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!