The San Luis Obispo County Citizen Planning Academy will be hosting an eight week class this fall for anyone interested in the various facets of urban planning. The cost per participant is $40, which includes all course materials and refreshments. The Academy is organized by the San Luis Obispo Subsection of the Central Coast APA Events Planning Committee, who are local professional volunteers. Residents of all ages and professions are encouraged to sign up. The past two Planning Academies have been very successful, with previous citizen participants becoming elected and appointed decision makers.
Below are the session topics and dates - all Academy sessions will be held in San Luis Obispo on Thursday nights from 6-9 PM beginning the end of September 2016 to the middle of November. Applications will be accepted from the end of August until the first session (9/29); the $40 registration fee will be collected at the first session (checks should be made out to the American Planning Association).
Session topics include:
- Introduction to the Academy, introduction and brief history of planning, role of the planner and legal framework of local government planning (9/29)
- Introduction to planning in SLO County, regulatory framework for local planning, role and structure of local government agencies (10/6).
- Local government financing, fiscalization of land use, and the real cost of development (10/13).
- Community design and historic preservation (10/20).
- Environmental and natural resource planning (10/27).
- SLO County issues: Water supply, agriculture, energy (11/3).
- Healthy communities (11/10).
- Public outreach, Brown Act, ethics and wrap-up (11/17).
More information and an application can be found at http://www.centralcoastapa.org/programs