2009 Big City Planning Directors Institute

APA believes that it is important to support planning directors in the important work they do. One way APA does this is to co-sponsor the Big City Planning Directors Institute, along with the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy and the Harvard Graduate School of Design. The November event takes place each year at Lincoln House and the GSD in Cambridge.

2009 Big City Planning Directors Institute agenda (pdf)

The Institute invites planning directors from the 30 largest cities to meet at Lincoln House and the Harvard GSD to exchange information about what is working or not working in their cities. It is an exciting, unfettered opportunity for directors, invited experts, and sponsoring organizations to learn from each other about contemporary city planning practice. It is an informal and free-wheeling chance to discuss some of the most important city planning challenges of our time.

This year, the following planning directors attended:

Susan Alanis, Fort Worth
William Anderson, FAICP, San Diego
Richard Barth, New York City
Richard Bernhardt, FAICP, Nashville
Robert Brown, AICP, Cleveland
Charles Cash, Jr., Louisville
Ray Gastil, Seattle
Gail Goldberg, AICP, Los Angeles
William Killingsworth, Jacksonville
Theresa O'Donnell, AICP, Dallas
Peter Park, AICP, Denver
John Rahaim, San Francisco
Don Roe, St. Louis
Kairos Shen, Boston
Barbara Sporlein, Minneapolis
Thomas Stosur, Baltimore
Harriet Tregoning, Washington, D.C.
Margo Wheeler, AICP, Las Vegas

APA senior staff people in attendance included Executive Director and CEO W. Paul Farmer, FAICP, and Director of Research and Advisory Services Bill Klein, AICP.

Lincoln senior staff people included President Greg Ingram; Senior Fellow and Chair, Department of Planning & Urban Form, Armando Carbonell, AICP; and Ronald Smith Fellow, Peter Pollock, FAICP.

The Harvard GSD was represented by Alex Kreiger, Professor in Practice and Interim Chair, Department of Urban Planning and Design

Other participants this year included former Portland, Oregon, planning director and current Loeb Fellow, Gil Kelley and former Cleveland planning director and current Director of Campus Planning and Community Partnerships, Youngstown State University, Hunter Morrison.