Citizen Planning Academies build local leadership, increase awareness, and broaden involvement through community education. CommunityMatters highlights examples of citizen academies along with five reasons to start one in your city or town.
Many communities struggle to recruit volunteers for local planning boards and commissions, and are challenged by communication with the public around planning issues. Citizen Planning Academies are one tool for increasing interest and capacity of residents to get involved with local planning issues.
Building on PlannersWeb.com's 2014 article on Citizen Planning Academies, CommunityMatters takes a look at a handful of examples and offers five reasons to start an academy in your town:
- Academy graduates understand planning language and processes.
- Academy graduates run for office.
- Academy graduates are practiced citizen planners.
- Academy graduates boost capacity for public engagement activities.
- Academy graduates teach each other.
FULL STORY: Five Reasons to Start a Citizen Planning Academy in Your Town
Planetizen Federal Action Tracker
A weekly monitor of how Trump’s orders and actions are impacting planners and planning in America.
Map: Where Senate Republicans Want to Sell Your Public Lands
For public land advocates, the Senate Republicans’ proposal to sell millions of acres of public land in the West is “the biggest fight of their careers.”
Restaurant Patios Were a Pandemic Win — Why Were They so Hard to Keep?
Social distancing requirements and changes in travel patterns prompted cities to pilot new uses for street and sidewalk space. Then it got complicated.
Platform Pilsner: Vancouver Transit Agency Releases... a Beer?
TransLink will receive a portion of every sale of the four-pack.
Toronto Weighs Cheaper Transit, Parking Hikes for Major Events
Special event rates would take effect during large festivals, sports games and concerts to ‘discourage driving, manage congestion and free up space for transit.”
Berlin to Consider Car-Free Zone Larger Than Manhattan
The area bound by the 22-mile Ringbahn would still allow 12 uses of a private automobile per year per person, and several other exemptions.
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.
Heyer Gruel & Associates PA
JM Goldson LLC
Custer County Colorado
City of Camden Redevelopment Agency
City of Astoria
Transportation Research & Education Center (TREC) at Portland State University
Camden Redevelopment Agency
City of Claremont
Municipality of Princeton (NJ)