National Association of County Planners

Annual Meeting in New Orleans

Posted in: NACP News by The NACP on March 10, 2010

The National Association of County Planners and The County Planning Division of the American Planning Association invite you to attend their annual meeting on Sunday, April 11, 2010 (11:45-12:45) during the Annual Conference of the American Planning Association in New Orleans, Louisiana. Please refer to your conference agenda for the specific room location. Items on the meeting agenda will include announcing the awards for “Excellence in County Planning.”

The 2010 Outstanding Achievement in County Planning Awards

Posted in: NACP News by The NACP on February 2, 2010

The National Association of County Planners and The County Planning Division of the American Planning Association are accepting nominations for The 2010 Outstanding Achievement in County Planning Awards.

The National Association of County Planners and the County Planning Division of APA are teaming up to recognize excellence in county planning and plan implementation.

Eligibility

Nominations may be submitted for a county plan / implementation (adopted within the last five calendar years) that demonstrates leadership, innovation, and commitment to ethical planning principles and civic engagement.

Judging Criteria

Submittals will be reviewed by a panel of members from the National Association of County Planners and the County Planning Division of APA and evaluated according to the following criteria:

Originality – To what extent does the submission present a visionary approach or innovative concept that results in a meaningful advancement of the planning process?
Transferability – To what extent is there a potential application in other areas or to other projects? How does this work increase our understanding of planning principles?
Quality – To what extent is there excellence in thought, writing, analysis, graphics, and ethical planning principles?
Implementation – To what extent is the plan or program effective as evidenced by its degree of post-completion or post-adoption activity?
Comprehensiveness – To what extent have planning principles been observed, especially in considering the plan’s / project’s effects on other public objectives?

Nomination Submittal Must Include (digital submittals encouraged)

Complete name and contact information for the nominator and nominee. Also include a brief description (urban / suburban / rural) and size category for the county (small = pop. under 150,000, medium = pop. between 150,000-499,999, large = pop. over 500,000)
List of other contacts including media
5 hard or electronic copies of a narrative (not to exceed 3 letter-sized pages) describing the plan and associated implementation activities which describe the setting, process, significance to planning, innovative achievements, and outcomes
5 hard or electronic copies of the planning document and any other relevant support materials

ALL MATERIALS MUST BE RECIEVED BY 5:00 PM EST ON MARCH 5, 2010.

Please send all nomination materials to: Judy Francis, AICP, NCDENR, 2090 Hwy. 70, Swannanoa, NC 28778

Winners will be notified by March 21 and invited to attend the awards presentation at the Annual Conference of the American Planning Association on April 11, 2010.

Planning Near Pipelines – Valuable Land-Use Planning Tools Are Now On-line

Posted in: Planning Process by The NACP on January 27, 2010

NEWS RELEASE
For Immediate Release: December 28, 2009
For Information Contact:
Dick Goldsmith, Pipeline Safety Trust
(206) 789-2849
dick@pstrust.org

With the launch of a web page called Planning Near Pipelines, there is now available in one place a wide range of resources so that development proposed for lands near large gas and oil pipelines can be carried out with the least risk to both the public and the pipelines.

On-line at http://mrsc.org/subjects/pubsafe/transpipes.aspx, Planning Near Pipelines is an important source of information for local government officials, land use planners, developers, pipeline operators, attorneys, emergency responders, and other stakeholders. Here is where to learn about good land use practices that can be put in place before residential, commercial, or public development is considered for an area where a large pipeline already exists.

This web page is just one component of a federally-funded project awarded to the Association of Washington Cities (AWC) and its partners to improve land use planning practices near pipelines. Over the next year, local governments in Washington State will be able to obtain free technical assistance to help them understand and implement these practices. The project will also include publication of electronic newsletters, the hosting of an on-line discussion group, and presentations to Washington State stakeholder organizations.

