|
December 1, 2007 2008 APA Award Winners Announced CHICAGO — The American Planning Association and its professional institute, the American Institute of Certified Planners, are pleased to announce the names of nine recipients of the 2008 National Planning Excellence, Achievement, and Leadership Awards. Recipient of the U.S. Housing and Urban Development Secretary's Opportunity and Empowerment Award, co-sponsored with APA, will be announced in early 2008. Each of the award recipients will be recognized and receive their respective honor at a luncheon ceremony April 30 in Las Vegas during APA's National Planning Conference. A 30-minute video about all 11 of the 2008 National Planning Excellence, Achievement, and Leadership Awardees will be shown at the luncheon. Accomplishments of the award recipients also will be highlighted in the April 2008 issue of Planning magazine and on the APA website. Each year APA and AICP honor outstanding efforts in planning and planning leadership, including cutting-edge achievements and planning under difficult or adverse circumstances. The award winners showcase the planning profession's leaders who help to create great communities and demonstrate the beneficial changes that can take place when planners and community members and leaders work together.
This innovative plan lays the foundation for not only preserving, but also energizing and leveraging the country's most historically significant and influential canal system. The Erie Canal was an engineering marvel when it was completed in 1825 and served as the transportation network that fueled America's 19th century growth along the Great Lakes. The Erie Canal National Heritage Corridor includes 4,834 square miles in 23 counties and 234 canal-adjacent cities with nearly 3 million people. This successful, collaborative planning process was a highly visible and community-centered effort that worked across political boundaries. The plan provides a joint roadmap for the region's communities to prosper economically through cultural and heritage tourism connected to this nationally significant canal system.
Helping reduce sprawl and carbon emissions in the 25-city, three-county Portland, Oregon, metropolitan region with 1.4 million residents by developing "up not out" is Metro, the area's unique governmental agency. Through nearly two dozen transit-oriented development projects completed during the past decade — and another dozen in the pipeline — Metro is showing how development can be more compact while at the same time reducing residents' dependence on automobiles for local trips and commuting to work. Projects completed to date have used 80 acres of land compared with 587 acres that would have been needed using conventional development practices. Metro's transit-oriented development program has involved extensive public outreach, public-private partnerships, and incentives in order to overcome various challenges when developing areas near transit stations and increasing density.
Implementation of Marin County's Sustainability Program provides cities and towns across America with a progressive model for incorporating sustainability into all aspects of a community. The program addresses a spectrum of issues including habitat restoration; locally provided food supplies; green building, green business and energy standards; climate change emissions reduction strategies; and affordable housing. Seventy indicators and targets are in place to measure progress and establish next steps. Among the accomplishments: new residential building permits approved in unincorporated Marin on average exceed California state energy standards by 20 percent; greenhouse gas emissions from public buildings have been reduced by 100 tons during a five-year period; energy-saving measures in 2006 resulted in 553 tons of CO2 not being generated and 75,000 tons of construction and demolition waste not being disposed in landfills; and rebate incentives and installation of energy efficiency measures through Marin's Energy Watch Partnership saved 656,594 kilowatt hours of electricity between 2006 and 2007.
"Project Region," a public education and outreach effort of the Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission, was undertaken to build public support for long-term capital improvements and community revitalization in and near Pittsburgh. The effort sought input from residents in Pittsburgh as well as the surrounding 10-county region. A number of practical, cost-effective tools and methods were used including on-site meetings, public forums and workshops, region-wide webcasts, and electronic polling. Public support generated by "Project Region" culminated in approval last June of the "2035 Transportation and Development Plan for Southwestern Pennsylvania." The plan presents $30 billion in sustainable growth and development expenditures designed to help strengthen rural and urban communities and their transportation corridors.
Developed through a collaborative planning process led by Simon Fraser University, UniverCity demonstrates how readily compact, pedestrian friendly and mixed-use neighborhoods can be built today. The city is designed around transit corridors and facilities, and an extensive pathway system. Innovative features include zoning bylaws for secondary suites in multi-story apartments and town homes; a village-style commercial High Street; best practice storm-water management and control; housing variety, types and design; and creative financing to ensure use of energy efficiency components in residential buildings. Each neighborhood of the community is within easy walking distance of a town square, elementary school, community and childcare center, and neighborhood parks and tot lots. Also nearby and available to residents are university facilities and a large conservation area. To encourage less dependence on private automobiles, residents can purchase significantly discounted transit passes and have access to cooperatively owned cars.
