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Lincoln Institute at the 2023 National Planning Conference

By Lincoln Institute Staff, March 31, 2023

Experts from the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy will lead and participate in discussions about equitable urban revitalization, strategic foresight in scenario planning, and more at the American Planning Association’s National Planning Conference from April 1 to 4 in Philadelphia.
 
Conference attendees are encouraged to stop by the Lincoln Institute’s booth (#500) in the exhibit hall, where they’ll find multimedia displays and a range of publications. Policy Focus Reports will be available free of charge, and conference attendees can purchase books including Megaregions and America’s Future, Scenario Planning for Cities and Regions, and Design With Nature Now at a 30 percent discount. 
 
Later in April, Lincoln Institute researchers will present an additional set of online sessions in the virtual portion of the conference. 
 
Learn more about the in-person and online sessions featuring Lincoln Institute staff below.

SATURDAY, APRIL 1

1:30–2:15 p.m. EDT | Speed Share: Climate Emergency and Health Equity (Room 119A)

Presentations at this fast-format session include:

Competition for Land: Are We Asking Too Much? 
Patrick Welch, Lincoln Institute of Land Policy
Society is demanding more from land as it pursues both climate solutions and sanctuary. Explore aspects of this contested landscape and suggest planners’ role in finding equitable solutions.

Planning Information Exchange: Top Five Hazard-Mitigation Lessons 
Johamary Pena, American Planning Association 
Planners don’t have to face hazard-mitigation challenges alone. Explore hazard-mitigation topics discussed in the Planning Information Exchange, a program with resources and recommendations for cross-sector action.

Revolutionizing the Grid Behind the Meter  
Niek Veraart, Michael Baker International
Distributed energy resources are revolutionizing power grids worldwide as they increase resilience, decrease consumer costs, and encourage using renewable energy in unprecedented ways. 

Feeling the Heat in Sin City 
Paul Gully, RTC of Southern Nevada 
Southern Nevada has one of the nation’s hottest and fastest-warming climates, and studies have found a clear link between increasing temperatures and heat-related deaths. Find out how stakeholders are addressing heat impacts across the region.

Righting the Wrongs of Food Apartheid
Emma Vinella-Brusher, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Using “food apartheid” rather than “food deserts” emphasizes the manmade, racially discriminatory planning policies that have led to inequitable access to food. This presentation explains why this distinction matters, and how this framing can improve local food-security efforts.

A 5K in Anytown, USA 
Austin Cooper, City of Colorado Springs, Colo.
Follow the presenter’s journey training for, planning, and running a 5K in your town! What are his experiences and how do they speak to the larger issue of walkability?

Breaking Bad (Planning) 
James Barnes, City of Wellington, Fla.
The formulas that guided suburban growth in the previous century no longer work. Look at what failed and how suburbs are preparing for – and succeeding in – a new demographic, cultural, and economic landscape. 

MONDAY, APRIL 3

10:30–11:15 a.m. EDT | Community of Practice: Enhancing Capacity for Equitable Revitalization (Room 119A) 

Change makers in legacy cities who tackle some of today’s hardest challenges are often constrained by lack of capacity or access to resources. The Legacy Cities Community of Practice offers these cities—once at the center of some of America’s most historic achievements—access to tools for equitably and sustainably revitalizing communities.

The program provides access to research, resources, and a growing network of legacy-city leaders who exchange ideas and practices for advancing new policies. Presenters identify the value of an interdisciplinary, peer-supported approach to providing resources and solutions in areas that need it most. They share experiences from past and current programs to highlight how a focused approach to addressing the needs of specific neighborhoods—and making more effective change—is possible with access to adequate, tailored resources.

Moderator & Speaker: Jessie Grogan, Lincoln Institute of Land Policy

Speakers:

  • Raquel Capellan
  • Rick Kavin
  • Abdul-Kaba Abdullah
  • Lisa Hicks, City of Buffalo, N.Y. 

