UAP 4184 Community Involvement (Meets with UAP 5794 Environmental  Planning Studio)
Meets: M, 7:00PM - 9:30PM

Instructors: Joe Schilling and Kathryn McCarty

If you are or intend on becoming a practicing planner, you will likely spend more than 50% of your time planning and participating in some type of community involvement activity—whether it be a formal public hearing or a design/planning charrette. The studio and community involvement class will provide you with a variety of strategies and tools for handling all kinds of public meeting situations. This is a rare opportunity to hone your community engagement skills and learn firsthand about the intersection of environmental and strategic planning. (See UAP 5794 course description below for further information).

UAP 5034 Democratic Gov of Economy (Cross listed with GIA 5034)
Meets: W, 7:00PM - 9:30PM

Instructor: Giselle Datz

UAP 5114 Comp Application Planning
Meets: M, 7:00PM - 9:30PM

Instructor: Kris Wernstedt

An introductory course that covers the basic concepts, structures, and functions of geographic information systems.

UAP 5174 Theory & Practice of Planning
Meets: M, 4:15PM - 6:45PM

Instructor: Rob Lang

UAP 5194 Urban Growth Management (Polycom)
Meets: TH, 4:15PM - 6:45PM

Instructor: Shelley Mastran

This course will cover the history, goals, and strategies for managing growth in the United States.  Since the early 1970s, state and local governments have reacted to citizens’ concern about sprawling development by instituting a range of initiatives to manage growth and development.  From slow-growth and no-growth sentiments of the 1970s came a range of policies to control, guide, or mitigate the effects of sprawl.  Although we still use the term “growth management,” today the emphasis in planning is on sustainable or “smart” growth. Sound growth management entails more than simply conserving existing community assets; it involves proactively building the desired community of tomorrow, based on a shared, equitable, and environmentally sustainable vision of the future.

UAP 5224 Quant Tech in Planning
Meets: M, 4:15PM - 6:45PM

Instructor: Kris Wernstedt

An introductory course that covers basic concepts in probability, inferential statistics, regression, quantitative descriptive measures, and cost benefit techniques that are used in planning and related disciplines.

UAP 5234 Urban Econ and Policy
Meets: M, 4:15PM - 6:45PM

Instructor: Chris Nelson

UAP 5364 NGOs in Development (Polycom)
Meets: M, 4:15PM - 6:45PM

Instructor: M. Stephenson

UAP 5424 Metropolitan Planning Topics:Market Analysis and other Economic Analysis Methods
Meets: W, 7:00PM – 9:30PM

Learn when to use and how to conduct a residential and commercial market analysis, economic impact analysis, fiscal impact analysis, and a variety of special economic studies. Learn how to integrate these into local comprehensive plans.
Instructor: Terry Holzheimer

UAP 5424 Metro Plan Topics: Public Health
Meets: W, 4:15PM -6:45PM

Urban Affairs and Planning in Alexandria is offering a new graduate course for the spring 2008 semester—Public Health & Planning. In light of the contemporary debates over the nation’s obesity crisis, this course explores the policy and planning challenges in the design and development of healthy communities. We’ll examine the public health roots of planning along with the interplay of food policy, nutrition, and active living. The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Active Living Research Conference will be held in WDC April 6-8th with a special focus on the interplay between research and policy. As the chair for the conference, students in the class (along with interested faculty) will have special opportunities to participate in the conference.
Instructors: Joe Schilling and Kimberley Hodgson

UAP 5454 Nonprofit Organization and Management (Polycom)
Meets: Mondays 7:00PM - 9:45PM

This course examines nonprofit organizations and the role of management practices used in the nonprofit sector in the United States and in other countries. This seminar is designed to introduce you to the role of civil society organizations and their relationship to government and the business sector. In addition, typical structures and organizational characteristics relative to various types of mission are reviewed. Finally, management practices used in nonprofit and non-governmental organizations (NGOs), particularly in the areas unique to nonprofits such as volunteer governance, fund raising, diversity of revenue streams, and volunteer management, are covered. Your primary product will be a research project investigating a nonprofit organization (or NGO) of your choice. Professor Cargo will work with you to identify the organization or management topic you will investigate within the nonprofit organization you select.
Instructor: Russ Cargo

