Alachua ▫ Bradford ▫ Columbia ▫ Dixie ▫ Gilchrist ▫ Hamilton ▫ Lafayette ▫ Levy ▫ Marion ▫ Suwannee ▫ Union
Fall 2013
Cunningham award...………….3
Richard Schneider to retire from UF planning program
Planners on the court.…………3
By Laura Dedenbach, AICP
New officers………….……………4
On October 31, 2013, Dr. Richard Schneider will retire from his position as Professor and Graduate Coordinator at the University of Florida’s Department of Urban and Regional Planning. His career at UF began as an Assistant Professor in 1979 during the founding years of the Urban and Regional Planning program. Dr. Schneider was drawn to UF after experiencing the effects of rapid growth and poor planning in Dade County (now Miami-Dade County). He said, “UF had the best (the only) physically-oriented planning and growth management program in the state.” Dr. Schneider was admitted to the American Institute of Certified Planners in 1980.
In This Issue My Gainesville Map....………….2
Around the section.....…………4 From the Chair……………........5
Upcoming Events October October is National Community Planning Month. How are you raising awareness of planning? 17—Ernest R. Bartley Memorial Lecture, UF Hilton Florida Room, 7:30 pm
November 6 – Smart Growth in Small Towns and Rural Areas webinar, NCFRPC, 4 pm 16-17 – San Felasco table at Downtown (Gainesville) Art Festival. To volunteer at the booth, contact Leslie McLendon at LMcLendon@alachuacounty.us 20—Victor Dover Lecture, 7 pm, UF (Co-Sponsored by San Felasco Section)
December 12 – San Felasco Section General Membership Meeting, Florida Community Design Center, 6 pm For updated event information, please visit our website: http:// www.floridaplanning.org/ sanfelasco/index.asp
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Dr. Schneider served as Associate Dean and Acting Dean of the then-College of Architecture for 16 years. He and Dr. Earl Starnes creDr. Richard Schneider, left, is retiring from the UF Department of Urban ated the college’s doctoral and Regional Planning after 34 years at the end of October. He is shown program in the mid-1980s. here with Dr. Paul Zwick. Photo courtesy of Dr. Ruth Steiner. Dr. Schneider also served two terms as Graduate Coordinator for the Urban and Regional Planning graduate degree program. Dr. Schneider’s classes have always been popular with students, particularly his classes in crime prevention through environmental design, administration and ethics, and GIS studios. His research has taken him to Japan, Korea, Malaysia, England, Kenya, the Bahamas, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Bermuda, Mexico, Denmark, and Canada. He recounts among some of his favorite memories as working with and spending time with his students and their families, “schmoozing” with Dr. Bartley, Dr. Starnes, and Dr. Nicholas, and having Dr. Paul Zwick as a close friend and colleague. Dr. Schneider will continue to consult with local governments and law enforcement agencies. And he may make some time for fishing and travel! Dr. Schneider’s contribution to UF, the profession, and, more importantly, to his students over the last 34 years is immeasurable. His time, dedication, mentorship, and wisdom have helped students become the professionals and people that will shape our world with caring and integrity. On behalf of us all – “Thank you Dr. Schneider!”
SAN FELASCO NEWSLETTER Fall 2013
Project asks residents to map their Gainesville Three Gainesville-based groups have teamed up to launch My Gainesville Map, a community project where residents can create personalized maps of the city. The project is a partnership between KKH Consulting, IndieGainesville and the Gainesville Community Redevelopment Agency. The San Felasco Chapter has also partnered with My Gainesville Map in order to showcase the project at the Chapter's booth at the Downtown Festival & Art Show in November.
that they miss, or ideas for change. The Gainesville Community Redevelopment Agency hopes to use the maps to see what the citizens want out of the city, said Sarah Vidal-Finn, senior analyst at the agency and one of the other founders of the project.
