Tuesday July 23, 2024 

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7:30am-8:30am | Planning Director's Breakfast 

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8:30am-11:30am | MOBILE TOUR 

Rediscovering Jamestowne: Heritage Tourism and Resiliency Planning

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For 20 years, the dedicated staff at Historic Jamestowne have been unearthing the legacy of the first successful English settlement in North America. Through extensive archeological research and excavation, the Jamestown Rediscovery Project has interpreted the former site of James Fort and other surrounding historic resources. This mobile tour will highlight the work of the dedicated staff of Preservation Virginia and the National Park Service to tell the stories of Virginia’s first settlement. Staff will share their efforts to promote heritage tourism, sustainability, and resiliency planning to protect one of the Historic Triangle’s most cherished historic resources. More details here.

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8:30am- 9:30am | Concurrent Breakout Sessions

 

Market-Informed Solutions for CBD Resiliency

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Location: Tidewater AB

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Central business districts have felt the extreme impacts of an evolving market of the post-pandemic world. Planners are asking what to do with increasingly high office vacancies, a less reliable daytime spending base, and the impacts on the business community. National Landing, Arlington’s one square mile downtown comprising of three neighborhoods – Pentagon City, Crystal City, and Potomac Yard – is facing these issues head on, both with BID-led (small and minority-owned) business programs and with the help of the County. One such effort, the Arlington County Commercial Market Resiliency Initiative, is a market-informed effort that recommends a strategy to modernize regulations, practices, and processes to ensure a more nimble response to economic shifts. In this session, you will learn what barriers the business community is experiencing in a post-pandemic environment, the regulatory reforms and innovative programs the BID and the County are pursuing to support these important assets, why it matters, and their impact on the National Landing Business Improvement District.

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Speakers:

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Jill Hunger, AICP

Arlington County - Department of Community Planning, Housing & Development

 

Val Weiner, AICP

Arlington County - Arlington Economic Development

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Ashley Labadie, AICP

National Landing Business Improvement District

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Tips for Navigating Newest Developments in Wireless Communication 

 

Location: Tidewater CD

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The wireless industry does not have to be a mystery. Learn tips and tricks for navigating wireless communication in your community in a way that fits your unique characteristics. Learn about satellite connectivity and the new FCC regulations surrounding satellite to wireless operations. Discover what the pandemic taught us about wireless communication infrastructure, are small wireless facilities right for your community and what to expect with 6G.

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Speakers:

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Susan Rabold

CityScape Consultants, Inc.

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Bill Fritz 

More speaker information coming soon.

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Planning Learning Lab: Anti-Displacement Land Use Strategy and Equitable Community Engagement in the AlexWest Plan, Alexandria, VA 

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Location: Piedmont Room

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The City of Alexandria is wrapping up work on a Small Area Plan in Alexandria West, a diverse, and geographically large neighborhood containing 13% of the City’s land area, 17% of the City’s population, including a large number of immigrants and a substantial portion of Alexandria’s essential workforce, and nearly 40% of its market affordable housing. This session will focus on some of the Big Questions the City has grappled with throughout this process: How does the City retrofit suburbia, engage a diverse and multilingual community, empower members to participate in planning for their future, including developing strategies and resources to mitigate resident displacement, all while balancing regional economic pressures and the need to increase regional housing supply? To address housing affordability and preserve the community’s cultural diversity we are integrating our housing affordability and land use strategy in a unified approach, prioritizing growth in areas where development will not result in resident displacement. We also are evaluating the economic impacts of new development on existing housing affordability and focusing on creating open space gathering areas, ensuring sustainability, and incentivizing land uses that will support the neighborhood. The City has prioritized extensive community engagement throughout the planning process, using grant-funding to partner with and extend the reach of community organizations and community leaders, language interpretation and translation in six languages, and maintaining a consistent presence in the neighborhood through traditional and new tactics.