Among the on-line resources are a series of practical and optional steps—Recommended Practices—that local governments, developers, pipeline operators and others should consider before proposals to develop land near pipelines are drawn up. These Recommended Practices, which were developed by the Pipelines and Informed Planning Alliance (PIPA), are in the final stages of adoption. PIPA is a task force of stakeholders brought together by the federal government from across the nation to help rapidly-growing communities resolve land use issues as they expand into areas that were sparsely populated when large gas and oil pipelines were built.

Other resources available on the Planning Near Pipelines web page include sample ordinances for implementing some of the Recommended Practices, as well as on-line links to laws, regulations, organizations, and governmental agencies involved with pipeline safety and land use planning.

Although free technical assistance is available only to Washington State local governments, everyone is encouraged to subscribe to the electronic newsletter or join the on-line discussion group. For further information about the grant activities, contact these grant partners: Municipal Research and Services Center (jdoherty@mrsc.org) or the Pipeline Safety Trust (info@pstrust.org).

In addition to MRSC and PST, other AWC project partners are the Northwest Gas Association, the Washington State Association of Counties, the Washington State Citizens’ Committee on Pipeline Safety, and the Washington State Utilities and Transportation Commission.

Forestland Conversion, Ecosystem Services, and Economic Issues for Policy: A Review

Posted in: Environmental Protection by The NACP on December 15, 2009

Forestland Conversion, Ecosystem Services, and Economic Issues for Policy: A Review, was to use the ecosystem service conceptual framework as a basis for understanding the ecological effects of forest land conversion, and as a basis for understanding the economic issues that arise in designing policies to conserve forest ecosystems. Ecosystems services are generally comprised of two distinct attributes: i) the direct products produced by ecosystems, and ii) the processes that produces the products.

source: http://www.fs.fed.us/openspace/fote/literature.html

A Sensitivity Analysis of “Forests on the Edge: Housing Development on America’s Private Forests”

Posted in: Environmental Protection by The NACP on

This study examined the sensitivity of the results of the first Forests on the Edge report to four factors: (1) use of updated private land and forest cover spatial data and a revised model of housing density change, (2) projection of residential development on woodland identified as shrub/scrub land cover, (3) inclusion of very-low-density residential development in the housing density change categories, and (4) inclusion of additional watersheds in the analysis by changing the screening criteria. The results of the first FOTE report were found to be generally stable to the four factors. Use of updated data and a revised model had the most significant impact on results.

source: http://www.fs.fed.us/openspace/fote/sensitivity.html

APA CPD and NACP Election Report

Posted in: NACP News by The NACP on October 26, 2009

RFP: 2010 APA National Conference Presentations

Posted in: NACP News, Resources by The NACP on September 21, 2009

TO: Membership of the National Association of County Planners (NACP)

The 2010 Annual Conference of the American Planning Association will be held in New Orleans, LA on April 10-13, 2010. We strongly encourage conference participation from NACP members, so please consider preparing a presentation proposal. The deadline for submitting presentation proposals is August 18, 2009. Please follow this link for submittal guidelines for APA members and non-members:

http://www.planning.org/conference/proposals/index.htm

You do not need to have all of your speakers identified and confirmed in order to submit a proposal. Proposal acceptance letters will be sent out in November, 2009. You will have until January to finalize your proposed speakers. All speakers must register for the conference by February 18, 2010.

Once you have submitted your proposal, please notify James Davenport, NACo / NACP liaison at JDavenport@naco.org and include your name and session title so we know what the NACP membership has submitted.

Thank You!

Farmland Retirement

Posted in: Resources, Working Lands by The NACP on September 18, 2009

A report published by USDA describing the Conservation Reserve Program and providing documentation about the program’s impact on farm communities – which may be less negative than many would claim.

Agricultural Conservation Guide

Posted in: Resources, Working Lands by The NACP on

A brief one-page publication, written in layman’s terms, that describes the values of preserving the environmental integrity of working lands. A list of links where landowners can obtain assistance is also included.

Can You See the Forest for the Trees?