My Gainesville Map is accepting individual maps of Gainesville from September 3 to December 31, 2013, and is looking for ways to involve residents of all ages and backThrough this project, residents are asked to Visit the San Felasco APA table at the Community during the grounds as mapdraw "their Gainesville" Downtown Festival and Art Show November 16th and 17th to makers. The maps can be downloaded over a blank outline of create your Gainesville Map. We will be located in the Com- from http:// the city, filling the mygainesvilspace however they munity Information area surrounding the Hippodrome. lemap.com or picked like. The result will be up in person at Gifthorse Clothing, Persona Vintage a collection of personal interpretations of Gainesville. Clothing & Costumes or at the Gainesville Community My Gainesville Map is an intersection of mapping, commuRedevelopment Agency. nity building and citizen art. The project was inspired by the book “Mapping Manhattan” by Becky Cooper, which is My Gainesville Map will share selected submissions with a collection of personalized maps of Manhattan made by the wider community via the project website. A public locals. showing is also in the works, to be held in Spring 2014. Katherine Henderson, Member-At-Large for the San FelasTo get involved, visit the project website or find it on co Section, hopes that people will use their maps as an Facebook. opportunity to share their favorite local spots, or places
PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT UPDATE If you are interested in participating in a study group for the AICP exam, please contact Leslie McLendon at lmclendon@alachuacounty.us; 352-374-5249. Dates, time, and location of the study group will be determined by those in the group. And if you are not able to participate in a study group, but would still like information on study materials, then contact Leslie. Opinions Wanted for CM Opportunities Is there anything about Planning that you wish you knew more about? Do you have information that you would like to share with fellow fellows? Do you just need AICP Certification Maintenance (CM) credits? The San Felasco Section would like to host events that would provide AICP CM credits and be of interest to planners in general. If you have ideas for seminars or lectures, or if you think you would like to present information to fellow planners that would be applicable for CM credits then please contact Leslie McLendon at lmclendon@alachuacounty.us.
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SAN FELASCO NEWSLETTER Fall 2013
Cunningham receives APA-FL media award Congratulations to Ron Cunningham, selected as the 2013 recipient of the Florida APA Outstanding Media Leadership Award. Ron received this award at the 2013 chapter conference in Orlando. During his 36-year career at the Gainesville Sun, which officially ended with his retirement at end of December 2012, Cunningham was a tireless advocate for good planning, citizen engagement, open and responsive government, and transportation choice. He served as editorial page editor from 1983 until 2012, and he provided an astute and informative voice in that prominent and impactful position. The greater Gainesville area and its citizenry have been most fortunate to have such a civic-oriented, competent and engaged professional in their service. In nominating Cunningham, Ruth Steiner wrote “Throughout his tenure at the Gainesville Sun he continually advocated for openness in government, citizen participation in the planning process, smart growth, inter-governmental cooperation, and multimodal transportation planning.”
Save the Date
Photo © Dave Hutchinson
Ron Cunningham, center, with FAPA president Brian Teeple, left, and President-Elect Melissa Zornitta.
Please join us Thursday, December 12th for a General Membership Meeting. The section will be adopting a new budget for the 2014 calendar year. Light refreshments will be provided. Thursday, December 12th at 6:00 pm Florida Community Design Center NEW LOCATION — 315 SE 2nd Avenue
Local planners hit the courts in national tennis competition Two members of the San Felasco Section recently traveled to Tucson, AZ to plan in the US Tennis Association National Tournament. Scott Wright and Erik Bredfeldt, AICP, both of the City of Gainesville, along with Bobby Jensen of the Alachua County Growth Management Department, were part of the local-league winning team that traveled west in September to complete for a national title. The team first won their local league this past spring and then was triumphant at a regional competition in Altamonte Springs to earn the right to face off in the 16-region national tournament. Although they did not win the national tournament, they did emerge with a 2-1 record and a victory over the Midwest Region of 5-0.
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SAN FELASCO NEWSLETTER Fall 2013
On August 21, 2013 members of the San Felasco Section gathered for a regular membership meeting and elected new section officers who will serve from 2013-2015. Congratulations to the members of the new executive committee! Sincere appreciation is also due to the following members whose terms on the Executive Committee have ended: Laura Dedenbach, AICP and Martha Orthoefer, AICP.
2013-2015 San Felasco Executive Committee Chair
Dean Mimms, AICP Lead Planner—City of Gainesville mimmsdl@cityofgainesville.org (352) 393-8688
Chair-Elect & Legislative Committee Liaison
Jacob Kain Senior Planner—City of Gainesville kainji@cityofgainesville.org (352) 393-8423
Professional Development Officer
Leslie Wade McLendon, AICP Planner—Alachua County lmclendon@alachuacounty.us (352) 374-5249
Member At-Large
Shenley Neely Planning Director—Levy County Planning Dept levyplng@bellsouth.net (352) 486-5405
Immediate-Past Chair
Doug Robinson Principal Planner—Miami-Dade Transit robinsondk2982@gmail.com
Member At-Large
Secretary
Mehdi Benkhatar, AICP Planner—Alachua County mbenkhatar@gmail.com (352) 374-5249
Treasurer
Katherine Henderson, AICP Owner & Principal—KKH Consulting katherine@kkhenderson.com (919) 576-9557
Adam Hall City of Williston adam.hall@ci.williston.fl.us 352-528-3060 Sandra Joseph Senior Planner—North Central FL RPC joseph@ncfrpc.org 352-955-2200 ext. 111
Member At-Large
UF Student Planning Association President
Peggy Dorvil pdorvil@ufl.edu 813-526-4140
Left: Section members in attendance at the August 2013 General Membership Meeting and elections. Below left: University of Florida URP students with Dr. Kristin Larsen, AICP at the Florida APA conference in Orlando in September. Below right: San Felasco members enjoy happy hour at Swamp Head Brewery October 2nd.
