index, key findings, its public policy applications, and reported on related federal policy initiatives.

More Smiles, Less Miles

Transportation is a major consideration when planning a region, city, suburb, or even a town center. It has become increasingly common for plans to discuss greenhouse gas emissions in addition to traffic congestion. The good news is that every day, more people are riding clean, riding less, and riding together. This means that millions are spending less on gasoline, helping our country become energy secure, and reducing emissions.

John Addison, author of the book Save Gas, Save the Planet, discussed how planners, government leaders, and engaged citizens can help create vibrant and sustainable communities through rail, bus rapid transit, last miles solutions to make transit accessible, bicycle and walking mode shifts, electric and high mileage cars, transportation demand management programs, and smart growth initiatives that include transit oriented development.

Chicago's Central Area Action Plan

Over the past decade, the central six square miles of Chicago have undergone a dramatic transformation with unprecedented growth in both the residential and educational sectors as well as the construction of new public facilities and museums (most notably the opening of Millennium Park and the modern wing of the Art Institute on the north side of Grant Park).

The 2003 Central Area Plan provided a broad framework for new infrastructure and open space projects as well as a basis for Zoning Reform in 2004, and the 2009 Central Area Action Plan builds on this framework. The public projects are prioritized and quantified and growth projections updated to reflect current market conditions.

The CAAP takes as a given that the majority of new construction will be by the private sector, but that key public improvements will facilitate this investment and improve the quality of life for everyone who lives, works, or plays in the core of this world city.

Benet Haller from the City of Chicago presented this plan and discussed the impact of the global economy and other factors on the final recommendations.

Clear As Mud

Hear authors Rob Olshansky and Laurie Johnson discuss their new release Clear As Mud: Planning for the Rebuilding of New Orleans. Olshansky and Johnson discuss how Hurricane Katrina differed from other international disasters and their experience in tracking the rebuilding of New Orleans.

The Evolution of Our Suburbs

For the last few decades the Chicago region has been suburbanizing with little regard to energy use, climate change, and urban form. The relentless pursuit of property tax revenue and a focus on single uses and single-site developments distracts many suburban communities from the task of planning for a sustainable and livable built environment.

As planners, what should be our approach to the future of our suburbs? Can we afford to continue the growth and development patterns of the past few decades? Are there new growth patterns and new development tools that we can get ready now to be prepared for a different future?

Mahender Vasandani from M Square Urban Design shared thoughts on these and other questions in an effort to start a dialogue among planners about where we go from here and how.

Food and Planning in New Orleans

Among the many things New Orleans is famous for is its food. Increasingly, that food is locally grown. Vanessa Ulmer, the Policy and Advocacy Coordinator with the Prevention Research Center at Tulane University, joined Broadcast APA to talk about local food, fighting obesity, and citywide polices that increase food access. She also gives listeners tips on where to eat in New Orleans — all of which are included in the New Orleans Food System Guide, compiled by APA's Planning & Community Health Research Center.

Visiting Fellowship in New Zealand

In 2008, Center Manager Jim Schwab, AICP, was invited by the Centre for Advanced Engineering in New Zealand (CAENZ), located at the University of Canterbury in Christchurch, to serve as a Visiting Fellow, studying New Zealand hazards planning and offering consultation on national hazards policy. Schwab's trip lasted three weeks from July 25 to August 15, 2008, during which time he traveled the country, delivering seven different lectures and seminars, including presentation at the Australasian Natural Hazards Conference and to a joint meeting of staff members of the Ministry of the Environment and the Ministry of Civil Defense and Emergency Management.

A year later, in October 2009, Kristin Hoskin, who had managed Jim's itinerary for CAENZ, visited APA in Chicago, where she delivered a presentation and was interviewed for a podcast.