UAP 5554 Land Use Law
Meets: TH, 7:00PM - 9:30PM

This course uses case law and review of the evolution of planning, zoning, and development law to provide the tools of the trade for those engaged in land development, government, design, landscape architecture, and other disciplines. It includes substantial work with primary materials (reported case decisions), and a research project paper.
Instructor: Jim McElfish

UAP 5624 Urban Des Sem: Historic Preservation Planning
Meets: W, 4:15PM - 6:45PM

(includes 1 or 2 Saturday field trips which will take the place of regular class sessions)
Instructor: Elizabeth Morton

UAP 5624 Introduction to Urban Design
Meets: T, 4:15PM - 6:45PM

This course will provide an introduction to urban design paradigms, practices, and skills. The course will explore various theories of city form and their relevance today. The role of urban design in planning practice and real estate development will also be examined. As the art of making places, urban design can contribute highly to the imageability of cities and to the quality of life of its residents. A main focus of the course then, will be to understand how the built environment impacts our everyday lives and behaviors. In particular, we will explore the synergistic social and economic effects of urban design. Students will participate in on-site case studies that will provide a hands-on opportunity to experience urban design in practice and analyze critical aspects of the built environment.
Instructor: Mariela Alfonzo

UAP 5784: Local Economic Development Planning (Polycom)
Meets: T, 4:15PM – 6:45PM

This course presents a survey of the field of local economic development planning. We begin with an overview of the history of economic development. We then examine the theoretical and methodological foundation of economic development. The key question that will be addressed is what practitioners are actually doing in economic development. In the second course segment we will focus on a variety of economic development programs and policies. This part of the course is divided into three sections that represent the breadth of economic development: 1. Economic development programs targeted at industries, 2. Programs and policies aimed at developing places, 3. People-based programs and policies. A major component of the class is to become familiar with local and regional economic development efforts. Case presentations by students, guest speakers and field trips are utilized to provide a practice-oriented context for the discussed programs and policies.
Instructor: Heike Mayer

UAP 5794 Environ Planning Studio
Meets: M, 7:00PM - 9:30PM

Limited to students that have taken UAP 4184 Community Involvement
Instructors: Joe Schilling and Kathryn McCarty

Spring 2008 Modules (1-credit)

UAP 5424 Metropolitan Planning Topics: Sustainable Transportation
Meets: F, Jan. 11, 5:00PM -9:00PM and Sat., Jan. 12, 9:00AM - 5:00PM

Sustainable transport and sustainable development are integrally linked at a variety of social, economic, and geographic scales. Sustainable transport represents the intersection of transport and social exclusion, environmental justice, accessibility planning, and mobility management – with this module exploring each including a comparison of U.K. and U.S. perspectives.

Instructors: Tom Sanchez and Sophie Tyler

About the instructors:

Dr. Thomas W. Sanchez is Director, Associate Professor of Urban Planning in the College of Architecture + Planning at the University of Utah. He is also a Nonresident Senior Fellow with the Brookings Institution’s Metropolitan Policy Program. He holds a PhD in City Planning from the Georgia Institute of Technology.

Dr. Sanchez was Director of the Urban Affairs and Planning Program at VirginiaTech’s Alexandria Center from August 2006 to August 2007. He was also Associate Professor at VirginiaTech from 2002 to 2007. Prior to Virginia Tech, Dr. Sanchez taught urban planning at Iowa State University, Portland State University, and Virginia Tech. His research has been in the areas of transportation, land use, residential location behavior, and questions of social equity in planning – with research being sponsored by the National Science Foundation, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Fannie Mae Foundation, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Brookings Institution, the Civil Rights Project at Harvard University, and state departments of transportation. His book on transportation equity (co-authored with Marc Brenman) The Right to Transportation: Moving to Equity, will be published by the American Planning Association in 2007.

Sophie Tyler is a Research Fellow, Transport Studies Group, University of Westminster, London. She is a specialist in travel behavior and travel planning, working within group with long standing reputation for practical and policy-orientated research. Her projects include project manager for research assessing the value of transport in deprived areas for the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, and principal researcher for “Moving from Welfare to Work: The Role of Transport”, FIA Foundation for the Automobile and Society. She’s also principal researcher and advisor for a European project focusing on new strategies to promote sustainable travel in businesses and hospitals.

