Events

This session is geared toward planning consultants at all levels, but can also be useful for planners with communities or agencies that use planning consultants. First will be a presentation on topics brought up by our members during our monthly PPD meetings. Then we will have a facilitated discussion to respond to questions, inviting attendees to weigh in on their experience.

This webinar will describe different approaches and use cases for public charging infrastructure, the kinds of considerations communities need to take in land use planning, and the emerging best practices in land use regulation for EV-charging.

The past three years have shone a light on the strengths and shortcomings of planning and zoning through events like the 2020 protests for social justice, the pandemic, environmental crises, and the housing crisis. There is an increasing appreciation for walkable environments, and how they can improve health, the environment, mobility, and connectivity. Our firm, which focuses on zoning codes, has been critically examining the services we provide, and how we can both meet modern challenges and also try to acknowledge and repair past harms. As professionals, we are trying to do better. In this episode, we’ll talk about how we can critically examine zoning codes to center equity, resiliency, and walkability in our land use policy.

Did you know that local sign ordinances can advance or deter the idea of social equity in your community? For example, in Brooklyn, NY, "Old School" large lettering and repetition generates a sense of inclusivity and openness, while brevity, wordplay and other linguistic elements of gentrifying "New School" signage signal exclusion. The authors of What the Signs Say will analyze two critically different types of local retail signage to help planners and local officials examine how sign regulations may contribute to inequity and exclusions. This session will incorporate ethnographic observation, interviews and storefront texts from Brooklyn, New York, to discover signage models and methods that ensure equity, diversity and inclusion.

This session will educate participants on the causes of urban flooding, how urban flooding differs from river and coastal flooding, and how climate change is driving more frequent and dangerous urban flooding disasters. Participants will gain knowledge of how the decisions we make as planners can exacerbate the problem or help to improve outcomes.

Whether you're attending for education, networking, or taking in the latest products and services, the event's benefits extend beyond Conference week. Boost your professional development and get the tools to build stronger communities.

The premiere downtown economic development event of the year, the annual New Jersey Downtown Conference hosts industry experts who provide insights into downtown management best practices, as well as development, business and retail market trends.

At-risk communities are disproportionately impacted both by increased flooding and the policy and market responses to flooding conditions. In this context, what is “social equity” and how is it related to climate resilience for all? How can planners ensure an equitable response to flooding?

As climate conditions change, understanding what data and tools are available to inform planning decisions is critical. This webinar features a climate data & technology vendor panel to introduce urban planners to data and tools to help communities reduce their greenhouse gas emissions and respond to climate impacts.

The Watershed Conference is an opportunity for learning, brainstorming, discussing, and planning solutions to the problems faced by New Jersey’s watersheds. We will focus on the updates to the Municipal Separate Storm Sewer System (MS4) permit, regional solutions to address polluted stormwater runoff and flooding, environmental justice, and the need for community-wide action. Learn alongside municipal representatives, engineers, environmental professionals, watershed advocates, business leaders, and community members through roundtable discussions, hands-on sessions, and networking.

The 2019 report The Promise of Urban Agriculture: a National Study of Commercial Farming in Urban Areas found that planners play a pivotal role in the success or struggle for thriving urban and peri-urban farms, but planners have a mixed understanding of the needs and potential for urban agriculture. As a follow-up to that study, the presenters have paired up with the U.S. Department of Agriculture to educate planners on how urban agriculture can be integrated into their other concerns. This webinar will present an overview of the 2019 report and present the first of six modules in a forthcoming professional development course for planners about urban agriculture.

The Watershed Conference is an opportunity for learning, brainstorming, discussing, and planning solutions to the problems faced by New Jersey’s watersheds. We will focus on the updates to the Municipal Separate Storm Sewer System (MS4) permit, regional solutions to address polluted stormwater runoff and flooding, environmental justice, and the need for community-wide action. Learn alongside municipal representatives, engineers, environmental professionals, watershed advocates, business leaders, and community members through roundtable discussions, hands-on sessions, and networking.