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Speakers:

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Jeffery Farner

City of Alexandria, Virginia

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Helen McIlvaine

City of Alexandria, Virginia

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Christian Brandt

City of Alexandria, Virginia

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Equity is Everyone's Job: The Role of Peer Equity Coaches

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Location: Alleghany Room

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Peer Equity Coaches are employees who work outside of the Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, trained to embed equity into the policies, programs, and service delivery in an organization. In Norfolk, we coined the term Equity Ambassadors for our Peer Equity Coaches. The City of Norfolk’s Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion launched the Equity Ambassador Training Initiative in October 2022 and is still growing strong in 2024 with four cohorts representing over 20 of Norfolk's 27 departments including Planning. The cohort model training is dedicated to promoting and developing culturally humble employees to serve as peer equity coaches in support of the City’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion efforts. The Planning department has implemented tools from the training by increasing community engagement in areas of the City of Norfolk that have been historically underrepresented in the decision-making process.

 

Speaker:

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Jalesha Smith

City of Norfolk

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Alyssa Flatt

City of Norfolk

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9:00am-11:00am | MOBILE TOUR 

Exploring York County Blueways

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Jump into an exciting morning out on the water kayaking at Queen Creek in York County. We’ll launch from New Quarter Park-guided by York County Parks and Recreation staff as we discuss the history of the park, the County’s water trail network, and enjoy the outdoors! Be sure to bring sunscreen and plenty of water. More details here.

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9:45am- 12:00pm | Planning Commissioner Training 

Location: Alleghany Room

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10:30am- 12:00pm | Professional Headshots

 Location: Heritage Room

 

12:00pm- 1:30pm | Awards Lunch & Annual Meeting

Location: Virginia Room

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9:45am- 10:45am | Concurrent Breakout Sessions

 

Lessons Learned from the Frontlines of Delivering Climate-Ready Affordable Housing 

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Location: Tidewater AB

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Lessons Learned from the Frontlines of Delivering Climate-Ready Affordable Housing. The preservation of Hazel Hill Apartments (Fredericksburg, VA) and its 71 units of Section 8 housing -- nor that of the new construction of 450 units of affordable housing at Kindlewood (fka Friendship Court) in Charlottesville -- were far from a foregone conclusion. Each was the result of a multi-year, concerted effort to utilize existing policy levers (and experiment with a few new tools) to bring about these two redevelopment efforts which ultimately garnered $15 million total in Green and Resilient Retrofit Program funds from HUD. Learn about the journey of these two properties and how residents were engaged to shape the final outcomes, which include affordable secure, climate-ready apartments, rental homes and even some affordable homeownership opportunities for low-income households. With the new resources available through IRA (including the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund), understanding the journey of these two unique properties should be a core part of every planner's professional development so that they recognize the many challenges to bringing affordable housing to fruition and help advance solutions. Speakers will include Danielle Arigoni, Managing Director of Policy and Solutions, and James Engelhardt, Director of Real Estate Development -- both from NHT.

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Speakers:

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Danielle Arigoni

National Housing Trust

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James Engelhardt

National Housing Trust

 

“See you at Lilli’s”: LGBTQ+ Cultural Heritage Preservation in Arlington, Virginia

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Location: Tidewater CD

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In November 2023, Arlington County approved an update to its Historic and Cultural Resources Plan, which included the goal to “Seek preservation for high-risk and underrepresented historic and cultural resources and landscapes.” This presentation will provide an overview of a pilot Significance Study of the home of LGBTQ+ activist Dr. Lilli Vincenz that Beyer Blinder Belle Architects & Planners conducted for the County. Preservation and planning issues to be highlighted include documenting recent and complex histories, assessing the cultural significance of sites through the lens of LGBTQ+ heritage, considering community outreach and engagement, and exploring local landmark status and interpretation in a changing neighborhood.

