Events

Join us on Saturday, April 20^th, for a leisurely stroll through the beautiful Borough of Frenchtown, named One of New Jersey’s Great Places by the New Jersey Chapter of the American Planning Association – and we’ll show you why it deserves this title! 

Members will learn the basics of energy pipeline operations and maintenance, facilities, and products transported. They will gain an understanding of the risks and benefits pipelines pose to the community. Members will learn the agencies that regulate pipelines at the Federal, State and local level. They will learn the role that local governments can play in improving pipeline safety. Additionally they will learn risk based practices for land use and development planning near transmission pipelines. They will be provided with examples of good and poor development near pipelines and well as the location of additional technical information and financial resources to support their efforts to improve safety of the community and the built environment near pipelines.

Save the Date: Thursday, June 6, 2013. The conference will be held at the Newark Museum. The conference is co-hosted by the NJ Historic Trust, NJ Historic Commission, NJ Historic Preservation Office, and the Common Wealth of New Jersey. 

Recent federal legislation on collocations, FCC non-binding guidance and now state level legislative proposals could dramatically impact your community's planning authority and local zoning of wireless facilities towers. In this webinar, BB&K telecommunications attorneys will provide an overview of the challenges and opportunities facing local governments as they attempt to protect local interests while complying with federal requirements governing zoning of wireless facilities and to defeat damaging state legislative proposals that are sweeping the nation.

The 5th Annual Sustainable Raritan River Conference will focus on action steps everyone can take as individuals, as families, as part of a company or as a leader in government – to improve water quality in the region through redevelopment, remediation, restoration and protection of the Raritan River and all its tributaries.

Featuring front-line Executive Directors from NYC - Kerry McLean from the South Bronx and Rebeca Ramirez from the Heart of Brooklyn - NJ'sJGSC Group, developer Steve Santola and commercial real estate CEOBrian Silbert.

 In this webinar we examine a few failed projects that damaged the financial position of the municipality that undertook them and consider what lessons we can learn from these unfortunate situations. “The wise learn from other people's mistakes and fools from their own.” –Old Proverb. “The way of fools seems right to them, but the wise listen to advice.” –King Solomon, Circa 950 A.D.

Please join APA-NJ as it celebrates one of its 2012 Great Place in New Jersey award winners with a Walking Tour of Broad Street, Hopewell Borough.  The Hopewell Borough Mayor, Council members and other local stakeholders will walk with us and discuss the efforts made to retain the historic qualities of the area while seeking and investing grant monies into streetscape improvements

Come explore Orange’s Valley Arts District - a strikingly rich multicultural community nested in the Valley of West Orange and Orange. This is a terrific opportunity for planners to uncover the history and vibrant culture in the Valley Arts District.

USGBC and the Land Use Law Center at Pace University have recently launched two new, free resources to help municipalities utilize the LEED for Neighborhood Development rating system to support their sustainable planning goals. While certification under the rating system is often best suited to development projects, many elements of the rating system can be utilized as an open-source tool to strengthen local government planning efforts. These two resources explore in great detail the ways in which the rating system can be utilized translating those into direct action for planners complete with numerous case study examples.

Addressing the Needs of LGBT Seniors: Seniors in the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender community face a unique, and significant, set of obstacles to aging comfortably, including discrimination, lack of certain legal protections, and an absence of a family support system. Examine current trends in addressing the needs of LGBT seniors as well as innovative programs and services to help them age in place.

New York is known the world over as a city of walkers and straphangers, not to mention one of the most popular tourist destinations anywhere with five very distinct boroughs, clashing street configurations, and a variety of naming and numbering conventions. Despite huge volumes of residents and visitors walking and using transit, most existing on-street directional information is aimed at drivers. This webinar will introduce participants to the basics of wayfinding with a focus on the system design and program development in NYC. There will be a Q & A session at the end of the webinar.

On Monday, October 29, 2012, Superstorm Sandy struck New York City, the most populous region in the United States. Sandy was the biggest Atlantic storm in history, devastating homes and businesses across the Northeast, and causing over $19 billion in damages in New York City alone. In response to this disaster, the New York Metro Chapter of the APA undertook a six month effort to assess how Superstorm Sandy impacted businesses in Rockaway, Queens, a community uniquely situated on a narrow peninsula and one of the hardest-hit areas of New York City. This webinar walks you through the process that the New York Metro Chapter team took to conduct its needs assessment and develop meaningful recommendations for strong planning.

