2023 APA-ISS Spring Conference Registration is Open!

Mundelein, Illinois reinvented itself in 2014 with a complete brand overhaul, including the creation of its recognizable “star” logo. Since then, Mundelein has leaned heavily into its new brand as a community. The Mundelein “star” goes beyond the website and letterheads by making its way into placemaking efforts and public art. Mundelein will share lessons learned from the rebranding process, ways its brand has been leveraged as a placemaking strategy, and what benefits have come out of the rebranding over time.

Casey (pronounced K-Z) is a small community located in East Central Illinois. Its location on Interstate 70 mid-way between St. Louis, Missouri and Indianapolis, Indiana makes it a great stop for travelers but that was about it. Casey was empty, especially the once beautiful Downtown, and the historic buildings were deteriorating rapidly. Residents were leaving town to work, shop, and eventually finding other towns to call home causing more businesses to close and the town’s fate to be left unknown. Thankfully one local businessman by the name of Jim Bolin, decided he was going to make a BIG move to turn Casey around and put the town he calls home, back on the map.

Learn from Bailey and other folks from the community about the process to envision what made Casey unique and how local stakeholders translated a tagline into a placemaking strategy. They will also share how investments into the public realm have catalyzed private investment.

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Speakers

Colleen Malec, AICP is a Senior Planner for the Village of Mundelein, where she will be celebrating her 10-year anniversary this fall. Colleen spends her days guiding developers through the entitlement process, working on long-range planning, managing various boards and commissions, coordinating public art installations, and all of the other bits that come with local government. She spends her weekends playing board games, kayaking, and camping.

Bailey Tait, Economic Development Director – Bailey has worked with the City of Casey since fall of 2018. Bailey also serves on many Economic Development and Tourism Boards including interim President of the Casey Chamber of Commerce, Secretary for Casey Industries, Secretary for the Clark County Development Organization, and Secretary for Discover Downstate, IL.

Everybody’s favorite news quiz is coming to APA-ISS. We’re going to test your experience as the best and brightest in the biz and have some laughs along the way. But you can’t just sit back, this session requires participation. If your community if facing a problem, or you’ve encountered a conundrum with a new trend, we want to hear about it! Submit a brief summary of your local issue and we may select it for discussion! You could be famous. Led by President Elect, Stephanie Brown, this session will ensure all the planners don’t Wait and DO tell you how they are tackling similar issues.

To submit your quandary, email iss@ilapa.org with the subject: “WAIT WAIT DO TELL ME!”

Note: this session was formerly known as the Planners' Help Desk. (We think the new title is catchy, don't you think?)

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Speaker

Stephanie Brown, AICP is an Urban Planner and Project Manager with Chastain Associates. She has practiced as an urban planner for the last thirteen years in both the private and public sectors. She has contracted with communities across the Midwest to draft holistic plans and design more effective, fun spaces. The success of these ventures hinged upon the use of public facilitation plans. She has a passion for community engagement and an ability to connect with people which has allowed residents to take ownership in tailoring their towns. She is motivated by a desire to help others envision and implement a better place to live and work. Her specialties include downtown revitalization, master planning, community development, parks and recreation planning, GIS, grant writing, and creating/implementing municipal regulatory tools. She has served APA-IL since 2008 when I joined the Illinois State Section as the Region 4 Coordinator. Since that time I have served as the Training Coordinator and as the State Section Director. I recently served as Secretary for the State Chapter and am currently the Chapter’s Professional Development Officer. Aside from her professional life, she am happily married to Farmer Brown and am the mother of 3 adorably active children and two spunky dogs -- Peaches and Soya Bean. She enjoys working out, cooking, playing volleyball, organizing, and sipping cocktails with friends.

The American Planning Association seeks to “create great communities for all.” A great community requires that all people feel like they belong. Are we, as planners, fostering a sense of belonging in our daily practice? The feeling of belonging is one of the most powerful, positive feelings in the world. It is a feeling that can transcend race, gender, ability, socio-economic status or any other area of difference. Join us for an interactive conversation about how you can move your community from simply being a place where citizens feel included to a home where people say they truly belong. How we manage our public processes and engagement opportunities is critical for this feeling of belonging. This 60-minute session will include personal stories, individual reflection and practical planning tips.

Three learning objectives include the following:

1. How do our current practices fall short on truly welcoming members of the disability community to participate in our public processes?

2. What concrete steps can we take to make our processes more welcoming to this community?

3. What are examples or particularly effective strategies in proactively engaging with members of the disability community?