 

Speakers:

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Jennie Gwin, AIA

Beyer Blinder Belle

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Alyssa Tope, AIA, AICP

Beyer Blinder Belle

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Cynthia Liccese-Torres

Arlington County Government

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An Evolving Relationship: Tech Firms + Communities

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Location: Piedmont Room

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The “An Evolving Relationship: Tech Firms + Communities” session will include an in-depth discussion on the evolving role that private employers play in the communities where they have a major presence; the role of economic development incentives in attracting and retaining those employers; and how communities can better structure ongoing public, private, and philanthropic partnerships and discussions that maximize mutual benefits for all parties. Session participants will be encouraged to share their thoughts on which organizations in their communities should be at the “negotiating table” around economic incentives and employer community contributions, along with examples of successful partnerships/conversations that they have been privy to, and any other ideas they have around how to improve these relationships to increase equity, sustainability, and resilience. Sarah Richards, AICP will be the keynote speaker.

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Speaker:

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Sarah G. Richards, AICP

AECOM

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Andrew Hopewell 

Town of Culpeper  

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Paige Read

Town of Culpeper

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11:00am- 12:00pm | Concurrent Breakout Sessions

 

Optimizing Site Selection for (Sub)Urban Agriculture: How Geospatial Analysis Was Applied to Balance Equity, Sustainability, and Longevity in Richmond City, VA 

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Location: Tidewater AB

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In-ground urban agriculture site selection faces complex challenges and often suffers from a lack of empiricism. This problem is particularly acute in densely populated areas like Richmond, Virginia, where the need to balance environmental sustainability with social equity is paramount. Our work adapts the USDA’s Land Evaluation and Site Assessment (LESA) method, developed in the 1980s as a tool to identify and evaluate land for specific agricultural uses in rural settings, to urban and suburban contexts.The urban LESA model draws on insights from the USDA and scholarly research on urban agriculture viability, as well as input from city officials and local stakeholders. By leveraging GIS and geospatial analysis to systematically evaluate suitability, this approach can aid jurisdictional decision-making around site selection in a data-driven and empirically informed way. We will explore the ways in which GIS can facilitate the strategic identification of urban areas in Richmond City, Virginia that are best suited for in-ground urban agricultural development by integrating environmental, socio-economic, and spatial data to optimize site selection for both productivity and long-term sustainability.

 

Speakers:

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John Jones, MPA, PhD

Virginia Commonwealth University

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Andrew Cameron

City of Newport News

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Convergent Development: Where Community and Economic Development Intersect 

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Location: Tidewater CD

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What would it look like if economic development and community development professionals were working together to achieve positive changes in their communities? How would this process begin? What are the characteristics of the people who span these boundaries? What steps can your community take? If you are ready to learn how three communities in Virginia are answering these questions, join us for a panel discussion about convergent development, the intersection of economic development and community development to build resilient, vibrant places.

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Speakers:

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Dr. John Accordino, FAICP

Virginia Commonwealth University

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Courtney Mailey, MURP

Virginia Department of Housing and Community Development

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Other presenters TBD

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Community Outreach and Engagement: The Antidote to Polarization 

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Location: Piedmont Room

 

We are living in fast-paced and often divisive times, with quickly changing community priorities and social platform outlets that sometimes help, but sometimes hinder building unity in community planning for the future. Traditional public hearings, input sessions, and surveys are good for disseminating information and getting feedback, but they don’t always offer residents a safe and appealing opportunity to engage with one another about their shared hopes for the future. Centered on the methodology of Community Heart & Soul’s resident-driven planning process, this session will demonstrate how the model works to build relationships through a process of story gathering and sharing based on what is most important to residents. In this participatory session, attendees will experience how Heart & Soul’s intentional approach to engagement enables communities to build the trust necessary for working together to solve problems, plan for the future, and drive lasting change.

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Speakers:

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Susan Berry Hill, AICP, CH&S Coach

Retired Planner

 

Joan Wagner, Ed.D.

Community Heart & Soul 

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12:00pm-1:30pm | Awards Lunch ​

Location: Virginia Room

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1:30pm-4:30pm | MOBILE TOUR 

 

Telling the Story of African American History in the City of Williamsburg

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In recent years, a more consertive effort has been made to give voice to the history of minority communities. These stories provide a richness and layer of American history that help create healing and unity within communities. Learn how four institutions using their individual strengths tell the story of African Americans from the 1800's to the present. This tour wil lead participants on a beind the scenes walking tour of the historic Bray School and other AA sites in the historic district. Participants will take a shuttle to historic First Baptist Church organized in 1776 by slaves and free blacks, and have the opportunity to ring the Freedom Bell. Lastly participants will view stops on the upcoming African Amerian Heritage Trail including the Hearth memorial on the campus of William & Mary. More details here.

