2023 marked a significant milestone for the City of Lancaster, PA: it adopted Our Future Lancaster, its first comprehensive plan in 30 years. I was honored to play a small role in developing the plan as a consultant to the city.
Are Planners Systems Thinkers?
Planners like to say we are systems thinkers. Given its comprehensive scope and crosscutting characteristics, planning would seem to lend itself to holistic (as opposed to piecemeal or linear) approaches compared to narrower, more specialized professions. But do planners really apply systems thinking in a rigorous way in planning practice?
Taming Disruption: A 2023 National Planning Conference Session
Originally written for the American Planning Association’s Water and Planning Network newsletter, this article describes an NPC 2023 session on disruptive change from the perspective of water.
Triangle Trends Report: Tracking Disruption
Ben Hitchings, principal of Green Heron Planning, LLC, and David Rouse partnered with the Triangle J Council of Governments in North Carolina to prepare a report on how communities in the Triangle region can prepare for the disruptive impacts of change.
Synanthropic Species: Why Are They Important to Our Future?
Synanthropic species are animals that live in close proximity to people, benefit from the environments we create, but (unlike domesticated species) are beyond our control. Given pressing global challenges such as climate change, resource depletion, and rapidly diminishing biodiversity, how can synanthropic species possibly be important to the future of the planet?
The Future of Planning
Congratulations to Arthur C. Nelson for 50 years of service to the planning profession! I was honored to contribute an article on the future of the comprehensive plan to a special edition of Georgia State University’s Journal of Comparative Urban Law and Policy celebrating his many professional accomplishments.
Financing Green Infrastructure: Lessons from the Chesapeake Bay Watershed
Written by David Rouse with support from Econsult Solutions, Inc., this International City-County Management Association (ICMA) report provides guidance for small to mid-sized communities on how to develop a green infrastructure financing program.
Read an Excerpt from The Comprehensive Plan
Chapter 1 is the introduction to The Comprehensive Plan: Sustainable, Resilient, and Equitable Communities for the 21st Century, by David Rouse and Rocky Piro.
How Can Communities Succeed in the New Normal?
The 21st century is a time of accelerating change with profound implications for local communities. As we look towards 2022 amidst an uncertain recovery complicated by new variants of COVID-19, now the time to prepare for the shocks and stresses that the future will bring.