Richard Carson writes about his planning agency -- the Clark County, Washington Community Development Department -- used performance audits to reinvent itself .
"The 150 employees of the county's community development department are responsible for long-range planning, code enforcement, and land-use, engineering, and building plan review for roughly $500 million a year in new development. When I became department director in January 1999, the board of county commissioners and the county administrator told me that my highest priority was to "change the culture" of the department.
The public perception was that the department was inefficient, indifferent, and unresponsive to the needs of its customers. It didn't really matter if this perception was real or not.
This would be one of the most comprehensive performance audits of this kind of agency ever done in the U.S. The county budgeted $240,000 to carry it out. .."
Thanks to American Planning Association
Read the full story: Changing the Culture of "No"
Planetizen Federal Action Tracker
A weekly monitor of how Trump’s orders and actions are impacting planners and planning in America.
Amtrak, CN end decades-long dispute with eight-year agreement
The new operating agreement establishes an updated framework for the companies to work together, including processes to resolve disputes.
Judges permit Denver to divert 77,000 acre feet from the Colorado River for reservoir expansion
Overuse and climate change have caused the Colorado River’s water levels to plummet.
Boston has spent millions making the Green Line more accessible — and there’s no end in sight
While the city has invested millions into expanding and adding platforms to the Green Line to make it more accessible, new train cars set to arrive next year will be too tall for disabled passengers to board without raising the current platforms.
Idaho may see an 18% drop in federal surface transit funding — the largest estimated cut in the US
Transit systems in rural communities are much more reliant on federal funding to provide their services.
How ‘post-disaster gentrification’ alters neighborhoods after natural calamities
After hurricanes, fires or other calamities, the original residents of a community are often replaced by younger, wealthier residents.
FREE Course: Walkable City 1: Why Walkability?
After describing his path towards focusing on walkability as the essence of good planning, Jeff Speck marches through his five principal reasons for making more walkable places.
Reinventing Malls: Planning Alchemy—Turning Gray Fields Into Gold
The course focuses on the opportunities and imperatives that shape reinvention of mall sites.
City of Wisconsin Rapids
Harvard University Graduate School of Design
KFH Group Inc.
The Architects Foundation
University of Cincinnati Online
The Pocatello Development Authority
The Urban Renewal Agency of the City of Pocatello