 

1:30pm- 2:30pm | Concurrent Breakout Sessions

 

​Revolutionary Zoning in Norfolk: What 5-Years of Implementation has Revealed

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Norfolk set out to create the “most resilient zoning ordinance” in the country. The City adopted new approaches to address resilience, such as the Resilience Quotient and related point system, Neighborhood Resilience Overlays, “flexible” development standards, and “clarified” processes. Five years into implementation we have learned what works—the regulations that lead to the expected outcome—and what does not work—the regulations that either are ineffective, impossible or too difficult to implement, and at worst, result in negative outcomes.

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Speakers: 

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Jeremy Sharp, AICP

City of Norfolk Dept of City Planning

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Robert "Bobby" Tajan, AICP

City of Norfolk Dept of Planning

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Paula Shea, AICP

City of Norfolk Dept. of City Planning

 

Quick Takes—A 3 Part Series: Small Business Zoning; Battling Blight Using CDBG Grants; AI, The Multiverse, and Next Generation Planning 

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Location: Tidewater CD

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Part 1: Planning for sustainability means balancing social, economic, and environmental resources, and supporting the capacity of individuals, communities, and systems to survive, adapt, and thrive in the face of stress. Planning for Equity seeks social justice by identifying and working to expand choice and opportunity for all persons, urging the alteration of policies, institutions, and decisions that do not help meet their needs. The proposed class explores the importance of small businesses owners as individual actors working close to a community. It would then look at how current regulations make it difficult for such actors to be successful and what changes to current zoning regulation might encourage small business success. Strong small business being a key element in building stronger ties between and a better path to economic success for the widest possible range of community members, therefore, allowing the community to respond to and adapt against any number of stressors and shocks as well as enhancing the ability for under-represented communities to partake in economic success and guard against stressors.

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Speaker:

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Ray Roakes

City of Richmond

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Part 2: The City of Chesapeake is leveraging Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funds for Code Enforcement to battle blight in a certified area. Using Census data, a detailed GIS analysis was conducted to determine Chesapeake's CDBG Certified Code Enforcement Area and Standard Operating Procedures were created for HUD approval. Inspection procedures were created to ensure compliance with HUD standards, but also to ensure inspectors provided available resources to property owners or tenants to rectify the violation and create safer neighborhoods for all citizens. Resources provided include a City funded Land Bank Authority Residential Rehabilitation Grant Program, targeted in the City's historic neighborhood, and connections to several non-profit community partners. Code enforcement cases are tracked in GIS to evaluate effectiveness and identify needed improvements.

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Speaker:

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Rebecca Benz, GISP

City of Chesapeake

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Crystal Bynum

City of Chesapeake

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Part 3: The event horizon for traditional planning is upon us, with advances in Artificial Intelligence fundamentally transforming planning practices in our increasingly digital world. This session explores how generative AI is revolutionizing workflows, public engagement, and data analysis and visualization, as exemplified by Shenandoah County's comprehensive planning process. Over five years, AI tools, including ChatGPT for data scraping, mass email campaigns, GIS data management, and an interactive chatbot, have significantly enhanced the planning capabilities in-house, supported by volunteers. These tools facilitated scenario planning, offering a multiverse of possibilities through detailed visuals and descriptions, demonstrating how AI can bridge gaps in resources and staff. The session will showcase live demonstrations of AI tools in action, illustrating their potential to empower communities with limited budgets to achieve consensus and envision a future that moves beyond traditional planning practices.

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Speaker:

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Tyler Hinkle, AICP

Shenandoah County

 

Understanding Electric Transmission Planning

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Location: Piedmont Room

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In this session, we'll discuss the process of electric transmission planning, what drives the need for new transmission lines, and what role local and VA state government and public utilities have in selecting new routes for transmission lines.

