About APA
Creating Great Communities is Our Mission
APA exists to elevate and unite a diverse planning profession as it helps communities, their leaders, and residents anticipate and meet the needs of a changing world.
We are laser-focused on our Envisioned Future, and with a clear set of Core Values to guide our decision-making, we are confidently pursuing a strategy that will prioritize equity, reframe the voice of planning, and upskill planners with a digitally relevant approach.
Leadership
APA is governed by a Board of Directors that works in partnership with the leaders of its professional institute, AICP, to set strategy, provide oversight, and ensure progress toward goals. Our large network of volunteer leaders collaborates to advance the organization's mission and vision.
APA Ethical Principles in Planning
This statement is a guide to ethical conduct for all who participate in the process of planning as advisors, advocates, and decision-makers. It is a guide and not a code by which individuals may be held accountable.
APA's Rules of Conduct
APA is committed to encouraging a welcoming environment where everyone can connect, learn, and grow within a community of mutual respect.
APA Senior Staff
APA programs and services are managed by a highly competent team of association executives whose goal is delivering value to APA members and customers.
APA by the Numbers
Membership and financial data are presented quarterly to offer insights into the association's current and year-over-year performance in key areas.
Media Center
Learn about APA, its members, and the latest planning-related news.
International Strategy
Challenges and successes often cross geographic, national, and institutional borders. Here are some examples of how APA is involved worldwide.
A Brief History of the American Planning Association
On October 1, 1978, the American Planning Association emerged from the consolidation of the American Institute of Planners and the American Society of Planning Officials. Both memberships and boards had overwhelmingly approved the consolidation earlier in the year and decided to create a single independent, not-for-profit educational organization that was:
... organized exclusively for charitable, educational, literary and scientific purposes to advance the art and science of planning and the activity of planning — physical, economic, and social — at the local, regional, state and national levels.
Within APA would be a professional institute — the American Institute of Certified Planners (AICP) — that would be responsible for the national certification of professional planners.
Although AIP was incorporated in 1917 as the American City Planning Institute (renamed the American Institute of Planners in 1939), and ASPO in 1934, we trace our roots even further back to 1909 and the first National Conference on City Planning in Washington, D.C. From that and subsequent conferences, the organized planning movement emerged.
This model of a single organization — a "big tent" for everyone interested in planning, with an internal institute to advance the interests of the profession — was unique at the time and has attracted great interest around the world.
The planning movement has been well served by APA. We have grown from an organization of 13,000 to more than 40,000 members, of whom more than 17,000 are certified by AICP.
Collections of historical papers about the beginnings of these organizations reside at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the national planning archives at Cornell University.