2003 National Planning Award Winners

The American Planning Association (APA) has announced the winners of its 2003 National Planning Awards. The annual awards honor the most outstanding efforts in the art, science, and profession of community planning.

"These awards are evidence of the overwhelming support for good planning by the American people," said APA Executive Director W. Paul Farmer, AICP. "Americans want their air and water to be clean, their farms to be preserved, sprawl to be checked. They want broader choices in housing and transportation. They are concerned that changes in their communities be guided. The people honored by these awards are demonstrating that we can make collective choices so that our future can be better than our past."

January 2003 Update: The National Awards Jury has selected Imagine New York, a project of the Municipal Art Society, for special recognition. Click here to read more.

The 2003 recipients, who will be honored at the 2003 APA National Planning Conference in Denver March 29-April 2, 2003, include communities and individuals whose level of excellence has raised the standard for professional planners, public policymakers, and elected officials engaged in dialogue about the future of our cities, states, and regions. The 2003 National Planning Awardees include:

Outstanding Planning Award for a Plan
Destination 2030, Metropolitan Transportation Plan for the Central Puget Sound Region
With a population of 3 million people expected to increase by more than 1.5 million in the next 30 years, traffic is a major issue in the central Puget Sound region. Destination 2030 provides a comprehensive and collaborative examination of regionwide needs and costs. Transportation investment principles in the plan support a regional land use vision that calls for the creation and revitalization of livable urban communities linked by an efficient transportation system, while preserving open space and limiting sprawl.

Outstanding Planning Award for a Project
Philadelphia City Planning Commission's Community Heritage Preservation Project
The City of Philadelphia plans to redevelop and rehabilitate large areas of the city that have become blighted. Through a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, the city's planning commission has developed a protocol to identify, document, and, in some instances, preserve historically significant structures and artifacts that may be affected by the anti-blight program. The project uses a combination of traditional and high-tech tools to increase awareness of cultural heritage, including exhibits that showcase the projects to the community, a school curriculum for 4th and 11th graders, and 20 hours of recorded oral histories to be used for an audio tour.

Outstanding Planning Award for Implementation
The Southside Development Plan, Greensboro, North Carolina
Greensboro's 1990 Center City Plan identified the Southside area as a unique development opportunity because of its potential as a gateway to the city's central business district. But the Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) quickly found that existing zoning ordinances were inadequate to provide the density of mixed uses needed to attain the community's vision. Working with multiple city departments, HCD created Greensboro's first Traditional Neighborhood Ordinance, one of the nation's few that encourages infill development. With funds approved through a bond referendum, the city has built a combination of new townhouses, live/work units, and single-family homes that has allowed the city to return to its historic roots, while looking forward to its future.

Outstanding Planning Award for a Special Community Initiative
The Eau Gallie Improvement Project, Melbourne, Florida
After its merger with the City of Melbourne in 1969, Eau Gallie lost much of its identity. The residential areas were inundated with drug and prostitution activity; the old commercial center was becoming dilapidated, while the tax base decreased; the minority community had the highest crime rates in the city. The city responded with a threefold strategy to help the residents reclaim their streets. First, create a Eau Gallie Improvement Area with a Crime Watch Group. Second, develop the Booker T. Washington Neighborhood through 17 community meetings where residents articulated a vision, set long and short-term strategies, and prioritized use of Community Development Block Grants. Third, establish an Urban Infill Plan that outlines strategies for economic and aesthetic redevelopment. The results have been dramatic. Businesses are relocating to the area, residences have improved, crime is down, and property values are up. More importantly, there is trust that improvement will continue.

Current Topic Award: "Implementing Smart Growth"
Fall Creek Place, Indianapolis, Indiana
Fall Creek Place is Indianapolis's project to transform a blighted inner-city neighborhood into a healthy, mixed-income and diverse community by using principles of smart growth. It includes more than 26 city blocks over 160 acres, and upon completion will provide nearly 400 new homeownership opportunities, with 51 percent of homes targeted to households at or below 80 percent of the median income for the City. Since the City agreed not to buy out or displace existing homeowners, revitalization efforts had to balance new construction with nearly 90 existing homeowners. A specially appointed Steering Committee of city leaders, area businesses, and residents guided the planning process and ensured broad-based support for sound revitalization strategies.

