2016
APA-SCD WEBINAR #9
“LIVING COMMUNITIES”
November 17, 2016
Speakers:
Alicia Daniels Uhlig – Living Community Challenge + Policy Director
Scott T. Edmondson, AICP – Strategic Sustainability Planner-Economist, Information & Analysis / Citywide Planning Group, San Francisco Planning Department
In this webinar, we will explore The Living Community Challenge (LCC), a new design framework developed by the International Living Future Institute (the Institute), which seeks to lead the transformation toward communities that are socially just, culturally rich, and ecologically restorative. The LCC is a certification program, as well as a planning and design philosophy that starts by raising the question, “What does good look like?”
The LCC is applicable to new or existing communities, whether new master plans or existing neighborhoods. We will also explore the LCC companion tool—Living Community Patterns (PDF) that arose in part from the research partnership with the San Francisco Planning Department (Living Community Patterns – Exploratory Strategies for a Sustainable San Francisco). An audience Q&A will conclude the webinar.
Learning Objectives
Understand the Living Community Challenge sustainability principles
Describe each design performance area
Explore the power of the “Patterns” approach to planning and designing Living Communities
Discuss how the Living Community Challenge and Patterns may be used in practice
Audience: Whether you are a Planner, Project Manager, Sustainability Consultant, part of a Neighborhood Association/Development Authority, or work for a Chamber of Commerce or municipality you will gain an understanding of how to adapt this enhanced understanding of sustainable community planning to your own practice and neighborhood-scale projects.
APA-SCD WEBINAR #8
“REGENERATIVE URBANISM RISING: NEXT-GENERATION PRACTICE”
July 15, 2016
Speakers:
Scott T. Edmondson, AICP – Strategic Sustainability Planner-Economist, Information & Analysis / Citywide Planning Group, San Francisco Planning Department
Joshua Foss – President, The Ecala Group
Charles Kelley, AIA – Associate Partner, Zimmer Gunsul Frasca Architects LLP
This webcast characterizes the current sustainability challenge as a necessary pivot from ad-hoc greening and net negative mitigation to net positive, regenerative urban planning across multiple scales. These new places will form a fundamental, operational part of a new ecological (sustainable) economy, which further underlines their importance. This pivot is already “in play” through innovation occurring across the planning, design, and build professions. Two practice cases will illustrate this pivot. Participants will gain the understanding and resources needed to begin exploring the potential and advance the innovation and practice of next-generation regenerative urban planning in their own cities. The first case is the innovative, turnkey, revenue-generating, integrated utility system (IUS) which is one method of implementing the Restorative City Standard (RCS). The RCS is a whole systems framework used to formulate strategies to achieve city goals that go beyond ad-hoc or net zero sustainability—that would achieve the systems performance imperatives of restorative, net positive, urban sustainability. This approach illustrates the higher value arising from a whole systems approach to engineering and urban planning. This breakthrough innovation will be described further with a study prepared for San Francisco’s Central SoMa Area Plan and EcoDistrict. The second case is that of planning and designing high-performance places across multiple scales, from the building, to the district, to the city and region. This case will illustrate a “toolkit” of old, new, and emerging concepts and practices. The presentation will illustrate how a range of the familiar components of good urbanism and the ecological city, including green infrastructure, can be integrated in an approach that creates higher economic value and placemaking quality that could not be realized otherwise, and that is cost neutral and therefore financially feasible. The toolkit will be illustrated with EcoDistrict projects in Portland (OR), the U.S., and Japan.
APA-SCD WEBINAR #7
“LOCAL GOVERNMENT SUSTAINABILITY: PRACTICES AND PROMISES”
May 13, 2016
Speakers:
Dr. Mildred E. Warner – Department of City and Regional Planning, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY
Dr. George C. Homsy, AICP – Department of Public Administration, Binghamton University, Binghamton, NY
Ed Marx, AICP – Commissioner of Planning, Tompkins County, New York
Leslie Ethen – Director, Office of Conservation and Sustainable Development, City of Tucson, Arizona
We all say we want sustainability, but what is actually being done on the ground? The recently released results of the 2015 Local Government Sustainability Practices Survey tell us about priorities, policies, and drivers of local sustainability across all three dimensions – environmental protection, social equity, and economic development. It looks at who is working on these issues and the barriers they face. The survey (which collected 1,899 responses) is a joint project of ICMA, the Sustainable Communities and Small Town and Rural Planning Divisions of the American Planning Association, Binghamton University, and Cornell University. This webinar will give an overview of the results of the survey and will begin to elaborate on how the results could influence how we plan. Representatives from two local governments will reflect on their own experiences with sustainability and discuss how they have moved their communities forward. Tompkins County, NY, has just released an Energy Road Map to achieve a lower carbon footprint. The City of Tucson, AZ, has a Sustainability Program that works to advance the core priorities of livability and resilience, fiscal stewardship, and good governance. Join the webinar to share ideas and learn more about the current state of the practice!
APA-SCD WEBINAR #6
“AWARD WINNING SUSTAINABILITY”
February 26, 2016
Speakers:
Neil Angus – Environmental Planner, Devens Enterprise Commission
Ronda Fast – Environmental Program Coordinator, City of Portland Environmental Services
Justin Golbabai, MPA, AICP, CNU-A – Neighborhood Partnering Program Manager, City of Austin Public Works Department
John Zeanah, AICP – Administrator, Memphis-Shelby County Office of Sustainability
Winning isn’t everything, but we can often learn a lot from plans, programs, and projects that have been deemed worthy of an award. In this session, speakers representing four winners of SCD’s 2015 Awards for Excellence in Sustainability will demonstrate how communities can function more sustainably. Our speakers will showcase four very different projects. Neil Angus will discuss the Devens Sustainable Housing Pilot Project, a completed project that won the Sustainable Development Project Award. Rhonda Fast will discuss the Crystal Springs Creek Habitat Restoration Projects, which won the Sustainable Parks, Recreation and Open Space Project award. Justin Golbabai will give an overview of the City of Austin Neighborhood Partnering Program, the Leadership in Sustainability winner. John Zeanah will discuss the Mid-South Regional Greenprint and Sustainability Plan, the winner of the Sustainable Law, Policy or Plan award. From completed projects to examples of community partnerships and plans, these case studies will give you some ideas of innovative thinking about sustainability at all scales and in very different locations.