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Healthier Commuting
Arlington, Virginia, has a new appreciation for the impact of transportation demand management on public health.July 01, 2014Mobility Lab, a transportation-demand-management (TDM) research-and-development initiative based in Arlington County, Virginia, recently launched a Transportation Cost-Savings Calculator to improve knowledge and appreciation of the benefits resulting from TDM programs. -
The Scales of Gentrification
Cities strive to find the balance point between revitalization and gentrification.December 01, 2018"Gentrification" means as many different things as there are cities dealing with its impact. But are cities effectively dealing with its impact, either positive or negative? -
Welcome to Beer Country
Small breweries are a big deal — and some cities are courting them.February 01, 2015Demand for craft beers is on the rise, and as a result craft breweries have been popping up across the nation. Their presence is having a big impact on some local economies and is presenting zoning and policy challenges. With a sidebar on efforts to build a "food corridor" in Raleigh, North Carolina. -
From Aerospace to the Tech Race
Seattle's economy has an enviable mix of legacy companies and newer powerhouses.January 01, 2015Seattle has rapidly emerged as an economic leader in the Pacific Northwest, thanks to policies friendly to the tech, aerospace, trade, and health care industries and the nine Fortune 500 companies headquartered there. -
Beacon Hill’s Enchanted Food Forest
Sandy Pernitz, the Seattle city staff person who works directly with the Beacon Food Forest, tells the tale of how the community rallied around an innovative project in food systems planning. -
Cross Talk
Make sure your messages to nonplanning audiences don’t get lost in translation.October 01, 2019The words planners use to talk about planning are important. If we want our plans to become reality, we need to make our cases to local politicians and, increasingly, the court of public opinion. -
That Unwelcome Stranger Called Climate Change
Adapting to it locally.October 01, 2015Climate change adaptation is made more difficult when changes occur suddenly. -
Christchurch Recovers
In New Zealand, collaboration is key.August 01, 2015Christchurch, New Zealand, rebuilds after two major earthquakes. -
6 Tips for Inclusive Public Meetings
March 01, 2019Some planners and communities are trying to reshape public engagement with a focus on different approaches and more diverse participation. -
Partnering with Health Systems on Affordable Housing Investments
PAS Memo — March-April 2021This PAS Memo explains why and how planners can partner with hospitals and health systems to create more equitable communities. It draws from the experiences of six hospitals and health systems participating in Accelerating Investments for Healthy Communities. -
Using Metrics to Drive Community Sustainability Efforts
PAS Memo — May/June 2011Assessing where the community is and creating a plan to move in a more sustainable direction requires a process that must be tailored to the individual community's needs. There are basic issue areas that cannot be left out of the process, such as transportation and zoning, but the goals and targets are dependent on the viable outcomes and reachable objectives decided by the community. -
Integrating Capital Improvements Planning With the Comprehensive Plan
PAS Memo — September/October 2018Capital investments are generally planned, designed, funded, and constructed entirely outside of the planning department's zone of control. Given this reality, it can take a bit of creativity and persistence to ensure that the comprehensive plan influences and informs the capital improvement program (CIP). -
Preserving Naturally Occurring Affordable Housing
Zoning Practice — December 2023This issue of Zoning Practice addresses how local governments can use zoning to preserve the existing supply of older, modest home. It briefly summarizes housing market conditions that illustrate the importance of naturally occurring affordable housing (NOAH) and presents a range of potential zoning strategies communities could use to slow the loss of NOAH. -
More Trees, Please
Cooperative urban forestry planning is bringing green to our concrete jungles, and the benefits go far beyond aesthetics.June 01, 2017Today, city trees are considered infrastructure as necessary as roads, bridges, pipes, and tunnels. -
Cities and the Seas Around Them
December 01, 2014In order to fully become green cities, coastal cities like Vancouver must also become “blue cities” by extending their sustainability practices to embrace and protect the surrounding marine environments. -
The Tricky Business of On-Site Water Treatment and Reuse
It's time to rethink old assumptions about what can and can't be done.December 01, 2014In many cities, water-management policies can get in the way of integrating water reuse into new developments. This article covers the unique ways in which cities solve these problems and adopt sustainable water practices. A sidebar explores how, faced with drought, California and other Western states navigate issues with water supply, storage, and reuse. -
Going Rogue Goes Mainstream
Planners are using tactical urbanism strategies to stretch rules and dollars to make big impacts in small and rural communities.June 01, 2018Tactical urbanism is not for hipsters only. Rural and small town planners are exploring its potential as a cost-effective way to boost civic engagement. -
Keeping Hoofs Off Hoods
Highway overpasses for wildlife expand species’ habitats and help reduce collisions that harm humans.March 01, 2017Highway engineers and wildlife biologists have long tried to keep hoofs away from hoods, but with blinkered success. -
Smart Cities: Behind the Scenes With Austin, Portland, San Francisco
by: Emily PasiThis is the second of a two-part series on the plans behind DOT's Smart City Challenge. -
Will Metrorail's New Silver Line Spur TOD?