Join the placemaking experts from Project for Public Spaces, Philadelphia's University City District, and the C.L.U.E Group (along the Montclair Center District itself) for this workshop.  You will learn about key principles for creating great community places, scalable & innovative placemaking in practice, and innovative funding sources for making local public improvement projects happen.

Last month, the US Supreme Court handed down its decision in Koontz v. St. Johns River Water Management District. In this complex 5-4 decision, the court ruled that monetary conditions attached to land use permits are now subject to the heightened scrutiny tests of nexus and rough proportionality found in Nollan and Dolan – and that these tests also apply to permit denials, as was the case here. To help you understand what Koontz means, join with two of the country’s leading experts in land use law: Professor John Echeverria of Vermont Law School and Dwight Merriam, Esq., FAICP of Robinson & Cole LLP.

Functional classification is a transportation topic that is often left for engineers to sort out, but it has a huge impact on urban planning. Anyone involved in urban planning – including community stakeholders – should be part of the dialogue surrounding the function of public streets. This webcast will incorporate very specific examples that are typical of public transportation networks throughout the United States.

Addressing the Needs of LGBT Seniors: Seniors in the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender community face a unique, and significant, set of obstacles to aging comfortably, including discrimination, lack of certain legal protections, and an absence of a family support system. Examine current trends in addressing the needs of LGBT seniors as well as innovative programs and services to help them age in place.

This presentation will demonstrate a small historic Connecticut town's efforts to create a form-based code that enables a significant amount of context-sensitive development within the existing town center. The town also established innovative stormwater management regulations and design guidelines integrated with the adopted form-based code. Issues common to many smaller towns will be discussed as will the approach taken to establish compact, walkable development patterns as a framework for watershed health.

The Common Ground Program is a community gardening and urban agriculture program created by the city of Lawrence, Kan. This webinar will provide an overview of the Common Ground Program, an outline the goals of the project goals, community benefits and lessons learned. The webinar will also provide insight on funding sources and potential partnerships that other communities or organizations may utilize in pursuing similar efforts.

Please join us for our APA-NJ Emerging Professionals Quarterly Meeting.  The committee will be discussing specific events for the remaining months of the year.  We'll also be looking for people who want to get involved and help to coordinate activities.  If you can't make the meeting, but would like to help, please contact Darlene Green.

This webinar session will highlight trends in transport, and explore sustainable mobility and solutions emerging from local and national partnerships. Successes around the country will be showcased, and strategies noted that scale up the movement. GPC’s tools include: Energy efficient technologies; Hosting of bike-sharing, car-sharing, carpooling, and mass-transit, EV charging; Responsible storm water management, Integration of intelligent transportation; Placemaking: parking assets right-sized, as well-designed, responsible neighbors; Resiliency: parking garages as energy storage and deployment centers in times of crisis; Green Garage Certification: a program inspiring parking assets to be a positive force in the built environment.

This one-of-a-kind event will bring together New Jersey’s top sustainability experts with
academics, state and local agencies, organizations, Sustainable Jersey Green Team and Task Force members and the interested public, at a sustainable venue, Duke Farms!

As we move toward more transit oriented development and work to retrofit our existing suburbs, we search for opportunities to use existing infrastructure and land area efficiently. As we evaluate these opportunities, it is important to fully understand the residential developments in these suburban areas of the post-WWII era -- both lower density modest single-family house tracts and garden apartment complexes with acres of green space. 

Join Roger Brooks of Roger Brooks International (RBI) as he shared his high-energy, high-value expertise to take you through key strategies and tactics for building communities as destinations and then promoting them effectively.  Using uncommon common sense and his ability to cut through the B.S. in our media and marketing-saturated world Roger will leave you with great ideas that are both inspiring and actionable.  

This session will focus on the kinds of incentives and planning tools that can be used that promote both redevelopment in the traditional centers of a city—those outside downtown—and the unification of those areas through mass transit. The session will cover the use of a variety of economic development incentives, form based codes implementation, and use of the Institute for Transportation Engineers Walkable Urban Thoroughfares Manual as a package for revitalization in El Paso, Texas.

This session shows how to calculate the increase in value of private land due to public actions and develop a reasonable figure for developer contributions. This knowledge is particularly helpful to those working in urban design and preservation where much of what is achieved is through negotiating developer contributions. This session was first presented at the APA National Conference in Chicago in 2013.

The purpose of the 16th YP Multi-Group Mixer is to bring together young professionals from various organizations for a night of social networking and for group-to-group cross exposure. Young Professionals attend to make new contacts, make new friends, and to learn about other organizations.