UAP 5424 Metropolitan Planning Topics: The Capital Improvement Program as a Tool for Growth Management: A Focus on K-12 Facilities

Meets: F, Feb. 1, 5:00PM - 9:00PM and Sat., Feb. 2, 9:00AM - 5:00PM

This module will consider how capital improvements in general, and K-12 school facilities in particular, can be used to guide and control urban growth. The overall process for development of a capital improvement program, including its relation to growth management policies, will be examined. Student presentations will be given on representative K-12 projects in the Washington metropolitan region, examining their scope, intentions, community impact, and general impact on urban growth.

Instructor: David Lever

UAP 5424 Planned Communities: Goals, Forms, and Features

Meets: F, Feb. 8, 5:00PM - 9:00PM and Sat., Feb. 9, 9:00AM - 5:00PM

An examination of selected planned communities in the Washington, D.C., metro area, including Greenbelt, Hollin Hills, Reston, Columbia, Kentlands, and King’s Farm, with a focus on common philosophical and design elements and issues. Class and a field trip.

Instructor: Shelley Mastran

UAP 5424 Metropolitan Planning Topics: UrbanPlan Module
Meets: Fridays, March 14, March 21, March 28, April 4. 3:30PM-6:30PM.

UrbanPlan is a realistic, engaging, and academically challenging classroom-based, web-supported program in which students learn the roles, issues, trade-offs, and economics involved in urban development. UrbanPlan was developed by the Urban Land Institute and the University of California at Berkeley.

Instructors: Sophie Cantell Lambert and Evan Goldman

About the instructors:

Sophie Cantell Lambert is Director of Community Outreach at ULI Washington – a District Council of the Urban Land Institute. In this position, she is responsible for two key initiatives – UrbanPlan, a high school and university land use education program, and Urban Marketplace, the organization’s urban revitalization programming and outreach. Previously, also with ULI, Sophie was a Senior Associate in the Community Outreach Dept, where she managed community outreach efforts, including the Community Action Grants program, case studies, and the department web site. She also completed smart growth and regional visioning projects, such as a Reality Check Guidebook. Prior to joining ULI, Sophie worked as a planner at Mary Means & Associates, where she worked on public involvement, regional visioning, heritage development, and community planning projects.

Other smart growth-related professional experience, include working at the Environmental Protection Agency’s Smart Growth office and as a consultant for the International City/County Management Association on vacant properties projects. Sophie received her Master’s in Urban and Regional Planning from Virginia Tech’s Alexandria Center, where she worked as a graduate assistant for the Director of the Program, organized a conference on sustainable development, and co-wrote an article on the connection between urban containment and public health. Sophie also co-authored a student project on regional visioning pending publication by the American Planning Association (APA). She co-taught two APA workshops on regional visioning in 2006 and 2007 and has taught a one-credit course on regional visioning at Virginia Tech.

In addition to a degree in planning, Sophie also has a Master of Science in Historic Preservation from Columbia University and a Bachelor of Arts in Art History from Smith Sophie serves as the Co-Director of the Northern Virginia Division of the Virginia Chapter of the American Planning Association.

Evan Goldman is a Vice President and part of the development team working on residential and mixed use projects as well as new project development. He joined Holladay in January 2004 after 6 years of experience in development, finance, and architecture.

He previously worked as an Associate for Tishman Speyer Properties and as Vice President of Design for LeRoy Adventures, where he was responsible for the interior renovation of the Russian Tea Room restaurant in New York City. Evan holds an MBA in Real Estate and Finance from the Wharton Business School and a B.S. in design from Cornell University. As an Officer on the Executive Committee of the Urban Land Institute Washington, he is the Chair of the Urban Plan Program. He is also on the Advisory Board for the White Flint Sector Plan in Montgomery County.