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Speaker(s)

Tim McCue currently serves as an Area Coordinator in University Housing Services at Illinois State University. Tim has a long history of community volunteerism with an eye toward issues of ADA compliance, universal design, and overall accessibility. As a person who lives with cerebral palsy, Tim brings significant personal experience to his advocacy for the disability community.

Since joining the ISU community, Tim has been active with accessibility initiatives on the ISU campus. Within the broader community of Normal-Bloomington, Illinois, Tim serves as the secretary for the Connect Transit Board of Trustees and on the Town of Normal Bike-Pedestrian Committee.

Tim is also the founder of Open Doors Consulting, a nonprofit that provides educational workshops that reflect on organizational practices, systems, and facilities and that offers accessibility solutions to make communities places where everyone feels like they belong.

Mercy Davison, AICP has served as the Town Planner for the Town of Normal since 2004. In this role, Davison focuses on land use and development, ensuring new development complies with the Zoning and Subdivision Codes and aligns with Town goals. Davison oversees the Planning Commission, Zoning Board of Appeals, Historic Preservation Commission and Uptown Design Review Commission. She serves as the staff contact for development proposals, manages public processes and is the staff liaison to the McLean County Regional Planning Commission. The Planning Division also manages the Town’s Community Development Block Grant programs and assists with bicycle and pedestrian planning.

Davison joined the Town of Normal in 2001, when she was hired as a Town attorney. Davison earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Montana, Missoula, and a law degree from Washington University, St. Louis.

She is a member of the American Institute of Certified Planners and has co-chaired several statewide planning conferences. She has also assisted the state chapter of the American Planning Association with numerous training events. Locally, Davison serves on the board of the JWP Audubon Chapter and teaches Religious Exploration classes at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Bloomington-Normal.

Identifying a project is easy. Securing funding is not. While the federal government is pumping unprecedent amounts of infrastructure funding to states, cities, and towns, competition remains fierce and the process confusing. Planning plays a critical role in funding projects. Learn from industry experts what planning documents, land use policies, and engagement practices you need to successfully compete for federal funds. We’ll discuss the latest and greatest in tools and resources, answer your pressing questions about the IIJA and IRA, and help you align your work with federal priorities.

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Speakers

Katy Shackelford, AICP, PTP, Funding Specialist at Stantec (St. Louis, MO); Katy is an award-winning planning professional and funding specialist with more than ten years of experience. She specializes in transportation planning, economic development, and public policy. She has a talent for creating catalytic community impacts using infrastructure investment. As a member of Stantec’s North American Funding Program, Katy helps clients navigate complex funding opportunities and position their projects for maximum community benefits. Skilled in project management and policy analysis, she ensures impactful and meaningful community-driven outcomes in all her work. Katy is passionate about building places people love and has helped communities and clients secure over $165M in federal, state, and private funding to bring their ideas to life.

Emily Snyder, Senior Manager, Capital Planning & Infrastructure Funding at Stantec (Asheville, NC); Emily is a dynamic, multidisciplinary leader with experience in program management, infrastructure finance and funding, and strategic planning who found a passion for capital project delivery by way of urban and transportation planning. Before joining Stantec, Emily worked in numerous roles for the City and County of Denver, including 9 years with the Department of Transportation and Infrastructure and 4 years with the Department of Finance. She most recently served as Capital Planning Director, where she oversaw a more than $1 billion capital improvement program. With over 18 years of experience, she is skilled in working on transportation projects and capital improvement programs, identifying financial solutions, and facilitating through critical decisions.

Theorists and nationally focused advocacy groups often encourage communities to make broad sweeping changes to their ordinances, like eliminate all parking requirements or eliminate single family zoning. Champaign, Illinois has taken a different approach. Over the past decade, targeted zoning changes have created a big impact. These changes have been guided by community input, generating support without significant controversy. This session will showcase how incremental zoning changes can lead to construction of new housing in both greenfield and infill locations. In the second half of the presentation, Ben LeRoy will information on the National Zoning Atlas, an effort out of Cornell University to review every zoning ordinance in the nation. Every. Zoning. Ordinance! Learn about this project and its utility in tracking zoning that limits small multi-family development.

