Each year APA, its members, chapters, divisions, and professional institute sponsor National Community Planning Month to raise the visibility of the important role of planners and planning in communities across the U.S. Please join the APA NJ and NY Metro Chapters incelebration of this occassion! Appetizers included. Cash Bar.

The webinar will discuss the research on the dangers to pedestrians of talking while talking or texting on cell phones. It will cover four of Prof. Nasar’s studies on pedestrians and cell phones and the evolution of his thinking about both beneficial and harmful effects of cell phones use among pedestrians.

Regularly scheduled Executive Committee Meeting.

This webinar will inform planners how to effectively communicate the value of our work, leverage discussions with community stakeholders into educational opportunities, and using the media to our advantage.

Help our APA-NJ Young Planners Group build affordable, energy efficient homes for community members in Paterson. There is room for 15 volunteers. Please RSVP to for those wishing to volunteer.

“Reach Them to Teach Them” - November 3rd-4th, Hyatt Regency, New Brunswick, NJ

The presentation will enable planners to recognize and incorporate into practice the fundamental principles of small-town design. The session seeks to inspire and motivate planners (generally as non-designers) to work for better place design, how to achieve it, and what the results are.

New Energy Economy is no longer a pie in the sky for the U.S. Many companies around the world are working hard to figure out how to lower the cost to provide clean energy to American consumers.

Join us for a tour of the new 4500 sq ft roof garden at the John Theuer Cancer Center. Attendees will learn more about its purpose, design and construction along with regulatory issues, urban heat island and neighborhood impacts, storm water reduction methods, and tips on utilizing roof garden planning.

Regularly scheduled Executive Committee Meeting.

Join us at the APA-NJ Ethnic and Cultural Diversity Committee 2012 Launch Meeting on Monday, November 14 beginning at 6:30PM in the Bloustein School room 173.

Regularly scheduled Legislative Committee Meeting.

Charisma Acey will share her findings and experiences with women’s responses to the lack of service delivery and networked infrastructure within the context of their roles and responsibilities in the household, sense of community, and opportunities to participate in urban governance in Nigeria and Uganda.

Local foods are all the rage, but what happens to all the food waste? Learn how planners can play an active role in food waste diversion. Explore issues of how food waste is connected to climate change, hunger, and air quality. Walk through how the Mississippi Gulf Coast planned for food waste diversion, with a focus on sustainability and livability. Examine strategies that offer opportunities for more sustainable, food security, and livable regions.

Details Coming Soon

Regularly scheduled Executive Committee Meeting.

The APA-NJ Legislative Committee will be convening to discuss the draft Redevelopment Policy Guide and Summary, draft Housing Policy Guide and the status NJ Transit's Parking Privatization plan.

The webcast participant will get a glimpse of twenty years into the future for what can be done to see how to provide mobility in our communities. Five modes of local transportation are presented: walking, bicycling, sharing public vehicles, sharing private vehicles, and driving.

January APA-NJ Housing Committee Meeting

This session is a primer to explore the integration of sustainable energy strategies into the urban context, starting from the earliest stages of planning to ensure heightened environmental performance at the building, site and community scale. Strategic energy planning, the setting of realistic targets and goals and developing a systematic strategic plan for clean energy integration and implementation will also be examined.

In Maryland we are leading the nation in not only thinking about change, but in preparing for the future. This session will highlight the emerging importance of development economics in realizing land use visions. The linkage between land use plans, implementation strategies and revenue generation for delivering infrastructure, will be discussed.

Professional Planners and Dual licensed Professional Planners/ Landscape Architects with AICP standing will be happy to know that “Natural Leaders”, the NJASLA January 29-31 Annual Meeting and Exhibition is approved for 19 AICP CMs for eighteen educational sessions.

Tourism-related activities are an increasingly important component of rural economies providing income and diversification to rural communities. This webinar will examine current trends in rural tourism, which are being shaped by a rapidly shifting economic landscape and ongoing demographic change. 

Annual Retreat for the APA-NJ Executive Committee

The 2012 AICP Exam Review Series is being co-hosted by the North Carolina, Maryland, Illinois, and Pennsylvania chapters of the American Planning Association. Speakers and presentation materials are in process. Members of participating chapters in the Planning Webcast Series are invited to participate.

As communities struggle to balance their budgets, innovative waste management and recycling approaches can help shore up the bottom line while creating local business opportunities. Join Andrew Dane, Short Elliott Hendrickson Inc (SEH), and Dr. John Katers, UW-Green Bay, to learn how planners can help communities identify and implement waste re-use opportunities, rural ag/waste to energy opportunities, and recycling best practices.

