Explore how planners engaged their communities and what tools they used to increase response rates and participation in Census taking, particularly during a pandemic.

This webinar will explain how county staff was able to document the history of the Peace Cross and prepare for legal proceedings at the Federal District, Appellate and US Supreme Court.​ ​Viewers will also learn important lessons if their municipalities experience similar challenges.

In this, the first of a two-part series, we will examine the practical and legal policies, procedures, and practices that guide communities in establishing and administering public art programs.

Join a discussion led by national retail consultant and Downtown specialist Mike Berne, President of New York City and San Francisco Bay Area-based MJB Consulting, about harnessing creative thinking, collaboration, and adaptability to encourage the timely emergence of new innovations and business models in response to changing realities and unforeseeable shocks.

This second presentation in a two-part series will begin post-installation. We will look at best practices and federal and state laws pertaining to the maintenance and conservation of public art works.

The session will cover how shared spaces and flush streets can help with big objectives such as making better places, increasing economic exchange, and simplifying maintenance. It will also cover achieving other objectives such as making it easier for pedestrians to avoid tripping hazards, parents to maneuver baby carriages, travelers pulling wheeled luggage, or to host special events within the public realm.

This online course focuses on the proper design, construction and maintenance of various green infrastructure stormwater BMPs, offering a number of actual constructed systems to support their feasibility and applicability in different development settings.

The Planner’s Tool Kit includes zoning ordinances, subdivision and land development ordinances, and a variety of other regulatory and non-regulatory approaches. With new and unique issues to address, even experienced planners struggle to identify which tool or combination of tools most effectively addresses the issues. Complicating the issue, enabling authority and preemption may rather arbitrarily limit the use of some tools. This session engages participants in a discussion of how to address unique issues most effectively while shielding the local government from liability.

Across the country, state governments incentivize development of green energy, often without consideration for local impacts. When companies seek to site wind turbines, solar panels and other green energy infrastructure, the authority of local governments and state governments often remains unclear. Attorneys from Mid-Atlantic states will discuss the legal issues impacting land use planners in the siting of green energy infrastructure, including the limits of local government authority.

Planners write thousands of staff reports every year in response to applications for rezonings, plan amendments, site plans, etc. The reports go to citizens, applicants, advisory boards, and governing bodies who make decisions impacting the very fabric of our communities, yet how often do we assess the report itself? Let alone think creatively about it? Hear the story of how the traditional staff report was turned avant-garde through fashion thinking and inspiration from works of art. Fashion designers create avant-garde pieces of clothing that may not be very wearable in hopes of rethinking ready-to-wear. Inspired by fashion and works of art, we created avant-garde staff reports seeking to break the usual mold for staff reports. We used style boards (images of actual staff reports compiled into a poster), mood boards (images compiled into a poster to create a certain ambiance, but also to boost fresh, lateral thinking), and prototypes of avant-garde staff reports to open our eyes to other ways of thinking. The avant-garde staff reports (videos, game board, newsletters, collage, mobile, and e-book) were tested with planning commissioners and planners in Georgia, California, Kansas, Missouri, Utah, Colorado, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Oregon, and New York. This session includes the process and shares the results of the commissioners’ and planners’ assessments. Take-aways are creative (yet practical) improvements to staff reports and the value of “fashion thinking” to advance communication and collaboration. In addition to research results, the City of Topeka, Kansas’ Planning and Development Director will talk about taking his Planning Commission through the avant-garde process and how his staff is modernizing their staff reports.

With COVID-19, the rural divide just became bigger. The presence of adequate broadband impacts distance learning K-12 in Higher Education, economic development and many other aspects of land use planning. This session discusses how planners can impact broadband distribution through telecommunications ordinances, comprehensive plans and other local ordinances and policies. The discussion will include the uncertainties surrounding small cells and 5G technology.

The sixth annual Jersey Water Works Conference is a multi-day virtual event that will bring together more than 300 state and local decision-makers, practitioners and stakeholders to amplify the importance of addressing New Jersey’s water infrastructure, explore innovative solutions and celebrate the Jersey Water Works collaborative as an effective, comprehensive approach to achieving statewide impact.