10:30 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. EDT | Using the Future to Create Dynamic Plans (Room 121A)

The world around us is changing at an accelerated pace, and the future is more unknowable than ever before. Tech innovations, societal shifts, climate change, economic restructuring, political shifts, and unknown implications from COVID-19 make it difficult to effectively plan for the future. The path forward requires adjusting, adapting, and even reinventing planning processes, tools, and skills to meet the needs of a changing world.

Futures literacy is a skill that gains ever more importance in this fast-changing world. It is “the skill that allows people to better understand the role that the future plays in what they see and do.” It entails the abilities to imagine multiple plausible futures, use the future in our work, and plan with the future.  Planners help communities navigate change. To be able to do that now and later, they need to understand how future uncertainties may affect the community, how planners can prepare for them, and how to pivot while the future is approaching.

This interactive learning experience uses strategic foresight in planning and is an essential learning lab for anyone who wants to make the future a better place.

Moderator & Speaker: Petra Hurtado, PhD, American Planning Association

Speakers: 

  • Sagar Shah, PhD, AICP, American Planning Association
  • Joseph DeAngelis, AICP, American Planning Association
  • Heather Sauceda Hannon, AICP, Lincoln Institute of Land Policy
     

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 26 (VIRTUAL) 

12:30–1:15 p.m. EDT | Beyond Growth: Health- and Equity-Centered Economic Development (Channel 1)

Economic development approaches in the United States typically focus either on attracting more jobs, people, or new or relocated businesses, or on persuading people to move to places that are successful according to per-capita income metrics. However, these efforts usually offer few benefits to existing residents and, what is worse, can lead to gentrification and displacement. This narrow focus often pays insufficient attention to ensuring that residents have access to the resources they need to have healthy and meaningful lives. In addition, current economic development practices fail to address the social inequities and structural barriers created by the racial bias embedded in our nation’s institutions and land-use policies and practices.

Panelists present initial findings from an ongoing analysis of economic development models from cities that have used alternative metrics or practices that emphasize health and racial equity. To ground this analysis, representatives from various municipalities share their successes, challenges, and plans.

Moderator and Speaker: Libertad Figuereo, Lincoln Institute of Land Policy

Speakers:

2:30–3:15 p.m. EDT | Tools for Fairly Funding Inclusive, Resilient Development (Channel 2)

Land-value capture (LVC) is based on a simple premise: public action should generate public benefit. Increases in private land values resulting from government actions should be—at least partially—shared with the public. As challenges mount from urbanization, climate change, deteriorating infrastructure, and more, this funding source has never been more important to municipalities.

This presentation introduces common LVC tools from the United States and around the globe, including special assessments, impact fees, exactions, and inclusionary housing. A panel of practitioners discusses experiences implementing tools to promote equity and climate goals, while sharing challenges and the innovative approaches they used to overcome them. The presentation demonstrates the crucial role planners and the public sector play in creating land value and emphasizes their responsibility to ensure public actions do not produce unearned windfalls for private-property owners and exacerbate inequalities. The magnitude of the issues facing cities opens opportunities for governments to explore new ways of financing climate action and managing development by taking an active role in land policy and leveraging land-value increments.

Moderator and Speaker: Shenmin Liu, Lincoln Institute of Land Policy

Speakers: 

  • Minjee Kim
  • Brett Piercy
  • Arthur Jemison

THURSDAY, APRIL 27 (VIRTUAL) 

11:00–11:45 a.m. EDT | Creative Adaptation for a Resilient Planning Workforce (Channel 2)

Planning directors from the largest cities in the United States discuss the future of work and changes that have affected their planning departments. New nationwide trends have implications for hiring, retention, career trajectories, office space, and land use.

Presenters describe not only what their current staff are looking for in a workplace, job, and career, but also what new applicants want, especially in junior positions. They share challenges and strategies to retain and attract planners to careers in municipal planning. They also offer land-use solutions, such as innovative approaches to adaptive reuse of office space as work evolves.

Moderator and Speaker: Heather Sauceda Hannon, Lincoln Institute of Land Policy

Speakers: 

  • Vincent P. Bertoni, Los Angeles City Planning
  • Antoine Bryant, City of Detroit
  • Edith Hsu-Chen, New York City