Eric Damian Kelly is a Professor of Urban Planning at Ball State University, where he previously served as the Dean of the College of Architecture and Planning and as acting chair of his department. He is also a vice president of Duncan Associates, through which he maintains a limited professional practice. Kelly is a native of Colorado who holds a B.A. with honors in political economy from Williams College, Juris Doctor and Master of City Planning degrees from the University of Pennsylvania, and a Ph.D. in Public Policy from The Union Institute. He is the author or lead co-author of six Planning Advisory Service Reports, published by APA, the author of Managing Community Growth (Praeger Publishers), now in its second edition, and first-named co-author of Community Planning: an Introduction to the Comprehensive Plan (Island Press); he is sole author of a second edition of the book, due out in late 2009. Since 1995, he has served as General Editor of Zoning and Land Use Controls, a ten volume treatise published and updated three times per year by Matthew Bender, a Lexis-Nexis Company.
In a professional career that spans nearly 35 years, Kelly has assisted more than 150 local governments in more than 35 states in planning and plan implementation efforts. More than half of his recent consulting work has involved helping communities to navigate the complexities of
First Amendment law as it affects land-use control in regulating uses such as signs, billboards, religious institutions, and adult cabarets and other sex businesses.
Kelly has served as President of the American Planning Association, President of its Iowa Chapter, and Chair of its Planning and Law Division. He currently serves as a member of the gubernatorially appointed Indiana Land Resources Council. He is a Fellow of the American Institute of Certified Planners.