Spring is Right Around the Corner: Start Planning!
Hello fellow planners – I hope everyone enjoyed the holiday weekend.
With a very light winter throughout Southern New England, mid-February is a great time to start mapping out our goals for the rest of the year and, consistent with CCAPA’s Start with Planning initiative, a number of implementation projects are underway.
Upcoming Events: On Monday, February 26, CCAPA is pleased to partner with the Connecticut Home Finance Agency (CHFA) on an event at the Lyceum in Hartford. Appropriately titled, “Affordable Housing Markets and Financing: How Affordable Housing Gets Built”, this event will explore not only the need for affordable housing but also the tools and techniques necessary to gain financing for aspirational projects. The event features keynote presentations by Dr. John Glasgock, Director, Center for Real Estate and Urban Economics, University of Connecticut School of Business and Lesley Higgins Biddle, Senior Program Officer, Local Initiative Support Corporation, followed by a panel discussion. To prepare for Monday’s event, please read up on the chapter’s housing resources at CCAPA's web portal and APA’s Planning Home resource page. Click Here to register for Monday’s event.
On Thursday, February 28 also at the Lyceum, planners can obtain CM credits at “Hidden in Plain Sight”, a Connecticut Main Streets focused on preservation and adaptive reuse. Featuring James B. Lindberg, Vice President, Research & Policy Lab, National Trust for Historic Preservation, this event is in keeping with CCAPA’s value-of-place strategy for economic development. If you cannot make it to the Lyceum, the same event will be repeated on March 1 at the Wall Street Theater in Norwalk. Click Here to register.
Connecticut Planning Magazine: If not already, please take some time to read up on Connecticut Planning magazine. The Winter, 2019 issue features ways to advocate for the disabled in planning. With articles by Bill Voelker, Al Sylvester and Phil Barlow, the magazine is a great resource to improve advocacy and implementation of accessible design throughout our communities.
APA Policy Guides: February is also a great time to comment on APA’s new draft policy guides on equity, housing, and surface transportation. Members can download the draft guides and share feedback using the associated comment forms online now through February 28. The draft guides, which were created by APA members and approved by APA’s Legislative and Policy Committee, represent the collective thinking of association members on organization-wide priority issues. CCAPA will make formal comment leading up to adoption at the 2019 National Planning Conference in San Francisco. Visit here to learn more about APA’s policy guide development process and current guides.
Thank you as always for your support of CCAPA and good planning in Connecticut!
City of New Haven