American Planning Association

Disaster Recovery Planning in Maui

Jim Schwab, AICP interviews James Buika from the Department of Planning for the County of Maui and Tara Owens from the University of Hawaii Sea Grant program about disaster recovery planning in Hawaii.

Plan4Health: Encouraging Healthy Lifestyles in Boise

An interview with Daren Fluke, AICP about the Idaho Plan4Health coalition.

Plan4Health: B-Well Bensenville

An interview with APA member and Bensenville, Illinois planner Victoria Benham about the "B-Well Bensenville" campaign which is part of APA's Plan4Health initiative.

KVMR Roundtable: Drought and Planning

Roundtable discussion on water shortage and drought originally aired July 13, 2015 on KVMR Radio in Nevada City, California. Discussion participants include Frank Meecham, San Luis Obispo Board Supervisor from District 1; Tom Tedd, Director of the Office of the Columbia River - Department of Ecology for the State of Washington; Vic Ferrara, Nevada County Office of Emergency Services; Jim Schwab, AICP, APA's Manager of the Hazards Planning Center.

Tuesdays at APA: Source Water Protection in the 21st Century

Tuesday, July 14, 2015 As news arises of drought, harmful algal blooms, and chemical spills across the nation, we are regularly reminded of the need to protect drinking water in our cities and communities. Every day, land use decisions affect future drinking water supplies, either intentionally or inadvertently. By protecting sources of drinking water through regular planning activities and practices like green infrastructure, we can build resilient, healthy, and beautiful communities. The Sourc...

Dutch Dialogues: An Interview with Dale Morris and David Waggonner

APA talks to Dale Morris, Senior Economist at the Royal Netherlands Embassy in Washington, DC and David Waggonner, president of Waggonner and Ball Architects in New Orleans about the "Dutch Dialogues" workshops.

Norfolk and 100 Resilient Cities

Tuesday at APA DC: Linking Communities Together Through Innovative Regional Transportation Planning

Linking Communities Together Through Innovative Regional Transportation Planning May 12, 2015 Metropolitan planning organizations (MPOs) and regional planning councils are in the midst of a wave of innovative practices in how they work with communities to create long-range plans and how they work with local jurisdictions to implement land use, transportation and development decisions that support regional outcomes. Mariia Zimmerman shared highlights of recent work that she has conducted through ...

Housing Equity and Healthy Housing Choices - 2014 AICP Symposium

2014 AICP Symposium - Originally Recorded on October 29, 2014 at the National Building Museum "Housing Equity and Healthy Housing Choices" Featuring: Carol Payne, Director, Baltimore Field Office of the U. S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Derek Hyra, Associate Professor, Department of Public Administration and Policy, American University Jonathan Wilson, Deputy Director, National Center for Healthy Housing

Living With Water in the Big Easy: NOLA's Ride to Resilience

On this episode, APA’s Emily Pasi talks with APA member Brad Klamer of the Sewerage and Water Board of New Orleans about the actions the City of New Orleans is taking to create a more water resilient, green and educated community. We’ll explore what cities New Orleans is looking to as models in resiliency planning and how the City is learning to live with water.

Tuesdays at APA: Strengthening Local Capacity for Data-Driven Decision Making

February 24, 2015 This talk drew upon lessons from the National Neighborhood Indicators Partnership (NNIP), a collaboration of the Urban Institute and organizations in 35 cities. NNIP partners help local actors use neighborhood data to improve communities through policy, planning, and advocacy. From her experience in NNIP, Kathryn Pettit of the Urban Institute discussed the types of information infrastructure needed to make good decisions in a local community — including open government data, in...

Green Lighting Municipal Broadband

APA interviews Rodger Lentz, AICP, Chief Planning and Development Officer for the City of Wilson, North Carolina and Will Aycock, General Manager of Wilson's Greenlight Community Broadband. They discuss the city's recent successful petition with the FCC and how the issue of municipal broadband will continue to be important for planners.

Chicago's Historic Pullman

Pete Pointner, FAICP, former board member of the Historic Pullman Foundation in Chicago discusses the history of the Pullman neighborhood and its recent proclamation as a National Monument by President Barack Obama.