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Speaker(s)

Eric Van Buskirk, AICP is an Associate Planner for the City of Champaign. His primary responsibilities include land development review, long range planning, maintaining the Planning Department’s geospatial land use data, and serving as the Historic Preservation Officer. In addition, he is an Adjunct Lecturer in the Department of Urban and Regional Planning at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign teaching land use planning and urban design. Prior to working for the City of Champaign, he worked as a Planner for the City of Dubuque, Iowa. Mr. Van Buskirk holds a Bachelor of Arts in Urban and Regional Planning and a Bachelor of Music in Oboe Performance from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Ben LeRoy launched an independent zoning consulting firm at the beginning of 2023. He also teaches land use and local government law at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in both the Department of Urban and Regional Planning and the College of Law. Ben previously worked for the City of Champaign, most recently as Zoning Administrator. Ben volunteers as co-director of the Illinois Zoning Atlas.

So you want to grow the urban forest, but are not certain on what to do? Well as planners you likely know planning is about a vision and using information to plan from. We probably do not need to sell you on trees are an important infrastructure to mitigate the impacts of heat, air pollution, energy use, and other societal issues. But you might be stuck on how to plan for trees and other nature based solutions. Well Zoom over to this session and learn why trees as an infrastructure are a desirable and fundable part of planned community actions. Move from Virtual Talking Points to Actual and Actionable Ways and learn how to fund, planning metrics to consider, and policy tools as important constructs. The life cycle of a tree and the costs cycle of a tree will help frame today’s conversation. Ways to build capacity will be delivered. And then your turn to ask questions in complete our 60 minutes towards important steps to grow the urban forest.

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Speaker(s)

Jeff Marino, AICP is a Senior Planner with the City of Champaign, and has a BAUP and MUP from the University of Illinois. Jeff's job duties focus on land development, and implementing the goals and objectives of the City of Champaign's Comprehensive Plan.

Richard Hauer is the Director of Urban Forestry at CNUC and a Professor of Urban Forestry at the University of Wisconsin – Stevens Point teaching courses in urban forestry, nursery management, woody plants, dendrology, and introduction to forestry. He received his B.S. from the University of Wisconsin – Stevens Point, M.S. from the University of Illinois, and Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota. Rich has conducted research in tree biology, urban forest management, emerald ash borer management, trees and construction, tree risk management, and ice storms. He was honored as the 2018 L.C. Chadwick Award for Arboricultural Research. He has published over 190 publications and presented over 480 talks throughout the world. Dr. Hauer is also an Associate Editor of the Journal Urban Forestry & Urban Greenspaces.

Zach Wirtz serves as the Community Manager for the Chicago Region Trees Initiative (CRTI), a regional coalition of organizations working together to improve quality of life through a healthier urban forest, located at The Morton Arboretum. Zach provides and manages outreach and educational programming for public landowners and managers, connecting them with urban forest resources, knowledge, and funding. Zach began his journey in urban forestry and arboriculture in 2013 and has dedicated himself to non-profit tree planting and urban forestry. He holds a B.S. in Urban Forestry, an M.Sc. in Forestry, is an ISA Certified Arborist and holds the ISA Tree Risk Assessment Qualification credential.

City planners know the zoning code, but what about the building code? Is it an ancient tome of mystical knowledge written in a primeval language indecipherable to all but an exclusive few? Is it set of draconian regulations with no flexibility or forgiveness? Is it where new urbanism and mixed use projects go to die at the hands of myopic plan reviewers and fire marshals? It doesn’t have to be any of those things. Like the zoning code, the building code is a tool for making better decisions. Like the zoning code, it has its own vocabulary and grammar best understood by an insider. This presentation will equip planners to think like a building inspector, from someone who serves as both city planner and building inspector every day. Bring your questions for “everything you ever wanted to know about the building code but never had the chance to ask.

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Speaker(s)

Joe Illif has been a building official, building inspector, and city planner for more than 25 years, serving cities in Indiana, Texas, Missouri, and Illinois. He earned an undergraduate degree in urban planning and development from Ball State University. He holds certifications as a residential building inspector, building official, city planner, and floodplain manager. He has taught classes on the residential, building, and property maintenance codes with a focus on preparing students for certification exams and effective administration. Joe currently works as the Building and Zoning director at the Village of Swansea, IL.

Urbana Planifica’s work focuses on making planning information, activities, and/or environments sensible, meaningful, and usable for as many people as possible. They collaborate with nonprofit and community groups to create easy-to-understand, visual materials that help communities access services, engage in planning processes, and fight for change.

Urbana Planifica is a non-profit organization created for community-based planning. It focuses on three main areas: planning education and access to public information, network-building between local communities and advocacy and community development organizations, and community-based plan-making.

