Blog
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April 15, 2025
Have You Cracked the Code on Effective Zoning Engagement?
Spotlight on Zoning Practice: Why is public engagement around zoning changes so difficult, and what are the keys to effective engagement? -
December 20, 2024
4 Legislative Wins for Planners and Housing Reform in the 118th Congress
The past two years have brought about significant changes across the country — but housing supply and zoning reform remain top-of-mind for planners, elected officials, and their communities. Here are four legislative wins planners — and APA — made possible in the 118th Congress. -
December 18, 2024
Improving Planning Access for South Los Angeles
Equity in Practice: The Los Angeles City Planning Department improves access to planning services for residents of South LA, overcoming historical harms and exclusion. -
November 11, 2024
Rogers, Arkansas, Planners Take On Regulatory Reform
APA Public Affairs Program Manager Brenna Donegan spoke to planning advocate John McCurdy about how his city of Rogers, Arkansas is addressing housing challenges, and why other small to mid-size communities in Northwest Arkansas need federal investment and support to make smart zoning reforms happen. -
October 24, 2024
How Nonprofits Are Shaping Community Organizing
Uncovering JAPA: Explore how subcontracting community organizing to nonprofits can enhance resident participation but risks perpetuating power inequities without addressing systemic racial and class-based disparities. -
October 4, 2024
Planning Advocates Open Doors to New Connections
Policymakers at local, state, and national levels depend on planners to bring data, insights, and guidance that can shape the policies that change lives. This week, planning advocates brought those insights to Capitol Hill during APA’s annual Congressional Fly-In. -
September 11, 2024
When More Participation Isn’t Better
Spotlight on Zoning Practice: What can planners do to "right-size" public participation in land use approval processes? -
September 9, 2024
The Importance of Intergenerational Community Placemaking
Learn how planners can advocate for intergenerational community planning to address the needs of an aging population and create inclusive, equitable spaces for all ages. -
September 5, 2024
Bridging the Gap: Planners and Stakeholders
Uncovering JAPA: See how planners can enhance transparency and collaboration to address power imbalances and prevent corruption in projects. -
August 22, 2024
Multinational Survey: Planners' Use of New Technology
Uncovering JAPA: Learn how planners are adopting new technologies and how AI is expected to impact administrative work, while its role in community engagement remains uncertain. -
August 7, 2024
Building on Success: Housing Reform in Grand Rapids
Since the 2002 master plan, Grand Rapids has seen more than $7 billion of construction invested in the city. Efforts like eliminating single family zoning and studies of individual neighborhood needs have now positioned Grand Rapids for bolder housing reforms with lower risk of gentrification or displacement of neighborhoods. -
July 18, 2024
Can ChatGPT Analyze Public Feedback?
Uncovering JAPA: Learn how ChatGPT analyzes public feedback data, aiding urban planners with high accuracy and essential human oversight. -
June 18, 2024
Embracing Conflict: Honing Your Conflict Management Skills
Conflict is increasingly permeating through every aspect of our lives — and community meetings are no exception. -
March 5, 2024
Overcoming Misinformation to Implement a Road Diet
Amidst a yearslong project to make a roadway safer in Bellingham, Washington, planners had to contend not just with the challenge of reducing lane widths but also with misinformation being spread about the project. -
April 21, 2023
It Takes a Planner: Communicating Your Value to Policymakers
APA is launching “It Takes a Planner”, an effort aimed at building the influence of planners among state and local elected and appointed officials. -
March 6, 2023
Plan Now to Overcome Reflexive Opposition to Large-Scale Solar
Reflexive opposition to large-scale solar projects is on the rise in many parts of the country. Start planning now to avoid the reactive trap. -
October 14, 2022
Challenging Storytelling and Narratives That Reinforce Inequity
Uncovering JAPA: The risk of reproducing racist assumptions or narratives in planning. -
September 22, 2022
The Benefits of Repeated Participation
Uncovering JAPA: Outcome of attracting the repeated participation of participants across multiple planning engagement processes. -
July 18, 2022
What Comes After Zoning by Zoom?
