Community Heart & Soul is a resident-driven process that engages the entire population of a town in identifying what they love most about their community, what future they want for it, and how to achieve it. Developed and field-tested over a decade in partnership with over 100 small cities and towns across America, Community Heart & Soul is a proven process for engaging a community in shaping its future. Learn from three professional planners about the Community Heart & Soul model of planning, community development and community engagement and learn how it has enhanced Comprehensive Plans across the US including in Maine, Washington, Colorado and Pennsylvania.

Zoning codes, adopted by thousands of local governments across the country, dictate much of what can be built in the United States. While each zoning code can be written slightly differently, they are commonly slight iterations on a similar theme. Planners are quite familiar with the direct and indirect impacts of zoning codes and development regulations can have on housing availability, transportation, education, the food supply, economic opportunity, and access to nature.

This webinar will introduce the topic of drafting planning rules as computer code from international case studies. Despite being on the radar of the PropTech sector, planners themselves are currently unprepared for the wide-reaching changes this technology poses for plan drafting and development review. Planners however have an important role to play to ensure that coded rules match intended planning outcomes and that transparency and human accountability is maintained in the implementation of any automated assessment processes.

“The plan wasn’t implemented.” This is an all-too-common lament about comprehensive plans. It is a proverbial tale familiar even to those who are not planners. A plan sits on the shelf and collects dust. There are different things planners can do to create plans that are practical and lead to results. This webcast will discuss the “implementable comprehensive plan” approach, affirmative principles and steps communities can employ to create plans elected officials and citizens embrace and partners join in help implement. The webcast will highlight case studies and lessons learned as the “implementable comprehensive plan” has grown as a movement in Pennsylvania. The webcast will discuss five keys for an implementable plan. The keys include specific suggestions for a plan’s content, organization, process steps, and participants. The webinar will take a closer look at how the five keys have been applied in recent comprehensive plans to better involve elected officials and the public, undertake problem-solving work sessions, design workable action plans, and create capacity to implement the plan. The webinar will challenge planners. Are they driven by helping a community achieve its aspirations and address its problems and needs or by the exercise of writing a book? Do they focus on the real issues a community is facing or a perceived statutory template? Webcast presenters Denny Puko and Jim Pashek are pioneers of the implementable plan approach. Ideas they will present come from their new book Off the Shelf and Into Action, How to Create an Implementable Comprehensive Plan.

Roundabouts are becoming more common in American communities as a powerful tool for moving traffic while enhancing walkability for people of all ages, especially when designed well. Dan Burden of Blue Zones LLC, one of America’s leading walkability experts, is featured as this month speaker in APA’s Urban Design & Preservation Division webinar series to examine the most essential design features of roundabouts, as well as how to design and operate them for walking, bicycling, driving, and freight movement, illustrating what works best and why.

The Policy and Advocacy Conference will present an opportunity to ensure last year's landmark investments in planning deliver on the promise for a more equitable, resilient future. This is your opportunity to network with fellow planners across the country, participate in professional development sessions, and hear from top decision-makers to advance legislation that is important to you.