History

County planners have been seeking professional affiliation opportunities for several decades.  In 1965 The National Association of County Planning Directors (NACPD) was created as an affiliate of NACo. This was in the days of AIP and ASPO before there was an APA.  By 1980 there were over 600 members even with the membership limited to just planning directors.  Eventually that organization was changed to The National Association of County Planners (NACP) to include all those interested in county planning.

With the growth of the American Planning Association and its opportunities for professional development, NACP honed its mission to advance the role of planning in the actions of county elected officials.

With that shift of emphasis, it became even more important for county planners to assist APA in its service to their segment of the profession.  One of the more obvious omissions was the absence of a County Planning Division.  There were Divisions with names that included International, Federal, Regional, City, Small Town and Rural,   . . . but not County. 

4,077 (28%) members responded to the 2005 AICP Continuing Education Survey.  62% of those responding indicated that they worked for a public agency.  20% of those listed county agency as their employment.  Even though there was no absolute way to determine agency affiliation in the APA database, in 2006 there were at least 2600 APA members that had county listed in some way in their profile.  This information told us of the untapped potential for Division membership.

In late 2005 a Steering Committee was formed to begin the creation of a County Planning Division proposal.  Communications began with the staff at APA that resulted in the submittal of a proposal summary to the Divisions Council at the 2006 National Planning Conference in San Antonio.  The idea was well-received with members of the Council making excellent suggestions to include in the formal proposal.

NACP held its annual meetings at the APA National Planning Conference for many years and had also hosted a booth in the Exhibit Hall for several years.  In 2006 that booth was used to successfully obtain petition signatures for the creation of a County Planning Division.  At the Leadership Meetings in Fort Worth in November of 2006 the Divisions Council reviewed a complete division proposal from the Steering Committee.  The Council recommended approval of the proposal to the APA Board of Directors provided it was reworked to follow the guidelines of APA for governance.

Revisions were made and the 2007 Conference in Philadelphia brought the approval by the Board of Directors.  The staff of APA and the Steering Committee began immediately enthusiastically implementing that decision.