2023 ANNUAL REPORT
The APA-IL is the preeminent professional organization for urban planners in Illinois. Our 1,500 members help make great communities happen in Illinois!
The many important decisions we made reflect the way we keep our members at the center of everything we do.
We could not produce the programming or resources for Illinois planners without the support of our sponsors. We would like to extend our sincere gratitude and appreciation for their support.
EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE
2023 Executive Committee (voting)
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President - Nina Idemudia, AICP, City of Chicago
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President Elect - Stephanie Brown, AICP, Chastain & Associates
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Secretary - Gabrielle Mattingly, AICP, City of Naperville
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At Large Officer - Katanya Raby, Far South Community Development Corporation
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Diversity Equity & Inclusion Officer - Enrique Castillo, CMAP
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Professional Development Officer - Andy Cross, AICP, The Lakota Group
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Chicago Metro Section Director- Justin Keller, AICP, Elevate
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Illinois State Section Director - Lacey Rains Lowe, City of Champaign
2023 Committee Chairs and Representatives (non-voting)
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Awards Committee Chair - Sara Egan, AICP, Design Workshop
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Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion Committee Chair - Gabe Guevara, Tri County RPC
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Legislative Committee Chair - Greg Jones, AICP, Ancel Glink and Ben LeRoy
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Membership Committee Chair - Phillip Green, Village of Woodridge
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Planning Officials Development Officer - Tom Farace, AICP, Village of Carol Stream
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Pro Bono Program - Jaemi Jackson, AICP, CMAP
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Professional Development Committee Chair - Colleen Malec, AICP, Village of Mundelein and Jessica Gal, City of Elmhurst
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UIUC Student Representative - Kayla Baldwin
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UIC Student Representative - Brian Larson
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UIUC Faculty Representative - Dustin Allred, AICP, Ph.D.
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UIC Faculty Representative - April Jackson, Ph.D.
2023 Staff
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Executive Director - Paula Freeze, NIU Center for Governmental Studies
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Financial Administrator - Megan Duenser / Zee Pergrossi, NIU Center for Governmental Studies
Chicago Metro Section
Thank you to all volunteers that help make Chicago Metro Section programs great! Contact the Chicago Metro Section at cms@ilapa.org
2023 Executive Committee
Section Director - Justin Keller, AICP, Elevate
Assistant Director - Valerie Berstene, AICP, MKSK
Secretary - James Harris, AICP, City of Chicago
Treasurer - Samantha Lenoch, Houseal Lavigne / Carol Brobeck, AICP, Teska Associates
Past Director - Brandon Nolin, AICP, Houseal Lavigne Associates
2023 News and Events
Illinois State Section
What is now become a tradition, the Illinois State Section continued to offer virtual and in-person professional education choices for members. The virtual Spring Conference included 9 sessions in a range of topics and attracted 85 attendees from across the state. The recordings are still available for purchase. In person mobile workshops were organized by Regional Coordinators in Peoria, Champaign and Mascoutah. In-person Regional Happy Hours were coordinated in Rockford, Peoria, Savoy, and Collinsville. Thank you to Conference Chairs, Mercy Davison, AICP and Tessa Ferraro!
2023 Section Officers
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Section Director - Lacey Rains Lowe, City of Champaign
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Assistant Director - Jeff Marino, AICP City of Champaign
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Secretary - Jon Oliphant, AICP, City of Washington
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Treasurer - Greg Crowe, AICP, MSA
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Training Coordinator - Cristen Hardin, PGAV
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Past Officer - Ben LeRoy, City of Champaign
2023 Regional Coordinators
- Region 1 Coordinator - Ashley Sarver, AICP, Gary W. Anderson Architect
- Region 2 Coordinator - Reema Abi-Akar, Tri-County Regional Plan Commission
- Region 3 Coordinator - Marcus Ricci, AICP, City of Urbana & Katherine Trotter, City of Urbana
- Region 4 Coordinator - Chuck Bevelheimer, AICP, City of Quincy
- Region 5 Coordinator - Scott Hanson, Crawford, Murphy & Tilly
- Region 6 Coordinator - vacant
2023 News and Events
FINANCIALS
APA-IL ended the 2023 fiscal year with a net Income of $69,778.28, down 15% from $82,079.66 in 2022. Income from membership dues and the state conference registration continue to be the main income source for the Chapter. A break-down of the ending amounts in the revenue & expense categories is available by clicking here for a 4th Quarter financial report.
MEMBERSHIP
If you are a member of the American Planning Association (APA), and live or work in the state of Illinois, you’re automatically a member of the Illinois Chapter. Our membership slightly decreased in 2023 to 1,447 members as of September 1, 2023. Chapter-Only membership also decreased slightly to 45 members. About eighty percent of our membership lives within the Chicago Metro Section. Please click here for a .pdf of all 2023 membership statistics.
AICP certification remained steady with about 40% of our members certified with the American Institute of Certified Planners. Please click here to examine our AICP certification statistics for 2023.
Membership Committee
The Membership Committee completed a membership survey in the spring of 2022. The Committee looks forward to using this data to set a baseline and comparison for 2023. Chapter-only membership continued to be strong this year thanks to the Committee's dedication in maintaining a connection with existing members and encouraging renewals. The Membership Committee handed out newly designed "talk planning to me" stickers to encourage conversations between attendees at the 2022 State Conference.
