Awards of Excellence and Merit

Eligible planning projects are those completed within the last two years. An awards application should include an electronic copy of the planning document, a summary of the project, and responses to the awards judging criteria. Each member of the Awards Committee must receive an award application by February 10, 2012. Incomplete applications or those not received by each juror by the deadline will not be considered. Addresses for each of this year’s Jurors are listed below. The Awards of Excellence and Awards of Merit will be presented to the recipients at the APA CPD/NACP annual business meeting in Los Angeles at the APA National Conference, Sunday, April 15, 2012. The jurors make the distinction between Awards of Excellence and Awards of Merit based on scoring and other factors.

Projects must fall under one of the following categories:

Planning Project Award: To a specific physical planning project of unusually high merit conducted by a county that is in the process of being constructed or has been constructed within the last two years. The project should demonstrate “on-the ground” results that are supported by documentable physical or social change.

Comprehensive Plan Award

Large Jurisdiction: For a comprehensive plan of unusually high merit completed and adopted by a county within the last two years for, by or within a jurisdiction with the most recent Census population of 50,000 or more.

Small Jurisdiction: For a comprehensive plan of unusually high merit completed and adopted by a county within the last two years, for, by or within a jurisdiction with the most recent Census population of less than 50,000.

Best Practices Award: For a specific planning tool, practice, program, project, or process that is a significant advancement to specific elements of planning. This category emphasizes results and demonstrates how innovative and state-of-the-art planning methods and practices helped to implement a plan. Nominations may include such things as ordinances, regulations, legislation, adopted policy and codes, tax policies or initiatives, growth management or design guidelines, transferable development rights program, land acquisition efforts, public/private partnerships, applications of technology, handbooks, or efforts to foster greater participation in community planning.

Grassroots Initiative Award: For an initiative that illustrates how a community utilized the planning process to address a need that extends beyond the traditional scope of planning. Emphasis is placed on the success of planning in new or different settings. Nominated projects should expand public understanding of the planning process. This could include such efforts as community policing or drug prevention, neighborhood outreach initiatives, programs designed for special populations, rural development, public art or cultural efforts, community festivals, environmental or conservation initiatives, summer recreational initiatives for children, or focused tourism ventures.

Small Area/Special Area Planning Award: This award will go to a small area/special area plan, program, design, or related effort that demonstrates innovative planning principles and measures that create sustainable communities that have lasting value.

Nominations will be evaluated for the award category in which they are submitted. However, the Awards Committee may upon majority vote move a nomination to a different category, if appropriate. Only one Award of Excellence and one Award of Merit may be granted per category each year. If the Awards Committee finds that none of the nominations in a particular category meets the desirable standards, they may grant no award in that category for that year.

A Complete Award Package must include the Following Documents:

1. The planning document or project submitted on CD or provided by a webpage link.
2. A brief description of the project, including the setting, time frame, significance to the planning field, innovations in theory, methodology and/or practice and other unique aspects to the application.
3. A brief discussion demonstrating how the project meets the following criteria:
1. Innovation – Introduction of an original concept or a refinement of an existing technique or procedure.
2. Transferability – Potential applicability in other areas of the state or to other planning projects.
3. Quality – Excellence of analysis, writing, graphics and character of presentation.
4. Implementation – Effectiveness of the work – i.e. proposals have been carried out or show promise of being carried out in the near future.
5. Comprehensiveness – Planning principles have been observed, especially in considering a project’s effects on other public objectives and the surrounding environment.
4. Responses to items 2 and 3 should total no more than four pages.
5. A 2-3 sentence project summary to be used for the award handout at the annual business meeting.
6. At least four graphics or images (jpg format) that illustrate the planning area or project that are being submitted.
7. Name, address, daytime telephone, email, and FAX numbers of the person(s) to contact regarding the application: project author(s), and project client.
8. Application fee: $25.00 fee for members of the APA CPD and/or NACP. $35.00 fee for non-members, which includes membership in NACP, payable to NACP and mailed to Tim Brown at the address below. Please notate the project name on the check.
9. A complete award package must be received by each juror either by regular mail or electronic mail no later than 5:00 p.m., Friday, February 10, 2012 (no exceptions). Please direct any questions about the awards program to Tim Brown, Chair, Awards Committee at (334) 615-3416 or by email to downtown54@hotmail.com.

A complete award package must be received by each juror either by regular mail or electronic mail no later than 5:00 p.m., Friday, February 10, 2012 (no exceptions). Please direct any questions about the awards program to Tim Brown, Chair, Awards Committee at (334) 615-3416 or by email to downtown54@hotmail.com.

