2023 APA Mini-Conference Program
conference Program
2023 Chapter Mini-Conference
The APA New York Upstate Chapter is excited to reconvene for a day-long conference in Syracuse, NY, on September 15, 2023 at the Marriott Hotel (parking map), to discuss planning best practices related to various topics in our upstate communities. Four sessions will provide continuing AICP education credits on various topics, including safe streets and equity, housing affordability, climate action planning, and planning ethics. A special guest, NYS Senator Rachel May, will open the day with remarks on the intersection between policy and planning on these topics from a perspective of Central New York and the broader Upstate New York. Join us afterwards for Happy Hour to be held in the Marriott Syracuse Hotel (event venue) at Shaughnessy’s Irish Pub and Sports Bar. We look forward to this day of dialogue and exchanging ideas within Upstate New York’s planning community.
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Speakers: Eric Ameigh & Peter Lombardi, CZB
Housing is nearly always a hot topic for planners and policy makers, perhaps never more so than in 2023. Everyone engages with the housing market in some way, and the local government revenue structure in New York is heavily dependent on residential real estate. Depending on market conditions, which can vary widely even within a distance of just a few blocks, housing can be either a critical community asset or a vexing liability. Upstate New York planners are thus constantly confronting questions about whether values are too low, whether costs are too high, whether the supply is too little or too much or just the wrong mix, and how to manage sprawl in some cases while dealing with vacancy and abandonment in others.
National planning consultancy czb has taken on dozens of projects in recent years with substantial housing market linkages, in comprehensive plans, housing assessments and strategies, and neighborhood revitalization endeavors. Many of their projects have been in the Upstate region, where some members of their team are based and where nearly all have deep personal roots. czb’s experience in markets across the U.S., as well as their specific knowledge of Upstate markets, provides unique insights into and framing of regional housing market challenges. The session will:
• Place Upstate New York housing markets in a broader national context.
• Describe the trajectory of market challenges, from past decades, to the current moment, to what might lie ahead.
• Segment and differentiate distinct housing market challenges with their own definitions and their own sets of potential solutions.
• Offer potential policy and program interventions to deal with current and future housing market challenges.
AICP credits: 1.5 CM
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Speaker: Dr. Leo Bachinger, NYSDEC
This presentation will provide an overview of New York State’s extreme heat action planning initiatives. This includes the recently published extreme-heat-specific annex to the State’s Comprehensive Emergency Response Plan, an initiative to map urban heat islands statewide, the development of a first State extreme heat action plan, and tools to help communities and planners identify impacts, resources and solutions. The presentation will cover current and future extreme heat impacts across the state’s diverse communities, highlight key drivers of disproportionate impacts on and vulnerabilities of historically underserved and marginalized communities, and introduce key solutions for reducing extreme heat impacts.
AICP credits: 1.5 CM / 1 Credit for AICP Sustainability and Resiliency Requirement
Speaker Bio: Dr. Leo Matteo Bachinger co-leads State extreme heat adaptation planning initiatives on behalf of the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC), Office of Climate Change. He currently serves as special assistant to DEC’s Deputy Commissioner – Air Resources, Climate Change and Energy. Before joining DEC, he advised governments and local communities in Europe and the US on advancing equitable and community-led policy solutions. Dr. Bachinger holds a BA in Sociology and a MA in Science, Technology and Society from University of Vienna (Austria) as well as a PhD in Science and Technology Studies from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (USA).
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Speaker: George Frantz, Cornell University
Cornell University Associate Professor George Frantz will provide a brief overview of the AICP’s Code of Ethics and its application in the profession, with review of case studies.
AICP Ethics: 1.5 CM / 1 Credit for AICP Ethics
Schenectady County is seeking applications from qualified individuals for the position of Planning Coordinator with our Economic Development and Planning Team.