Planning
New Guide Provides Advice for Successful Regional Planning
Transportation for America has released "The Innovative MPO"—a guidebook of sorts that provides lessons in successful regional planning.
How To: Design a User-Friendly Museum Exhibition about Planning
John King writes that the "Gallery + Ideas Forum" at the Presidio in San Francisco provides an excellent model for presenting issues and ideas of planning and urban design to the public.
Bill Fulton Charts a Path for San Diego's Urban Evolution
William Fulton pens a column for the U-T San Diego assessing the city of San Diego's transition from suburban to urban after 18 months on the job as planning director.
Top Planning Trends – 2014
A deeper look at the traffic data on Planetizen reveals trends from the planning and urban design conversation of 2014.
A Model Plan for Greening Suburban Downtowns
F. Kaid Benfield provides analysis of the Bethesda Downtown Plan, calling the plan for the bustling Maryland suburb an opportunity to set a standard of urban sustainability for other communities.
An Aerial Photography Tool for Planners
File under tools for the tool kit: Jarrett Walker of Human Transit shares details about Nearmap, an aerial photography tool that serves as a helpful alternative to Google Earth.
Billings, Montana (Pop. 109,058) Planning for Growth
Mike Ferguson reports on the process of updating the growth plan—working title "Beyond Billings"—for the city of Billings, Montana.
Study: Trip Generation Manual Produces 'Phantom Trips'
Research suggests that the Trip Generation Manual—a familiar tool for planners calculating the vehicle trips expected to be generated by developments of various sizes and uses—produces "phantom trips" and unneeded automobile infrastructure.
Citizens in Central Arkansas Imagine the Future with Interactive Online Plans
How do you create a plan document that grabs the attention of your audience and generates feedback? In Central Arkansas, citizens are exploring and experiencing an interactive online draft plan that makes participation easy and fun.
What's Good about Being an Urban Planner?
For urban planners, it’s easy to focus on the negatives of the job. Los Angeles County Planner Clement Lau reminds us of some of the positive trends in planning, especially in Los Angeles.
Can Agile Thinking Create Outstanding Plans?
Planning exercises typically require intense baseline data collection, extensive community engagement, visioning, number crunching, analysis, modeling, forecasting, more analysis, tradeoffs, revisions to the baseline data collected at the onset
Top 10 Books - 2015
Planetizen is pleased to release its list of the ten best books in urban planning, design, and development published in 2014.
Los Angeles Arts District Residents Resisting Plans for More Density
The Arts District in Downtown Los Angeles has seen plenty of chic newcomers in recent years—high-end cafes, restaurants, and expensive lofts. But a recently revealed plan that would allow new, dense construction has sparked controversy.
How to Decide if Planning is for You
At this time of year, many prospective graduate students are asking themselves if they should apply to planning programs. This is a good question. Planning is a diverse field and it can be hard to figure out if it will be the right fit.
Who's Right in the Informal Housing Debate?
When Los Angeles County Planner Jonathan P. Bell wrote about informal housing in the region, several commenters responded. So Bell decided to answer questions and critics.
How Grand Rapids Became a Transit Success
Rachel Dovey shares some of the secrets to the success of Grand Rapids, Michigan after a year of transit improvements in the small city.
Mapping the Knowledge Domain of Planning
Tom Sanchez and Nader Afzalan explore the age old question, "what is planning?" in their new report published earlier this week.
Charlotte Suburbs Plan for Balanced Growth
Although growth in Union County outside of Charlotte has subsided, county officials aim to balance a legacy of unplanned growth with new opportunities for commercial development and countywide transportation.
Portland's Planning Challenge: Better Jobs-Housing Balance
The Oregonian editorial board writes an op-ed that sums up Portland's many perks as well as the challenges. At the heart of the op-ed's concerns: how to bring jobs closer to where people live (and vice versa).
Student Housing Developments Provoke Down-Zoning in Philadelphia
The Philadelphia City Planning Commission approved a series of bills to implement portions of the Lower North District Plan. Although the bills include downzoning, planners believe the area's vacant land is sufficient to bear new development.
Urban Design for Planners 1: Software Tools
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.
Planning for Universal Design
Learn the tools for implementing Universal Design in planning regulations.
Heyer Gruel & Associates PA
City of Moreno Valley
Institute for Housing and Urban Development Studies (IHS)
City of Grandview
Harvard GSD Executive Education
Salt Lake City
NYU Wagner Graduate School of Public Service
City of Cambridge, Maryland