UAP 5424 Metropolitan Planning Topics: Planning the Post-war Metropolis
Meets: F, March 14, 5:00PM - 9:00PM and Sat., March 15, 9:00AM - 5:00PM

In the years since the end of World War II, the shape of urban America has changed dramatically. During the course of a forty year period, relatively compact, transit-rich cities were turned inside out as the middle and working classes abandoned urban neighborhoods for an endless suburban sprawl of highways, strip-malls, and single-family houses. The resulting landscape is one marked by a distinct geography of economic inequality and racial segregation. This module will explore the political decisions upon which this landscape was founded, considering the deep connections between sprawling suburbs and struggling central cities. Students will read selections from several major works on suburban history, including Warner, Jackson, Fishman, and Sugrue.

Instructor: Carlton Basmajian

UAP 5624 Urban Design Seminar: European Cities and Planning
Meets: F, April 4, 5:00PM - 9:00PM and Sat., April 5, 9:00AM - 5:00PM

This module introduces students to the key differences between the planning regimes in Europe and North America. It contrasts European and American planning policies at the national, state (provincial) and local levels particularly with respect to land use control. It also highlights the role of the European Union and summarizes the differences between the different schools of planning within the European continent.

Instructor: Sonia Hirt

UAP 5424 Metropolitan Planning Topics: Inter-organizational Network Leadership
Meets:F, April 4, 5:00PM - 9:00PM and Sat., April 5, 9:00AM-5:00PM

In an increasingly dynamic, interdependent, and unpredictable world, it is simply no longer possible for anyone to figure it all out and act independently. This short course will develop network leadership skills required to design and manage inter-organizational networks, sustained efforts around which autonomous organizations work in concert in pursuit of a common purpose through free-association, voluntary exchange of knowledge, and self-coordination. These loosely-coordinated networks link the local to the global and the private with the public, tackling environmental, health care, planning and other complex civic issues. They provide spaces for rapid communication, coordination, and learning, fostering the development and diffusion of innovation and building collective will and capacity. If you are interested in studying networks or operating within them then this short course may be for you.

Instructor: Bruce Goldstein

UAP 5424 The National Main Street Program
Meets: F, April 11, 5:00PM - 9:00PM and Sat., April 12, 9:00AM - 5:00PM

The course will also examine the role of Main Street in American iconography and focus on the Main Street Program developed and overseen by the National Main Street Center at the National Trust for Historic Preservation. We will consider the program’s history, structure, operations, and success. Class and a field trip.

Instructor: Shelley Mastran

UAP 5424 Metro Planning Topics: Environmental Policy in Western Europe
Meets: F, April 18, 5:00PM - 9:00PM and Sat., April 19, 9:00AM - 5:00PM

The purpose of this course is to share the general concepts of environmental planning as practiced in Europe with potential application to the U.S. This class will study issues such as "How has environmental planning in countries such as Germany evolved? What policy context in Denmark and Germany encourage blending climate, energy and land-use policies? What are the institutional mechanisms in the U.S. that support or restrict the identification, analysis and application of environmental practices from Europe?"

Instructor: Dale Medearis

About the instructor:

Dr. Dale Medearis is currently the senior environmental planner for the Northern Virginia Regional Commission. In that capacity, he coordinates the Commission’s work with comprehensive environmental planning, including energy conservation, climate, “green” buildings, land-use, watershed management and transportation, including the Potomac Heritage National Scenic Trail program. He also coordinates the Commission’s work with the European Union Network of Regional Councils and its bilateral partnership with the Verband Region Stuttgart. For approximately 20 years he worked in EPA’s Office of International Affairs to identify, interpret, and test innovative brownfields, “green” buildings, transportation and urban water infrastructure policies from OECD-member countries into the U.S. He has served as the program manager for the National Park Service’s “American Heritage River Initiative for the Potomac River” (2003-2004), served as the Vice-Chair of the OECD Committee for Territorial Development Policy and was Chair of the Working Group on Urban Affairs (1998-2001). From 1994-1995, Medearis was a fellow of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, where he studied redevelopment of contaminated lands in Bonn, Germany, at the Federal Ministry of the Environment and the Institute for European Environmental Policy. He has received fellowships to study urban environmental planning and development in Europe and the U.S. from the European Union, American Council on Germany, Fulbright Council, and Aspen Institute. Medearis lives at home in Alexandria Virginia with his wife Amy, and his three daughters Eliza, Mia and Victoria.