APA Washington

08/05/2021

Join the Southwest Washington Chapter of APA on Thursday, August 12 from 9am to 11:30am to hear from social justice expert Rekah Strong, who will be providing some essential training on diversity, equity, and inclusion.

FREE CM-credit eligible event; registration is required and space is limited. Sign up below:

Welcome! You are invited to join a meeting: SW Section Planner's Forum. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email about joining the meeting.

06/15/2021

Register for this FREE webinar about PSRC's updated Plan Review Manual and other local planning resources, scheduled for Wed., June 30 from 1-2pm. The Plan Review Manual includes VISION 2050 Consistency Tools - useful checklists for local plan updates!

PSRC has updated its Plan Review Manual to reflect new and updated regional policy direction in VISION 2050. PSRC certifies countywide planning policies, local comprehensive plans, center plans for regionally designated centers, and Sound Transit’s long-range plan. The Plan Review Manual provides ...

02/22/2021

Webinar: Working With Developers to Foster Investment in the Community

February 24, 2021 | noon - 1 p.m. EST

CM | 1

Everyone can agree that good development must be supported. Contrary to popular belief, stringent guidelines for proposed development and its review can actually improve a community’s competitive advantage. This session will offer guidance on best practices in working with developers, and offer tools that have proven effective in establishing a community is “open for business!”

Webinar presented by Upstate New York APA Chapter

02/15/2021

Upcoming Webinar!

Resilience in Vulnerable Communities
Fri, Feb 19, 2021 10:00 AM - 11:30 AM PST

The APA Housing and Community Development Division is exited to host the second part of our series on Resilience in Vulnerable Communities. Hilton Head Island’s population was predominately Gullah Geechee people for generations until a bridge brought development in 1956. Because of this new development Gullah Geechee people were forced out due to rising land, housing, and tax costs. A Gullah Geechee Land and Cultural Preservation Task Force was created to preserve their culture and the result of their work included 37 policy recommendations. Strategies to address cultural preservation, land management, heirs’ property and community development were included. Sheryse DuBose, with the Town of Hilton Head will discuss how the Gullah Geechee people were instrumental in this major planning project and their plan to retain the community fabric when the native community is actively leaving. The speakers will describe the zoning measures being considered to ensure the community has access to land and the programs that exist to arrest land sales for heirs’ property.

02/10/2021

Online Training!
Health In All Policies: Incorporating Health into Planning, Policy and Decision-Making
Presented by APA New Jersey Chapter

Friday, February 19, 2021 | 9 a.m. - 3:30 p.m. EST

CM | 4

Health in All Policies (HiAP) is a strategy that strengthens the link between health and other policies, creating a supportive environment that enables people to lead healthy lives. HiAP considers the intentional or unintentional impact of non-health policies in areas such as education, housing, transportation, economic development, and others on individual and/or population health. HiAP approaches are central to the concept of achieving a "culture of health" that leads to more healthy and equitable outcomes.

This online session will focus on Health in All Policies (HiAP), a strategy that strengthens the link between health and other policies, creating a supportive environment that enables people to lead healthy lives.

02/08/2021

Upcoming Webinar!

The Shame of Chicago: The Color Tax Screening
Fri, Feb 12, 2021 10:00 AM - 11:30 AM PST

The APA Housing and Community Development Division is excited to host a screening of Episode III in the documentary series, the Shame of Chicago - The Color Tax. Premiering last year at the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, The Color Tax tells the story of how a system of predatory home contract sales during the 1950s and 60s plundered enormous sums of wealth from the pockets of black families seeking homeownership. But unlike what happened in other cities, Chicago’s families fought back in one of city’s most heart-wrenching and perilous campaigns for racial and economic justice. Reverend William Barber, co-director of the National Poor People’s Campaign, A National Call for Moral Revival writes, “The Color Tax paints with vivid clarity perhaps America's most striking example of systemic racism.” After the screening there will be a moderated discussion around fair housing, exclusionary housing policies and the impacts on minority communities nationwide.

02/03/2021

Sign Up Now for the 2021 National Planning Conference Immersive Digital Experience!

