American Planning Association Honors Ned Plan

The APA Award for Sustainability and
Environmental Planning in Crested Butte

I had the pleasure of attending the 2014 Conference for the American Planning Association, Colorado Chapter, in Crested Butte, Colorado.

Few other trade organizations have an eight page strategic plan, updated bi-annually by the president of the association, with detailed Goals, Implementation Strategy, Assigned Responsibility, Timetable, and Budget. What else would you expect from professional planners?

Of course one of my favorite Benjamin Franklin quotes, "If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail," is a great reminder of the importance of planning, which has been the focus in Nederland for the past several years.

I was scheduled to participate on a panel discussing sustainability. The panel included two other talented City Planners and champions of sustainability; Chris Meschuk, from Boulder, and Jonathan Wachtel, from Lakewood. I felt honored to review our town planning process, with an audience of professional planners, earning educational credit hours to maintain their professional license. (See the presentation at the bottom of this post)

This was the session write-up:

"Integrating Sustainability. In this session, we will explore a variety of approaches ranging from guerrilla (staff initiated) initiatives to attempts to find what may be the holy grail of tying sustainability indicators to budgets."

From Left: Design Workshop Planner, Anna Gagne,
Nederland Mayor Joe Gierlach,
SE Group Director, Mark Kane,
APA President, Stan Clausen

Then, we were informed that the Town of Nederland Comprehensive Plan was selected as a 2014 APA-CO Honor Award for Sustainability and Environmental Planning. Here's an except from their award letter:

"The project was chosen for an Honor Award because the committee felt the plan uniquely addresses sustainability with innovation not typically found within Comprehensive Plans. Your engagement process focuses on what sustainability means to residents. The actionable elements of the plan are clear and enhances the likelihood that implementation will occur. We congratulate you on your successful project!"

The application was submitted by Mark Kane, a Director at the SE Group who facilitated our Comprehensive Plan. Mark came in from Vermont to receive the award in Crested Butte.

The award ceremony also included a short video about our Comp Plan which explained how sustainability is woven into all that we do. Once I get a copy of the video, I'll post it here as well.


Here is the slide presentation that I gave for the conference:

See How One Small Town is Planning its Sustainability Moonshot from Joe Gierlach

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[Here is a Video Valediction] This is the English downtempo band, Blue States performing Down the Days from the album First Steps Into (2007). [What is a Video Valediction?]