The PP Exam Review Course for the Fall 2013 test period will be held Saturday, October 5 from 8:30AM to 4:00PM, at the Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy, Civic Square Building, 33 Livingston Avenue, 2nd Floor, Room 261, New Brunswick, NJ 08901.

Panel discussion the safety and land use implications of rail and truck freight routes through local communities. Learn from national research and from the experiences of the railroads, the City of Baltimore.

Join Camden County and Cherry Hill Officials and the American Planning Association, New Jersey Chapter, to celebrate Cooper River Park’s award as a... GREAT PLACE IN NEW JERSEY!

This presentation describes the scope of the problem in terms of public health risks. federal and state drinking water, water quality, and stormwater laws require permittees to address leaky infrastructure, but local implementers often interpret these requirements in ways that ignore the potential infectious disease risk posed. 

The City of Hoboken’s South Hoboken Waterfront has been named a Great Place in New Jersey for 2013 by the American Planning Association-New Jersey Chapter (APA-NJ).   The City will be hosting a Walking Tour on Friday, October 18 from 2pm-4pm. The Walking Tour will highlight the South Hoboken Waterfront and present the processes which were involved in its industrial-to-recreational transformation.

On Thursday, Oct 24th, from 6-9pm continue our Community Planning Month celebrations with fellow APA-NJ members at this Northeast Area networking event. Enjoy light fare at 12 West in Upper Montclair - conveniently located in Upper Montclair Town Center, adjacent to the Upper Montclair Train Station.

Moderated by Bloustein Local Director and University Professor Raphael J. Caprio, and Senior Research Fellow Marc Pfeiffer, the program includes a macroeconomic overview of  the region, presentations by representatives from Jersey City, Weehawken and Edgewater, all waterfront municipalities that have experienced significant impact from Gold Coast development, and a prominent developer’s view of the region’s future. 

Status quo parking requirements often stand in the way of making communities livable, equitable, and sustainable. Responding to criticisms of excessive minimum parking requirements, many planners feel that improvements should be made but they lack a solid procedure for generating reform. Webinar participants are provided with a handout showing a step-by-step technical and policy process for reforming parking requirements. A brief introduction explains that parking requirements are a policy choice, not merely a technical calculation. 

The downtown area of Freehold is the heart of the Borough, which is located centrally in Monmouth County. Like many towns of its time, it is the historic village center for much of the surrounding population.

On this Day of Service, APA-NJ volunteers will be helping to paint the playground at Belmar Elementary School in Belmar, NJ – renewing students sense of play after their playground was damaged by the effects of Hurricane Sandy. Belmar Elementary School is a public school serving 555 students from Belmar and Lake Como in grades K-8.

The North American urban landscape is dominated by the products of late 20th century suburbanization, leaving the built environment littered with dead malls, failing strip centers, foreclosed houses, vacant big boxes, and acre upon acre of asphalt parking lots. What to do? June Williamson will discuss promising planning and design strategies and tactics, illustrated with competition-winning proposals from her book Designing Suburban Futures as well as case studies from her previous book Retrofitting Suburbia, co-authored with Ellen Dunham-Jones.

The Walkable City: How Downtown Can Save America, One Step at a Time. In this Webinar, Jeff Speck outlines the compelling economic, health, and environmental mandates behind creating more walkable communities. He then discusses his General Theory of Walkability, which describes the measures that communities can undertake to create larger walking and biking populations by providing the "useful, safe, comfortable, and interesting walk."

Please join this important, informative, and engaging webinar on the ethical rules and considerations governing planners, plan commissioners, and lawyers who work with planners and appear before plan commissions. The webinar will cover the primary sources of ethical rules for planners and lawyers, common ethical mistakes and how to avoid them, and recent cases. In addition, the webinar will have an interactive component that will enable participants to interact with the presenters and other participants on ethical scenarios.

This symposium will showcase recent work from the Transportation and Climate Initiative’s (TCI) Northeast Electric Vehicle Network on electric vehicle deployment in the northeast and mid-Atlantic region. Georgetown Climate Center, facilitator of TCI, will present the Network’s research findings on challenges and opportunities for EV deployment in the Northeast, and will also explore a number of EV planning tools –such as siting and design guidelines and best practices for developing EV-friendly zoning codes –that can help communities in New Jersey become EV-Ready.

This webinar is intended for local officials, planning board members and interested citizens, and will explain how non-contiguous cluster development works, with illustrated case studies and resources for getting started. Speakers will also address how to plan for attractive, walkable neighborhoods and centers, with input and support from the community.

