Texas Citizen Planner: Planning Foundations
- Type
- Course
- Date of Publication
- July 7, 2021
- Price
- See Agrilife Learn
Overview
Texas Citizen Planner
The Texas Citizen Planner program is for community stakeholders and local officials who want to understand how community planning works and how it shapes development, not for professional planners. The program starts with this 4-unit Planning Foundations course and continues with Community Planning for Hazards. Each unit includes reading materials, case studies, and engaging instruction from planning leaders, practitioners, and researchers.
If you want to enroll in both courses, there is a bundle option at a discounted price.
This is a non-credit series leading to a 'Citizen Planner' certificate of completion awarded by the Texas Community Watershed Partners, a program of the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service. Course materials and online resources will be made available through this site. Upon program completion, students join a network of local officials who are committed to making Texas communities better, safer, more vibrant places to live and work through sound planning practices.
Planning Foundations
Unit 1: Introduction to Community Planning
Instructor: Shannon Van Zandt, Ph.D., AICP
How do communities and local officials use the planning powers of local government to improve neighborhoods, promote economic development, preserve open space, and protect public safety? Development and placemaking issues concerning sprawl, smart growth, and new urbanism will be covered through an exploration of the planning process to help local officials better understand their planning options and impacts.
Unit 2: Legal Foundations of Community Planning
Instructor: Matthew J. Festa, JD
We will take a look at Texas law and the United States Constitution covering the legal basis and limits of municipal planning powers. The unit will also cover definitive court cases and enabling statutes that outline local planning authority, including issues related to takings, eminent domain, and due process.
Unit 3: Building Communities: From Vision to Policy
Instructor: Matt Lewis, CNU-A
The comprehensive plan, public participation, zoning and other major policy tools are available to municipalities. These tools form the backbone for how communities shape where and how development happens, promote the efficient use of municipal services, and protect public health and safety.
Unit 4: Planning for Community Resilience
Instructor: Jaimie Hicks Masterson, AICP, LEED GA
The costs of natural hazards are often made worse by poor planning decisions. Review current environmental and development trends that are driving the need for hazard mitigation planning, and learn about the planning and development practices that can make communities better prepared and more resilient to flooding and storm surge.
More choices in Business & Community
- Course
The county tax office serves almost every resident of their county – every property owner, every auto owner, and many others. Providing effective customer service to all taxpayers promotes the public’s trust in the tax office as the first point of contact for the taxing entities they serve. (TDLR #28345)
- Course
This 2-course bundle provides students access to both courses in the Texas Citizen Planner Program at a discount. Each unit includes reading materials, case studies, and engaging instruction from planning leaders, practitioners, and researchers.
- Course
Hear first-person perspectives about strategic approaches other Texas communities have used to link risk management with their ongoing community planning and vision. The art of good planning is about injecting long-term considerations into near-term actions.
- Publication
This manual is a guide to collecting and processing UAS data for agriculture applications.
- Publication
This 14-page guide will help winemakers navigate problems that can arise during winemaking and find the best fining approach.