Bio: David W. Woods, AICP/PP, Principal, GreenWoods Associates has over twenty-five years of senior planning management experience involved working as a consultant and in public service in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Washington, Florida, and Minnesota in regional planning organizations (Metropolitan Council of the Twin Cities and the Tampa Bay Regional Planning Council), two county planning departments (Chief Planner - Hillsborough and Lee County, Florida), a large Town (Commissioner of Planning, Town of Brookhaven, New York), and mid-sized cities (Planning Director - Mount Vernon, New York and Senior Planner - Lynnwood, Washington). Before rejoining GreenWoods Associates as its Principal, I served as the Commissioner of Planning, Environment and Land Management for the Town of Brookhaven, Long Island, New York (population 500,000; 2006 - 2008)).
Education: Ph.D. in Urban Sociology, Fordham University, Bronx, New York Dissertation: "Rebuilding Lower Manhattan: Participatory Democracy, Civic Renewal & the Question of Citizen Voice" M.S. in Urban & Regional Planning, Florida State University, Tallahassee, Florida Master’s Final Paper: The Challenge for the Metropolitan Council of the Twin Cities Area and the Role of the Metropolitan Significance Review Process: A Policy Analysis M.A. in Government, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland Focus: Public Policy & Public Administration B.A. in Political Science, California State University, Hayward, California Option: Public Affairs & Administration
Key Publications: Democracy Deferred: Civic Leadership after 9/11. Palgrave Macmillan, March 2012. “Lynnwood Legacy: A Collaborative Planning Model for the 1990s,” blind-reviewed article for Urban Design and Planning Journal: Special Issue – Social Equity in Planning?, University of Washington (June 1993). “Collaborative Planning for the Lynnwood Legacy: A Successful Alternative to “Traditional” Planning,” published in Proceedings of the 15th International Pedestrian Conference (9/1994). “The City of Lynnwood’s High Capacity Transit Collaborative Planning Demonstration Project: An Alternative to “Traditional” Planning,” co-authored with Louise Stanton-Masten and Carolyn Feiss. Published in the Compendium, Institute of Transportation Engineers (7/1992). “Growth and the Environment: Maintaining Florida’s Water Systems Through the Comprehensive Planning Process,” published in the Growth Management Short Course Workbook, sponsored by the Florida Chamber of Commerce (April 1991).
Other Publications: Principal Author: “Looking Forward Planning for Conservation & Development,” submitted to the Town of Farmington, Connecticut outlining locally tailored public participation approach that identified innovative, sustainable solutions to meet the Town’s future land use, community facilities, economic, housing, office/retail, transportation, farmland, green space, environmental conservation, historic preservation, and neighborhood identity and revitalization needs. Co-Author: “Arts and Culture in Lower Manhattan: Giving Visual Artists a Voice in Planning,” submitted to the Civic Alliance as part of the successful February 2, 2004 Beyond 16-Acres panel discussion sponsored by Rebuild Downtown Our Town (R.Dot) in collaboration with the New York City Arts Coalition and the New York Foundation for the Arts the results and recommendations of visual artists, who are mostly removed from planning initiatives, to have a voice in city planning about how visual arts can be better incorporated in the rebuilding of Lower Manhattan. Co-Author: “Neighborhoods and Housing—Preserving Diversity and Equity in Lower Manhattan: Recommendations for the Mayor’s Housing Plan,” submitted to the Civic Alliance as a result of the successful November 10, 2003 panel discussion and proposes to research and survey the Mayor’s proposed housing locations and the surrounding neighborhood, map and suggest the needed amenities that must be concurrently developed with housing resulting from the survey’s; and develop recommendations concerning housing policies to achieve equity and environmental justice for both low and moderate income people. Principal Author: “Riverside/Flanders/Northampton Revitalization Study & Plan,” submitted to the Town of Southampton, New York report focused on the developing and implementing a locally customized outreach, citizen participation, and community-building strategy that meets four goals of the Collaborative Planning Model: (1) participatory consensus-building for win-win situations, (2) stakeholder input from the beginning throughout the process, (3) develop an inclusive process of incorporating all three hamlets, and (4) plan in a way that generates stakeholder buy-in to assure ease of implementation. Principal Author: “The Greater New Brunswick Area Corridor Study, Final Report,” submitted to the County of Middlesex, NJ and the Transportation Policy Institute/Rutgers University, outlining the findings of a study that used stakeholder participation techniques to examine the feasibility of developing a fixed-guideway transit system through one of the most densely traveled corridors in central New Jersey. Principal Author: “Phase 1 Report: Crown Hill/Ballard Neighborhood Planning Project,” an analysis and evaluation of a Seattle neighborhood of 47,000 residents’ collaborative public-private planning process, for which