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Speakers:

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William Tucker, AICP

Burns and McDonnell

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Angeline Crowder, AICP

Burns and McDonnell

 

Awards Quick Take #2

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Location: Alleghany Room​

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The Friendly City Trail

City of Harrisonburg/VHB

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Parks, Recreation, Open Space, and Access Strategy

Fairfax County Park Authority

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Expanding Housing Options in Fairfax

Fairfax County

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2:45pm- 3:45pm | Concurrent Breakout Sessions

 

Rising Tides, Resilient Minds: Protecting America’s Birthplace 

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Location: Tidewater AB

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Ranked as one of the 11 Most Endangered Historic Places in 2022 by the National Trust for Historic Preservation, Historic Jamestown’s low-lying location adjacent to the James River makes it vulnerable to flooding, storm surge, and sea level rise. As a proactive framework to document the challenges, supporting data, goals, and solutions for long-term water management, a Resiliency Plan was developed for the 22-acre site on Jamestown Island. During this session, attendees will learn about this long-term approach to resiliency planning that provides a promising future for this historic coastal site. They’ll learn about new techniques and resources for implementing mitigation strategies that engage community members, support economic opportunity, and enhance quality of life.

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Speakers:

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Stephen Talley, PLA

VHB

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Michael Lavin

Jamestown Rediscovery

 

Clearing the Fog: Providing Effective Visuals and Relevant Data to Drive Better Decisions 

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Location: Tidewater CD

 

Negative perceptions of regulations, development proposals, density, and other planning actions and best practices are becoming more and more pervasive, degrading or altogether blocking political action. This resistance is often rooted in a lack of understanding of context, purpose of regulations, how they are implemented in the built environment, and how a development will look and feel once built. This session will discuss how to use infographics, maps, renderings, photos, and illustrations to effectively convey often difficult or nuanced information to elected and appointed officials and the public to drive responsible political action. As political polarization expands at the local level, some decision-makers carry a political agenda that does not constitute good decision-making for their communities. Additionally, many elected and appointed officials come to the table ill-prepared for the decisions they will need to make. When presented with high-quality visuals that communicate information in the proper context, the group has a better understanding of the impact of their decisions. Providing unbiased, real data in a compelling and consistent manner to better communicate the impacts of decision-making should be the goal of planners.

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Speakers:

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Cecile Gaines, AICP

Berkley Group

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Caroline Vanterve, AICP

Berkley Group

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Linds Edwards, ENV SP

Berkley Group

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PLANDanville's All-In Community Engagement 

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Location: Piedmont Room

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The City of Danville is working to overcome its mill legacy of top-down decision-making by centering community empowerment in its new Comprehensive Plan process. Residents had long resigned themselves to “others” deciding the city’s future. City leaders have ensured resident voice in the new Plan process using low-tech and high-tech engagement methods that are dizzying in their breadth and depth. Paid community ambassadors were deployed, a vacant storefront became a project hub, fun hands-on activities and personas were created, and an intensive online presence was developed. Data analytics identified gaps and the most effective messages in partnership with a private-sector digital billboard company. Learn the ups and downs, challenges and rewards, of trying to overcome cultural norms and the tools that are making it happen.

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Speakers:

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Renee Burton, MBA

City of Danville

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Mausharie Valentine

Progressive AE

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Larz Kegerreis

Kegerreis Marketing

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Revolutionary Planning Management 

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Location: Alleghany Room

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In today's dynamic and ever-changing local government landscape, planning managers should embrace agility and adaptability, empower their team, and embrace continuous improvement. This session will bring together a panel of experienced planning managers to discuss Revolutionary Planning Management, an approach that challenges the status quo and empowers you to help your team. • Embrace agility and adaptability: Learn how to adapt to changing circumstances and unforeseen events. • Empower your team: Foster collaboration, ownership, and continuous learning within your team to drive better results. • Embrace continuous improvement: Learn techniques for regularly reviewing your plans, identifying areas for improvement, and iterating for success.

