Take a planning challenge, add some technology and a pinch of public process, mix them just the right, and you have a recipe for good decision making. Orlando County Florida is cooking up such an event- and planners, practitioners, academics and members from all communities will be interested in watching their progress. Orlando Florida is embarking on a year-long initiative to address economic, environmental, land use, and transportation needs for a 90,000-acre study area in southeast Orange County.
Orlando Florida is embarking on a year-long initiative to address economic, environmental, land use, and transportation needs for a 90,000-acre study area in southeast Orange County. The goal of the initiative, called Community Planning Collaborative Initiative (CPCI): Democracy and Planning in Action, is to improve land use planning in Orange County and to create an opportunity to demonstrate how public participation and hi-tech tools can be integrated into planning processes in all communities to enhance decision making.
The CPCI process includes: A community assessment of Orange County's current technical and institutional decision making capacity; training in the use of new technologies and how to integrate public processes with technologies to create dynamic and effective decision making; community visioning to gather and synthesize information on public values and concerns; and the digital charrette where community design and decision making tools will be applied (live) to the local planning challenge. (The digital charrette will also be a national event likely to occur in the summer or fall of 2005.) Community process tools like keypad polling, visualization tools that show what changes would look like in the real world, and analysis tools that identify impacts of alternatives, are among some of the tools that will be demonstrated during the digital charrette.
CPCI is the next in a series of five national events on tools for community design and decision making organized by PlaceMatters.com, a program of the Orton Family Foundation. For background and current information about CPCI go to www.tcddm.org.

Americans May Be Stuck — But Why?
Americans are moving a lot less than they once did, and that is a problem. While Yoni Applebaum, in his highly-publicized article Stuck, gets the reasons badly wrong, it's still important to ask: why are we moving so much less than before?

Using Old Oil and Gas Wells for Green Energy Storage
Penn State researchers have found that repurposing abandoned oil and gas wells for geothermal-assisted compressed-air energy storage can boost efficiency, reduce environmental risks, and support clean energy and job transitions.

Placekeeping: Setting a New Precedent for City Planners
How a preservation-based approach to redevelopment and urban design can prevent displacement and honor legacy communities.

San Francisco’s Muni Ridership Grew in 2024
The system saw its highest ridership since before the Covid-19 pandemic, but faces a severe budget shortage in the coming year.

Colorado Lawmakers Move to Protect BRT Funding
In the face of potential federal funding cuts, CDOT leaders reasserted their commitment to planned bus rapid transit projects.

Safe Streets Funding in Jeopardy
The Trump administration is specifically targeting bike infrastructure and other road safety projects in its funding cuts.
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This six-course series explores essential urban design concepts using open source software and equips planners with the tools they need to participate fully in the urban design process.
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Learn the tools for implementing Universal Design in planning regulations.
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