2023 Membership Committee
Chairperson - Phillip Green, AICP
Emily Egan, AICP
Reema Abi-Akar
Rory Fancler, AICP
Jennifer Ganser, AICP
Jared Patton, AICP
ADVOCACY
Awards Program
Each year, the Illinois Chapter recognizes the best in planning across Illinois with our annual awards program. These plans exemplify the tremendous planning efforts across the state of Illinois.
The APA-IL presented 8 project awards and 3 service awards. We are thrilled to honor the best plans and people for 2023.
Thank you to the Awards Program Chair, Sara Egan, AICP and thank you to the 2023 Awards Jury. It’s no small effort to read and review all the great project nominations we receive.
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Lesley Roth, AICP (Co-Chair)
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Ed Cage, AICP
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Mercy Davison, AICP
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Emily Hepworth, AICP
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Carrie Houston, AICP
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Jeff Marino, AICP
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Stacey Meekins, AICP
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Trisha Parks, AICP
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Katie Simpson, AICP
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Mark Rinnan, AICP
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee
The Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee welcomed a new Committee Chair in 2022, Gabriel Guevara.
2023 Diversity Committee News & Events
Legislative Committee
The APA-IL Legislative Committee provides information on legislative matters in Springfield that concern planning officials and professionals and provide an effective voice to advocate on matters concerning planning practice and profession in Illinois. In 2023, the Committee was rebooted and an extensive year-round program was formulated. Thank you to the Legislative Co-Chairs, Ben LeRoy and Greg Jones, AICP.
Legislative Committee Members
David S. Silverman, AICP, Chair
Alicia Hanlon
Greg W. Jones, AICP
Michael Penicnak
Bethany Salmon
2023 Legislative Committee News & Events
Pro Bono Program
The mission of the APA-IL Pro-Bono Planning Service Program is to provide urban planning services on a pro bono basis by APA-IL members, to assist municipalities, nonprofits, and community organizations in the initiation, organizing, and fine tuning of early stage planning projects. Through the APA Illinois Pro Bono Service Program, organizations walk away with an action plan and a clear understanding of the goals and vision for their city / community / neighborhood.
Thank you to the Pro Bono Chair, Jaemi Jackson, AICP.
2023 Pro Bono News & Events
A call for projects was issued in July 2023 after a long hiatus during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Peotone Bike Plan for the Village of Peotone, IL was selected. The project team consisted of:
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Tim Gustafson, AICP, Senior Project Manager, HNTP (Project Manager)
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Eric Van Buskurk, AICP, Associate Planner, City of Champaign
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DJ Fiore, AICP, Assistant Vice President, Kane, McKenna and Associates, Inc.
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Cassandra Rice, AICP, Perkins & Will
EDUCATION
Professional Development
Professional Development Committee Members
Jessica Gal, AICP, Co-Chair
Colleen Malec, AICP, Co-Chair
Clara Gable, AICP
James Harris, AICP
Gabrielle Mattingly, AICP
Rachel Riemenschneider
2023 State Conference
The APA-IL headed back to school for the 2023 State Conference! Held at North Central College, it was a 3-day conference complete with outstanding sessions and mobile workshops September 11-13th. Conference Chair, Niki Nutter, AICP did an outstanding job at the helm - everything from an outstanding keynote to playing an important role during the planning themed Murder Mystery! Thank you to the planners and allied professionals that attended the conference. Another big thank you to our sponsors and volunteers - we couldn't put on our conference without your support! You can read a recap here.
2023 APA-IL Sponsors
Planning Officials Development Committee
The Planning Officials Development Committee continued to provide informative, useful, and interactive training to Planning and Zoning Commissioners (and members of other commissions) across the State. As of December 31st, we have conducted 167 training sessions since the program started in 2011. Here are the communities we served in 2023:
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Village of Forest Park
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City of Elgin
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Village of Lincolnwood
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Village of Orland Park
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City of Effingham
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City of Batavia
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Vilage of South Elgin
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Village of Chicago Ridge
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Village of Huntley
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Village of Sugar Grove
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Village of Savoy
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Village of Palos Park
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Village of Woodridge
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City of Waukegan
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Village of Beach Park
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City of West Chicago
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Village of Lynwood
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Village of Alsip
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Village of Maple Park
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Village of Monee
The annual Plan Commissioner Training held during the annual State Conference was well attended and offered a new afternoon activity. Attendees were able to review development plans and then walk over to the existing development to discuss. Afterwards they participated in a mock hearing.
Thank you to the APA-IL's Planning Officials Development Officer, Tom Farace, AICP, faculty and our supporter, the Chaddick Institute at DePaul University.
2023 Training Faculty
Katie Ashbaugh, AICP
Valerie Berstene, AICP
Michael Blue, FAICP
Jason Berry, AICP
Chuck Bevelheimer, AICP
Dan Bolin
Stephanie Brown, AICP
Andy Cross, AICP
John Carlisle, AICP
Mercy Davison, AICP
Phil Dick, AICP
Emily Egan, AICP
Tom Farace, AICP
Emily Fultz, AICP
Jennifer Ganser, AICP
Phillip Green, AICP
Scott Hanson, AICP
Greg Jones, AICP
Bruce Knight, FAICP
Ben LeRoy
Lacey Rains Lowe
Megan Mack
Jeff Marino, AICP
Mike Schwarz, AICP
David Silverman, AICP
2023 Plan Commissioner Training News
Student Organizations
Illinois has two Planning Accreditation Board (PAB) certified schools and each of these schools have student organizations that APA-IL supports:
College of Urban Planning and Public Affairs, Department of Urban Planning and Policy, at the University of Illinois at Chicago
Department of Urban and Regional Planning at the University of Illinois at Urbana -Champaign