County Planning Awards Jurors

Timothy W. Brown, AICP
Staff Planner
City of Dothan
Planning & Development
126 N. St. Andrews Street
Room 305
Dothan, AL 36302
Downtown54@hotmail.com

Dennis A. Sandquist, AICP
Director of Planning &
Development
McHenry County
2200 N. Seminary Road
Woodstock, IL 60098
DASandquist@co.mchenry.il.us

Royce Maniko, AICP
Monroe County Administrator / Chief Financial Officer
Monroe County
125 E. Second Street
Monroe, MI 48161
Royce_maniko@monroemi.org

Mike Kayes
Planning Officials
Development Officer
New York Upstate
Chapter, APA
120 Jamie Lane
Broadalbin, NY 12025
Mjkayes504@aol.com

This is apparent across the U.S., and significantly so in rural forested communities where water, forest, climate and economic risks intersect. These same rural forested communities, more often than not, also have the lowest financial and organizational capacity to plan for, and address, these key factors.

Climate Solutions University: Forest and Water Strategies (CSU) helps rural communities develop adaptation plans.

Climate Solutions University (CSU) is the flagship program of the Model Forest Policy Program (MFPP), a national nonprofit organization that advocates for forest policies and practices that restore and sustain healthy productive forests, clean and abundant water supplies, and economically thriving climate-resilient communities. Established in collaboration with the Cumberland River Compact, CSU helps communities design and implement climate adaptation plans to protect local forest and water resources and support viable rural economies. Through a community-based peer learning network that links underserved rural communities across the U.S., CSU provides training, expertise, and support to communities engaged in climate adaptation planning. CSU strengthens local leadership and public engagement and works towards the following outcomes: protection of forest acres, stream miles, and human and ecological health; preservation of natural resource based economies; and broad public support for climate adaptation leadership among private landowners and local government.

Over the last two years, Climate Solutions University has worked with 14 rural forested communities across the nation, across many different governance models, forest types and a diverse variety of watersheds, to assist these rural forested communities in building the local capacity needed to move adaptation planning efforts forward.

Climate Solutions University is now accepting applications for 2012 Session. Qualifying communities will participate in a step by step process that breaks the challenge of climate planning into manageable pieces. Working with a local stakeholder team, communities will create a locally designed and locally driven plan to adapt to a changing climate, protect their economies, and reduce the impacts from natural disasters.

2010 Climate Solutions communities have taken impressive steps to protect forest cover, stabilize water resources, preserve habitat, and reduce public risk:

• Moab, Utah is building its first regional watershed plan;
• Sumner County and Cookeville, Tennessee added climate change provisions to its County Comprehensive Plan;
• Bonner County, Idaho protected over a 1,000 miles of streams with riparian buffers in its land use codes;
• Keene, New Hampshire improved state forest policy.

CSU welcomes applications from rural forested communities within the United States. Funding and program eligibility are limited to US local or regional non-profit 501(c) (3) organizations, local county or municipal governments, or coalitions of the above. National organizations and state or federal agencies may participate in partnership with a local organization or local agency where appropriate. However, the primary applicant and project leadership will be based in a local group.

The application deadline is 5:00 PM Pacific Standard Time on Monday, September 19th, 2011.

Interested parties should go to www.mfpp.org and register to download a complete application. You may also register to join their Climate Planners Newsletter.

For additional information regarding the Model Forest Policy Program or Climate Solutions University: Forest and Water Strategies please contact:

Jeff Morris, Director of Communications
(530) 355 – 9880
jeff@mfpp.org

The Award of Excellence was presented to Charlotte – Mecklenburg County, North Carolina in the Small Area/Special Area Planning category for their Area Plan Implementation Program. The Area Plan Implementation Program is a system created to inventory, analyze, track, and implement capital projects as well as other recommendations originating from adopted Area Plans. It began from the need to follow-through on the community’s planning vision that was developed during a lengthy and in-depth planning process. The program established annual bond funding for area plan capital project implementation, enhanced information sharing amongst public service providers, and has resulted in the construction of a number of projects.

