NCPM

National Community Planning Month - October

Each year APA, its members, chapters, divisions, and professional institute sponsor National Community Planning Month to raise the visibility of the important role of planners and planning in communities across the U.S.

Help elevate the role of planning in your community. Host a planning department or planning commission open house, talk to kids in schools about a career in planning, present a library display about planning and planners, sponsor a neighborhood tour to highlight how planning helps the community.

APA National Community Planning Month

Tell Us What You’re Doing in Your Community to Celebrate

APA's local events

Email APA Virginia to post your events below.

Virginia Chapter Activities

Governor Kaine signed a Proclamation...

...making October Community Planning Month in Virginia!  Click here to view the proclamation!

Chapter Project

APA Virginia has set up a Group Photo Pool on Flickr. This is a public photo-sharing site that will allow planners throughout the Commonwealth to post and share photographs of planning practices in Virginia, and will be a valuable resource for all of us. We look forward to seeing your photos of good (and bad) planning in Virginia. 

As a kickoff for this site, and in celebration of APA’s National Community Planning Month, APA Virginia is sponsoring a contest to encourage all planners to share your planning-related photos. We want your photos of transportation planning, low impact development, neo-traditional development, Main Street and more.

If you post your planning photos to the site between October 1 and October 31, 2009, you could win one of these great prizes:

• On November 1, 2009, one winner will be chosen at random out of all individuals that posted photos to APA Virginia’s Flickr Group to win $50 Visa gift card. 
• Two separate drawings will be held at random times during the month for one $10 and one $15 iTunes gift card.
• The individual that posts the most planning-related photos to the APA Virginia Flickr Group between October 1 and October 31, 2009 will win a $25 Visa gift card.

To access the site visit http://www.flickr.com/groups/apavirginia.  To share your photos you must open a Flickr account and join the APA Virginia Group. To do this click on the “Join This Group” link on the APA Virginia Group Page. If you have any questions please submit them to planning@apavirginia.org.

We look forward to seeing your photographs!

Congratulations to the 2009 Great Places in America Winners in Virginia:

• Duke of Gloucester Street, City of Williamsburg – Great Street
• Historic Hilton Village, City of Newport News – Great Neighborhood
• Virginia Beach Oceanfront Boardwalk, City of Virginia Beach – Great Public Space

To find out about more 2009 Great Places go to http://www.planning.org/greatplaces  

County of Gloucester

• Our Board of Supervisors met on October 6, 2009 and proclaimed October 2009 as Community Planning Month in Gloucester County.
• Staff adapted the APA PowerPoint presentation explaining the importance of planning in Gloucester County. It will be running on the county’s government cable channel throughout the month of October.
• In coordination with other county offices, staff produced bookmarks as a mechanism to get citizens involved in the Comprehensive Plan update as well as promoting National Community Planning Month. (See the bookmark)
• Planning staff coordinated with the county’s libraries to set up displays at each branch featuring the 2009 APA flyers, our custom bookmarks and department brochures, the Gloucester County Comprehensive Plan, and other books related to community planning for patrons of all ages.  

City of Newport News

• Tuesday, October 13th, at 7 pm, in the City Council Chambers at City Hall, Mayor Joe S. Frank will proclaim October as Community Planning Month.  He also will receive the certificate from APA designating Historic Hilton Village as a Great Neighborhood. 
• Saturday, October 24th, at 11 am , an APA representative will present to the citizens of Historic Hilton Village, its award as a Great Place Neighborhood and kick off the Hilton Village “Octoberfest.”  This event will occur outdoors at the corner of Main Street and Warwick Boulevard.  I sincerely hope you will be able to attend both events.

City of Norfolk

• October 13, Mayor Paul Fraim will proclaim October as Community Planning Month in Norfolk.

City of Chesapeake

• Mayor issued a Proclamation recognizing National Community Planning Month in October on September 22. Kicking off community input activities for our Comprehensive Plan update, Moving Forward 2030. Will be promoting the importance of community planning in addition to soliciting feedback on areas we need to focus with our update. Visit the City's website.
• Homearama (regional homebuilders showcase) will have a continuous loop video playing on the television in the Chesapeake House informing citizens of the need for community planning, that October is National Community Planning month and advertising the Moving Forward 2030 community meetings that will be held during the month of October.

City of Martinsville

• The City of Martinsville is celebrating National Planning Month by posting flyers around our office.
• The City Council met on October 13, 2009, and Proclaimed October 2009 as Community Planning Month. See proclamation here.

County of Arlington

Terry Holzheimer, Director of Arlington Economic Development, recommends a collection of favorite planning books (audio and visual Flash presentation).

Arlington County Department of Libraries is planning two special events to observe National Community Planning Month. Both events take place at 7:00 p.m. in the Main Auditorium at the Central Library, 1015 North Quincy Street, Arlington, VA 22201, phone: (703) 228-5990.

• Monday, October 26, 2009
• Screening of a new film on the life and work of Daniel Burnham – Make No Little Plans Burnham, with his partner John Root, built some of the first skyscrapers in the world including such landmarks as the Rookery and Monadnock Buildings in Chicago. His late firm, D.H. Burnham and Company, would be known for such landmarks as the Flatiron Building in New York City and Union Station in Washington, DC. In 1893, Burnham directed construction of the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago that helped inspire the City Beautiful Movement in towns and cities across the country.
• He subsequently developed plans for major cities in America and a Washington DC, San Francisco, Cleveland and Manila and Baguio City in the Philippines. The 1909 Plan of Chicago co-authored by architect Edward Bennett is considered his masterwork. Classically inspired and often monumental in scale, his work sought reconcile things often thought opposite: the practical and the ideal, business and art, capitalism and democracy. At the center of it all was the idea of a vibrant urban community.
• This will be the first Washington area screening of the film.
• Tuesday, October 27, 2009
• A discussion of the works and the life of Homer Hoyt with Dr. Terry Holzheimer, Director of Arlington Economic Development and Michael Hoyt, the son of Homer Hoyt. Dr. Hoyt’s contributions to planning and real estate analysis are major and multiple. He developed economic base theory as the principal explanation for regional economic growth. He also introduced Sector Theory relating to the evolution of the form of cities. He then later developed the methodology still used today for residential and commercial market analysis. Dr. Hoyt worked with the Federal Housing Administration and with regional planning agencies in Chicago and New York.

New Kent County

• The Board of Supervisors proclaimed Community Planning Month October 13, 2009. See proclamation here.

Albemarle County

• On October 14, David Slutzky, Chairman of the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors, read a proclamation designating the month of October, 2009 as Community Planning Month in Albemarle County.