The afternoon will focus on the changing nature of volunteerism, and now your local program can respond to volunteers interested in only short term or bite sized assignments. We will also discuss how the role of the Team chairperson must change given the casual nature of many volunteer assignments

The 2012 AICP Exam Review Series is being co-hosted by the North Carolina, Maryland, Illinois, and Pennsylvania chapters of the American Planning Association. Speakers and presentation materials are in process. Members of participating chapters in the Planning Webcast Series are invited to participate.

Suburbs are the new immigrant gateways of the U.S. This paper examines the extent of recent immigration in the suburbs of large metropolitan areas. Focusing on the Washington, DC area, this paper considers the policy and planning responses by state and local jurisdictions to recent immigration, recognizing the varied reactions depending on the scale of government; the extent of immigrant mobilization and presence; and the political persuasion of the policy actors and local residents. The implications for planning and policy making are discussed.

The 2012 AICP Exam Review Series is being co-hosted by the North Carolina, Maryland, Illinois, and Pennsylvania chapters of the American Planning Association. Speakers and presentation materials are in process. Members of participating chapters in the Planning Webcast Series are invited to participate.

Planning for the movement of goods through local communities depends upon a complex set of interactions involving public stakeholders at different levels of government and private stakeholders with both local and global interests. This webinar provides an overview of logistics, the supply chain, and the various components and functions involved in getting goods from origin to the final customer. We’ll show how freight enters the port complex, and the processes involved getting goods the point of consumption.

This webinar is an update of the planning law session conducted as part of the Bettman Symposium at the Spring 2011 APA National Conference in Boston.  An article on this topic involving the Kasson Township case study, will also be published by APA in its Planning and Environmental Law report early in 2012.

The 2012 AICP Exam Review Series is being co-hosted by the North Carolina, Maryland, Illinois, and Pennsylvania chapters of the American Planning Association. Speakers and presentation materials are in process. Members of participating chapters in the Planning Webcast Series are invited to participate.

Charisma Acey will share her findings and experiences with women’s responses to the lack of service delivery and networked infrastructure within the context of their roles and responsibilities in the household, sense of community, and opportunities to participate in urban governance in Nigeria and Uganda.

Drew University’s Certificate in Historic Preservation Program invites community members to explore preservation in New Jersey by participating in courses being offered this winter and spring! This program is designed to appeal to anyone interested in learning about preservation including owners of historic buildings, town planners, architects, real estate professionals, developers and many more. 

The 2012 AICP Exam Review Series is being co-hosted by the North Carolina, Maryland, Illinois, and Pennsylvania chapters of the American Planning Association. Speakers and presentation materials are in process. Members of participating chapters in the Planning Webcast Series are invited to participate.

Demographic transformation creates challenges and opportunities for all US communities. Retiring baby boomers are making new demands – in terms of the built environment, services and housing alternatives.

This webinar will offer a fresh perspective on Economics of Families, Social Integration and Physical Design. 

The 2012 AICP Exam Review Series is being co-hosted by the North Carolina, Maryland, Illinois, and Pennsylvania chapters of the American Planning Association. Speakers and presentation materials are in process. Members of participating chapters in the Planning Webcast Series are invited to participate.

The graying of America and the global economic crisis are powerful forces that have converged this year, critically impacting the ability of communities to address the emerging hardship needs of older Americans. Philadelphia Corporation for Aging(PCA) has developed an agenda based on EPA's Aging Initiative model which integrates active aging and smart growth. 

This session will explore the changing demographics in the United States and how it will impact our communities and the planning profession over the next 20 years. This workshop meets the AICP Certification Maintenance (CM) requirements for ethics.

The 2012 AICP Exam Review Series is being co-hosted by the North Carolina, Maryland, Illinois, and Pennsylvania chapters of the American Planning Association. Speakers and presentation materials are in process. Members of participating chapters in the Planning Webcast Series are invited to participate.

Insight and Confessions from Young Planning Professionals. Candid Planning Career Advice, Tips, and Resources from Working Planning Professionals

The 2012 AICP Exam Review Series is being co-hosted by the North Carolina, Maryland, Illinois, and Pennsylvania chapters of the American Planning Association. Speakers and presentation materials are in process. Members of participating chapters in the Planning Webcast Series are invited to participate.

In today’s world, new and innovative technology is being used to help create community planning charretes, vision statements and neighborhood plans. Participants will learn first-hand how these innovative technological approaches are being utilized in the community building process, how to apply them to real world situations, and how to acquire the skills and information necessary to develop these programs.

The Public Health Symposium will highlight the importance of assessing all policies to determine how they may impact on the health status of community members, through a process called 'Health Impact Assessments.

The Molly Ann Brook Rain Barrel and Rain Garden Initiative differs from traditional environmental planning and protection efforts in that it is a community-based approach to environmental quality, which relies on public involvement rather than costly engineering solutions. 

