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New Ordinance Aims to Boost Sacramento’s Housing Supply
by: Jon DePaolisWhen Nguyen Nguyen, an associate planner in Sacramento, California, began meeting with residents about housing concerns in 2021, he started hearing similar stories. -
Eliminating Owner-Occupied Restrictions for Missing Middle Housing
by: Grant Holub-MoormanUncovering JAPA: Discover how allowing private developers to build middle housing is key to making single-family zoning reform effective and expanding affordable housing options. -
Preparing for the Electric Vehicle Surge
Zoning Practice — October 2022by: Brian Ross, AICP, Jessica Hyink, Rebecca Heisel October 01, 2022Electric vehicles (EVs) are a rapidly growing sector of our nation’s (and the world’s) light-duty vehicle market. This issue of Zoning Practice identifies the land-use implications of the ongoing EV market transformation, particularly the considerations that communities need to address in regard to public EV charging infrastructure.List price$10.00ZP subscriber$0.00 -
The Use of Foresight and Scenario Planning in Hazard Mitigation and Climate Adaptation Planning
PAS Memo 113by: Petra Hurtado, PhD, Joseph DeAngelis, AICPThis PAS Memo offers guidance to planners on how to expand their use of foresight through exploratory scenario planning in both the hazard mitigation and climate adaptation fields.Nonmembers$0.00APA members & PAS subscribers$0.00 -
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. -
AI in Planning: Opportunities and Challenges and How to Prepare
Conclusions and Recommendations from APA's "AI in Planning" Foresight Communityby: Clinton Andrews, AICP, Keith Cooke, Alexsandra Gomez, Petra Hurtado, PhD, Thomas Sanchez, AICP, Sagar Shah, PhD, AICP, Norman Wright, AICP September 09, 2022This white paper summarizes findings from APA's "AI in Planning" Foresight Community and suggests initial ideas on how planners can prepare for AI and its potential impacts, how planners can ensure AI-based planning tools are used in equitable and inclusive ways, and what the role of the planner should be in developing and using AI-based planning tools. -
2023 Trend Report for Planners
by: Petra Hurtado, PhD, Sagar Shah, AICP;PhD, Joseph DeAngelis, AICP, Alexsandra Gomez January 24, 2023The 2023 Trend Report for Planners features more than 100 existing, emerging, and potential future trends that APA identified as relevant to planning. The trends are structured within three timeframes (Act Now, Prepare, Learn and Watch), which indicate the urgency of planners’ action. -
When's the Right Time to Rezone Abandoned Strip Malls?
by: Grant Holub-MoormanUncovering JAPA: Learn more about how the rise of e-commerce and how remote work has led to an oversupply of retail space, revealing a zoning mismatch that urges planners to rethink and repurpose vacant retail areas for more sustainable uses. -
Planning for Infrastructure Resilience
PAS Report 596by: Joseph DeAngelis, AICP, Haley Briel, Michael Lauer, AICPInfrastructure systems and facilities across the country are increasingly threatened by the rising seas and storm events of climate change. This PAS Report helps planners ensure that the public investments of today yield infrastructure that can withstand the floods of the future.List price$0.00APA member & PAS subscriber$0.00 -
Wait, Who Approves Large-Scale Solar Siting?
by: David Morley, AICPDetermining which agency ultimately has the authority to approve the siting of a new large-scale solar facility can be complicated. About half of all states have have established explicit limits on local siting authority, offer certain developers a way to bypass that authority, or maintain a parallel siting process. -
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. -
Activating Ground Floors in Mixed-Use Buildings After COVID
Zoning Practice — August 2022by: Thomas SmithThis issue of Zoning Practice looks at the actions of several communities trying to promote successful mixed-use development, including communities that have adopted stricter criteria for where ground-floor retail is appropriate and communities that have reduced the number of locations where ground-floor retail is mandated.List price$10.00ZP subscriber$0.00 -
A Community-Created Rubric for Heat Planning
by: Grant Holub-MoormanUncovering JAPA: Explore how the 'HeatReady Neighborhoods' rubric helps planners address extreme heat with an equity-focused framework, optimizing local assets and involving residents in climate adaptation strategies. -
How State Judiciaries Battled Exclusionary Zoning
These century-old arguments can support policy change and zoning reform today.by: Francine Romero July 25, 2022These century-old arguments can support policy change and zoning reform today. -
Digital Public Hearings in a Post-COVID World
Zoning Practice — July 2022by: Travis Parker, AICPThis issue of Zoning Practice examines problems associated with the traditional process of local government public hearings, introduces the relatively new idea of asynchronous public hearings, and explores the advantages and challenges of modernizing the public hearing process.ZP subscriber$0.00 -
The Connection Between Unpermitted ADUs in San José and the Need for Zoning Reform
