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.

On this Day of Service, APA-NJ volunteers will be helping to paint the playground at Belmar Elementary School in Belmar, NJ – renewing students sense of play after their playground was damaged by the effects of Hurricane Sandy. Belmar Elementary School is a public school serving 555 students from Belmar and Lake Como in grades K-8.

The North American urban landscape is dominated by the products of late 20th century suburbanization, leaving the built environment littered with dead malls, failing strip centers, foreclosed houses, vacant big boxes, and acre upon acre of asphalt parking lots. What to do? June Williamson will discuss promising planning and design strategies and tactics, illustrated with competition-winning proposals from her book Designing Suburban Futures as well as case studies from her previous book Retrofitting Suburbia, co-authored with Ellen Dunham-Jones.

The Walkable City: How Downtown Can Save America, One Step at a Time. In this Webinar, Jeff Speck outlines the compelling economic, health, and environmental mandates behind creating more walkable communities. He then discusses his General Theory of Walkability, which describes the measures that communities can undertake to create larger walking and biking populations by providing the "useful, safe, comfortable, and interesting walk."

Please join this important, informative, and engaging webinar on the ethical rules and considerations governing planners, plan commissioners, and lawyers who work with planners and appear before plan commissions. The webinar will cover the primary sources of ethical rules for planners and lawyers, common ethical mistakes and how to avoid them, and recent cases. In addition, the webinar will have an interactive component that will enable participants to interact with the presenters and other participants on ethical scenarios.

This symposium will showcase recent work from the Transportation and Climate Initiative’s (TCI) Northeast Electric Vehicle Network on electric vehicle deployment in the northeast and mid-Atlantic region. Georgetown Climate Center, facilitator of TCI, will present the Network’s research findings on challenges and opportunities for EV deployment in the Northeast, and will also explore a number of EV planning tools –such as siting and design guidelines and best practices for developing EV-friendly zoning codes –that can help communities in New Jersey become EV-Ready.

This webinar is intended for local officials, planning board members and interested citizens, and will explain how non-contiguous cluster development works, with illustrated case studies and resources for getting started. Speakers will also address how to plan for attractive, walkable neighborhoods and centers, with input and support from the community.

This session will introduce community planners to the concepts and core principles of the NDRF; equip planners and others involved in post-disaster recovery with the tools and techniques needed to design and execute a post-disaster planning process; and will educate planners on how to build community capacity through the post-disaster planning process. Planners will leave this session armed with a number of community recovery and planning resources. They will learn the critical steps needed to guide communities to successful recovery. They will learn how to engage local citizens in the recovery process, and teach community members how to be engaged, successful, local champions who will take ownership of their local recovery planning process.

This second session goes into greater detail on the new law. Experienced practitioners will explain its new features and how municipal planners and attorneys can apply them to craft cluster development ordinances that address community goals. Speakers will cover how to structure a non-contiguous cluster program that is attractive to developers from a financial and risk perspective and how to integrate cluster development ordinances into local open space and farmland preservation programs. Audience members will have ample opportunity to ask questions.

Then two panels will evaluate the September 26, 2013 New Jersey Supreme Court ruling on the Council of Affordable Housing’s round III methodology for calculating each town’s affordable housing obligation.

This introductory webinar will focus on how to do so by describing how to conduct a vulnerability analysis. The webinar will include processes that local, regional, or state planners can use to ensure transportation system resiliency and provide an effective network to support their communities. Participants will develop a deeper understanding of specific vulnerabilities and be informed about a step-by-step process that they can follow to assess and rank vulnerabilities for project prioritization purposes.

Get ready for what we hope will be our largest and best state conference yet!  Join us and you will pick up new tools and tips, reconnect with over 500 of your colleagues, and leave at the end of two days a bit tired, but intellectually energized.

In 2011, the US Department of Justice promulgated rules on “Other Power Driven Mobility Devices” under the Americans with Disabilities Act. Attend this webcast and learn how the new rule applies to Federal, State, local, and privately owned lands as well as the assessment factors and public notice requirements under that Rule. 

