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.