This session will introduce community planners to the concepts and core principles of the NDRF; equip planners and others involved in post-disaster recovery with the tools and techniques needed to design and execute a post-disaster planning process; and will educate planners on how to build community capacity through the post-disaster planning process. Planners will leave this session armed with a number of community recovery and planning resources. They will learn the critical steps needed to guide communities to successful recovery. They will learn how to engage local citizens in the recovery process, and teach community members how to be engaged, successful, local champions who will take ownership of their local recovery planning process.

This second session goes into greater detail on the new law. Experienced practitioners will explain its new features and how municipal planners and attorneys can apply them to craft cluster development ordinances that address community goals. Speakers will cover how to structure a non-contiguous cluster program that is attractive to developers from a financial and risk perspective and how to integrate cluster development ordinances into local open space and farmland preservation programs. Audience members will have ample opportunity to ask questions.

Then two panels will evaluate the September 26, 2013 New Jersey Supreme Court ruling on the Council of Affordable Housing’s round III methodology for calculating each town’s affordable housing obligation.

This introductory webinar will focus on how to do so by describing how to conduct a vulnerability analysis. The webinar will include processes that local, regional, or state planners can use to ensure transportation system resiliency and provide an effective network to support their communities. Participants will develop a deeper understanding of specific vulnerabilities and be informed about a step-by-step process that they can follow to assess and rank vulnerabilities for project prioritization purposes.

Get ready for what we hope will be our largest and best state conference yet!  Join us and you will pick up new tools and tips, reconnect with over 500 of your colleagues, and leave at the end of two days a bit tired, but intellectually energized.

In 2011, the US Department of Justice promulgated rules on “Other Power Driven Mobility Devices” under the Americans with Disabilities Act. Attend this webcast and learn how the new rule applies to Federal, State, local, and privately owned lands as well as the assessment factors and public notice requirements under that Rule. 

Across the country municipalities seeking to reshape dysfunctional auto-oriented development continue to replace conventional zoning codes with new codes that primarily regulate form and only secondarily regulate use. As the fundamentally different approach of Form-Based Codes becomes more popular, practitioners are looking for credible guidance on how to draft and implement form-based codes in their area. In this webinar, we will share lessons distilled from over a decade of experience implementing and administering municipal form-based development and will introduce community planners to the core principles of Form-Based Codes.

This webinar will address the viability of ferry services and their integration into public transportation systems. Speakers include Tim Payne, Principal of Nelson Nygaard and 35 years of experience. He also led development of TCRP SB-23, “Integrating Passenger Ferry Service with Mass Transit” on behalf of the Transportation Research Board.   Also speaking will be Hannah Henn, Assistant Vice President and Director of Ferries at New York City Economic Development Corporation. 

This session focuses on examples of two engaging, community-based plans now being implemented to achieve active, vibrant environments in an existing downtown (Burlington, VT) and a new TOD neighborhood (Santa Monica, CA).  Both plans were adopted in 2013, funded by HUD Office of Sustainable Communities Community Challenge grants, a pioneering Federal program that supports cities to develop integrated land use and transportation plans.   The webinar will include ideas and lessons learned for involving the community, designing and presenting information, and including a phased Implementation Plan that guides and measures achievement of Plan goals.

The workshop will “bridge the gap” between planners and communities by introducing them to available resources for community planning projects and activities. Price includes breakfast, lunch and workshop materials.

The New Jersey Economic Opportunity Act of 2013 is designed to stimulate economic development and strengthen New Jersey’s competitive edge in the global economy.  How will it impact land use decision making?  Come hear experts discuss how the incentives will alter land use in vibrant urban areas, highly distressed areas, and suburban areas that are at risk of having stranded assets.

Learn how to create plans that can be read on Kindles, iPads and other mobile devices. Creating plans with mobile devices in mind allows for a richer, more interactive experience for readers. Learn about easy to use, free software and tips for creating an interactive mobile-ready plan. This webcast is sponsored by the Ohio Chapter of the American Planning Association

The purpose of this session is to introduce participants to the origins of the BLM, FLPMA, and other related laws for managing the Nation’s most extensive network of public lands. A better understanding of why and how the BLM works with the public, partners and diverse interests improves inter-jurisdictional collaboration to meet shared goals.

The City Planner Book Club Meet Up is scheduled for Wednesday, March 26 at 6:30PM at The Daily in NYC. Click here for more details. 

