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Defensible Sign Regulations
Communities regulate the characteristics of signs to achieve multiple goals, such as limiting driver distraction, maintaining the aesthetic character of the community, and implementing aspects of related plans. This course will show participants how to draft—and adopt—sign ordinances that accomplish those purposes while conforming with the First Amendment.
Regulating Sex Businesses, Part 2: Practical Tips
This course will provide practical tips for developing local zoning and licensing regulations for sexually oriented businesses. This course builds on material from Part 1 of this two-part series.
Regulating Sex Businesses, Part 1: Principles and Foundations
This course shows how to lay the foundation for ordinances that mitigate the negative effects of sex businesses while conforming with constitutional requirements under the First Amendment.
Planning and the Law: Procedural Due Process
The United States Constitution protects rights to "due process." In a land use law context, due process is why local governments must treat legislative and quasi-judicial decision making differently. At the end of this course, students will be able to differentiate between legislative and quasi-judicial decisions and to understand the due process implications of the distinction.
Planning and the Law: The Takings Clause
This course will help students understand and explore three legal concepts borne of the United States Constitution's Takings Clause: eminent domain, regulatory takings, and exactions. By the end of the course, students will be able to identify whether a particular government action is at risk of violating the Takings Clause.
GIS Fundamentals: Geocoding, Geoprocessing, and Online Sharing
This fifth installment of the GIS Fundamentals series provides instruction on how to geocode addresses, the basics of geoprocessing, and the use of ArcGIS Online for collaborative mapping and processing.
GIS Fundamentals: Importing, Selecting, and Managing Data
The fourth installment of the Geographic Information Systems Fundamentals series explains how to configure data sets, including advanced methods for selecting data through spatial and SQL queries, working with relational databases and geodatabases, and importing non-spatial data into ArcGIS.
GIS Fundamentals: Thematic Maps
This third GIS Fundamentals course covers the basics of making several kinds of thematic maps, including choropleth, dot density, and proportional symbol maps.
GIS Fundamentals: Projections and Map Design
The course will continue core concepts of GIS that began in the first course, including projections, coordinate systems, cartography, and the difference between raster and vector data models.
GIS Fundamentals: An Introduction
This first of a series of courses covering Geographic information Systems (GIS) will guide beginners interested in learning more about GIS, especially with the use of Esri's ArcGIS software.
Tactical Urbanism: How It's Done
From unsanctioned crosswalks to city-led "Pavement-to-Plaza" programs, instructor Mike Lydon describes the success of short-term, temporary projects in influencing long-term physical and policy changes in cities across the United States and Canada.
Ethics: Balancing a Business Friendly Planning Environment
Over the past few decades and increasingly over the past several years, the private sector, led by developers, has increasingly courted, conflicted and collaborated with planning departments amid shrinking budgets. As business interests engage and influence public agencies and planning strategy, the role of ethics is of increasing importance for the practicing planner. This is the first of a two-part series that evaluates and analyses the role of planners, from public window staff to department heads, in an increasingly business-friendly environment.
Code Drafting and the Law
In our complex legal society, understanding the basis of planning law and governing legislation is a must. The course begins with the building blocks of understanding codes, and goes on to explore how statutory authority and constitutional issues impact your everyday decisions. It concludes with a discussion of contemporary legal, quasi-legal and administrative practices.
Ethics: Balancing a Business Friendly Planning Environment, Part 2
Over the past several years, the private sector, led by developers, has increasingly courted, conflicted and collaborated with planning departments amid shrinking budgets. As business interests engage and influence public agencies and planning strategy, the role of ethics is of increasing importance for the practicing planner. This is the second of a two-part series that evaluates and analyses the role of planners, from public window staff to department heads, in an increasingly business-friendly environment.
Legal Issues for Form-Based Codes
Form-based codes (FBCs) have made a big splash in re-zoning, general plan updates and among land use professionals and stakeholders. Learn what form-based codes are from a legal definition, and the authority for form-based codes. Instructor Mark White evaluates the nuances of due process issues, takings, suburban uses of FBCs and exclusionary zoning.
Tactical Urbanism: An Introduction
Developed in conjunction with other movements, the Tactical Urbanism approach allows a host of local actors to test new concepts before making substantial political and financial commitments. Sometimes sanctioned, sometimes not, Tactical Urbanism features the following five characteristics: phased instigation, meeting local planning challenges, realistic and short term, low risk-high gain, and stakeholder capacity building.
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