Spotlight on Zoning Practice: Is your community ready for asynchronous public hearings? -
July 14, 2022
Online Dissent: Fostering a Necessary Component to Planning
Uncovering JAPA: How can planners preserve dissent in online public engagement opportunities? -
December 7, 2021
The Silver Linings of Asset-Based Community Development
Asset-Based Community Development (ABCD) is a framework to discover and mobilize assets or resources available in a community and use them to benefit residents. -
November 24, 2021
Aligning Political Candidates' Social Media Posts and Plan Outcomes
Uncovering JAPA: Connecting what political candidates' social media posts to plan outcomes may help signal what plans will be implemented. -
October 5, 2021
Language Access: Inclusive Planning in Los Angeles
Los Angeles' City Planning department created Spanish Translation Style Guide, a tool to broaden support for key programs, respond to citizens’ needs, and collect input from diverse LEP voices across the city. -
September 2, 2021
Testing Geodesign for Navajo Community Plans
Uncovering JAPA: See how Geodesign was used in two Navajo community plans to ensure participation without tokenization. -
July 15, 2021
Understanding Responses to COVID-19-Induced Shifts in Cultural Norms
Uncovering JAPA: Cultural biases impact how people will respond differently to government and planning interventions. -
July 30, 2020
A Guide to Choosing the Best Meeting Venues
Uncovering JAPA: Where should you have your meeting to engage the community? The Venue Creation Tool can help you decide. -
February 27, 2020
An Urgency for Insurgency: Lifting Marginalized Voices
Uncovering JAPA: Neighborhood association insurgents successfully challenged planning in one Detroit neighborhood, and planners can support marginalized voices elsewhere. -
December 19, 2019
A Ladder to More Meaningful Community Participation
Uncovering JAPA: Arnstein's Ladder of Citizen Participation can't fix community participation, but it surely provides a space from which to start. -
December 11, 2019
Revisiting Arnstein’s Ladder: Justice as Parity of Participation
Uncovering JAPA: How can planning toward participation have a transformative effect on social equity? -
December 5, 2019
Noncitizens, Nonprofits, and Methods of Engagement
Uncovering JAPA: Three lessons from nonprofits in Los Angeles County can help planners build trust and representation for noncitizens. -
November 21, 2019
Moving Beyond Citizen Control to Co-Production
Uncovering JAPA: Co-production offers what citizen control can’t — systems change — but the public sector still has a great role to play. -
October 31, 2019
Missing Rungs in the Ladder of Citizen Participation
Uncovering JAPA: What happens when public participation is used to finesse existing plans and policies rather than provide opportunities to challenge them? -
October 17, 2019
The View From Arnstein’s Ladder: The Promise of Community Control
Uncovering JAPA: Is community control — a shift of power from the government to the majority of the community — the way to address injustice faced by marginalized members of the community? -
September 26, 2019
Research That Retrieves Lost Memories of Place
Uncovering JAPA: Engaging community members in storytelling can reveal forgotten heritage and draw new maps of the past. -
September 19, 2019
Building That Well-Known Ladder of Citizen Participation
Uncovering JAPA: Sherry Arnstein's influential Ladder of Citizen Participation grew from her frustration with government ideas about power in the 1950s and 1960s. -
September 12, 2019
Who Cares? Reimagining Planning as Caring
Uncovering JAPA: How can planners acknowledge and make use of all of their emotions in a productive way when engaging with the public? -
August 29, 2019
Planners as Partners in Building Healthy Communities
Uncovering JAPA: What does it look like for planners to not simply involve communities but ensure they have agency and can lead? -
August 2, 2019
Federal Surface Transportation Debate Shifts Into High Gear
The nation's current surface transportation law is set to expire on September 30, 2020. Learn where work on the bill stands now, the legislative process ahead, and how planners can influence the outcome. -
July 22, 2019
Planners, Here Are Your Keys to Successfully Facilitating Meetings
Meeting facilitation is a vital skill for planners' career success, but it takes a lot of practice to learn the key techniques. -
May 13, 2019
Washington Talks Infrastructure: Will This Time Be Different?
APA Policy Director Jason Jordan reviews the current state of legislative debates on infrastructure in Washington and explores the ways in which APA and its planning advocates are influencing policy ideas in the making. -
April 22, 2019
Street Air on Earth Day
Members of the Street Air Project have studied the air pollution problem in Bay View, California, with the goal of quantifying the issues and seeking scientific and planning-related solutions. -
February 28, 2017
3 Short Steps to Great Public Speaking
Presenting information to groups of people is a fundamental part of being a planner. APA member Michael Blue, FAICP, gives his tips for giving a successful presentation. -
November 22, 2016
Women in Planning: Tips for Successful Civic Engagement
APA's Women and Planning division talked with Jennifer Evans-Cowley, PhD, AICP, about her experience as a planner and the value of making community members a part of the planning process. -
October 27, 2016
Boston Mayor Uses Books to Bolster Community Planning
Boston Mayor Martin J. Walsh released a suggested reading list focused on urbanism in order to engage locals in the citywide planning process. -
October 12, 2016
Public Engagement: The Key to Building Inclusive Communities
Jessica Garrow, AICP, community development director for the City of Aspen, got to where she is today through hard work and perseverance. She recounts her planning journey and the lessons she's learned along the way. -
September 30, 2016
Think Outside the Public Meeting
The time has never been better for planners to move towards a more creative, inclusive, and enjoyable public outreach approach beyond the public meeting. -
March 20, 2016
Election Year Advocacy? YES, You Can!
Eelection years hold some unique opportunities to advance a pro-planning agenda. Even if you aren’t endorsing candidates, elections open up your advocacy options.
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