Across the country municipalities seeking to reshape dysfunctional auto-oriented development continue to replace conventional zoning codes with new codes that primarily regulate form and only secondarily regulate use. As the fundamentally different approach of Form-Based Codes becomes more popular, practitioners are looking for credible guidance on how to draft and implement form-based codes in their area. In this webinar, we will share lessons distilled from over a decade of experience implementing and administering municipal form-based development and will introduce community planners to the core principles of Form-Based Codes.

This webinar will address the viability of ferry services and their integration into public transportation systems. Speakers include Tim Payne, Principal of Nelson Nygaard and 35 years of experience. He also led development of TCRP SB-23, “Integrating Passenger Ferry Service with Mass Transit” on behalf of the Transportation Research Board.   Also speaking will be Hannah Henn, Assistant Vice President and Director of Ferries at New York City Economic Development Corporation. 

This session focuses on examples of two engaging, community-based plans now being implemented to achieve active, vibrant environments in an existing downtown (Burlington, VT) and a new TOD neighborhood (Santa Monica, CA).  Both plans were adopted in 2013, funded by HUD Office of Sustainable Communities Community Challenge grants, a pioneering Federal program that supports cities to develop integrated land use and transportation plans.   The webinar will include ideas and lessons learned for involving the community, designing and presenting information, and including a phased Implementation Plan that guides and measures achievement of Plan goals.

The workshop will “bridge the gap” between planners and communities by introducing them to available resources for community planning projects and activities. Price includes breakfast, lunch and workshop materials.

The New Jersey Economic Opportunity Act of 2013 is designed to stimulate economic development and strengthen New Jersey’s competitive edge in the global economy.  How will it impact land use decision making?  Come hear experts discuss how the incentives will alter land use in vibrant urban areas, highly distressed areas, and suburban areas that are at risk of having stranded assets.

Learn how to create plans that can be read on Kindles, iPads and other mobile devices. Creating plans with mobile devices in mind allows for a richer, more interactive experience for readers. Learn about easy to use, free software and tips for creating an interactive mobile-ready plan. This webcast is sponsored by the Ohio Chapter of the American Planning Association

The purpose of this session is to introduce participants to the origins of the BLM, FLPMA, and other related laws for managing the Nation’s most extensive network of public lands. A better understanding of why and how the BLM works with the public, partners and diverse interests improves inter-jurisdictional collaboration to meet shared goals.

The City Planner Book Club Meet Up is scheduled for Wednesday, March 26 at 6:30PM at The Daily in NYC. Click here for more details. 

During the webinar easily accessible web-based products will be discussed as well as case studies of how they have been applied. From this webinar participants will learn about C-CAP land cover data, the Coastal County Snapshot, Economics: National Ocean Watch (ENOW) data, Sea Level Rise and Coastal Flooding Impacts Viewer, and the Historical Hurricane Tracks website. During the webinar easily accessible web-based products will be discussed as well as case studies of how they have been applied. From this webinar participants will learn about C-CAP land cover data, the Coastal County Snapshot, Economics: National Ocean Watch (ENOW) data, Sea Level Rise and Coastal Flooding Impacts Viewer, and the Historical Hurricane Tracks web.

In this panel presentation, professional planners will address the challenges and successes they have had with a wide range of projects, including the creation of an urban river walk, the development of a regional bicycle plan, addressing the active transportation needs of a suburban high school, and planning for a mixed-use trail connecting two municipalities.

Click here to register.

The APA-NJ Emerging Professionals Group will be hosting their 2nd quarterly meeting for the year.  Topics to be discussed include:  events, walking tours, volunteer events, and professional development offerings. Free appetizers will be available.

Small and mid-sized communities face significant planning challenges which are different than those faced by larger communities. This presentation will describe an approach to economic development planning suitable for small and mid-sized communities. Presenters will discuss key trends impacting small & mid-size communities, with a focus on retail, housing, and the growing importance of the Central Social District and its role in downtown revitalization. 

The Spring NJDRMI for 2014 will get you up to speed on connecting your downtown, business and organization to the digital realm, helping your bring more money, people, and partners to support and sustain your efforts.