by: Grant Holub-MoormanUncovering JAPA: Discover how policymakers are using computer vision to identify unpermitted ADUs in San José — shedding light on informal housing and the barriers to legal construction. -
2025 Trend Report for Planners
by: Petra Hurtado, PhD, Ievgeniia Dulko, Joseph DeAngelis, AICP, Senna Catenacci, Sagar Shah, AICP;PhD January 29, 2025The 2025 Trend Report features a list of over 100 existing, emerging, and potential future trends that the APA Foresight team and our Trend Scouting Foresight Community identified as relevant to planning. -
Developers Help Foot Climate Resilience Bills in Boston
How the city uses land value capture to fund infrastructure projects that counter the impacts of climate change.by: Anthony FlintHow the city uses land value capture to fund infrastructure projects that counter the impacts of climate change. -
Zoning for Data Centers and Cryptocurrency Mining
Zoning Practice — June 2022by: David Morley, AICPData centers are critical to internet, and there is an emerging segment of the data center market that consists of facilities dedicated to cryptocurrency mining. This issue of Zoning Practice explores why cities, towns, and counties may wish to define and regulate data centers and cryptocurrency mining as distinct uses in their zoning codes and provides a summary of contemporary approaches.List price$10.00ZP subscriber$0.00 -
The Baltimore Planning Academy: Community Empowerment Through Civic Education
PAS Memo 112by: Elina BravveThis PAS Memo explains the vision and goals of the Baltimore Planning Academy, its structure and design, and its impacts thus far, and offers guidance for planners seeking to create similar civic education and empowerment programs in their communities.Nonmembers$10.00APA members & PAS subscribers$0.00 -
Blockchain for Planners
PAS QuickNotes 99by: Justin Hollander, FAICPThis edition of PAS QuickNotes explains how blockchain, cryptocurrency, and NFTs could offer planners improved tools for data access and storage, community engagement, public decision-making, and transparency and accountability.Nonmember price$10.00APA members & PAS subscribers$0.00 -
Beyond Use Zoning: The Role of Deregulation in Housing Equity
Zoning Practice — May 2022by: John Zeanah, AICP May 01, 2022This issue of Zoning Practice explores how accessory use standards, dimensional standards, and building codes affect opportunities to build missing middle housing. And it highlights how Memphis and other cities are looking beyond use zoning to advance goals of housing equity in reforming codes and policies.List price$10.00ZP subscriber$0.00 -
High Growth Utah Communities Push for Federal Housing Support
by: Brenna DoneganAPA Utah President Tippe Morlan, AICP, sits down to talk about how high growth communities in Utah are tackling the housing crisis through zoning reform. -
Low-Carbon Land-Use Laws
Zoning Practice — April 2022by: Meg Williams April 01, 2022This issue of Zoning Practice explores how cities, towns, and counties can use land-use regulations to respond to climate change by promoting energy-efficient and zero-emission buildings; development patterns that encourage walking, bicycling, and transit use in lieu of personal automobiles; and preservation and expansion of green infrastructure.List price$10.00ZP subscriber$0.00 -
Artificial Intelligence and Planning Practice
PAS Memo 111by: David Wasserman, AICP, Michael Flaxman April 01, 2022This PAS Memo equips planners with an understanding of AI concepts and their potential uses for planning practice, as well as important considerations in ensuring responsible and equitable use of these technologies.Nonmembers$10.00APA members & PAS subscribers$0.00 -
A Planner’s Guide to Meeting Facilitation
PAS Report 595by: Milton Herd, FAICP June 01, 2019Leading a public meeting can be challenging, and this responsibility often falls to planners — but meeting facilitation skills are not usually taught in schools. This PAS Report offers step-by-step guidance in planning, preparing for, and leading a group meeting to a productive outcome.List price$25.00APA member & PAS subscriber$0.00 -
Planning Ethics and Generative AI
Translating principles of the AICP Code of Ethics into practical guidance for use of generative AI in planningUnderstand the intersection of planning practice and the ethical use of artificial intelligence. -
Planning and Zoning for Mobility Hubs
Zoning Practice — March 2022by: Andrew Crozier, AICP, Lisa NisensonThis issue of Zoning Practice introduces the idea of mobility hubs and presents information on how to integrate them into plans and codes. It reviews the history of the mobility hub concept, examines contemporary mobility hub practices, presents a typology to guide planning and zoning for future mobility hubs, and highlights noteworthy trends that may affect the future of mobility hubs.List price$10.00ZP subscriber$0.00 -
Extended Reality for Planning
PAS QuickNotes 98by: Jennifer MendezThis edition of PAS QuickNotes explores the ways in which planners can use extended reality (XR) for many different aspects of planning work, including visualizations with real-world context, community engagement with vulnerable populations, and planning scenario design.Nonmember price$10.00APA members & PAS subscribers$0.00 -
Three Ways a Lack of Workforce Housing Impacts Communities