Introduction: 12:45 - 1:00 pm

Lecture: 1:00 - 2:00 pm

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Speakers

Alisa Ortiz-Colón, MP, PPL is a licensed professional planning in Puerto Rico and serves as the president of the board of directors of Urbana Planifica.

Ariam L. Torres-Cordero has a Ph.D. in Regional Planning from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign and serves as the Executive Director of Urbana Planifica.

This series is presented thanks in part to the generous support of the Louis B. Wetmore Endowment Fund, which provides resources to bring planning practitioners to the Department of Urban & Regional Planning at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign where they interact with students and faculty.

To see other upcoming events at the department, including more Symposium speakers, please visit https://urban.illinois.edu/about-us/events/

The United States Supreme Court has issued a series of opinions describing how local governments can lawfully regulate signs. First, the Reed decision threatened to upend many local sign ordinances because of its potential breadth. More recently, the Court has started clarifying its intent in the Austin case.

Attendees of this webinar will:

1. Understand new developments in the legal analysis used to assess the constitutionality of sign regulations by reviewing the U.S. Supreme Court’s decisions in Reed v. Town of Gilbert (2015) and City of Austin v. Reagan Nat’l Advertising (2022).

2. Review fundamental regulations sign codes might incorporate (and, alternatively, those that should be avoided) to reduce the likelihood of First Amendment challenges.

3. Learn best practices for implementing the Reed and Austin decisions by engaging in a case study analysis of recent sign code amendments made by two Illinois municipalities.

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Speaker(s)

Adam Simon is a partner with Ancel Glink, has been a municipal attorney for over 25 years and currently serves as corporation counsel to more than a dozen local governments. Adam emphasizes responsiveness and pragmatic solutions when counseling clients. His practice focuses on zoning and economic development, public finance, real estate, telecommunications and special districts. Adam has presented seminars on zoning hearings and due process, public finance, social media and municipal regulation of constitutionally sensitive uses. Adam recently became a two-time champion of the annual Euchre tournament at the ILCMA conference, where he also tried live band karaoke.

Erin M. Monforti is an associate attorney at Ancel Glink, P.C. in Chicago. She received her Bachelor of Science degree in Social & Economic Development Policy from Illinois Institute of Technology, and her Juris Doctor degree from Chicago-Kent College of Law. As a newly-licensed attorney, she advises clients on a wide variety of issues, from zoning and land use to transparency and good governance. Erin excels at assisting communities in achieving their policy and development goals with a thoughtful, future-oriented perspective and a keen awareness of potential legal hurdles to be overcome. A Chicago native, Erin appreciates local planning and policy initiatives that prioritize economic development, public transit, accessibility, and placemaking. In her free time, Erin enjoys baking for family and friends (and to indulge her own noteworthy sweet tooth).

Laurie Cyr has worked for the Village of Bourbonnais since 2008. She began her career in Bourbonnais as the community's first Community and Economic Development Director. In 2015, she transitioned to Assistant Administrator then the additional role of Zoning Administrator. Prior to working at the village, she worked for a local civil engineering firm starting as a computer-aided drafter to Business Manager. Laurie’s latest accomplishment is completing the reconstruction of the Bourbonnais Grove Schoolhouse. The project restored a one-room schoolhouse originally used in 1837. Sixty percent of the original structure was preserved. After supplemental logs were acquired, the reconstruction continued, and an inauguration/dedication of the log schoolhouse was held on November 15, 2022, at 2:00 pm. Currently, she is overseeing the construction of the Village’s community campus/village green. The project is situated in the Village’s economic core and is surrounded by dozens of local restaurants, shops, hotels, and services. The primary goals are to activate this area, attract investment, bolster existing businesses, and ultimately create a true downtown district. The Community Campus and Village Green project includes the redevelopment of the Village of Bourbonnais municipal campus into a family-friendly destination for locals and visitors. Project features include a pedestrianized festival street, main plaza, multi-age play spaces, splash pad, infra-structural improvements, and enhanced parking. All this and the job duties as Assistant Administrator and Zoning Administrator with a smile and unique personality. Laurie has a passion for cleaning and organizing. Yes, if she filmed Tik Tok videos; she would be one of “those people” showing how to use baking soda and go-daddy scrubbers and a lot of clear containers.

Yes! No PayPal account required. See the .pdf below for step-by-step instructions.

On the payment page, look for a "Have a coupon?" link on the left side of the page. It will be under the image and conference title.

Yes. Please contact Paula Freeze at webmaster@ilapa.org to coordinate your group's registration.