GreenWoods Associates provided technical, outreach, and facilitation support, as part of the City of Seattle’s comprehensive planning process. Technical Advisor: “Developing Your Center: A Step-by-Step Approach,” Urban Center Incremental Development Study for the Puget Sound Regional Planning Council. Principal Author: “Downtown Plan and Transportation Element,” City of Lynnwood, WA, wrote two elements for the City’s new Comprehensive Plan in response to the State of Washington’s Growth Management Act of 1991. Principal Author: “Lynnwood Legacy: Making the Vision a Reality,” City of Lynnwood, WA This pioneering collaborative planning demonstration project provided the opportunity to test the usefulness of the process of consensus-building and stakeholder participation from the beginning to the end of the project as a tool to help local communities to develop a citizen-driven downtown development plan. Author: “Lynnwood Legacy: Implementing the Vision (Case Study),” included in the conference workbook for participants at Transit/Land Use Linkages: Making It Work (A Summer Workshop of the Puget Sound Regional Planning Council—July 1995). Principal Author: “Lee Plan” Lee County, Florida, principal investigator for the development and implementation of the Comprehensive Plan in response to the State of Florida’s Growth Management Act of 1986. Principal Author: “2010 Transportation Plan Update – Citizen Participation Element,” Hillsborough County Planning Commission, Tampa, Florida after coordinating over 40 citizen meetings, wrote this key element to the transportation element to the Comprehensive Plan for Hillsborough County. Author: “The Challenge for the Metropolitan Council of the Twin Cities Area and the Role of the Metropolitan Significance Review Process: A Policy Analysis,” Metropolitan Council of the Twin Cities, Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota, used as the basis for state enabling legislation (November 1988). Author: “Growth and the Environment: Maintaining Florida’s Water Systems Through the Comprehensive Planning Process,” published in the Growth Management Short Course Workbook, sponsored by the Florida Chamber of Commerce (April 1991).
Past Assignments: February 2006. “Rebuilding Lower Manhattan and the Question of Citizen Voice.” Presentation at the Planning Globally Planning Locally, 40th Anniversary Conference, Department of Urban and Regional Planning, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL. April 2005. “W.E.B. Du Bois’s Souls of Black Folk: The Framework for the Civil Rights Movement.” Presented at Manhattan College. Riverdale, NY. January 2005. “Rebuilding with Diversity: Du Bois, the Chicago School Pragmatists, and Post-9/11 Lower Manhattan.” Presented at the Society for the Study of Africana Philosophy monthly meeting. New York, NY. May 2004. “Democracy in Everyday Life, September 11th and Beyond,” presented at the monthly meeting of the New York Pragmatist Forum. Fordham University/Lincoln Center, New York, NY. February 1999. “Long Island Progressive Coalition Workshops in Participatory Democracy.” Presented paper on effective citizen participation and participatory democratic techniques to affectively influence Nassau County decision-makers in the County’s preparation of its Comprehensive Plan. April 2006. “Citizens Voice in Rebuilding Lower Manhattan.” Speaker and organizer of a panel focusing on citizen and professional group influence on decision-makers relating to the rebuilding of Lower Manhattan; 2006 National Conference of the American Planning Association, San Antonio, TX. August 2005. “A Braided Rope: Interweaving Three Theoretical Strands for a Vision of Democracy in Everyday Life.” Paper presented at the Political Sociology Section at the American Sociology Association, 100th Annual meeting. Philadelphia, PA. August 2005. “Lessons Learned For Rebuilding Lower Manhattan: W.E.B. Du Bois and The Chicago School Pragmatists.” Roundtable panelist at the Community and Urban Sociology Section’s Roundtable Session. American Sociology Association, Philadelphia, PA. March 2005. “Participatory Democracy or Brokered Institutional Representation: Rebuilding Lower Manhattan and the Question of Citizen Voice.” Paper presented at the Eastern Sociology Society annual meeting. Washington D.C. March 2005. “Rebuilding with Diversity: Du Bois, Chicago School Pragmatists, and Post-9/11 Lower Manhattan.” Paper presented at the Society for the Advancement of American Philosophy 32nd Annual Conference, Bakersfield, CA. August 2004. “Democratizing Lower Manhattan: Housing for Live/Work Neighborhoods.” Roundtable panelist. Community and Urban Sociology Section’s Roundtable Session at the American Sociology Association. San Francisco, CA. March 2004. “Democracy in Everyday Life – September 11th & Beyond.” Paper presented at the 31st Conference of the Society for the Advancement of American Philosophy, Birmingham, AL. October 1998. “Visioning as the Key to Successful Comprehensive and Physical Planning: Examples from the States of Florida and Washington.” Panelist at the New York Metro Chapter Conference: Planning the New York Region in the 21st Century. New York, NY. September 1995. “Collaborative Planning for the Lynnwood Legacy: A Successful Alternative to ‘Traditional’ Planning, presented at the 15th International Pedestrian Conference. Boulder, CO.
Find out more about APA's Professional Institute.