During the webinar easily accessible web-based products will be discussed as well as case studies of how they have been applied. From this webinar participants will learn about C-CAP land cover data, the Coastal County Snapshot, Economics: National Ocean Watch (ENOW) data, Sea Level Rise and Coastal Flooding Impacts Viewer, and the Historical Hurricane Tracks website. During the webinar easily accessible web-based products will be discussed as well as case studies of how they have been applied. From this webinar participants will learn about C-CAP land cover data, the Coastal County Snapshot, Economics: National Ocean Watch (ENOW) data, Sea Level Rise and Coastal Flooding Impacts Viewer, and the Historical Hurricane Tracks web.

In this panel presentation, professional planners will address the challenges and successes they have had with a wide range of projects, including the creation of an urban river walk, the development of a regional bicycle plan, addressing the active transportation needs of a suburban high school, and planning for a mixed-use trail connecting two municipalities.

Click here to register.

The APA-NJ Emerging Professionals Group will be hosting their 2nd quarterly meeting for the year.  Topics to be discussed include:  events, walking tours, volunteer events, and professional development offerings. Free appetizers will be available.

Small and mid-sized communities face significant planning challenges which are different than those faced by larger communities. This presentation will describe an approach to economic development planning suitable for small and mid-sized communities. Presenters will discuss key trends impacting small & mid-size communities, with a focus on retail, housing, and the growing importance of the Central Social District and its role in downtown revitalization. 

The Spring NJDRMI for 2014 will get you up to speed on connecting your downtown, business and organization to the digital realm, helping your bring more money, people, and partners to support and sustain your efforts.

Planners and local governments should give attention to: holistic approach of multigenerational planning, work underway in cities, such as New York and Atlanta, taking creative steps to make their neighborhoods age-friendly and tools such as the Villages movement for self-empowerment on aging-in-place. This session will examine some tools and resources to foster communities friendly to all ages and highlight on-the-ground strategies to 'fund' changes.

The Affordable Housing Professionals of New Jersey in collaboration with the New Jersey Chapter of the American Planning Association is hosting an all-day symposium on the new proposed COAH Third Round Regulations.

This webinar is designed to inform planners on the benefits of landscaping to promote sustainability and redevelopment and then how to get this message out to developers, home owners and the community. The webinar will also provide a crash course on “right tree, right place” requirements. Finally the beneficial impacts that green areas provides for surface water retention and the prevention of hazardous runoff into our waterways will be discussed.

The next City Planner Book Club Meetup will be on Thursday, June 26 at Zeppelin Hall in Jersey City! Hope to see you there! Questions? Contact APA-NJ PDO, Christopher Brown at

Health Impact Assessment (HIA) is an emerging area of practice in the United States that is designed to be a practical tool that can be used to incorporate “health in all policies” into decisions made outside the traditional health fields that have impacts on health (transportation, land use, development, infrastructure, housing, education, policy).

Join us on Friday, June 27 at 3:30PM and see how a combination of zoning changes, infrastructure investments, financial incentives, and grassroots organizing has impacted the landscape of Downtown Newark and Newark’s LGBT community. (CM|Pending)

“Heritage Preservation” acknowledges the value of historic buildings and landmarks while sensitive to the stories, institutions, and cultural imprint of incumbent residents within our communities. Redevelopment initiatives that compromise cultural heritage are not sustainable due to the loss of assets that are irreplaceable.

During this day-long workshop (7/23), nationally and internationally-renowned Kennedy Smith will take you through the relationship between successful "places", best practices for economic analysis, and making the most of historic assets. CM Pending

This webinar will outline how the three-year program made an impact on planning and equity initiatives throughout Greater Boston. The webinar will focus on a few of those key planning and equity initiatives including transit-oriented development, fair housing plans, and housing and community development.

Join the movement to reconnect the soul of Newark to its river! This interactive walkshop led by Newark Planning Director Damon Rich and others will cover two miles of Newark's Ironbound riverfront between Penn Station and Chapel Street.

Planners currently use diverse engagement tools and processes to reach “beyond the usual suspects” and get outside of City Hall to gather input. However, reports, findings, draft and published plans all are still communicated in very traditional forms - long, jargon-filled documents with limited ways to explore the content non-linearly or comment on it.

Youth planning programs can help communities shape the next generation of civic-minded citizens. Listen while experts from the Atlanta Regional Commission, the University of Georgia, and the University of Georgia’s Cooperative Extension describe three of the area’s youth planning programs: a day camp, a leadership program, and an outreach program for at-risk youth.