Award of Excellence: The Plan to House LA – City of Los Angeles 2021-2029 Housing Element, Los Angeles City Planning and Los Angeles
Housing Department
Award of Merit: South San Francisco 2040 General Plan, “Shape SSF”, City of South San Francisco
Award of Excellence: Not Just Another Housing Crisis Band-Aid: Downtown Bishop Specific Plan & Mixed-Use Overlay and Environmental Impact Report, City of Bishop Planning Department + Alta Planning & Design, Inc. + Helix Environmental Planning
Award of Excellence: Parks Make Long Beach: Department of Parks, Recreation, and Marine Strategic Plan, Long Beach Parks, Recreation, and Marine Administration
Award of Excellence: PlanSearch.caes.ucdavis.edu: A Search Engine for California’s General Plans, University of California, Davis - Center for Regional Change, Faculty Director, Dr. Catherine Brinkley
Lisa Hershey, executive director of Housing California, will participate in the "Big Conversation" on homelessness at the Calfornia APA Conference the morning of Monday, Sept. 13.
Update: Yesterday the leadership of the California Chapter of the American Planning Association decided to oppose the current draft of Assembly Bill 904, which seeks to lower parking minimums in transit-oriented areas. Here is the APA's letter (.doc) to bill sponsor Nancy Skinner.
Yesterday the American Planning Association proudly released the results of a recent poll entitled Planning in America: Perceptions and Priorities, which it commissioned indicating that Americans are overwhelmingly supportive of community planning. Given the state of national politics, it's no wonder that Americans are reserving their passions for local issues. Boss Tweed and Mayor Quimby are looking like angels by comparison.
Yesterday, at Day Three of the APA's National Planning Conference, a panel of planning directors and other city officials from Southern California cities offered their take on a range of issues – good and bad – that cities in the region are facing. The panel was designed for a non-California audience, and the panelists' take on statewide trends was telling.
Smart growthers tout transit-oriented development more often than any other strategy. Yet with the exception of a few few showpiece developments, TOD has yet to catch fire in practice. This year, the American Planning Association recognized one such development in the hopes that, finally, the trend will catch on.
P.J. O'Rourke once referred to the United States government as a "vast, rampant cuttlefish," writhing and squirting ink all over the place to no useful effect. I think D.C.'s tubluence has far exceeded even that metaphor, but taking its place lately are California's municipal general plans.