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August 2006 Welcome Message from the Chair Greetings from Baltimore, Maryland, as I look out my office window now at the waterfront development currently underway along the shoreline of the Inner Harbor. The rapidly changing skyline in this urban area reminds me of the strategic interplay between the architectural, engineering, legal, and planning disciplines necessary to bring any successful development project to fruition. No matter which discipline you call home, we all benefit when the strategic players have an understanding of design, development, and planning that crosses disciplines. The current membership of the Planning and Law Division appears to exhibit the advantageous trait of cross-discipline appreciation. While our division's name may imply that we are the home to lawyers, the majority of our membership does not work in the legal field. The results of the 2006 PLD membership survey reported that while approximately 25 percent of members are employed in either a public sector or private sector legal position, more than 60 percent of members surveyed are employed in the urban/land use planning field. The remaining 15 percent of members polled reported that they work in a collection of fields including environmental planning, transportation planning, engineering, landscape architecture, and architecture. A division is as strong as its members, so PLD certainly benefits from the professional diversity in its members! So how do we tap into this strength and how can we help serve our members? In 2006, PLD will continue to (1) sponsor the successful and competitive Annual R. Marlin Smith Student Writing Competition; (2) seek continuing legal education credits for participants of the annual and well-attended Bettman Symposium during the APA National Planning Conferences; (3) award two PLD Fellowships to students of planning and law each academic semester; (4) coordinate with APA's Amicus Committee to ensure our members have clear and concise information on developments in legal areas such as environmental, land use, and zoning law; and (5) distribute a quarterly newsletter that provides important information and tools for our members' benefit. We do want to improve upon specific products of our division. We currently need a website coordinator who can volunteer an hour or two per month to update the PLD website with valuable links and materials drafted by members as we receive them. Several respondents of the 2006 PLD survey submitted that improving the division's website is important. I agree completely! If interested in serving as the website coordinator, please contact me or any of the other PLD officers — Brad Torgan, Chair-elect, and Bryan Wenter, Secretary/Treasurer — as soon as possible.
And I want to welcome Elisa Paster of Paul Hastings in Los Angeles as the new PLD newsletter editor. Elisa agreed to take the responsibility of the division's newsletter after Bryan was elected Secretary/Treasurer. We welcome new contributions for inclusion in the newsletter as well as on the website. Elisa can be reached at elisapaster@paulhastings.com. Thank you for your involvement with PLD and do not ever hesitate to contact any of the PLD officers with questions, ideas, and/or suggestions about how PLD can serve you better. Sincerely, Nicole Lacoste | |
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