1. Planning and Passaic County
I’d like to take a few minutes of your time to discuss planning in [insert community name]. Many people who do not work in the planning profession do not realize how much planning touches their lives. From where you live to how you commute, planning plays a vital role in your decision making.
Note: You may want to insert images of your community

2. What is planning? Helps guide how a community grows and develops
U.S. population expected to reach 400 million by 2043.
Considers all resident needs
Looks at the “big picture”
What are the community’s current and future needs?
Examines issues from all angles
Social, environmental, hazard, physical
The U.S. is facing a potential population explosion. Where will everyone live? How will everyone get around?
Planners consider what is the best for the whole community. Senior citizens, workers, children, disabled, business owners, and elected officials.
Planners consider the immediate impacts of a decision as well as the future potential impacts of a decision.
Planners do not just focus on where to locate (or site) a building, but also consider how that decision impacts the safety of the community and the existing character of the community, how it impacts the environmental balance, and if the decision encourages social and economic diversity.

3. What is planning? Planning is comprehensive and
community-focused, and enables
greater choices for residents.
You can sum up planning in three words: comprehensive, community-focused and choice.

4. Let’s look at how planning impacts you.
Planning plays a greater role in your daily life than you probably realize.

5. How do you get to work? Do you: Drive (solo or car pool)
Take mass transit
Walk
Bicycle
Other
Planners work to ensure that residents in a community have different options for getting around.

6. Where do you live? Do you live in an: Urban setting
Suburban neighborhood
Rural community
Planning preserves and establishes different types of communities, giving you the ability to select the type of community you would like best.

7. What is your residence? Stand-alone home Apartment Condominium
Town house
Other
Planning also ensures there is a variety of different types of housing within your community.

8. Planning gives you choices
Where you want to live
How you want to commute
The type of house you live in
Where you play or spend your leisure time

9. Planning benefits your community
Maintains neighborhood character
Reduces environmental impacts
Provides protection from natural and man-made disasters
Preserves parks and open space
Helps determine where buildings, businesses, homes, and roads will be located (or sited)
Maintains neighborhood character
Historic preservation
Design guidelines that maintain a certain look and feel or aesthetic in your community
Reduces environmental impacts
Manages storm water drainage so it does not pollute existing rivers and waterways
Considers impacts to climate change
Assesses and can help reduce energy consumption
Provides protection from natural and manmade disasters
Limits building on steep slopes where risk of a landslide is great
Not building immediately on a coast to protect against storm surges and flooding
Preserves parks and open space
Not every piece of available land has a building
Opportunity for recreation, connecting with nature
Helps determine where buildings, businesses, homes, and roads will be located

10. Who are planners? Professionally educated and trained
Visionaries with a comprehensive view
Ability to address the challenges of growth and change within a community
Many achieve certification and advanced specialty certification
By the American Planning Association’s professional institute, the American Institute of Certified Planners (AICP)
Individuals certified by AICP have met experience requirements and passed a comprehensive examination. AICP-credentialed planners may take the Advance Specialty examinations for transportation planner or environmental planner. The advanced specialty certifications enable AICP-credentialed planners to be recognized for their knowledge, experience, and leadership skills in specialized areas of planning.

11. Planners address challenges
Housing affordability
Commute times
Obesity
Pollution and air quality
Safety concerns
Planners address a variety of challenges each day. Here are a few examples of what planners work on.
Housing affordability
Can you afford to live and work in the same community?
Commute times:
Are you an extreme commuter (traveling more than 90 minutes one way)? Do you have different commute options?
Obesity:
Does your community provide opportunities for exercise—parks, walking, reduced reliance on automobiles?
Pollution:
Is your community reducing your exposure to pollutants?
Exploring or engaging in alternative energy sources?
Preserving wildlife areas?
Safety:
Danger of flooding? Increased hurricane damage? Landslide risks?

12. Some planning tools Comprehensive plan
Guides overall community growth and development
Zoning
Classifying land uses into different ‘zones’
Design standards
Set of guidelines regarding the architectural appearance of a building
Graphic Information System (GIS)
Computer-based system for generating maps
Think of Google Earth
Just a few of the tools planners use:
Zoning: such as residential, business, industrial, etc.

13. Get involved! Serve on the planning commission or attend the meetings.
Participate in forums, visioning sessions, growth discussions in your community.
Keep informed of planning issues in your community.
Join the American Planning Association (APA)—You don’t have to a planner to be a member.
APA’s membership includes professional planners, academics, citizens, students, business leaders, and elected officials.

14. American Planning Association (APA)
Membership and education organization
Represents more than 40,000 members nationwide:
Professionals, business leaders, elected officials, citizens, students, educators
Advocates for good planning practices
In communities, legislatures, and courts
Encourages engaging the entire community in planning decisions

15. National Community Planning Month
Annual celebration in October
Celebrates the benefits of planning in our communities
Increases awareness about the importance and need for planners and planning
This year’s theme is “Healthy Communities, Healthy People”
Visit:
This year’s theme “Healthy Communities, Healthy People” focuses on how the built environment has a direct connection to the health of those who live in the community.
The way a community is planned – from land development, transportation options, or community design – impacts the individual’s living there. Planners, working with policy makers, public health professionals, environmental health scientists, transportation engineers, educators and other community members, can work to create healthier communities, eliminating adverse conditions and building better places.

16. Examples of planning in Passaic County
Morris Canal Greenway
Open space preservation
Court House Plaza
Complete Streets improvements
Include examples of planning in the community. Also add current planning projects.

17. Resources APA: www.planning.org APA’s YouTube Channel
Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning:
Passaic County Planning Department:
APA, New Jersey Chapter:

18. Resources Suggested reading: Citizens Guide to Planning (4th ed.)
The Death and Life of Great American Cities by Jane Jacobs
High Cost of Free Parking by Donald Shoup
Smart Growth in a Changing World by Jonathan Barnett
True Urbanism by Mark Hinshaw
Visit APAPlanningBooks.com for more titles
If you’d like to learn more about planning, there is a wealth of books available.

19. American Planning Association (APA)
Contact
American Planning Association (APA)