Congratulations to Illinois Chapter members Lee Brown, AICP and Paul Farmer, AICP, who will be inducted into the “AICP College of Fellows” in San Antonio on April 22, 2006.

APA's 2006 National Planning Conference

April 22-26, 2006

San Antonio

The Illinois Chapter APA is pleased to announce that we will once again offer AICP reduced fee scholarships for the spring exam. Two applicants will be selected for the reduced exam fee for the spring exam window, May 8 - 22, 2006. Click here for more information.

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UIC Internship Fair
Looking for Recruiters

UIC MUPP Internship Fair will be taking place on March 31, 2006. UIC is looking for recruiters who have spring or summer internship openings. Anyone who wants to recruit interns for the fair should contact Anne Wagemaker at 312-996-6671.

November 2005 AICP Exam Results

Did you know?

ILAPA Library

Illinois Chapter members can check-out planning-related materials such as Chapter award-winners and resources to help prepare for the AICP exam. The Chapter has also added a number of resources each year from APA's Planners Book Service. There is no fee for this service so take advantage of it and increase your planning knowledge!

Click here to visit the library today!

We Want Your News!

Is there something newsworthy going on in your community? Maybe there is a project you're working on that you'd like to tell everyone about. E-mail your news, thoughts, and articles to the Editor - we'd love to hear from you!

In the lead up to the Torino 2006 Olympic Winter Games, Turin hosted a three-day international forum entitled “The Sports Facilities”. This event outlined the city planning changes, new design, building technologies and post-Games venue management solutions. Proceedings are available here.

Struggle to keep shelter
Thousands living in hotels since Katrina must find housing as FEMA ends subsidies.
Newsday, February 14, 2006

Katrina in numbers: the dead, the displaced, the damage
More than 1,300 people killed. 2,163 still missing. Most costly natural disaster in US history. 275,000 homes destroyed. Insurance companies will pay out $34.4 billion in claims to 1.75 million victims. About 1/3 of New Orleans residents have returned. $522M paid by US to accommodate displaced families in hotels. 15% of the 117 public schools in New Orleans have reopened.
Deutsche Presse-Agentur, February 16, 2006

State Senate moves to limit land grabs
The Illinois Senate overwhelmingly approved a bill that would limit local government's power to take a person's property. The measure now goes to the House for consideration.
Chicago Tribune, March 3, 2006

Technology used to process corn, clean air
As opponents and backers of a proposed ethanol plant near southwest Rockford brace for a bitter row over the $144 million Wight Lightning project, technical terms have begun to fly. But what really goes on inside an ethanol plant, and what is the effect on people who live in the area?
ROCKFORD REGISTER STAR, January 10, 2006
(for follow up on this story click here)

Marissa board resists Ameren plan
The Marissa Township Board joins in the fight of property owners who are angered by transmission lines proposed to be laid in their area.
Belleville News Democrat, Jan 16, 2006

Granite City on hook for $86,000 in 'negotiating' fees
While planning for its $23.8 million overpass, Granite City could end up paying more than $86,000 to a land-buying consultant that nobody admits to hiring.
Belleville News Democrat, Jan 15, 2006

Gateway Geyser park gets go-ahead
East St. Louis approves plan for riverfront project which includes the world's tallest fountain and a 31-acre riverfront park.
Belleville News Democrat, Jan 14, 2006

Change in property assessments could hit rural landowners
In some rural counties, wooded land has been valued too low for more than two decades. Assessors have not followed a 1980 change in valuation rule. A group of downstate legislators are forming a bill that would assess wooded land based on the lesser of the two amounts: the value of the timber it could produce or an assigned value of $500/acre.
Daily Chronicle, Jan 18 2006
(click here for a follow-up)

Empower Rockford pushes ahead with home rule plans
Members of Empower Rockford kicked off a petition drive to bring home-rule powers back to Rockford. If voters support the referendum, Rockford will become a home rule city again, a distinction it lost in 1983 when residents removed home rule powers through a similar voters referendum.
Rockford Register Star, January 18, 2006

Court: Cities Can’t Block Cell Towers
Cellphone towers may be ugly, but that's not reason enough for cities to block their construction, a federal appeals court ruled. In the nation's first appellate ruling  struck down parts of a La Cañada Flintridge law that had allowed the city to withhold building permits on public rights of way for purely aesthetic reasons.
Los Angeles Times, January 18, 2006

Remaking America's First Suburbs
In this op-ed, Bruce Katz and Robert Puentes argue that America's older, inner-ring, first suburbs -- like Nassau County, home to Levittown and other pioneering suburban developments -- must embrace a new vision for remaking themselves or risk dying out.
New York Times, Jan 29, 2006

Ag grants fund drainage tile project, okra, wine tours
A Brown County research study, sustainable agriculture projects and a proposal to raise okra got a financial boost from $230,000 in state grants. The grants help promote the development of innovative farming practices that are profitable and conserve natural resources.
Quincy Hearld-Whig, February 9, 2006

Progress Hits Home
Did we mean to trade our birthright for a wide selection of bathmats? America has paved 3.9 million miles of road, equivalent to 157 times around the equator; every 5 new cars we make, a football-field-size bit of land gets covered with asphalt; 3 million acres of open space are developed each year in this country; farmland is lost at the rate of 2 acres per minute. Does it matter?
Orion, January-February 2006

Driving not making suburbanites fat
A University of Illinois study indicates that education and income are more important in determining a person's waistline than whether they walk or drive.
Daily Herald, February 16, 2006

Study Shows Poor Planning Harms Health in Several Ways
Researchers have shown for the first time that the same pattern of unwise land use can adversely affect a wide range of health indicators, including obesity and air pollution.
JAPA, February 7, 2006

Housing starts hit new record
In January, building activity was at the fastest pace in more than three decades. A rise in January building permits could signal that housing activity will not slow as much this year as previously thought. 72 metropolitan areas around the country reported double-digit gains in median home prices for existing homes sold in the last three months of 2005.
Associated Press, February 16, 2006

Change hits many inner suburbs
A report by the Brookings Institution, identified counties nationwide that represent suburbs closest to cities and found that, as poverty declines nationally, the counties are seeing an increase in poor residents and declining household incomes.
Chicago Tribune, February 16, 2006

Scott County Opens New Facility to Dispose of “E-Waste”
Iowa’s first publicly owned regional collection and demanufacturing facility is part of a government program that will provide residents and businesses with a new way to dispose of their unwanted electronic equipment like  monitors and CPUs, TVs, VCRs, adding machines, CD players, video-game equipment, calculators, cassette players, cell phones, digital cameras, printers, scanners, and radios. E-waste is only 3% to 5% of municipal waste but it’s potentially the most toxic.
The River Cities Reader Online, November 2, 2005
(for midwest computer recyclers & reuse organizations click here)

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