Free curb parking in a crowded city presents a classic common problem: no one owns it and everyone can use it.
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Donald Shoup56 Mins -
Meredith JohnsonThe final course of the Historic Preservation track traces the history of American architectural styles and discusses how to identify styles for historic preservation projects. The course discusses the differences between high style and vernacular architecture and review examples of both.71 Mins -
The film "City Dreamers," directed by Joseph Hillel and released in 2018, tells the story of four women designers who worked to shape North American cities throughout the 20th century and into the 21st century.
81 Mins -
Lynn Richards, Susan HendersonZoning and codes represent the very DNA of communities. They dictate how tall buildings can be, where parking goes, and how much landscaping is required.
59 Mins -
Daniel ParolekThe "Missing Middle" is a range of multi-unit or clustered housing types compatible in scale with single-family homes. Missing Middle housing has the benefit of meeting the growing demand for walkable urban living.
72 Mins
Thousands have used Planetizen Courses
Very dynamic class! Loved the videos and graphs. ("Transportation Planning")
Rachel B.
Loved the content, the presentation, the dynamic speaker! Ending with a call to action, with specific action steps or recommendations, was a fantastic way to make this content applicable. ("Planning for the Autonomous Future")
Megan O.
I can't believe how much I've learned just from these online courses. It's a really great introduction to concepts, with exercises that help you contextualize the learnings.
Lissie R.
As a mother of two young kids, many of the training classes that can receive CM credit from other providers is more than I can afford. Thank you for offering high quality planning classes at a reasonable cost.
Renee L.
Planetizen Courses provides an accessible overview of practical skills that will make each of us more effective and creative planners. Thank you!
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Browse All Courses
Introduction to Resilience Planning
Instructor: Chris Holtkamp
This course introduces key concepts of resilience planning and explains how to incorporate resilience planning in communities.
Housing and Racial Justice: Current Events Urban Resilience
This course, "Housing and Racial Justice: Current Events Urban Resilience," presents a TICCO Virtual Conference Event, hosted with support from Island Press in September 2020.
The High Cost Of Minimum Parking Requirements
Instructor: Donald Shoup
In The High Cost of Free Parking, course instructor Donald Shoup argued that minimum parking requirements subsidize cars, increase traffic congestion, pollute the air, encourage sprawl, increase housing costs, degrade urban design, prevent walkability, damage the economy, and penalize people who cannot afford a car.
Historic Preservation: How-to Guide
Instructor: Meredith Johnson
This course discusses how planners contribute to the preservation of historic resources.
Incorporating the Sustainable Development Goals into the Planning Process
Instructor: Chris Holtkamp
This course focuses on the many ways planners can infuse sustainability into local planning activities and policies using the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals as a guiding framework.
UN Sustainable Development Goals: The Role of Cities in Implementation
Instructor: Chris Holtkamp
This course will introduce the 17 Sustainable Development Goals as a framework for planning at the local level.
Solving Coverage and Location-Allocation Problems
Instructor: Kevin Credit
Location-allocation problems involve locating supply sites and simultaneously allocating demand to those sites so the entire system is optimized. With this course, you will learn the basic principles of the coverage and location-allocation problems and be able to solve them using LINGO software and map the results in QGIS.
Area-Based Location Optimization: Urban Green Space Selection
Instructor: Kevin Credit
By the end of this course you will understand the basic principles of area-based location optimization and be able to solve the knapsack, threshold, and shape problems using LINGO software. The course also shows how to map the results of these skills in QGIS.
Location Optimization
Instructor: Kevin Credit
This course introduces the basic principles of location optimization models and provides a hands-on tutorial on point-based location optimization using QGIS and LINGO.
Designing the Megaregion
Instructor: Jonathan Barnett
Current megaregion development is destabilizing the natural environment, causing gridlock on highways and congestion at airports, and making cities and suburbs separate and unequal. This course discusses how we can change these trends and invest in megaregions to improve planning and development outcomes developing and older areas.
Urban Agriculture
Urban farming is becoming more popular around the state of California, taking many forms along the way, as documented in this film produced by experts from the University of California and the Cal State University system in cooperation with local organizations.
Hand Drawing Master Plans
Instructor: Daniel Garcia
This course provides an introduction to urban design sketching by teaching how to draw urban design sketches and master plans using a mix of colored and black ink. These drawing techniques can be used to create plans that are detailed and expressive enough to use both in academic and professional presentations.
The Future of Cities After COVID-19
Instructor: James Brasuell
This virtual panel discussion focuses on the potential for the COVID-19 pandemic to influence the development, demographic, and environmental trends of the future. Speakers: Allison Arieff, William Fulton, Scott Frazier, and Mariela Alfonzo. Moderator: James Brasuell.
The Human Scale
The Human Scale juxtaposes the urban experiences of cities across the World to raise questions about the costs of modernity and to argue in favor of city planning that reclaims the public realm for social life. This new approach to planning is measured by walking distances, social interactions, and social inclusion, rather than vehicle speeds and parking spaces.
The YIMBY Movement: Opportunities and Challenges for Planners
Instructor: Mark Vallianatos
Yes In My Back Yard, most commonly referred to as YIMBY, is a grassroots social movement advocating for an increase in housing development at the regional, city, and neighborhood levels. This course examines YIMBY organizational structures and the roots, goals, setbacks, successes, and tactics of the movement.
Introduction to Urban Informatics
Instructor: Amir Hajrasouliha
This course discusses how the field of urban informatics works. You will also learn about the technologies and concepts influencing Urban Informatics, including "Big Data," machine learning, visualization, and data-driven decision making.
Transportation Planning: Principles and Practices of Transportation Finance
Instructor: Richard Willson
This course explains principles of transportation finance and reviews the general structure for funding transportation projects. Learn about the history of U.S. funding, from strong local funding to state and federal involvement to regional funding sources.
Transportation Planning: Making Transportation Plans—Rationality and Politics
Instructor: Richard Willson
This course explains the major forms of planning applicable to transportation, including rational comprehensive planning, strategic planning, policy analysis, incremental planning, advocacy planning, and communicative planning.
Defining Neighborhoods
Instructor: Emily Talen
This course reviews the varying definitions of neighborhoods and examines methods for defining a physical basis and tangible meaning to neighborhoods based on the location of neighborhood centers, boundaries, and spatial extents.
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