Photo © Dave Hutchinson
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SAN FELASCO NEWSLETTER Fall 2013
From the Chair...
something special in October. Professor Emeritus Earl M. Starnes will present the fifth annual Ernest R. Bartley Memorial Lecture on Thursday, October 17th, 2013. The free lecture is titled “Memoirs of an Old Planner” and will be held at the UF Hilton’s Florida Room beginning at 7:30 PM. Dr. Starnes has had a long, storied and colorful career, and has directly or indirectly touched the professional lives of many planners in our Section. Refreshments will be served and the public is invited.
On behalf of your 2013 - 2015 San Felasco Section officers (most of whom were newly elected to their positions at the biennial elections held on August 21st), I wish to welcome all of our continuing and new members (including new graduate students), and to invite your active participation and input this fall and in the coming year. We have an energetic group of officers that is eager to hear from you! The vitality and relevance of the Section depends upon it. Similarly, APA Florida (Florida Chapter of the American Planning Association) depends upon the input from its Sections (in part through the Section Chairs, who participate in quarterly meetings of APA-Florida’s Executive Committee which includes the Statewide APA-FL officers). I had the recent good fortune of attending the 2013 APA Florida Conference last month in Orlando, and was very pleased to see other members (including local government planning/development review board members, public sector and private sector planners, university faculty, and university students) of our Section there. The conference had many highlights, including an award for a project in our geographic area (Plum Creek’s “Envision Alachua” received the 2013 Award of Excellence for Best Practices) and to an individual from our area (Ron Cunningham, who was nominated by our Section and who received the 2013 Outstanding Media Leadership Award). Other highlights included but were not limited to sessions on diverse topics ranging from “Tactical Urbanism” (a low-cost approach to creating vibrant public spaces), to form-based coding, and to planners as expert witnesses. The 2014 APA Florida Conference will be held in Jacksonville in September. The host committee envisions a somewhat different style of annual conference, so please stay tuned for future communications from APA Florida and visit their website at http:// www.floridaplanning.org.
The San Felasco Section is teaming up with the University of Florida School of Landscape Architecture and Planning in sponsoring an evening presentation by Town Planner Victor Dover, FAICP in the evening of November 20th. Victor is an extremely engaging speaker with a wealth of knowledge. More information will be provided via our list serve when it becomes available. Supporting a speakers series in 2014 is one of the topics that our Section’s recently formed budget sub-committee (chaired by our Treasurer, Sandra Joseph) will be considering as part of its upcoming task of drafting a budget for 2014 for consideration by the San Felasco Section Executive Committee before the 2014 budget is presented for adoption at the meeting of the entire Section in December (December 12th at 6:00 PM at the new location of the Design Center, 315 SE 2nd Avenue). Finally, it is with pleasure to inform you that the San Felasco Section will again have (last year was our first year) a booth at Gainesville’s Downtown Arts Festival that will be held on November 16th and 17th. The sub-committee chaired by Leslie McClendon, AICP (our Professional Development Officer) is preparing for this event, which will need members to volunteer at the booth. A major component of our booth will be information pertaining to the My Gainesville Map project that is described elsewhere in this newsletter.
Our Section received a $1,000 Professional Development Grant from APA Florida to pay for another year of hosting APA webinars, which provide required CM hours for our AICP members and a continuing education opportunity for all of our members, at no charge to members. The first of this year’s series of 1.5 hour webinars, “Planning Ethics and the Law”, was held on October 9th at 4:30 PM at the North Central Florida Regional Planning Council offices in Gainesville.
Thank you for your interest in good planning in your community and for your support of your professional organization. Dean Mimms, AICP Chair, San Felasco
Our friends at the University of Florida are putting on 5