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Speakers:

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Earl W. Anderson, AICP

County of York, Virginia

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Denise Harris, AICP

Town of Warrenton

B. Leon Hughs, AICP

Caroline County

Tammy Rosario, AICP

James City County

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4:00pm- 5:00pm | Concurrent Breakout Sessions

 

The rEVolution is in the Details: Strategies for Equitable Electric Vehicle Deployment in the City of Richmond

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Location: Tidewater AB

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Increased electric vehicle usage presents an outstanding opportunity for localities to reduce air pollution and meet environmental goals, but how do we help ensure our most vulnerable populations will benefit? This session will look at efforts by the City of Richmond to create an equitable deployment strategy for EV infrastructure and policies. Attendees will learn of Richmond’s overarching goals set forth in the RVAgreen2050 Climate Equity Action Plan and current work that is underway in fleet and micromobility electrification under Richmond’s Office of Sustainability and the Office of Equitable Transportation and Mobility. This session will also highlight the barriers to equitable electrification and strategies to address those barriers as identified through the development of the Richmond Connects EV Needs Analysis and Deployment Plan. Through stakeholder and public engagement, the EV Needs Analysis and Deployment Plan prioritizes strategies to ensure those populations most vulnerable to poor air quality exposure seek to receive the benefits from electrification.

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Speakers:

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Brad Shelton, AICP

Michael Baker International 

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Dawn Oleksy, CEM, ENV SP

City of Richmond

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Brandon King

City of Richmond

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"Looking Out" : A Session With Virginia Housing​

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Location: Piedmont Room

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This presentation will entail an overview of trends in housing policy outside of Virginia. We look at state and local efforts to address housing supply, affordability, and development costs and whether those efforts are producing results.​

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DJ Benway 

Virginia Housing

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Mike MacKenzie ​

Virginia Housing

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You have WHAT in your backpack? 

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Location: Tidewater CD

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Come join this session as we explore Colonial Williamsburg through the lens of pedestrian mobile lidar and discuss the collected data for sidewalk, streetscape, and ADA inventories and assessments. With Reality capture technologies, planning professionals can collect millions of 3D data points in real time to complete accurate, high-quality digital terrain models of the physical world. From establishing existing conditions to developing models built on top of real-world data and measurements, this technology can influence planning and redefine public engagement. Come learn about Mobile Mapping Technology from the team at WGI.

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Speakers:

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Courtney Powell, AICP

WGI

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Nicola Ianeselli, M.Sc. Eng., M.Sc. Arch.

WGI

Spencer Shanholtz

WGI

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Tyler Tornese

WGI

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Integrating Climate Resilience into Everyday Planning

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Location: Alleghany Room

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Today, there is a growing focus on planning for climate resilience. But, if your community is tight on resources, facing local housing shortages, economic challenges, or needs a zoning overhaul – your attention as a planner may be elsewhere. How can we as planners, integrate climate resilience into our everyday work? As we face a worldwide crisis, climate resilience must be integral to our thinking. Otherwise, climate change impacts may exacerbate the myriad of problems our cities and towns already face. This is the revolution of urban and environmental planning. So how do we as planners get started? This panel session highlights the work of local governments, state agencies, planning district commissions, non-profits, and private consultants – and how these practitioners integrate resilience into planning activities. Planners will learn climate resilience techniques, types of plans that incorporate climate resilience, and approaches for integrating resilience considerations into various planning activities.

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Speakers:

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Bella Purdy, AICP

Weston & Sampson

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Carolyn Heaps-Pecaro

Virginia Department of Recreation and Conservation

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Annette Osso

Resilient Virginia

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Anna Kimelblatt, CFM

Weston & Sampson

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Gabe Dayley

Albemarle County

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Jamie Powers

Albemarle County 

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Resume Clinic ​

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Location: Informal Working Space

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Looking to polish your resume? Whether you're an experienced professional looking to touch up your resume or a recent graduate just entering the job market, join this session with our Chapter leaders as they offer guidance and tips!

 

More details coming soon!

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