by: Zoe KaplanThe consequences for insufficient workforce housing are severe. Learn how planning advocates are fighting to secure federal support to improve local economies. -
Rogers, Arkansas, Planners Take On Regulatory Reform
by: Brenna DoneganAPA 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. -
Planning the Wildland-Urban Interface
PAS Report 594by: Molly Mowery, AICP, Anna Read, AICP, Kelly Johnston, Tareq Wafaie, AICPWildfires pose a growing threat to communities across the country as development in the wildland-urban interface (WUI) accelerates. This PAS Report offers a holistic planning framework helping planners guide land-use decisions to create communities that are safer and more resilient to wildfire.List price$0.00APA member & PAS subscriber$0.00 -
Three Essential Questions for Better Planning
PAS Memo 110by: Kyle Ezell, FAICP CUD February 01, 2022This PAS Memo introduces three essential planning questions that help planners ensure their work benefits as many people as possible, negatively impacts as few people as possible, and includes as many people as possible.Nonmembers$10.00APA members & PAS subscribers$0.00 -
Zoning for Office-to-Housing Conversions
Zoning Practice — February 2022by: Elizabeth Garvin, AICP, Mary Madden, AICP February 01, 2022This issue of Zoning Practice summarizes the benefits of adaptive reuse and widespread barriers to converting offices to residences. Then, it explores how different zoning standards and techniques affect opportunities to adaptively reuse office spaces for residences.List price$10.00ZP subscriber$0.00 -
Warren, Rhode Island, Planning Ahead For Rising Sea Levels
by: Jon DePaolisOne of the smallest towns in the smallest state is set to get smaller with climate change, and planners in Warren, Rhode Island, are working on a managed retreat to prepare for it. -
Civic Tech Could Be the Key to More Inclusive Budgeting
Denver-area planners are using innovative tech solutions to open civic engagment up to new voices and ideas.by: Jake Blumgart January 07, 2022Denver-area planners are using innovative tech solutions to open civic engagment up to new voices and ideas. -
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 -
Illinois Solar Model Ordinance
August 2020This model ordinance provides a template to help planners in Illinois draft land-use and development regulations that permit solar development at different scales and in different land-use contexts. -
Iowa Solar Model Ordinance
August 2020This model ordinance provides a template to help planners in Iowa draft land-use and development regulations that permit solar development at different scales and in different land-use contexts. -
Wisconsin Solar Model Ordinance
August 2020This model ordinance provides a template to help planners in Wisconsin draft land-use and development regulations that permit solar development at different scales and in different land-use contexts. -
Minnesota Solar Model Ordinance
August 2020This model ordinance provides a template to help planners in Minnesota draft land-use and development regulations that permit solar development at different scales and in different land-use contexts. -
Kentucky Model Solar Zoning Ordinance
September 2020This model ordinance provides a template to help planners in Kentucky draft land-use and development regulations that permit solar development at different scales and in different land-use contexts. -
Model Site Plan Regulations and Conditional Use Permits to Support Solar Energy Systems in Maine Municipalities
February 2020This model ordinance provides a template to help planners in Maine draft land-use and development regulations that permit solar development at different scales and in different land-use contexts. -
Siting Utility-Scale Solar and Wind in Iowa: A Guide for Local Governments
April 2020by: Jenna Greene, Brian Ross, AICP, Jessica WyattThis guide is designed to help local government staff and officials understand the market potential of and opportunities to support large-scale wind and solar development. -
Solar Energy: SolSmart's Toolkit for Local Governments
2020This guide is designed to help local government staff and officials identify and take advantage of opportunities to grow local solar markets. -
State Pollinator-Friendly Solar Initiatives
January 2020by: Georgena TerryThis briefing paper is designed to help state officials and policy advocates understand existing state policies and initiatives aimed at protecting or expanding pollinator habitat through solar development. -
Anatomy of Brownfields Redevelopment
June 2019This briefing paper provides a high-level overview of brownfields redevelopment issues. -
Lake County, IL, Solar Energy Task Force Model Ordinance
2019This model ordinance provides a template to help municipal planners in Lake County, Illinois, draft land-use and development regulations that permit solar development at different scales and in different land-use contexts. -
York County, PA, Solar Energy Systems Model Ordinance
2018This model ordinance provides a template to help municipal planners in York County, Pennsylvania, draft land-use and development regulations that permit solar development at different scales and in different contexts. -
York County, SC, Code of Ordinances
Updated January 2020The county's zoning code permits solar energy systems as a principal use in agricultural zoning districts