For Vice Chair

Seth Harry

As an urban design and planning professional with 30 years of experience working with both the public and private sector — almost exclusively on urban and suburban infill, redevelopment, and community and economic revitalization projects — I've come to appreciate the role state and regional planning policies can play in multiplying the cumulative performance impacts of infill development and suburban retrofit from an environmental and economic perspective, and have helped to craft effective policy strategies to address both.

An APA member for over 25 years, I've also watched the organization's long-term shift toward embracing mixed-use development and smart growth principles and have worked hard to inform this transformation through the development of tools and policy initiatives specifically tailored to facilitate this effort, including model codes, corridor redevelopment and transportation strategies, TOD, and other best practices designed to encourage incremental, market-driven redevelopment, over time, particularly in rapidly urbanizing suburban areas, and have participated in or led over 150 public engagement processes where these ideas were put to effective practical use.

To promote greater understanding and support for this form of development, I have written and lectured widely at the local and national level on the subject of regional planning and community development, with a particular emphasis on retail format, size and regional distribution based on empirically-proven models of urban form, intended to fostering more economically robust and sustainable regions.  I believe that the APA has a critical role to play in shaping this discussion, and it is my intent to keep the organization on its leading edge, as both a policy and thought leader.  If elected, my focus will be on encouraging the creation of regional land-use and transportation policy frameworks that are more accommodating and supportive of compact, mixed-use development, for both urban and suburban infill and redevelopment.