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Town House Standards
Zoning Practice — February 2010by: Mary Fishman, Tom SmithThis issue of Zoning Practice takes a look at some of the regulatory and design problems that prompted Chicago to add special zoning provisions to address town house development and concludes with a short analysis of how well these provisions have stood the test of time.List Price$10.00ZP subscriber$0.00 -
Driving Growth Through Transit-Oriented Development
Zoning Practice — August 2004by: Hank Dittmar, Ellen Greenberg, FAICPThis issue of Zoning Practice defines multiple terms related to planning for TOD and discusses lessons learned from TOD design and how zoning can be effectively used as a tool in shaping successful TOD projects.List Price$10.00ZP subscriber$0.00 -
Cleveland, OH, Connecting Cleveland 2020 Citywide Plan
July 2007The city's comprehensive plan includes an arts and culture chapter that discusses the importance of creative placemaking in improving livability. -
Top 10 Misconceptions About Form-Based Codes
Public Square, May 2016by: Tony PerezThis article examines the 10 misconceptions that surround the discussion of form-based codes. -
Strategic Planning for Communities and Organizations
PAS Report 607by: Wayne Feiden, FAICP, University of Massachusetts Center for Resilient Metro-Regions July 01, 2024Strategic planning is any short-term process designed to take advantage of strategic opportunities that results in a plan for concrete actions or programs.Nonmembers$25.00APA members & PAS subscribers$0.00 -
Holistic Accessibility
Zoning Practice — August 2025This issue of Zoning Practice explores how zoning and other local development regulations can promote accessible places, spaces, and homes. It begins with an explanation of the importance of accessibility for all communities and a brief overview of common accessibility frameworks before highlighting specific regulatory strategies and inspirational international efforts. -
The Future of Age-Friendly Communities - Research on Aging
Stein Institute for Research on Aging, November 2015by: Laurence WeinsteinThis recorded lecture defines and discusses the dual concepts of livable communities and livable homes. -
Online Collaboration Tools
March 2020This toolkit provides a large list of online collaboration tools and their description, cost, and link to the platform. -
Enhancing Strategic Planning with Massive Scenario Generation
2007by: Paul Davis, Steven Bankes, Michael EgnerThis report discusses new methods for generating a large number of scenarios for geopolitical scenario planning. -
Boston Takes on Climate Change
Among the world's most prepared but also the most vulnerable, the city is making big plans to protect itself.by: Anthony FlintPlanners, engineers, and others in Boston have been working for years to prepare for the inevitable impacts of climate change – a projected 40 inches of sea level rise, and the creeping storm surge and high-tide flooding that comes with it. -
Inside the Urban Institute’s New Tool for Building Equity
With point-based data, cities are creating maps of how well services match their community’s needs, block by block.by: Elissa Chudwin July 24, 2025With point-based data, cities are creating maps of how well services match their community’s needs, block by block. -
What Is Planning?
While architects often focus on a single building, a planner's job is to work with residents and elected officials to guide the layout of an entire community or region. Planners take a broad viewpoint and look at how the pieces of a community — buildings, roads, and parks — fit together like pieces of a puzzle. -
7 Actions for Planners Facing Insecure Federal Funding
by: Jason Jordan, Brenna DoneganA variety of federal grant programs are at risk of losing funding due to recent actions by the Trump Administration, including discretionary programs such as Safe Streets for All, RAISE/BUILD grants, and Reconnecting Communities. Here are 7 actions for planners to take when federal grant funds in their communities are in jeopardy. -
Resilience Strategies along the Rural-Urban Transect
2015This report provides guidance for identifying and prioritizing actions using a “rural-to-urban transect” planning tool. -
Suwanee, GA, Suwanee's 20/20 Vision
2020This standalone policy is the guiding vision leading city officials and the projects that are considered or implemented. -
Rethinking Local Government Revenue: Why the Time Is Now and What Can Be Done
April 2022by: Shayne KavanaghThis article considers the observed shift in revenue sources for local governments as technology and systems evolve and what are new pathways for generating revenue without disproportionately affecting lower-income people. -
Data Centers Evolved: A Primer for Planners
From zoning to permitting and everything in between, here's what you need to know to set your community up for success for the next generation of digital infrastructure.by: Jacques Fluet July 22, 2021As our lives and cities become more connected, a combination of traditional and new "edge" data centers will be required. How can planners prepare for this next generation of digital infrastructure? -
Immerse Yourself! Youth and XR Master Planning
Explore Mesa, Arizona's use of VR/MR to create new engagement strategies, starting with youth and civic planning. These immersive technologies bring abstract concepts like TOD and climate-adaptation to life, allowing for experiential understanding and participatory decision-making across diverse groups.- Sarah Bassett
- Nicholas Pilarski
- Bruce Meighen, AICP
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Planning With Artificial Intelligence
PAS Report 604by: Thomas Sanchez June 01, 2023Artificial intelligence can help planners by enhancing current planning procedures, increasing efficiency, and allowing them to refocus their work on the human components of planning.Nonmembers$25.00APA members & PAS subscribers$0.00
Our Post-Pandemic Future Could Be a Lot Less Car-Centric
Planners are turning open streets pilots and parklet pop-ups into long-term plans for more equitable, sustainable transportation networks.by: David KanerCOVID-19 has highlighted an existing need to rebalance our streets by prioritizing equitable mobility options, not private vehicles. These are the strategies planners are using to make that happen — and for the long term.
