Search
Member Login

Planner's Pick: July 2026

Each month, we're featuring standout planning-related content - books, podcasts, films, and more. Got a favorite? Send it our way for next month’s picks!

Listen:

Podcast – People Behind the Plans: "Ryan Slattery, AICP, on Resilience, Community Trust, and Tough Conversations" (Recorded live at NPC26, June 2026)

APA Editor in Chief Meghan Stromberg sits down with Ryan Slattery, AICP, a resilience and hazard mitigation planner who has spent more than a decade helping Houston prepare for and recover from hurricanes, historic freezes, and a pandemic. It's a candid conversation about how planners have difficult conversations when trust is fragile, language is loaded, and the stakes are high — plus reflections on working inside a large engineering firm, navigating federal data gaps, and where AI helps (and where human judgment still matters).

Listen: Podcast

Read:

Planning Magazine – Summer 2026 Issue (Published June 29, 2026)

The Summer issue is out, and the cover story challenges planners to break their "addiction to dots" and get creative about community engagement — timely for anyone gearing up for periodic update outreach. Also inside: a look at whether the so-called Montana Miracle has actually delivered on housing, new AI planning tools, adaptive reuse strategies "that make the grade," SpaceX's new town experiment, and the underappreciated advantages of small-town planning. A well-rounded read for the summer commute or that overdue lunch break.

Watch:

Planning Webcast Series – "Sustainable and Resilient Multimodal Transportation Infrastructure" (July 10, 2026 | 1:00–2:30 PM ET | 1.5 AICP CM incl. 1.0 SR)

Hosted by the APA Private Practice Division, this webinar tackles what it actually means for a street or trail to be sustainable and resilient — from drainage and pervious surfaces to material selection, heat mitigation, tree canopy, and maintenance regimes. Expect real-world examples of applying guidance in constrained conditions and strategies for building consensus across departments. Highly relevant for Washington planners working on complete streets, climate elements, or corridor-scale multimodal projects. Bonus: earns 1.0 Sustainability & Resilience CM credit.

Watch/read overview: APAOH | Planning Webcast Series

Bonus:

Washington State Department of Commerce – Planners' Newsletter: Legislative Update 2026 + MRSC's companion analysis

Of 130 bills filed this session with potential GMA impact, 16 landed on Governor Ferguson's desk — and several take effect June 11, 2026, which means the clock is ticking on local implementation. Highlights include SB 6026 (residential development in commercial/mixed-use zones for cities 30,000+ and non-rural counties, ordinances due Dec 2027), HB 2266 (STEP housing — shelters, transitional, emergency, and permanent supportive housing — in any zone that allows residences or hotels, with administrative-only review), and HB 2442 (expanded local revenue flexibility for housing). Commerce's newsletter gives the state agency lens; MRSC's May blog post pairs it with practical local-implementation takeaways. Essential summer reading for anyone updating development regulations or scoping the 2027 periodic update.

Skim: Planners’ Newsletter: Legislative update 2026 – Washington State Department of Commerce