Please join us for a holiday party hosted by the APA-NJ Young Planners Group and the Rutgers Association of Policy and Planning Students

Charles Brown, Senior Researcher at the Voorhees Transportation Center will lead a discussion on the need to write more people of color into the world of cycling and providing underserved communities with active transportation choices. Karyn Williams, co-founder of Velo City, and Tiffany Robinson, Chair of the APA-NJ's Ethnic & Cultural Diversity Committee, will discuss their experiences in teaching minority youth in underserved communities about the community planning process and empowering them with the skills needed to discuss urban issues.

The tour will walk around the Voorhees Town Center site, beginning at the new town hall with a brief presentation of the background and history of the site and the redevelopment initiative.  The tour will be led by representatives of the developers as well as the Mayor and Township administrator and will explore progress that has been made, the work that is currently underway, challenges that have been overcome, and where additional opportunities may be realized in the future. 

Given the nation’s economic climate and looming fiscal constraints, many of us are looking for creative solutions to our communities’ problems. This Roundtable series, designed exclusively by and for Greater Philadelphia’s community and economic development professionals, invites you to share your challenges, bring your good ideas, and brainstorm answers to your colleagues’ tough questions.

Our current selection is The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair That Changed America. Our December 2012 meet-up will be held at BXL Zoute from 6:00 to 7:30 p.m.

The purpose of the workshop is to “bridge the gap” between planners and community based organizations (CBOs). The workshop will provide a platform for CBOs to better understand the role of city and regional planners in community development, and acquire access to information that can help them become strong and sustainable entities within their target populations. It will also give planners an opportunity to learn more about CBO’s, what they do, and their needs. 

The proposed webinar will explore the connection between aviation and other travel modes, and the challenges that airports and their communities face when integrating airports into regional transportation systems and nearby communities. We will provide background that transportation planners need to know when embarking on transportation planning or site development projects that involve direct or indirect connections with airports or federally obligated airport property.

More than half of Americans own and use a smartphone. Increasingly planners and the public are accessing information and engaging via mobile devices. Walk through the research and mobile applications out there to aid planners in using their mobile devices to the maximum effectiveness. This session is sponsored by the Ohio State University.

Please join us for the annual NJ Planning Conference!  Due to Hurricane Sandy, the originally scheduled conference was moved to January 31 and February 1.  There's still time to register!

New pressure from elected officials and city managers to reduce fees, regulations and process to make it easier to attract development may or may not be consistent with the Principles espoused by the Code of Ethics, much less the Rules of Conduct. This interactive session will engage participants in dialogue about the pressures we are facing in our jobs on a day to day basis and how to align our response with the AICP Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct.

Planning and plagiarism go hand in hand. We copy zoning codes, plans, and ideas from other towns and, in the process, we are responsible for killing any sense of identity in our own communities. This session is about gaining the self confidence to plan truly exceptional places. This session is sponsored by the Ohio State University.

Real progress will occur with a paradigm shift if generations work together and cultural imperatives are addressed. This session will highlight both research and on-the-ground experience in multi-generational planning.

APA-NJ Members use promotional code APANJ2-13 to receive a 10% discount.  A one-day intensive workshop teaching how to strengthen organizational communication & participation integrating the latest tools & innovations in social media and web applications. Designed for business district management organizations, chambers and other municipal, county and regional leaders. 

 MAPS 3 is a 10-year program designed to improve the quality of life in Oklahoma City through the construction of eight projects funded by a limited term, one-cent sales tax initiative that began in April 2010. Russell Claus, Director of Planning for the City of Oklahoma City, and Cathy O’Connor, President of The Alliance for Economic Development of Oklahoma City, will discuss the history of the MAPS initiatives, private investment that has occurred as a result, and ongoing planning for leveraging private investment from MAPS 3 projects.

What happens when a group of six planning consultants decides to create a new consulting firm during the latest Great Recession? Hear how this group of one-time sole proprietor planning consultants chose to join forces and start a new consulting firm as the market contracted….and they succeeded. What did it take? What lessons did they learn? What tools and strategies worked best? How did sole proprietors, used to being leaders themselves, adjust to the new normal of being part of a six-person firm? Learn how to succeed and what it takes to move forward in today’s market.

Design guidelines are an innovative tool for controlling strip development and helping to maintain community character. This session will present case studies of design guidelines being used to control strip development in Kittery and Scarborough, Maine, Salem, New Hampshire, and Cape Cod in Massachusetts. It will illustrate how design guidelines were prepared and implemented and how they have influenced new development.

High oil and natural gas prices over the last decade, combined with new technology have ignited a fossil fuel boom across the West. Drilling for oil and natural gas is a high-impact economic activity. Today’s unconventional oil development and its effects differ in important ways from oil booms of the past. This webinar charts the new “unconventional” fossil fuel boom, tracking production, employment, and fiscal trends in an effort to better understand the pressures boomtowns face and to identify best practices for benefiting from these new unconventional fossil fuel plays.

The Emerging Professionals Group has teamed with ASCE's young member group to host a joint networking event.

The City Planner Book Club Meet-up is scheduled for Thursday, March 21 at 6:00PM. The meeting will beat The Merchant in Jersey City. 

"From Jersey to Dixie: Issues of Place and Planning" is a documentary, created by Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy students Brandon McKoy and Susannah Dyen, that compares and contrasts planning issues in New Jersey and the Southern region of the United States (Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana).

Registration Open!  As the lights come back on in New York and New Jersey, the region looks to the future. How can planning create a more resilient region? Who will make the tough decisions? And how will they change the way people live, work, and play along the coastal shores?

As bike sharing systems are proliferating in cities across the US, and early systems in Boston and Washington, DC are coming of age, we examine the different metrics on which bike share programs can be evaluated. What does bike share success mean? Financial self-sufficiency, or even profitability? Improved mobility? Improved public health? Reduced GHG emissions? How can we measure the cultural impact of bike share? Or should we simply be concerned about operational success--keeping the trains running on time.

Please join us in a candid and information discussion among students and professionals about the realities of the planning profession.  Obtain insight, career advice, and network with practitioners.  

 Using 13 cases studies of the largest PHAs in the Pacific Northwest Region, this webinar outline what activities PHAs are undertaking in this devolved, market-based context, speculating about the future. PHAs make trade-offs among paths that emphasize agency survival, producing more housing for the poorest households, identification as a non-profit housing provider (rather than depending on HUD), poverty alleviation, merging with another public agency, or closing. This diversity of responses points to the under-valued attribute of public housing authorities as local organizations receiving diverse mandates from the federal government and as local housing providers.