Land Use

Coronavirus Protest

Do We Know Any More About the Future of Cities Than We Did in April 2020?

The conversation about how the pandemic might alter the direction of planning and urbanism, unlike the spread of the coronavirus, has remained steady since March.

October 12, 2020 - James Brasuell

5/605 Interchange

Planned Highway Widening Requires Eminent Domain in Southern California

Advocates are calling out regional and state transportation planning agencies for a failure of racial justice as plans to widen a freeway in Southern California move forward.

October 11, 2020 - Streetsblog Los Angeles

North Carolina Flooding

Flood Risk Upends the North Carolina Housing Market

Inequalities in the housing market of coastal North Carolina communities have already been exacerbated by the effects of extreme weather and climate change.

October 9, 2020 - NRDC

The Stitch

3 Freeway Cap Projects Designed to Undo the Racism of the Past

A trio of freeway cap proposals around the country—in St. Paul, Atlanta, and Austin—embody the potential of infrastructure change to undo the mistakes of the past.

October 8, 2020 - UrbanLand

Inland Empire

General Plan, Development Code Update Planned in San Bernardino, California

Big planning and code changes are on tap for the city of San Bernardino in the Inland Empire.

October 8, 2020 - The San Bernardino Sun

Montgomery County Public Transit

Tax Break Offered for Transit Oriented Development in Maryland's Montgomery County

The Montgomery County Council approved a property tax break as an incentive for high-rise rental developments located on Metro station properties.

October 8, 2020 - Bethesda Magazine

Small Jazz Club New York

Trump Decision to Bail on Federal Stimulus Pushes Music Venues Over the Brink

Public transit, employment, homelessness, foreclosures—all hang in the balance as the federal government falters with a proposed economic recovery package. So does the prospect of going to a show after the pandemic.

October 8, 2020 - Vice

6th Street Viaduct

Designing Safe Passage for Steelhead Trout Through the L.A. River

The Southern California steelhead was added to the federal endangered species list in 1997. Today, planners are working to create a new home for the trout in the L.A. River.

October 7, 2020 - Los Angeles Times

Balboa Peninsula

California's 'Split Roll' Property Tax Reform, Explained

California voters will consider a landmark reform of its infamous property tax system this November. Prop. 15 would remove property tax caps on commercial properties established by Prop. 13 in 1978.

October 7, 2020 - CALmatters

Thailand

As U.S. Transportation Infrastructure Holds Back Economic Recovery, It's Time for Change

Opinion: Six months into the pandemic, the state of the U.S. economy reveals that the planning profession can support struggling Americans by focusing on transportation and the land use patterns that enable mass transit.

October 7, 2020 - James Brasuell

San Francisco Bay Area

On the Ballot in Alameda: The End of Single-Family Zoning

Voters in Alameda, a city of nearly 80,000 people on an island in the East San Francisco Bay Area, will vote to end a prohibition on multi-family housing that has been in place since 1973.

October 6, 2020 - Alameda Sun

Houston, Texas

The Social Dynamics of Houston's Urban Expansion

A new study published in the Land Use Policy journal explains how Houston's rapid expansion occurred, and why it matters.

October 6, 2020 - Rice Kinder Institute for Urban Research: The Urban Edge

Coronavirus in Oregon

Strange Days: Outrage Absent as Businesses Reclaim Parking Spots

It took a pandemic, but the worldwide effort to move restaurant and retail businesses outside, at the expense of parking, is proving far less controversial than it would have before the coronavirus swept the globe.

October 6, 2020 - NPR

Chicago, Illinois

A Pro-Development Approach to Housing Affordability and Economic Growth

Decades of building housing on the fringes of metropolitan areas have mired the United States in a housing affordability crisis defined by a widening gap between the haves and the have nots.

October 6, 2020 - Vox

Stahl House Los Angeles

Can L.A. Accomplish Affordability with 'Housing Plus, Plus, Plus'?

Alfred Fraijo Jr., partner at Sheppard Mullin, shares frustration with what he sees as a state inaction on housing and L.A.'s legacy of piecemeal planning and outdated zoning.

October 5, 2020 - The Planning Report

Parking Meter Fail

Transit Passes Are Way, Way More Expensive Than Street Parking Permits

Some might call it call it asphalt socialism, but public subsidies tend to only go one way in the United States: toward the car.

October 4, 2020 - Streetsblog USA

Boston, Massachusetts

Ambitious New Boston Common Master Plan Revealed

The oldest city park in the United States, used as a cow pasture until the 19th century, is slated for a major upgrade.

October 2, 2020 - The Architect's Newspaper

Water Emergency Transportation Authority

Plan Bay Area 2050 Proposes 60% Telecommute Rates for Office Workers

A drastic and unprecedented measure included in the draft Plan Bay Area 2050, released this summer, would require 60 percent of all workers in Bay Area office jobs to telecommute.

October 1, 2020 - Bloomberg CityLab

Connecticut

Lawyers Taking the Single-Family Zoning Fight to a Connecticut Town

Open Communities Alliance, along with law students and professors at a fair housing development clinic at Yale Law School, have proposed a development meant to trigger the exclusionary zoning code in the town of Woodbridge, Connecticut.

October 1, 2020 - The Connecticut Mirror

Manhattan

Judge Throws Out Plans for New Residential Skyscraper on Manhattan's Upper West Side

A residential skyscraper proposed for Manhattan's Upper West Side included a mechanical void that predated new rules in the city prohibiting the height-enhancing building practice. A judge still rejected the project as planned.

October 1, 2020 - Gothamist

Urban Design for Planners 1: Software Tools

This six-course series explores essential urban design concepts using open source software and equips planners with the tools they need to participate fully in the urban design process.

Planning for Universal Design

Learn the tools for implementing Universal Design in planning regulations.

Home and Land Services Coordinator

Appalachian Highlands Housing Partners

Associate/Senior Planner

Gallatin County Department of Planning & Community Development

Senior Planner

Heyer Gruel & Associates PA

Top Books

An annual review of books related to planning.

Top Schools

The definitive ranking of graduate planning programs.

100 Most Influential Urbanists

The who's who of urbanism, according to Planetizen readers.

Urban Planning Creators You Should Know

A short list of voices on social, video, and podcasting platforms.