Josh Stephens

<p>Habitat for Humanity takes its expertise in creating builder-owners in suburban settings to Los Angeles, which desperately needs affordable housing. <em>The Planning Report</em> interviews CEO Erin Rank.</p>

<p class="MsoNormal">In its most forward attempt to ensnare the fabled “discretionary rider,” my local transit agency recently set out handsome billboards touting the pleasures of the bus and the miseries of driving alone. They employed pithy admonishments and graphics such as a hand cuffed to a gas pump and a merry executive knitting and purling his way to the office. <br />

<p>With Southern California's strictest urban growth rules and a commitment to preserving open space and agriculture, Ventura County has become the region's hotbed of smart growth.</p>

<p>Often reviled for its gritty neighborhood, the University of Southern California is reaching out to its surrounding communities and putting forth initiatives to bridge the town-gown divide and spur economic development.</p>

<p>Local governments in California weary of losing the ability to 'plan' are speaking out against the initiative's purported goals of reforming eminent domain and the valuation of regulated land.</p>