May 5-7

Come to APA’s 2021 National Planning Conference and see what’s ahead for you, your community, and your career.

02/01/2021

Sign up a 2021 Short Course on Local Planning !

Short Course Includes:

An overview of the complex mix of land use planning laws that work together to support land-use decision-making in Washington state,

An introduction to comprehensive planning and plan implementation under the Growth Management Act,

A review of the roles in planning and best practices for public participation, and

Mandatory training on the Open Public Meetings Act for local government officials.

All courses are offered at no charge and are open to the public.

A Short Course on Local Planning is an introduction to comprehensive planning and plan implementation under the Growth Management Act (GMA).

01/28/2021

Webinar Tomorrow!
10:00 AM - 11:30 AM PST

Resilience in Vulnerable Communities: When Climate Change Forces Relocation

This two-part series will explore three situations of vulnerable communities adapting to and surviving the threats of climate change and urban development and present planning best practices. First, Sally Russell Cox with the State of Alaska will share her work with four communities and the reports she co-authored on a relocation framework and the unmet infrastructure needs of Alaska Native villages due to erosion, flooding, and permafrost thaw. Then, Pat Forbes with the State of Louisiana, will describe the Isle de Jean Charles project. This marsh island has lost 98% of its land due to sea level rise and coastal land loss, which is forcing the resettlement of the community that inhabited that land for generations. The speakers will demonstrate how citizen participation is critical to the relocation and cultural preservation and describe how interagency collaboration is critical to ensure housing affordability and infrastructure planning. This is the first of a two-part series looking at resilience in vulnerable communities. The second part will look at the Gullah-Geechee community and their resilience in the face of urban development encroachment.

12/16/2020

Become a Civic Engagement Champion

Fri, Dec 18, 2020 10:00 AM - 11:30 AM PST

Planning-related community engagement tends to be irregular, infrequent, and inconsistent since it is seeking feedback on an individual project or initiative, such as a large development project or comprehensive plan update. Results are therefore often disappointing. Instead, community engagement efforts should be part of a larger, ongoing dialogue and relationship building strategy with residents and other stakeholders. This webinar will inspire participants to think beyond project-based engagement and learn what they can do to become champions of city-wide civic engagement.

12/15/2020

Webinar!
Equity Planning
Thu, Dec 17, 2020 10:00 AM - 11:30 AM PST

Recent events, unfortunately neither new nor novel, lay bare the historical legacy and persistent injustice of systemic racism in American society. The compounded and disproportionate impacts of Covid-19 and political/economic oppression demonstrate how the decisions and actions of those in authority at all levels deny communities of color equitable access to the benefits of citizenship. The planning profession is guilty of contributing to this legacy, through unfair housing policies, exclusionary zoning, capital investment and disinvestment decisions, and infrastructure development, among others. This session will explore how some communities and organizations in the Mid-Atlantic are proactively addressing this legacy and ensuring that equity is included in the planning process from community engagement through development review.

12/14/2020

Webinar!

Historic Urban Landscape Framework and Historic Preservation

Wed, Dec 16, 2020 10:00 AM - 11:30 AM PST

Preservation of urban heritage can provide a city’s competitive edge, unique identity, and generate significant economic returns. But often cities struggle to find a balance between protection of urban heritage, economic development, functionality, and livability of a city. In 2011, the UNESCO General Conference adopted the Historic Urban Landscape approach for the management of historic cities. The HUL protocol recognizes that cities, like natural landscapes, are never in stasis. Cities grow, sometimes shrink, and change and evolve in multiple ways. The HUL approach shifts emphasis from monumental architecture to the conservation of urban values that defined by a city’s tangible and intangible qualities. PlaceEconomics and our sister company Heritage Strategies International have been using the HUL approach to frame our policy and incentive recommendations in the U.S. and abroad. This session will feature pre-recorded presentations from international experts on the Historic Urban Landscape approach, describing the development, use, and implementation of the protocol in cities around the world. PlaceEconomics will detail how the HUL approach could be successful in the U.S. and share examples of our policy recommendations that incorporate this international protocol.