The Awards of Merit were presented to Henrico County, Virginia in the Grass Roots Initiative category for their Homeowner’s Enhancement Guide and to Riley County, Kansas in the Best Practices category for their Vision 2025 – A Comprehensive Plan for Riley County, Kansas. The Homeowner’s Enhancement Guide is intended as a means of maintaining the stability and desirability of mature neighborhoods. The Homeowner’s Enhancement Guide is a how-to handbook intended for homeowners and prospective purchasers of older homes, which may be in need of modernization and enhancement. The Guide is a tool for homeowners and prospective purchasers of mature homes that assist in the processes of adding character, modernizing, and improving livability through improvements at various ranges of cost. The Vision 2025 – A Comprehensive Plan for Riley County, Kansas provides the guidance to ensure the continued viability of the agricultural sector within the county while allowing compatible residential growth in appropriate areas. Developed over a 20-month time span by a representative steering committee with the guidance of facilitators and staff, the plan includes unique features such as a statement of property rights principles, an exclusive agricultural district, a uniquely tailored Land Evaluation Site Assessment System and an innovative Surrounding Agricultural Land Easement to protect agricultural operators.

Congratulations to all the winners.

Awards of Excellence and Merit

Eligible planning projects are those completed within the last two years. An awards application should include an electronic copy of the planning document, a summary of the project, and responses to the awards judging criteria. Each member of the Awards Committee must receive an award application by February 25, 2011. Incomplete applications or those not received by each juror by the deadline will not be considered. Addresses for each of this year’s Jurors are listed below. The Awards of Excellence and Awards of Merit will be presented to the recipients at the APA CPD/NACP annual business meeting in Boston at the APA National Conference, Sunday, April 10, 2011. The jurors make the distinction between Awards of Excellence and Awards of Merit based on scoring and other factors.

Projects must fall under one of the following categories:

• Planning Project Award: To a specific planning project conducted by a county that is in the process of being constructed or has been constructed within the last two years.
• Best Practices Award: For a specific planning tool, practice, program, project, or process that is a significant advancement to specific elements of planning. This category emphasizes results and demonstrates how innovative and state-of-the-art planning methods and practices helped to implement a plan. Nominations may include such things as regulations and codes, tax policies or initiatives, growth management or design guidelines, transferable development rights program, land acquisition efforts, public/private partnerships, applications of technology, handbooks, or efforts to foster greater participation in community planning.
• Grassroots Initiative Award: For an initiative that illustrates how a community utilized the planning process to address a need that extends beyond the traditional scope of planning. Emphasis is placed on the success of planning in new or different settings. Nominated projects should expand public understanding of the planning process. This could include such efforts as community policing or drug prevention, neighborhood outreach initiatives, programs designed for special populations, rural development, public art or cultural efforts, community festivals, environmental or conservation initiatives, summer recreational initiatives for children, or focused tourism ventures.
• Small Area/Special Area Planning Award: This award will go to a small area/special area plan, program, design, or related effort that demonstrates innovative planning principles and measures that create sustainable communities that have lasting value.

Nominations will be evaluated for the award category in which they are submitted. However, the Awards Committee may upon majority vote move a nomination to a different category, if appropriate. Only one Award of Excellence and one Award of Merit may be granted per category each year. If the Awards Committee finds that none of the nominations in a particular category meets the desirable standards, they may grant no award in that category for that year.

A Complete Award Package must include the Following Documents:

1. The planning document or project submitted on CD or provided by a webpage link.
2. A brief description of the project, including the setting, time frame, significance to the planning field, innovations in theory, methodology and/or practice and other unique aspects to the application.
3. A brief discussion demonstrating how the project meets the following criteria:
   • Innovation – Introduction of an original concept or a refinement of an existing technique or procedure.
   • Transferability – Potential applicability in other areas of the state or to other planning projects.
   • Quality – Excellence of analysis, writing, graphics and character of presentation.
   • Implementation – Effectiveness of the work – i.e. proposals have been carried out or show promise of being carried out in the near future.
   • Comprehensiveness – Planning principles have been observed, especially in considering a project’s effects on other public objectives and the surrounding environment.
   • Responses to items 2 and 3 should total no more than four pages.
4. A 2-3 sentence project summary to be used for the award handout at the annual business meeting.
5. At least four graphics or images (jpg format) that illustrate the planning area or project that is being submitted.
6. Name, address, daytime telephone, email, and FAX numbers of the person(s) to contact regarding the application: project author(s), and project client.
7. Application fee: Free for members of the APA CPD and/or NACP. Non-members must submit either $50 for an award application or $35 for membership in NACP, payable to NACP and mailed to Tim Brown at the address below. Please notate the project name on the check.

A complete award package must be received by each juror either by regular mail or electronic mail no later than 5:00 p.m., Friday, February 25, 2011 (no exceptions). Please direct any questions about the awards program to Tim Brown, Chair, Awards Committee at (334) 615-3416 or by email to twbrown@dothan.org.

County Planning Awards Jurors

Download the 2011 Project Awards Program announcement via Scribd.com