The New Rules of Urban Reforestation
How ReLeaf Cedar Rapids is rebuilding an urban canopy from scratch after a weather disaster with a focus on data and environmental justice.by: Patrick AlvordHow ReLeaf Cedar Rapids is rebuilding an urban canopy from scratch after a weather disaster with a focus on data and environmental justice.
Hazard Mitigation Policy Guide
by: American Planning AssociationAPA's Hazard Mitigation Policy Guide positions planners to champion a new approach to mitigation, adaptation, and recovery centered on equity and established research.
YouTube Influencer Dave Amos Brings Urban Planning to the People
The planner and professor explains how social media can be an informal classroom, how San Luis Obispo uses Instagram effectively, and how his video about Gary, Indiana, went viral.by: Meghan Stromberg June 22, 2023The planner and professor explains how social media can be an informal classroom, how San Luis Obispo uses Instagram effectively, and how his video about Gary, Indiana, went viral.
Intergenerational Community Planning
PAS Report 603by: Irv Katz, Matthew Kaplan December 01, 2022Intergenerational community planning brings together children and youth and older adults for the mutual benefit of both groups and for the community as a whole.Nonmembers$25.00APA members & PAS subscribers$0.00
Ending Zoning’s Racist Legacy
Zoning Practice — January 2022by: Jennifer Raitt January 01, 2022This issue of Zoning Practice summarizes how exclusionary zoning practices reinforce patterns of segregation originally established by illegal racial zoning, racially restrictive covenants, and federal policies in the first half of the 20th century. And it highlights steps Boston and Louisville, Kentucky, have taken to begin to rectify these inequities through zoning reforms.List price$0.00ZP subscriber$0.00
Mayor Victoria Woodards Is Making Tacoma a Place to Come Home To
How the local leader uses partnerships, missing middle infill, and the Housing Supply Accelerator to put more roofs over more heads.by: Lindsay NiemanHow the local leader uses partnerships, missing middle infill, and the Housing Supply Accelerator to put more roofs over more heads.
Increased Remote Work Could Mean Big Changes for Cities
The pandemic has accelerated the digitalization of work. How can cities faced with excess commercial office space adapt?by: Brian Barth January 01, 2021The COVID-19 crisis has merely accelerated a transformation of work life that has been decades in the making.
Advancing Active Living Through Adaptive Reuse
Planning Approaches to Encourage Physical Activity in Small and Rural Communitiesby: Johamary Swena, AICP, Sagar Shah, PhD, AICPThis blog post provides an overview of adaptive reuse as a planning approach to increase physical activity in small and rural towns. It is part of the Everyday Destinations series.
Ethics of AI-Enhanced Planning
by: Grant Holub-MoormanUncovering JAPA: Discover how AI-enhanced planning can drive urban development while requiring planners to tackle biases, ensure transparency, safeguard privacy, and engage communities to promote ethical and equitable outcomes.
Building Resilience with Scenario Planning: An Interview with Dr. Robert Goodspeed
Sponsored content from University of Michigan: Q&A with Dr. Robert Goodspeed, University of Michigan Associate Professor of Urban and Regional Planning, who is launching a 3-day course on Scenario Planning for Urban Futures.
Planning for the Needs of an Aging Population
Questions and answers about what communities should know about shifting demographics.by: Meghan Stromberg February 01, 2021Our population is aging. How can planners prepare?
Holistic Accessibility
Zoning Practice — August 2025by: Jill Bahm, AICP, Rose Kim August 01, 2025This issue of Zoning Practice explores how zoning and other local development regulations can promote accessible places, spaces, and homes. It begins with an explanation of the importance of accessibility for all communities and a brief overview of common accessibility frameworks before highlighting specific regulatory strategies and inspirational international efforts.
The New Animal Architecture
April 01, 2015Cities are finding creative ways to rethink human-animal connections, including designing homes and the built environment to provide wildlife habitat and encourage biodiversity.
Land-Use Policy Could Help Solve the American West’s Water Crisis
As the twin pressures of water shortages and massive growth run the Colorado River dry, planners explore innovative solutions.by: Patrick SissonAs the twin pressures of water shortages and massive growth run the Colorado River dry, planners explore innovative solutions.