Genentech's employee transportation program, gRide, provides employees with flexible and convenient services and incentives designed to support commuting by other modes than driving alone. The multifaceted program includes cash incentives, a BikeShare program and a fleet of over 50 motor coach and intra-campus shuttles.

Is land use costing you your health?  Learn about designing healthy communities and your role in local government.  Key topics including health and the built environment, physical activity options, access to healthy foods, air quality, traffic-related crashes and more!

In preparing for introduction of street car service along Columbia Pike, Arlington County is completing a new planning effort for existing multi-family communities. Increasing rents are already pricing out lower-income residents, and those pressures are expected to accelerate with the higher gas prices, highway congestion and that make living in transit communities so attractive. 

Is land use costing you your health? Learn about designing healthy communities and your role in local government. Key topics including health and the built environment, physical activity options, access to healthy foods, air quality, traffic-related crashes and more!

Over the last several decades, urban sprawl, white flight, land use regulations, and consolidation and concentration in the food retail sector have created grocery gaps in urban and rural communities. As a result, many communities lack access to healthy and affordable food. One community solution is healthy food retailing through existing outlets. 

This National Academies of Sciences study produced a comprehensive, concise guide for public decision makers and land use planners on the impacts land use design and policies and regulations on freight movements within urban areas. The guidebook is written in a jargon-free manner and explains why it is important for local elected and appointed officials to understand how goods move within their urban area, why efficient movement is critical to their community’s urban quality of life, how land use codes, policies and regulation impact urban goods movement. 

Is land use costing you your health? Learn about designing healthy communities and your role in local government. Key topics including health and the built environment, physical activity options, access to healthy foods, air quality, traffic-related crashes and more!

Redevelopment is a procedure used to revitalize distressed neighborhoods, address the effects of underused and neglected parcels and enhance the economic conditions of a municipality. Accompanied by sound planning and execution, redevelopment ultimately allows residents, stakeholders and local government officials to produce invaluable changes to our communities.

Join us for a tour of the new 4500 sq ft roof garden at the John Theurer Cancer Center.  

Attendees will learn more about its purpose, design and construction along with regulatory issues, urban heat island and neighborhood impacts, storm water reduction methods, and tips on utilizing roof garden planning. 

The $3.75 million, two-phased study evaluated the feasibility of adding dedicated truck lanes through Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio. The Study evaluates if Dedicated Truck Lanes address the congestion and safety problems and needs on the corridor and improve the regions’ economic competitiveness more than general purpose lanes capacity additions or maintaining the corridor as it is today. 

Join City of Jersey City Planning Director Robert Cotter, PP, FAICP on a walking tour of some of the State's most successful redevelopment efforts that now make up the fabric of Downtown Jersey City.

Register now for the 2012 NJ Historic Preservation Conference "Sustaining the Past - Inventing the Future" on Thursday, June 7th at Rider University in Lawrenceville, NJ.  The full day conference includes 16 educational sessions and field workshops on preservation, sustainable design, archaeology, historic site stewardship, state parks, historic roads, and much more.

Join PlanSmart NJ, APA-NJ and The Sustainability Institute for our first Policy Briefing exploring the changing landscape of DEP Water Quality Management Planning in NJ. Hear speakers representing different perspectives discuss the opportunities and challenges they face.

This session will explore promising efforts to mobilize and innovate Federal solutions to aging issues cross-agency and intra-agency such as: creating a single agency entry point, providing a forum for dialogue or serving as a repository for policy and programs related to aging.

The presentations will include the development history of the Borough, the architectural history, the successful efforts to preserve the greenbelt and a discussion of other unique land use issues the Borough has faced in the last 20 years. Highlights will include access to a famous New Deal art mural by Ben Shahn in the school building that depicts the founding of the Borough on three large panels as well as a discussion of one of the earliest experiments in ecologically aware affordable housing, the Roosevelt Senior Citizens' Housing, which set out to incorporate energy-efficiency within traditional designs.

Planners and design professionals can substantially reduce future incidents of crime in their communities.  This session will present the practice of Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED) as a method for using good design and land use planning to reduce fear and crime.  Presenters will include representatives from the law enforcement, architecture, and planning communities with experience and knowledge to explain how to understand and use CPTED in the field.

The purpose of the webinar will be to orient planners to the issues of environmental justice as they relate specifically to freight operations and freight infrastructure, including air and sea ports, railroads, intermodal facilities, inland warehouse and distribution centers, and the roads and bridges that serve them. To help planners understand and address community concerns, presenters will discuss the origins and current status of federal environmental justice policy and offer infrastructure case studies from the Chicago area and Southern California.