Central City Neighborhood Partners (CCNP) took an untraditional, but remarkably simple, approach to increasing community access to transportation in the Westlake community and the surrounding neighborhoods. Using a community-based planning process to fully engage residents from the affected areas, the program has led to numerous improvements and follow-up projects including development of a new transit village that will break ground in April 2008. Assisted by planners and government officials, a team of more than 35 residents assessed the 400 bus stops in the neighborhood, conducted 997 bus ridership surveys, surveyed 512 residents and participated in 12 community meetings. Ultimately, residents identified 33 specific transportation infrastructure improvement projects, including working with state and city transportation authorities to improve the quality and condition of bus stops. Also CCNP wrote three funding applications with the City of Los Angeles for $4.5 million for transit infrastructure and pedestrian safety improvements, five projects for Safe Routes to School funding, and two proposals to the California Department of Transportation.
The City of Newport Beach faced many hurdles to revise a 30-year-old General Plan including a formidable opposition campaign that continued for several years and involved both legal challenges and a ballot initiative. The city conducted extensive public outreach and education activities involving city staff, city council members and thousands of tenacious residents. Eventually, these efforts and those of residents who supported the plan succeeded. The new plan emphasizes mixed-use development, sustainability and community interaction in order to protect the seaside community's most unique and valued assets, encourage walkability, and decrease the number of daily automobile trips by 28,000. Lowering the number of miles cars are driven lessens Newport Beach's carbon footprint as well as reduces congestion and commute times.
More than 30 years ago the City of Phoenix set a national precedent for a fast-urbanizing metropolitan area when it protected 7,500 acres of open space in the Phoenix mountains. The city's far-sightedness set the stage for enhanced awareness of planning while also providing a model for similar efforts in other parts of the country. City officials and planners faced significant challenges to preserving this desert and mountain landscape, including work to enact state legislation and secure funding mechanisms so the city could use its bonding authority to purchase open space. Today the original preserve, acquired for some $70 million, includes Shaw Butte, North Mountain, and Dreamy Draw Recreation Area. An environmental education center opened in 2006 and has one of the most popular summit trails in the country with over 500,000 hikers and 1.5 million visitors annually. The city continues to actively work on efforts to preserve an additional 20,000 acres of open space within the municipal borders.
Citizen activist and educator Dave Brown has been a tireless and effective advocate for reasonable planning and sound growth practices around the city of Los Angeles for more than three decades. His efforts as a dedicated advocate, volunteer, and teacher have complemented and enhanced the effectiveness and benefits of planning in countless ways. Brown has dedicated his time and energy to aid and support the efforts of planners at the local, state and federal level. As a member of the Citizen Advisory Committee of the State of California Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy for more than 22 years, for example, he reviewed and commented on the acquisition 60,000 acres and creation of 114 parks throughout the greater Los Angeles region. He also has served in numerous advisory positions, including on the City of Calabasas General Plan Advisory Committee and as president of the Las Virgenes Homeowners Federation. He also has received numerous honors for his leadership as a planning advocate and conservationist.
Washington Chapter APA President Joe Tovar played a critical role in ensuring that I-933, a 2006 "property rights" initiative in the state of Washington was defeated. The initiative posed significant obstacles to the use of sound planning tools and principles for smart growth. Tovar championed the opposition on multiple fronts including sharing his analyses, spreading the word, and marshalling allies and planners against this poor public policy issue. Tovar emphasized fairness, fiscal responsibility and sound responses throughout, and played an invaluable role in galvanizing the collective, sound voice of the Washington State planning community. His unswerving, personal attentiveness to the issue was instrumental in helping secure this victory for planning and ensuring communities throughout Washington continue to be great places to live and work.
|
| |
Printer-Friendly Format