Public Education Award
League of Women Voters' Education Campaign on Urban Sprawl, Buffalo/Niagara, New York
Funded by several foundation grants totaling $107,545, the League of Women Voters of Buffalo/Niagara led a major effort to reach large numbers of residents with important facts about the relationship between sprawl and air and water pollution, the loss of open space and farmland, traffic congestion, and high property taxes. The League made more than 100 presentations, developed and distributed print material, sponsored public meetings and forums, and helped form a 21-organization coalition composed of environmental, preservationist, agricultural, taxpayer, homeowner, and other organizations concerned about sprawl.

Paul Davidoff Award
Aziz Aslami
After the tragic events of September 11, 2001, Aziz Aslami left his career in the Development Services Department at the City of Lake Forest, California, to volunteer his talents to rebuilding Afghanistan. In January 2002, Aslami left for Mazar and Kohlm in northern Afghanistan as part of an effort by Samaritan's Purse to rebuild the cities and spirits of the Afghani people. In the last year, Aslami's abilities as a planner were called into action as he worked to draft agreements for local governments, negotiate contracts and sale prices, hire and oversee local labor, and resolve conflicts. He planned and oversaw the construction of a boys high school, a girls high school, a middle school, and a 25-bed hospital/clinic in Kholm and two high schools in Aybak. He has participated in the construction of 600 housing units and 110 deep-water wells funded by the United Nations and manages the operation of an orphan care center in Mazar.

Distinguished Leadership Award for an Elected Official
County Supervisor Tom Mullen, Riverside, California
In his role as a county supervisor, Tom Mullen is responsible for a population greater than 12 states and a multibillion dollar budget that rivals many Fortune 500 companies. In anticipation of rapid growth in Riverside County over the next 20 years, Mullen embarked on what one former Interior Department Deputy Secretary called, "the most ambitious planning initiative in America." The Riverside County Integrated Project is a three-pronged plan to simultaneously address transportation, habitat conservation, and housing demands.

Distinguished Leadership Award for a Professional Planner
David A. Wallace, AICP
In an illustrious career that spanned the second half of the 20th century, David Wallace established a model strategy for overall redevelopment of downtown Philadelphia, headed a team that planned a revitalization strategy for Baltimore's ailing central business district, devised the Inner Harbor Master Plan, and prepared a master plan for the moribund Lower Manhattan district in response to the erection of the World Trade Center. Wallace has also taught planning and urban design at the University of Pennsylvania's Graduate School of Fine Arts and at the University of Chicago.

Distinguished Leadership Award for a Citizen Planner
Patrick Fero
Recognizing the need to bring communities in the south-central portion of York County, Pennsylvania, together in an effort to solve short-range problems and facilitate joint activities, Patrick Fero was instrumental in establishing the Southern York County Regional Planning Commission, the first of its kind in the county. As vice-chairman of the Shrewsbury Township Planning Commission he has led the effort to update the Township's Zoning Ordinance to implement the Regional Comprehensive Plan.

Distinguished Leadership Award for a Student Planner
Margaret Ounsworth
During her undergraduate studies at the University of Virginia, Margaret Ounsworth was introduced to the concept of sustainability through planning, concepts that had practical applications during her summer work as a Park Ranger at Baxter State Park in Northern Maine and during winters spent working for a Community Development Corporation. As a graduate student of regional planning at the University of Massachusetts, Ounsworth is President of the Planning Students Organization, organizing lecture series and brown bag lunches with practicing planners.

Distinguished Service Award
Chris McGetrick, AICP
A member of APA since 1976, Chris McGetrick has served as President of the Arkansas Chapter, Chair of the Chapter President's Council, and as Secretary-Treasurer of the APA Board of Directors. She has been a leading force in legislative development, transportation planning, citizen participation, and rural planning in both her private practice and within APA. She is co-Chair of the APA/AICP Education Task Force and a member of the APA Legislative and Policy Committee, the Development Plan and Budget Committee, the Agenda for America's Communities Task Force, and the Growing Smart Task Force.