The National Capital Planning Commission, the federal government’s regional planning agency, in conjunction with federal and local partners is developing a bold new vision for Southwest Washington. Learn how NCPC and the city proposes to transform a staid mid-century federal office precinct - merely steps from the National Mall - into a vibrant livable community and showcase of sustainability.

While communities are well attuned to the diversification and globalization of U.S. cities and towns, how they can respond to these trends in practice is less well understood. This forum will present an overview of some key concepts, trends and issues to consider when planning in immigrant and multi-ethnic contexts.

State Senator and Mayor of Union City Brian P. Stack will lead a two-hour tour on the planning, development, and cultural activities of Union City.

 The purpose of this session is to present how many communities are rethinking their long-term development policies that may once have embraced low-density, suburban development to incorporate more new urbanism principles such as a focus on infill development over greenfield development; a desire to create walkable neighborhoods with access to local businesses; and an understanding that high-density development is not the “plague” on society that some of the public may once have believed. 

This session highlights many of the conditions (with emphasis on market analysis and urban design) that lead to viable town centers, primarily through case study of town centers across the country. Case studies of public/private partnerships will also be provided. The success of the town center strategy, which focuses on the creation of great places to create value premiums, has broad implications for planning, since it has provided market validation of a number of planning and urban design principles. That these successes have occurred, often in the absence of regional policies that support placemaking, could point to a broader cultural shift and future support for place-friendly policies.

Looking to take action over the next 3-12 months to make real changes to your business/building appearance that will increase commerce and property value? Wanting to enhance the perception of your district in the short term by taking direct actions to turn tough places into bright spots of positive economic and social activity? Want to do this all without spending a ton of money while building partnerships and more buy-in for your district and its businesses?

For decades, the waterfronts of our port cities were the drivers of regional economic development. But as markets changed in the mid-Twentieth Century, these areas in many cities became derelict eyesores, economic black holes that sucked the energy out of these once-thriving urban centers. Over the past few decades, however, new approaches to the function and utility of urban waterfronts have given these districts a new vitality and vibrancy. This webinar will present the waterfront redevelopment stories of three small cities: Portland, Maine; Portsmouth, New Hampshire; and Burlington, Vermont. It will highlight the economic, social, and environmental forces at play as these cities work to redefine themselves.

Bus Rapid Transit – or BRT – is bus service that includes enhanced travel ways, stations and equipment. BRT offers passengers faster, more reliable service than traditional bus service. It does so by providing more frequent service and reducing traffic delays by giving BRT vehicles priority over general traffic. This type of service can be implemented faster less expensively than rail transit while still offering many of the same attributes and benefits as rail transit. Because the public is relatively unfamiliar with BRT, public education and marketing are very important to the success of this type of service. 

This webcast will examine several trends gaining traction with transit and paratransit agencies as well as with governmental agencies that focus on senior needs. Case studies will be presented from rural, suburban, and urban communities, including one of the first suburban NORCs (naturally-occurring retirement community) in the nation.

 This webinar will address the creation and adoption of a GBESE which, like all Master Plan Elements, is intended to guide land-use decisions and provides the basis for ordinances addressing sustainability and land use issues. Representatives from the planning community, including the acclaimed Sustainable JerseyTM certification program, will discuss the program’s GBESE tool for certification, how to introduce sustainability concepts into local planning documents, and will highlight some examples from high performing sustainability plans.

The Car Future Group will conduct an interactive session about how trends in vehicle design and technology will play out on the roadways and policy context of the future. We will present important information about the future of cars design: Shape, weight, size, fuel types and degrees of automation. We will then discuss the future of our infrastructure and how the new vehicles will be used, exploring issues such as roadway and lane design, pricing, insurance and public policy. The audience will see that we are facing a future characterized by opposing trends, and not monolithic solutions. 

The NJDEP Waiver Rule allows the NJDEP Commissioner to grant exemptions to certain environmental regulations enforced by NJDEP. Hear speakers representing different perspectives discuss the implications and opportunities of this rule.

Columbus Planning Division staff will provide an overview of the Urban Commercial Overlay (UCO), a highly successful zoning tool that requires a walkable built environment reflecting the development pattern of late 19th and early 20th century commercial corridors. Since it was established in 1999, a broad array of pedestrian-friendly development has been constructed, including gasoline stations and a major grocery store. The UCO applies design standards that address the location and design of new buildings (and additions to existing buildings), parking lot placement and related development standards without requiring mandatory design review.

The Review Course is expected to cover general exam topics including the State Plan, environmental regulations, affordable housing, Planning Board and Board of Adjustment activities, MLUL, regional planning entities, and other material relative to the PP Exam. Additionally, all students will receive a complimentary copy of the 2010 Complete Guide to Planning in New Jersey.