The OpenNeighborhood Project: A Fresh Look at Public Participation
PAS Memo — January/February 2011The OpenNeighborhood approach to public participatory planning, tested in 2009 in Acton, Massachusetts, used digital tools, the virtual-reality game Second Life, and hands-on art exercises to bring into the planning process people who had never participated before.
Planning for Climate Mitigation and Adaptation
PAS Report 601by: Matthew Bucchin, AICP, Aaron Tuley, AICP July 01, 2022The climate crisis requires communities to mitigate future climate change through the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions and adapt the built and natural environments to the changes taking place, and planners are uniquely qualified to take a leadership role in building a climate-resilient future.Nonmembers$25.00APA members & PAS subscribers$0.00
Accelerating Change: Bend, Oregon, Explores New Ways to Advance Its Community's Vision
PAS Memo — March/April 2013Bend 2030 is working with key local stakeholders to launch a handful of publicly generated "vision accelerator" projects — bold, collaborative, cross-sectoral initiatives developed with input from the wider public that have the power to significantly alter the community for the better
Opening the Door to Unconventional Homes
Zoning Practice — March 2025This issue of Zoning Practice explores the rise of unconventional housing types, such as barndominiums, 3D-printed homes, and shipping-container homes, and examines common regulatory barriers and potential regulatory reforms planners and local officials may be able to use to foster housing innovation and advance sustainable, resilient, and inclusive housing solutions.
8 Steps to an Effective Code Transition
Zoning Practice — January 2023This issue of Zoning Practice summarizes when and why it may be necessary for a city, town, or county to replace an existing development code. It provides an overview of the code-transition process, offering a brief instructional guide on how to organize and complete each step.
Making Sustainability Mainstream: The 5A Planning Approach and the Rogers Innovation Adoption Curve
PAS Memo 123To gain broad adoption of sustainable practices, planners need to make such practices easier and more attractive than the status quo. The 5A planning approach and the Rogers innovation adoption curve are two concepts planners can use to move towards a new sustainability paradigm.
The People's Way
Planning with Native American communities calls for looking to the past to guide the future.August 01, 2017Communication and collaboration — particularly with longstanding traditions — are critical for successful planning in Native American communities.
Right-Sizing Transportation Investments
With fewer resources because of COVID-19, cities are turning to an emerging practice that offers practical techniques to recalibrate their existing transportation infrastructure with economic realities and social returns.August 01, 2020Right-sizing transportation tools and approaches can generate new types of projects to support economic recovery and performance, especially in cases of limited resources.
Housing Supply Accelerator: An Interview with National Association of Home Builders Chairman Carl Harris
In this second episode of the series, Emily Pasi, Director of Public Affairs at the American Planning Association, chats with Carl Harris, Chariman of the National Association of Home Builders.
Artificial Intelligence and Planning Practice
PAS Memo 111Artificial intelligence represents an emerging planning toolbox that enables a range of new capabilities, but whether it primarily benefits entire communities or narrow interests depends on planners’ abilities to engage with the challenges and opportunities surrounding its civic applications.
Reuniting a Divided America
March 01, 2017Humanizing and relaxing the community meeting format allows for all voices to be expressed in a variety of different ways — not just in a public meeting where oftentimes the loudest voices are the only ones heard.
The Physical Footprint of Artificial Intelligence
Zoning Practice — October 2025This issue of Zoning Practice explores the physical effects of AI deployment and highlights core considerations for local planning and zoning. It begins with a summary of the land use characteristics of the system of data centers that host and serve contemporary AI models before highlighting noteworthy regulatory approaches and areas of opportunity for zoning updates and decision-making processes.
Placemaking on a Budget
PAS Report 536by: Al Zelinka, FAICP, Susan Harden, FAICPPublic spaces are struggling in many communities. This PAS Report offers help for planners who need to create distinctive public spaces that enhance community identity and social connections — without breaking the bank.List Price$25.00APA member & PAS subscriber$0.00
The Use of Foresight and Scenario Planning in Hazard Mitigation and Climate Adaptation Planning
PAS Memo 113Foresight and exploratory scenario planning is a particularly useful tool in planning for natural hazards and adapting to climate change, given the complexity and uncertainty involved in both of these areas.
3 Insights into the Future of Food Production
From gene editing to space tomatoes, here are some innovative approaches from the "2024 Trend Report for Planners."by: Jon DePaolis March 28, 2024From gene editing to space tomatoes, here are some innovative approaches from the "2024 Trend Report for Planners."Norfolk, VA, Missing Middle Pattern Book
Adopted June 2021This guide is designed to help property owners and developers add "missing middle" housing to established low-density neighborhoods in Norfolk, Virginia.