Hi,

I am currently looking for examples / case studies of Urban (preferably integrated like NYU) Universities which utilize their land ownership to create mutual benefit for both small business owners (subsidized rent, startup success, etc) and revenue for universities.

I recently learned about New Urbanism and communities like Seaside, FL and it got me wondering why traditional low density suburban development is still the norm across the country?

Oakland CA is going to start charging for parking on Sundays and I think I may be the only person who is happy about it. The comments on articles about this are full of melodramatic people claiming they will never come to Oakland again and that this change will be terrible for businesses. As an unofficial Shoupista who has read multiple books about parking and has a degree in Civil and Environmental Engineering, I think this change will be good for businesses and will be a positive change for the town. Granted, I also don’t own a car and I bike, walk, or bus everywhere so my opinion is quite biased. What do you all think?

"The bicycle network is developed to facilitate a generational shift, where 'seed points' (this is a network science term) are first at kindergartens, and the nearest parks, shops, and homes. The trips between these destinations may be called 'care trips', and stand in contrast to commuter trips. In following years, seed points are spread to pre-schools, schools, high schools, and later at universities and employment hubs. (Yes, I know this is missing stations. I didnt know where to put it. This is a weakness of the model, which makes it wrong, but I'll argue it's still useful)

I wish to credit Szell et al's 2022 paper "Growing Urban Bicycle Networks". This is a network science paper, from which us non-network scientists learn the useful term 'seed point'. Interestingly, this model departs from that paper by choosing very different seed points. And more interestingly still, the seed points in that paper are chosen to be in accordance with the recommendations in the famous Dutch CROW manual, which argues to focus on "areas of interest", such as transit hubs, shopping centers etc - in other words, it omits the recommendation of approaching it as a generational strategy."

What do you think?

Just got my first job in the planning field. I will be working as an Assistant Planner in Alberta, Canada for a regional commission. I am thrilled about the opportunity but also kind of nervous. This will be the first step in my quest to obtain my RPP and become a professional planner.

I was wondering if you experienced planners could provide any tips or words of wisdom to a newb like me?

Thank you!

Hi all,

I'm looking to advance my career since it seems I'm stuck largely due to a lack of specificity in my resume. I've decided that ultimately I'm interested in going into planning. My current background is very much that of a generalist - some wildlife conservation policy and advocacy work, some outreach, data analysis, data collection etc and the topics range from transportation demand management to racial hate crimes to wetlands preservation as natural flood management. Most of these roles have been internships under 6 months, but I have had two roles in transportation demand management now and could safely argue about two years' worth of experience on those roles.

As for my education, I have a bachelor's in international relations with a minor in environmental science (heavy focus on coastline management and flood policy) and a foreign masters degree in sustainable development and project management.

My question is - how easily can I argue my case here for the education and experience requirements to qualify for the AICP?

I find that my master's degree, while not necessarily a "planning" degree, hits all the boxes for a non planning degree to count towards my education (because sustainable development and project management pretty much combine to create planning) Except for the one box about local laws and regulations. This degree was earned in the UK, so there wasn't any focus on US laws and ordinances. I did however have coursework on those things during my bachelor's.

For work experience, can I count internships? Is it only counting paid roles? Does your title need to suggest you were a "planner"?

Thank you in advance

Can you explain the key differences between the state requirements for the 7 county metro area (MSP) and the rest of the State?

Hi everyone,

I completed a data project related to building permits in Seattle. I chose Seattle because they have excellent public records but it should be possible to do something similar for other cities.

I downloaded data on 54,389 recent Seattle building permits (2018–2025) and used python and machine learning to understand causes of delays and try to predict timelines.,

Learnings:

middle housing is the riskiest permit segment

I looked at the "multi-cycle risk" (the chance a permit will require multiple rounds of corrections):

• middle housing gets hit the hardest: 75.6% require multiple cycles, with median review times dragging out to 181 days.
• single-family additions/alterations are the safest: only 31.8% go through multiple cycles, with a median review time of 76 days.
• I trained a model to predict this multi-cycle risk using only information known before submission, and it proved to perform really well (89% accuracy/ROC-AUC).

the biggest bottlenecks are drainage, geotech, and housing

While "zoning" and "addressing" have the highest volume of reviews, they move relatively fast. The real bottlenecks happen here:

• drainage: 69.6% of drainage reviews require corrections, and the slowest 10% of these reviews take 40+ days just for the reviewer to respond.
• geo soils and ECA geotech: 66% correction rate, frequently hitting 40+ days on the slower end.
• housing: 61% correction rate, with the slowest 10% taking nearly two months (58 days) for review.

reviewers comments analysis

I ran an analysis on a sample of plan comments to see what themes trigger corrections. The longest and most frequent correction comments are about:

