The 2020 APA-ISS Spring Conference will be held in Champaign-Urbana on Thursday, April 2 and Friday, April 3. We are partnering with the Incremental Development Alliance to explore the ways that planners can support small scale development in our downtowns and neighborhoods. We want you to join us in Champaign-Urbana next year for what is shaping up to be an excellent conference. Read on for more information, and please take a few moments to fill out this short survey so we can make this conference as useful as possible for you!
Why focus on incremental development? Many of our state's most popular urban districts were built at a small scale and grew incrementally over time. Imagine the historic neighborhood in your town with a mix of single family homes, duplexes, and small apartment buildings. Or picture a downtown street framed by narrow buildings pulled right up to the sidewalks. These building patterns have stood the test of time and add great value to our communities to this day. Unfortunately, small scale development faces a host of barriers in the present day. Construction lenders have grown more comfortable financing larger, auto-oriented, and more formulaic developments rather than small projects. Many developers operate exclusively in that development style as well. Even planners have played a role, with minimum parking requirements, minimum lot sizes, strict zoning categories, and other rules working together to make incremental development all but impossible in many places. The 2020 APA-ISS Spring Conference is our opportunity to learn from the Incremental Development Alliance and each other about fostering small scale development. Those development patterns don't need to be consigned to our history; we can make them our future as well. Whether you're from ISS, CMS, or out-of-state; whether you're public sector, private sector, faculty, or a student; we hope to see you in Champaign-Urbana in 2020! Ben LeRoy Director, APA-IL Illinois State Section iss@ilapa.org