Tuesdays at APA: Supporting TOD in Metro Chicago

Tuesday, November 18, 2014 Transit-oriented development (TOD) is defined by the Regional Transportation Authority (RTA) of Northeastern Illinois as moderate to high-density, mixed-use communities generally located within a half-mile radius (10-minute walk) of a rail or bus station designed to maximize walkability and transit access. Interest in TOD is driven by its ability to reduce traffic congestion; changing demographics; and a desire to live in mixed-use, sustainable, and walkable communitie...

Tuesdays at APA: SymbioCity and the Planning of Hammarby Sjöstad

Climate risks and sustainable growth are shared responsibilities — engineers, architects, planners, and developers are uniquely placed to improve the built environment. Sustainable development can both reduce emissions and cities' vulnerability to climate change and many impacts can be avoided, reduced, or delayed. Cities have the right density, economic conditions, and geographic scale for efficient public transport; recycling of water, waste, and materials; and energy production, distribution,...

Private Capital, Public Good - The Daniel Burnham Forum on Big Ideas

Private Capital, Public Good September 28, 2014 National Building Museum Washington, D.C. Featuring Guest Speaker Congressman John Delaney and a panel discussion with Ben Hecht, CEO of Living Cities, John Rahaim, Planning Director of the City and County of San Francisco, and William Anderson, FAICP, President of the American Planning Association Today's fiscal and political realities make private and philanthropic investments ever more important to building communities. New tools like social imp...

Tuesdays at APA: Principles to Guide the Future of Planning Practice

September 23, 2014 The Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning (CMAP) projects a population increase of 1.96 million people and 1.24 million jobs in the Northeastern Illinois region by the year 2030. And the cumulative impact of planning decisions throughout the region will determine the degree to which the built environment will satisfy the broad objectives of (1) meeting human needs efficiently; (2) creating economically viable and sustainable communities; (3) shaping the built environment in...

Tuesdays at APA: "Wetrofitting" Urban Neighborhoods

August 26, 2014 Until recently, climate change has correlated to polar bears and melting ice caps — heart rending, but safely distant. Yet climate-related extreme weather, combined with urban development, is starting to show its force, as realized by the severe droughts in California and the misery caused to millions of home owners and businesses as a result of urban flooding. With these impacts comes the potential for public mobilization and a renewed focus on the way we plan our towns and citi...

Tuesdays at APA: Front-Line Perspectives from APA's Community Planning Assistance Teams

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 insi...

Tuesdays at APA - Walkability: Fact or Myth?

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 concep...

Tuesdays at APA: A Factory in Every Home? New Manufacturing Technologies and Metropolitan Spatial 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 ma...

Tuesdays at APA: Parking Management Strategies to Support Livable Communities

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 busi...

Tuesdays at APA - Municipal Design Review in Metropolitan Chicago

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...

Tuesdays at APA D.C. - The Missing Metric with Peter Katz

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 Gro...

Tuesdays at APA: The Case for the Calumet National Heritage Area

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 Herit...

Tuesdays at APA - A Tale of Two Neighborhoods: The HUD Choice Neighborhoods Initiative in Action

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...

Planning Chicago: An Interview with Authors Jon DeVries, AICP and D. Bradford Hunt

Authors Jon B. DeVries and D. Bradford Hunt discuss the state of planning in the Chicago region and their book Planning Chicago.

Tuesdays at APA DC - Innovation in Sustainable Urban Housing: Four Case Studies in Latin America

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.

People and Places: AICP Symposium 2013

Immigration is woven into American history. But what about its future? Each year APA's professional institute, the American Institute of Certified Planners, hosts a fall symposium on a timely topic in planning. As federal legislators debate immigration reform, this fall's symposium looks at how immigrants affect the economies and cultures of the cities where they live and work. Hear regional perspectives on a dynamic group of people and their role in places across the United States. Recorded on ...

Tuesdays at APA DC - Complete Streets: Closing the Gap between Policy and Practice

November 12, 2013 Across the country, hundreds of communities have embraced Complete Streets policies as a way to foster safer streets that serve everyone, not just drivers. But individual projects and general policies aren't enough: transportation agencies often struggle to reform decades of rules, practice, and politics that prioritize cars. Barbara McCann, founding director of the National Complete Streets Coalition, has dug into what it takes to upend the way every transportation project is ...