Calendar

SES # TOPICS
Part I: Fundamentals: Land use planning, regulation, and smart development
Week 1: Introduction
1 Course introduction
Week 2: Project introduction and start-up
2 Community planning project introduced
3

Discussion of client project

Project team formed

Week 3: Neighborhood planning: Old & new; visioning
4 The neighborhood unit: Historical perspective and evolution
5 Visioning the future of places
Week 4: Making a plan: Where to begin?
6 Plan-making at the community level
7

Imaging Newton's Needham Street corridor

Teams present findings

Week 5: Planning for growth and zoning controls
8 Zoning controls: The basics
9 Land use planning, regulation, and property rights
Week 6: Sprawl and smart development
10 Thwarting sprawl; smart growth and the evolution of suburbia
11 Street design and traffic calming
Week 7: Zoning innovations, mixed-use development, and incentives to broaden housing affordability
12 Project work day
13

Incentive-based techniques, mixed-use development, and methods to broaden housing affordability

Preliminary plans will be presented by project teams to the client and the public

Part II: Place-making: trends, methods, and approaches
Week 8: Area economic development planning
14 Area economic development planning: Tools and prospects
15 Project work day-discussion/debriefing
Week 9: Community design, place-making, form-based codes
16 Community design, new urbanism, and alternative regulatory approaches. What's applicable to the Needham Street project?
17 Project work day: Discussion/debriefing
Part III: Planning and designing responsive environments
Week 10: Landscape planning
18 Landscape planning, history and current approaches
19 Optional project work day
Week 11: The greening of places; linking land use and transportation
20 Ecological considerations and sustainability
21 The mobility challenge for planning; transit-oriented and infill development
Part IV: Integration and implementation
Week 12: Plan implementation
22 Client meeting with project teams
Week 13: Final plan recommendations and implementation strategies
23 Project work day
24 Project work day (cont.)
Weeks 14 and 15: Final project preparation and synthesis
25 The role of planning and the planner in society: Class wrap-up and synthesis
26 Final plan work day
27 Submission of final plan reports

Final plan recommendations will be presented by student project teams to the client and public.