Previous Webcasts

Increasing affordable housing production has been a challenge for decades. There are challenges to production, funding, locations and legislatively. Homelessness rates in recent years and planners need innovative ways to provide transitional and permanent supportive housing. The production of affordable housing along with wrap around services has been increasingly challenging. However, with the 2020 COVID Pandemic, new funding sources have become available, and many states are finding new ways to tackle these complex problems. How can States modernize their laws to remove barriers to housing production? In what ways are we ensuring deeply affordable housing is available for those who need it?

One state that has begun to tackle these challenges at the State level is California. The state has been able to secure funding to provide 46,000 permanently affordable units. California has been able to do this with authorizing legislation and the prioritization of funding for affordable housing. There has been allocation for deeply and conditionally affordable housing. They have also been able to address their tax credit backlog with the authorizing legislation and funding. Tune in to hear from Geoffrey Ross, California Housing and Community Development Deputy Director and Sasha Wisotsky Kergan with the California Housing and Community Development Housing Policy Division.

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This panel will highlight the critical work that is being done by planners who work for the US military. They will share their experiences and highlight how the lessons they learned in planning school apply to their current jobs. They will also discuss opportunities for planners in the US military in particular.

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The pandemic exposed inequities baked into the economic system. Planners must rethink basic assumptions about bouncing back to pre-COVID economy. This panel explores the application of new approaches: a new roadmap, targeted social impact investments and small-scale manufacturing that invest in place in an inclusive way to empower systemic transformation.

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Join your APA colleagues for an introductory session to learn more about this timely issue for our communities. Panelists and discussions will consider impacts on infrastructure and social vulnerability as well as the role planners can play in improving outcomes.

Following the conclusion of the live session, the recording will continue to be available for on-demand credit through 2022 and will fulfill the new targeted Sustainability and Resilience credit requirement. To learn more about the new CM requirements, click here.

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Join your APA colleagues for an intermediate + level session to learn more about this timely issue for our communities. Panelists and discussions will consider impacts on infrastructure and social vulnerability as well as the role planners can play in improving outcomes.

Following the conclusion of the live session, the recording will continue to be available for on-demand credit through 2022 and will fulfill the new targeted Sustainability and Resilience credit requirement. To learn more about the new CM requirements, click here.

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This session will focus on the health benefits of active transportation (walking and bicycling). In addition to providing relevant health data and statistics, Mr. Jackman will discuss regional and statewide efforts such as WalkWise Tampa Bay, Safe Routes to Schools, and Healthy Communities. Learn about the importance of active transportation, as well as available resources that can help to transform your community and/or your lifestyle.

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Any discussion of planning for Economic Justice must begin with identifying the cause(s) of economic inequality. Economic inequality is intimating intertwined with racism and other socially constructive narratives that define the problems as intractable and designed to divide the many in the interest of the few. The following conversations, today and other panels in this serious, are a first step for APA to recognize the causes, costs, and corrective actions necessary to assuage economic inequality. Today’s session endeavors to provide the historical foundation of economic injustices, define so critical terms so we speak a common language, develop new lenses of discovery, and apply these lenses to some case studies to reveal potential pathways to enabling the Communities of Promise that have been systematically excluded from reaching their potential for self-actualization and capacity to contributed to the benefit of the whole. Zero-sum and scarcity assumption in economics has shaped our understanding of the issues, constrained our policy responses, and continue to obscure the real issues. Transcending the orthodoxy of neo-classical economics and other socially constructed narratives begins with understanding how we arrived at this point, exposing the demonstrably false assumptions, and learning from the past; so we can see an alternative all-inclusive future that benefits from the contribution of all.

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There's no question that the COVID-19 pandemic has had an enormous impact on schools across Pennsylvania. Uncertainty about how school closures in spring 2020 impacted student achievement, as well as how the rapid conversion of most instruction to an online platform this academic year will continue to affect achievement. The Pennsylvania Chapter of the American Planning Association “Impact of COVID-19 on School Districts” webinar investigates the critical intersection of schools with communities, where boundary lines have increasingly blurred during the COVID-19 pandemic. The webinar will address the question of universal access to WiFi and broadband, online learning's implications for more flexible and customizable instructional models, and the role of schools—and school facilities—as community resource hubs. Both innovation opportunities and dire warnings will be considered as a full school year of pandemic-impacted schooling wraps up. The long-term impacts of COVID-19 on school districts and potential impact of communities will also be addressed.

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Across the U.S., there are institutional debates regarding how best to support diversity within urban planning curricula, among our students and faculty members, and in our workplaces. Transforming the culture of White privilege in workplaces, professional practice, and education remains one of planning’s biggest challenges. Furthermore, there has been limited research that broadly examines how practitioners perceive or experience diversity within the urban planning field and the steps necessary to develop and sustain culturally competent practices in the planning profession. Researchers will discuss findings from a collaboration between the American Planning Association (APA) and the Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning – Planners of Color Interest Group (ACSP-POCIG). Drawing from their forthcoming report, they will share findings from a nationwide survey and interviews of planning professionals regarding the climate for diversity within their workplaces and the communities they serve. The study finds that although there has been progress incorporating diversity within some organizations and agencies, but there are four areas that employers, workplaces and institutions still need to address, which include: 1) lack of representation of planners of color (2) continued experiences of bias and discrimination based on identity, (3) limited pursuit by employers to address issues of diversity in the workplace, and (4) gap in educational preparation and professional practice. The session will conclude with recommendations that outline an inclusive approach on ways planners, educators, and organizations can incorporate more anti-racist actions within the field of planning.

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The Transportation Planning Division (TPD) presents a session that will demonstrate the variation in, and breadth of the impact of, innovation in transportation. Andrew Wolpert, the Deputy Program Manager of Smart Columbus, will begin with an overview of that initiative, and its progress with integrating emerging modes. Next Justin Goodwin, the Transportation Planning Manager for the City of Columbus will speak about a distinct but synergistic program called LinkUs, which focuses on deployment of innovative infrastructure. Finally, Mackenzie Love, Regional Transportation Planner for the Northern Virginia Transportation Authority, will talk about her organization’s inaugural Transportation Technology Strategic Plan, which was developed as a tool to guide adoption of any form of innovation in a manner that is consistent with pre-established core values and objectives. After the conclusion of the presentations, attendees will be encouraged to ask questions and contribute to a discussion of how to best plan for the ever-evolving future of transportation.

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For decades, regional planning promoted growth and development increasingly further away from employment centers. This has resulted in urban sprawl, displacement and gentrification, and the infringement on natural and working lands at the rural-urban interface. This “set it and forget it” approach to planning is not sustainable economically or environmentally. This is particularly true in megaregions like Northern California. This webinar explores how cities and counties adjacent to major employment centers like San Francisco and Silicon Valley have plans for retrofitting these communities to accommodate much needed housing growth and mobility expansion in a way that is equitable and sustainable, both environmentally and economically. Panelists will describe the challenges that metropolitan planning organizations (MPOs) face, as well as specific opportunities and programs they are working on to make positive changes that will continue decades into the future.

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