From stolen land to rematriation, all land ownership and control is rooted in its value to it based on markets that serve the few, not the many. What does it take to decommodify land? Is it possible? Can land and power be redistributed for collective benefit? This talk will take us on a journey through history to examine land ownershipin the United States and the reverberating impacts experienced in the 21st century.

Assuming we are past the worst of the COVID-19, what happens to our downtowns? Before the pandemic, people were rediscovering the traditional New England town center. You can stop in a few different shops, maybe pick something up for dinner at a local fish market or bakery, and enjoy the building and people. Once COVID hit, people were reluctant to leave their houses, let along go downtown. Some experts, citing research that suggests people like working remotely and don’t want to return to work in an office, suggest that downtowns may be dead. Other suggest that the natural open air character of downtowns means they are well-positioned to adjust to a post-COVID world. This webinar will present the findings of a multi-year research project on this topic.

This webinar aims to link the importance of the planning process with the financing options needed for implementation. The webinar will provide an overview of planning processes by two Federal Agencies (HUD and DOT) with examples of creative financing tools offered by government to help communities develop large-scale, front-end investments in climate resilient infrastructure. Representatives from the federal agencies (HUD, DOT) will provide an overview of an example of financing resources that enable large-scale climate resilient infrastructure projects.

In this seminar Michael Herbert, an attorney at Parker McCay, and Christine Cofone, a consulting planner for municipalities throughout New Jersey, will expand on Michael's November 2022 article in NJ Municipalities Magazine, "As Fourth Round of Affordable Housing Obligations Nears, Municipalities Should Plan Accordingly." The panelists will offer a tips about how to get prepared now and share information on how this round will be different from past rounds.

Register for the northeast’s largest building industry tradeshow, the Atlantic Builders Convention (ABC), March 28-30, at Harrah’s Resort in Atlantic City, NJ. ABC attracts a diverse audience of building industry professionals including developers, remodelers, consultants and more. Connect with thousands of your peers, take advantage of a dozen seminars offering continuing education credits and attend some of the year’s most exciting networking and awards programs.

NPC23 is your ticket to connection with your professional community. Join your peers in Philadelphia or online and tap into an inspiring network that will help you analyze, imagine, and plan for the future.

What will monuments of the future look like? What stories belong in public spaces? What is the role of planners, designers, historians, and artists in this conversation? The Urban Design & Preservation Division and the Arts & Planning Division are partnering to have a conversation about what planners can do beyond monument removal.

Get an overview of what is being taught in today’s planning schools. Accredited planning schools must meet certain standards. In general, accreditation recognizes educational institutions and professional programs for performance, integrity and quality. For planning programs, the accrediting body is the Planning Accreditation Board. PAB recently updated their requirements to keep pace with the profession and push it forward. PAB accredits 78 master's and 16 bachelor's programs at 80 North American universities.

Each year, the RPA Assembly convenes over a thousand policy experts, public officials and business leaders committed to addressing climate change, promoting inclusive growth, and developing transportation systems.

The New Jersey Sustainability Summit is a momentous event in our state, drawing change-makers from across the political, private, and public sectors. This exceptional one-day forum spotlights the successes and lessons learned from the people and projects that are helping New Jersey realize a more sustainable future. 2022 Summit attendees walked away with tangible resources and strategies to assist with their own community initiatives. This is your opportunity to do the same. We invite all who are interested to be ready to deepen their understanding and expand their network.

oin preservation professionals from across the country to hear why preservation should matter to the urban planning community. These innovative leaders will share how preserving historic assets, adaptive reuse, and incorporating public engagement are effective planning tools for more holistic work. Hear how creative application of preservation policies and programs can address issues such as climate change, affordable housing and density, and equity of under-represented and underserved communities.

How can energy providers work collaboratively with local communities to provide resources and coordinate on planning to accelerate progress in clean energy, equity and resilience? This webinar will feature two initiatives from different regions of the U.S. that involve innovative collaboration between energy providers, local government and community stakeholders to achieve enhanced sustainability and resilience-related outcomes.

This webinar will focus on the ways in which the affordable housing landscape has changed in New Jersey post pandemic. We will look at tax credit, development, lending and municipal roles and how those roles have changed. What are the challanges? What has improved? There have been significant changes in construction costs, interest rates, and municipal affordable housing status in the past few years, so it will be helpful to get the varying perspectives on what different practitioners are seeing.

