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Upcoming Continuing Education Opportunities

While the year is off to a tumultuous start, the impact that planning professionals have on their local community remains constant. We hope that you are navigating the choppy waters to start the year! Below, you can find upcoming trainings that focus on local issues and solutions. 

The Winter 2025 schedule for WA State Dept. of Commerce’s Short Course on Local Planning has begun! The Short Course provides basic information on planning in Washington through in-person trainings and webinars hosted by Commerce.The February session is coming up soon and you won’t want to miss it.

  • February Session
  • March Session

As always, below find curated training sessions that can offer invaluable insights to propel your career forward and stay ahead of AICP requirements:

1. Design Review – Tips and Recommended Practices (from MRSC)

    • Date: February 12, 2025
    • Time: 12PM PT
    • Description: Local design standards and review processes are important for ensuring that new developments maintain a consistent level of aesthetic quality within a community. It is usually easier to gain community acceptance of a new development if it is well designed. However, determining what constitutes “good design” can be challenging, and design review processes are sometimes criticized for adding extra time to the development application.
To address such concerns, HB 1293 was enacted in 2023 and codified in RCW 36.70A.630. This legislation requires clear and objective design standards and set limitations on design review processes for cities and counties planning under the Growth Management Act. This webinar will provide up-to-date guidance and local examples about how local governments are modifying their design review requirements and procedures to address HB 1293.
    • CM Equivalence: 1.5
    • Cost: $40 (Scholarships are available)
    • Register Here
2. Mapping the Food Landscape: Using Healthy Food Walk Audits to Assess Local Food Systems
    • Date: February 21, 2025
    • Time: 10AM PT
    • Description: Healthy food walk audits provide a dynamic way to assess the food landscape in neighborhoods, evaluating availability, proximity, routes, and infrastructure needs. In this workshop, participants will learn how to use walk audits to gather data on the built environment’s influence on healthy food access, including identifying gaps in food availability, barriers in transportation routes, infrastructure challenges, and opportunities for growing and value-added production. Through real-world examples and collaborative activities, attendees will explore strategies for engaging residents in the auditing process, uncovering community-driven insights, and translating findings into actionable plans. This session will also discuss how walk audit results can shape policies, partnerships, and investments to build resilient and equitable food systems. Participants will leave equipped with tools and techniques to conduct walk audits in their communities and advocate for impactful changes in the local food landscape.
    • CM Equivalence: 1.5
    • Cost: Free!
    • Register Here
3. Building Momentum - Advancing Roadway Safety Quickly and Efficiently (FHWA Roadway Safety Webinar Series)

    • Date: February 26, 2025
    • Time: 10AM PT
    • Description: The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) Roadway Safety Webinar Series features noteworthy strategies, tools, and examples that transportation professionals and other stakeholders may implement to address disparities in traffic fatalities and serious injuries. Innovative funding strategies and project selection tools can support agencies to get safety projects on the ground in a timely and effective process. This is especially important in areas and for communities that have suffered generational harms from agency decisions and the resulting transportation system. In this session, you will learn about:
i. A toolkit to prioritize Highway Safety Improvement Program (HSIP) projects
ii. Local examples on institutionalizing safety for all in project delivery
iii.Design tools to implement quick build projects on State arterials

Of course, there are always other FREE trainings available on Planetizen and the APA Ohio based Planning Webcast Series!

Stay tuned for more updates and valuable resources in our upcoming newsletters!

And, as always, please reach out to Continuing Education Committee Chair Justin Patterson with any questions or ideas for training opportunities at [email protected].

 

 

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