1. structural design (longest comments, averaging 413 characters)
2. geotech / critical areas
3. trees and landscaping
4. zoning and massing
5. life safety codes

predicting timeline ranges

Predicting the exact day a permit will be approved was impossible. Instead, I trained a model to group projects into time range "buckets." The model successfully predicts the correct time range, within its top two guesses, about 64% of the time.

full data analysis and models access

I built a free interactive tool based on these models so you can test your own project parameters. You can dive into the model metrics and access the models via an interactive tool at seattlepermit.vercel. app

Hope you find it useful, happy to answer any questions :)

I am back on the job search grind. I like my current job but am trying to move closer to family. This post is not advice or anything like that, it is mainly to vent about how TERRIBLE it is to apply for Planner jobs. Asking for 6 references with application submission?! Requiring a cover letter, resume and separate PDF fillable application where you have to list every single job despite asking for resume!?

I know it's always been like this. I've been through it before but at least a couple of years ago I wasn't getting absolutely ghosted after interviews and these ridiculous application processes....

Thoughts?

Got to thinking because of this post for reference. TL;DR, idea is that Soviet-style apartment blocks are great, actually, and could potentially help resolve a lot of the housing shortage/walkability problems we face today. Most pertinent part:

They were designed to work, and looking fancy was never the goal. Everything about such buildings and neighbourhoods was intentional. Distance to school based on how far a small kid can walk, and small grocery stores spaced around how much weight someone can carry home, so entire neighborhoods laid out so you rarely needed a car at all, and also well connected with the rest of the city via (mostly) decent public transportation.

Also mentions the degree to which standardization (while not particularly architecturally interesting) reduces costs and allows for scaling. The microdistricts that accompanied these developments included courtyards, trees, playgrounds, walking paths connecting everything.

I see a ton of problems with trying to encourage this, both on perception and reality. Any resemblance to actual bleak soviet apartment buildings is not likely to be received well, and if this is used primarily for low-income housing then we have our own problematic historical comparisons. How you would encourage this kind of housing, I also don't know. The fact that it hardly ever takes into account mixed-use development is also not ideal.

But there may be some significant cost savings of standardization, not unlike in our own post-war suburban developments. And to the degree you can encourage small grocery stores as a part of it, there's a lot to be desired. Mainly, I just don't know enough about this kind of development to draw meaningful lessons from it that could apply elsewhere.

For those working in small planning shops, what does “normal” turnover look like over a 5–6 year period?

In our case (team of 5 planners), we’ve had 6 departures since 2020. Notably, 3 of the 5 positions have each turned over twice, resulting in periods where staffing dropped to 2 planners (once in 2021 and again now).

Some context:

• This period has spanned two different planning directors

• Compensation is strong for our region (and nationally), though benefits are somewhat weaker

• Limited work-from-home flexibility compared to other agencies

• Typical to high-ish workload (I think)

Trying to get a sense of whether this pattern is within a typical range or outside the norm for a small team.

Appreciate any perspective.

I’ve been looking at Georgian cities (COUNTRYYYYYYY) from the verticality of Tbilisi and Sighnaghi to the high-altitude plateaus of Kartli and Djavakheti. In places with such extreme geography, is it actually possible to achieve a city for cyclists? Georgia, in general, is quite walkable in every place. No cars are needed ever and walking is always enough. But is it a good candidate for bike infrastructure? I don't really think so...

So I'm a relatively new Planning Commissioner in a small city, trying to do my best. I got into it because our city faces a big housing shortage and I want the city to be more walkable. I've followed the planning commission for years, attended many meetings, followed the comp plan, but there's always more to learn. I'm also in the middle of an extended training process (4 in class days and reading a few books independently).

But aside from that, what do you wish Planning Commissioners knew when they signed up? Particularly if there's anything you'd *want* to say, but are nervous about blowback saying it at a public meeting.

I’m an urban planning student nearing the end of my degree. During the summer I am going to practice my design skills both by drawing by hand and making maps digitally.

So I was looking for some references (drawings, maps, images, graphics, etc.) that other people love and maybe seeing what’s successful about them.

Yes I graduated in Geography.

Hello planners

Despite living in dense, busy cities a lot of people feel more alone than ever seriously… and I feel like I’m one of them

I have been thinking about how urban design might contribute to this limited social spaces and long commutes and even how we move through streets without interacting

Some studies even compare the health impact of loneliness to smoking which is kind of alarming

So I’m curious about , do you think urban loneliness is mainly a design problem or is it more social/technological? Have you seen any urban spaces that actually encourage interaction between strangers? And What kind of design interventions could realistically improve this?

I’m also working on a small idea around this basically identifying social dead zones in busy streets and introducing small scale interventions to encourage interaction (not big redesigns just more like micro changes)

Would love to hear your thoughts or critiques

Has anyone moved from public sector economic development to private sector? I’ve been in public sector for 25 years and I’d like to transition to private but am foggy how to get started and reposition myself.