Communities starting their ‘Race To Zero’ with social equity will need innovative solutions for achieving the triple-bottom-line. This talk will showcase LEED for Cities and Communities rating system framework and highlight a few examples from more than 360 global communities with ambitious, impactful, and actionable roadmaps, implementation, and management strategies. This program is catalyzing energy, emissions, water, waste, transportation, social equity, and quality of life innovation and continuous improvement with credible frameworks for effective decisions.

CGS will present Pinal County prototype demonstrating a successful regional collaboration, which can be attributed to a unique private public partnership, aligning water delivery data with accurate built environment information, and modernizing water data systems (increase access to and reliability of water data), helping answer key questions about current and future growth.

This webinar will highlight new planning methods that OAPA CAPP teams have undertaken in partnership with the counties’ leadership, disaster recovery coordinators, and public health and planning professionals. The panel will share lessons learned - the good and the unsuccessful - in trying to serve displaced survivors who have a historic distrust of systems, the structural challenges with meeting the needs of often-overlooked community members, and glimmers of hope for a resilient and equitable recovery.

Systems are all connected - from the built infrastructure to the communities and places that serve as context. A movement is underway to green the whole picture, as exampled by taking renewables from being a niche sector to being strategic part of the whole picture. New Federal funding is leading with new potentially game changing investments. How do we ramp up spending on climate change and embed climate ready tech to scale to transform the effects of climate and center equity? Who are the actors and tools that can make a difference and are meeting the challenge? What are the inflection points and how can planners help lead that innovation? These are questions that will be tackled in this session. Learn to facilitate a stronger and more equitable innovation ecosystem and unlock the full potential of climate solutions to drive the massive transformation needed to build resilience to climate change.

Leveraging research and practitioner perspectives, this presentation will discuss the interdependent relationship between freight movements and land use in metropolitan areas. The presenters will share their experiences researching and planning for freight movements with a focus on food supply chains.

In water-scarce regions, the lack of availability of water supply often constrains the ability of communities to approve new residential and commercial development. A building moratorium has sometimes been declared in California communities and elsewhere. The City of Phoenix is now undergoing an evaluation of how new development can proceed in the face of Colorado River Basin shortages. But a solution is at hand.

The premiere downtown economic development event of the year, the annual New Jersey Downtown Conference hosts industry experts who provide insights into downtown management best practices, as well as development, business and retail market trends.

From due process to the First Amendment, planning and land use cases present interesting issues for lawyers and planners alike. Join attorneys from Ancel Glink, P.C. in Chicago for a discussion of the most recent and interesting updates in planning law, including riparian rights, affordable housing, short-term rentals, and adult uses.

For World Planning Day, this dialogue will unpack the phrase “best and highest use” by exploring the Knickerbocker Protestant origins of US planning. Stemming from Dutch and British colonialist practices and ideas of possessing and managing all land and all othered beings, we’ll discuss how this eco-history is linked to our current global “boiling” crisis.

In this session, the Planning Healthy Communities Initiative (PHCI) will lead an introductory training on Health in All Policies, focusing on how to bring community health and equity into planning processes and decision-making, emerging tools to build capacity for health advancement in planning, and how to support health in all policies. In addition to presentations, participants will engage in group exercises, discuss opportunities and challenges to integrating health into planning and policy processes, and learn about new statewide collaborative initiatives.

This session will summarize the state of affordable housing, explain opportunities within the IRA to preserve and improve affordable housing, describe how to achieve climate resilience for an aging population, and provide tips to foster and strengthen collaboration that can advance more climate-resilient communities.

Join us for an engaging and informative webinar with APA’s Technology Division in partnership with the Seattle's Chapter of Women in Data, a non-profit organization focused on increasing diversity in the data field. Together, we will explore the transformative potential of data-driven urban planning and advancing technological best practices. This dynamic session will cover how we can humanize data, effective ways to communicate the use and risk of data and technology, how to build a data team, and case studies from the field. Key themes will include data responsibility, opening up the “black box” of the data and technology fields, and best practices in how data visualization impacts representation.