Only time, patience, and planning will tell.May 01, 2014Building transit lines doesn't guarantee that transit-oriented development will occur. Metrorail's current service extension along a new line in Northern Virginia can act as a timely case study of the challenges facing TOD, particularly in a suburban environment. -
The Impossible Task of Mapping the Future
Absent a crystal ball, the enormously complex region uses scenario planning tools to determine how it should grow.January 01, 2017The enormously complex New York region uses scenario planning tools to determine how it should grow. -
A Microbial View of Planning
March 01, 2014This article discusses the microbial world around us and concludes that planners and planning academics should begin to work together with biologists in better understanding this realm and in designing and managing built environments to ensure both human and ecosystem health. -
Too Big to Fail
The ups and downs of Orange County's Great Park.April 01, 2014An ambitious plan to turn a former air force base in Orange County, California, into a park won awards and accolades at first, but a series of challenges, questionable spending, and lack of transparency have left the park with little budget to carry out its original plan. -
Downtown Revitalization in Small and Midsized Cities
PAS Report 590by: Michael BurayidiDemographic shifts and growing interest in walkable, convenient urban experiences have put a spotlight on city centers. This PAS Report shares strategies that have proved successful in transforming the downtowns of small and midsized cities.List price$25.00APA member & PAS subscriber$0.00 -
Planning for Shared Mobility
PAS Report 583by: Adam Cohen, Susan Shaheen July 26, 2016In the "shared economy," short-term transportation access is on a roll. What are the rules of the road for these new services? This PAS Report looks at how a nation of movers and sharers is shaping local plans and policies.List price$0.00APA member & PAS subscriber$0.00 -
The Double-Edged Sword of Preemption
It can keep special interests from grabbing control — or throw gasoline on local battles. What matters to communities is how it’s wielded.November 01, 2019The value of any particular preemptive law is a matter of debate, but preemption is on the rise and there are distinct trends in how it is being applied nationally. -
Living With Landslides
Rural mountain communities plan for the inevitable.October 01, 2017Western planners have choices to make in dealing with the aftermath of spring landslides and floods that followed drenching winter rain. -
Equity-Oriented Performance Measures in Transportation Planning
PAS Memo — March/April 2020Planners are now more clearly recognizing the impacts of a half-century of inequitable, auto-oriented planning as well as the outcomes resulting from structural racism. To rectify current inequities, which are a legacy of many years of cumulative decisions, planners must work proactively to improve communities that have historically experienced disinvestment and negative impacts. -
Coliving: An Old Idea Is New Again
Zoning Practice — November 2022This issue of Zoning Practice defines and describes coliving and its benefits, distinguishes coliving from other similar land uses, and identifies barriers to the production of purpose-built coliving communities. It then provides recommendations for changes to local zoning codes to accommodate and encourage coliving. -
Doing Public Participation Better
Zoning Practice — September 2024This issue of Zoning Practice recounts some key flaws of typical public participation processes and, more importantly, proposes some solutions. Some of the proposals described here can be adopted and implemented by city, town, and county staff and commissioners. Others will require changes to state enabling legislation. -
A New Direction for Natchez
A struggling Southern city with a racially divided past takes a big step to create prosperity for all.December 01, 2018Natchez, Mississippi, vigorously engaged the public — including the city's African-American majority — in the creation of its new master plan. Three focus areas and the downtown are the targets for physical and economic revitalization. -
Parking Price Therapy
The High Cost of Free Parking diagnosed the malady and prescribed a treatment. Parking and the City examines how it worked.October 01, 2018An excerpt from the new book, Parking and City, takes a look at changes in parking policies since 2005 when The High Cost of Free Parking was published. -
National Parks: Too Much Love or Not the Right Kind?
