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All Site Analysis Courses
Public Speaking, Communication, and Influence for Planners
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Planners regularly present complex information to decision-makers, community members and project teams, yet many early-career planners receive little training in how to communicate ideas clearly, persuasively and confidently. This course helps planners strengthen their professional voice by developing skills in storytelling, public speaking and persuasive communication.
US Disability Access Laws for Planners
Explore the key disability rights laws that shape planners' work — including the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Architectural Barriers Act, the Fair Housing Act and the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 — to understand their core provisions.
Digital Accessibility for Planners: Documents - Part 1
By the end of this course, planners will be able to address common access barriers in documents they produce. The first course will provide an introduction to the topic and initial skills, while the second course will dive into more "advanced" skills.
Zoning Code Reform: Legal and Practical Considerations When Making “Quick Fixes” to Your Zoning Code
This course helps both public and private sector planners update and streamline their Zoning Code Standards of Review using legally sound best planning practices.
Federal Takings Law: Balancing Private Property Rights With the Public Interest, Part II
This course explores how the U.S. Constitution and federal takings law influence local planning, helping planners understand property rights, key court decisions, and strategies for advancing the public interest while remaining legally compliant.
Federal Takings Law: Balancing Private Property Rights with the Public Interest
This course explores how the U.S. Constitution and federal takings law shape local planning, helping planners understand property rights, recognize legal risks, and advance the public interest within constitutional limits.
Resilience Planning for Heat and Drought Events
Learn how cities can prepare their infrastructure and social services for heat waves and droughts in a warming world.
Resilience Planning for Coastal Hazards
Across the world, sea levels are rising and storm surge events are intensifying, while development is increasing in vulnerable coastal areas and groundwater depletion is causing land to sink. Urban planners are uniquely positioned to join the battle against rising seas.
U.S. Housing Policy: What Every Planner Needs to Know
Planners play an essential role in understanding and addressing the regulatory, social, and economic barriers to affordable housing. This course offers an overview of U.S. housing policy from its historical roots to modern challenges and solutions.
Taking Meaningful Action Towards Fair Housing
This course dives deep into fair housing, exploring everything from the importance of equitable housing laws to practical strategies for planners to promote fairness in zoning and development.
Green Infrastructure
This course defines green infrastructure, highlights its types and benefits, discusses monetary valuation and financing, and explores its role in addressing climate change, equity, and technological change.
Plain Language 102: Integrating Words and Images for Effective Communication
Build on your foundational knowledge from Plain Language 101 by exploring the power of visual presentation and layout.
How to Scope for Plan Implementation
Learn hands-on steps and procedures for creating a well-scoped and funding-ready planning study.
Plain Language 101: Techniques to Write Clear, Readable, Inclusive Planning Materials
This course covers the basics of writing in plain language through a series of interactive chapters.
Roadways for People, Part 1
Using Portland's I-5 Rose Quarter Improvement Project as a central case study, Lynn Peterson and co-instructor Elizabeth Doerr explore why and how we need a more inclusive, people-centered transportation planning process.
Making Room for Home-Based Businesses
In this crash course on home-based businesses, Nolan Gray explores how reducing zoning regulations could help revitalize communities and encourage entrepreneurship across the country.
Landscape Design for Social Sustainability, Part 2
Continue exploring how designers can create built environments that foster vibrant, engaged communities through contemporary theories and case study examples around social sustainability in landscape design.
Landscape Design for Social Sustainability, Part 1
Discover how and why the built environment succeeds or fails at supporting thriving, diverse communities, and how designers can create mechanisms that allow communities to enjoy and improve their environments to suit their needs and desires.
Arbitrary Lines: How Zoning Broke the American City and How to Fix it
Nolan Gray presents the complex history of zoning regulation, showing how major legislative decisions led to the country's current state of car reliance, sprawl, and inequity. Now, zoning reform is in the air. But why stop at mere reform?
History of U.S. Landscape Architecture, Part 2
Picking up in 1970, this course explores how the role and uses of public parks changed and how the role of the landscape architect expanded to that of advocate, facilitator, and teacher in the late 20th century and the era of climate change.