Seeking solutions to chronic problems.July 01, 2014As visitor rates hold steady and federal budgets are stretched more and more, are our nation’s national parks getting too much love or not the right kind? This article looks at partnerships as a potential solution for stressed national parks. -
Healthier, Wealthier, and Wiser
Local food systems provide more than one kind of sustenance.July 01, 2014Communities across the country need food processing and distribution infrastructure that provides markets for farmers and access to consumers. This article discusses how several communities are grappling with and solving these challenges. -
Fair Housing at 50
We’ve had a half-century to fulfill this promise. How have we done?April 01, 2018Half a century after the Fair Housing Act was passed, can the Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing rule get the U.S. closer to the goal? -
The Geography of Loss
GIS and planning have joined the fight against the opioid epidemic.March 01, 2018Geographic Information Systems are a new tool for planners and others who have joined the struggle against the opioid crisis. -
21st Century Smokestacks
Redeveloping a Pennsylvania steel plant.October 01, 2015Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, works to redevelop the largest privately-owned brownfield in the United States. -
Is Midtown the New Detroit?
A turnaround may be in the works.July 01, 2015Lauded as the example of a failed city, Detroit has endured its fair share of bad PR. Its midtown neighborhood's resurgence over the past decade can be traced to committed planners who did not give up. -
Using the Housing and Transportation Affordability Index in Your Community
PAS Memo — November/December 2011Since CNT began releasing data for public use in 2008, a diverse group of people and organizations has used the Housing and Transportation Affordability Index (H+T) for a wide variety of planning and policy applications. H+T data helps those seeking homes make more-informed location decisions and budget better for the transportation costs of a home's location. -
Preserving Manufactured Home Communities
PAS Memo — September-October 2020Despite the desirability of manufactured housing for many homeowners and the contribution of this unsubsidized affordable housing stock to communities, a variety of factors threaten MHCs with transformation or loss. Though some new MHCs continue to be established in some regions, anecdotally, loss is the bigger trend. -
Putting a Cap on Parking Requirements
A way to make cities function better.May 01, 2015Parking guru Donald Shoup makes the case for parking caps. -
A Need for Speed
Communities must plan for high-speed broadband or risk getting left behind.October 01, 2017Broadband has become as necessary as electricity, and local planners have several roles to play in bringing the technology to their communities. -
Infrastructure of Opportunity
After decades of growth and investment, Chattanooga is looking to develop another critical asset — its people — by taking a hard look at education.July 01, 2017Of all the various investments and strides Chattanooga has made, there's one gaping hole: developing its human infrastructure. -
Connecting the Dots
Linking bike share with transit — while considering equity issues — requires a big-picture approach.April 01, 2017Bike share is on the rise because it's an attractive option for cities looking to meet health and sustainability goals. -
Here Comes the Sun
Community solar, or shared solar, is growing nationwide as a means of giving people a local source of solar energy, even if they don’t own a home.March 01, 2017Community solar power installations are growing across the U.S., improving access for low-income housing residents. -
Bikes Across America
It is a rare breed of person who completes a bicycle ride across the country.November 01, 2016The U.S. Bicycle Route System will eventually include more than 50,000 miles and run through all 50 states and most major metropolitan areas. -
Tiny Houses: Niche or Noteworthy?
These darling dwellings have gotten a lot of attention, but their fanatic followers just might be on to something.February 01, 2016Tiny houses of less than 500 square feet are growing in popularity. -
TDR-Less TDR Revisited: Transfer of Development Rights Innovations and Gunnison County's Residential Density Transfer Program
PAS Memo — May/June 2010Transfer of Development Rights programs do not lend themselves to cookie-cutter approaches. A TDR-less TDR program, like Gunnison County's RDT program, is not necessarily ideal for every community. Each community must evaluate its circumstances and goals and find the right combination of traditional and innovative features. -
Pot Report
Highs and lows in the wake of legalization.July 01, 2015This article provides an analytical look at municipalities different approaches to legalized marijuana, and considers whether there may be a better plan out there. Erick Mertz conducts a Q &A with Tom Towslee, the acting director of communications for the Oregon Liquor Control Commission about that state's recently passed legalization legislation. -
Fighting the Water Wars on a Different Front
It takes conservation and creativity to get the job done.January 01, 2014Droughts, floods, decaying infrastructure, and a two-decades-long dispute with Alabama and Florida have all been triggers for conservation and creativity in water use in north Georgia, from airport terminals to breweries to new home construction.