Carolina Planning Journal

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Reflecting on a Summer of Planning

August 22, 2023 /

This summer, Carolina Planning Master’s students participated in a range of in-person and remote opportunities across the country. This week, we are sharing highlights and reflections from four students.

Jasmine Davidson – MCRP 2024, Land Use & Environmental Planning
Planning Intern, Clarion Associates
Chapel Hill, North Carolina

I began my planning internship at Clarion Associates this summer, where I have worked on a variety of planning and zoning projects. I got to see the many stages of the planning process: from early stakeholder meetings, to comprehensive plan drafting, to incorporating a client’s feedback into the final product. For one of these projects, I collected case studies of rural and suburban communities in North Carolina and Virginia that are implementing the types of changes we were recommending for our client — changes like supporting a range of housing options in growth areas, facilitating building re-use, and connecting street networks. It was a cool project, and a good reminder that plenty of good and interesting planning is happening in small communities — it’s not just the big cities! My experience at Clarion has also been shaped by its size — Clarion is a small firm, so I was able to build strong interpersonal relationships with coworkers at all levels, which has been gratifying. I’m excited to continue working for Clarion this fall!

Jen Farris – MCRP & MPH 2024, Transportation
Public Health Practicum Student & Research Assistant, Orange County Home Preservation Coalition & UNC CH Highway Safety Research Center
Virtual/Chapel Hill, North Carolina

Orange County Home Preservation Coalition: For my public health practicum, I worked with Dr. Ryan Lavalley to conduct a program evaluation for the Orange County Home Preservation Coalition (OCHPC). OCHPC is made up of a group of partner organizations that work together to preserve, repair, and modify homes so homeowners can continue living in them comfortably and safely. The program evaluation will include researching the impacts of weatherization and HVAC retrofits on homeowner health, surveying Coalition service recipients and Coalition partners to understand program strengths and challenges, and integrating a racial equity lens throughout the evaluation.

Highway Safety Research Center: I am supporting a research project exploring nighttime pedestrian injuries and fatalities on urban arterial roadways. This summer, I have been conducting a lit review for who is most at risk of experiencing a serious or fatal pedestrian crash at night.

Lauren Caffe – MCRP 2024, Land Use & Environmental Planning
Project Assistant, FB Environmental Associates
Portland/Camden, Maine

FB Environmental is facilitating a citizen’s advisory committee in Camden, Maine that is working on making recommendations to help with resilience of the local watershed. My role as Project Assistant is to help with public outreach and community engagement by interviewing people in the area to ask what they know or don’t know about the project, their concerns, what they value and would like to see happen, and help explain what the advisory committee is doing. I’ve also been attending the Town and Committee meetings, creating outreach materials such as the monthly newsletter and newspaper releases, organizing events, and helping the Project Managers through this exciting, challenging, and interesting project!

Abby Cover – MCRP 2024, Land Use & Environmental Planning
Student Researcher, UNC CH Highway Safety Research Center
Virtual

This summer I technically worked at two internships: a niche planning internship at a large consulting firm, and student research assistant at HSRC (UNC’s highway safety research center). I made the decision very quickly in my first internship at the consulting firm that I was not a good fit, and began looking for alternatives. The firm’s administrative process was very messy, and the work was so far outside my skillset with minimal support, that I decided I could better spend my time almost anywhere else.

I cold-emailed many places, asking if they had any available internships, since it was already June by the time I decided to leave the large consulting firm. I assumed there would be no more available internships, but I was wrong! I quickly found work with HSRC where I researched the Safe System approach to transit planning, and crafting public facing visualizations.   

Everybody at HSRC could not have been nicer, I recommend anybody interested in transportation planning even a little bit reach out to them for work. If I had gone with my original assumptions while at my original internship, I would have never worked at HSRC. I learned most of all to always advocate for yourself, and never assume what you can otherwise confirm. If you are not happy with your internship, you are not stuck!

Featured image: https://planning.unc.edu/visit-us/

Wrapping Up Spring 2023 with Carolina Planning Journal

April 25, 2023 / / 0 Comments

In Spring 2022, the Carolina Planning Journal had a special year. We published sixteen blog posts and are set to publish Volume 48 on Urban Analytics: Capabilities and Critiques in mid-May. We also hosted Dr. Jamaal Green as a guest speaker in collaboration with DCRP DEI and DCRP’s Planning in Practice Speaker Series. Workshops on editing for the journal and a few social events were also held. Congratulations to Emma Vinella-Brusher, Cameron Mcbroom-Fitterer, Walker Harrison, Amy Patronella, Sarah Kear, Rene Marker-Katz, Henry Read, and Lance Gloss, who will soon graduate. Additionally, the CPJ looks forward to seeing the second and third-year students for more writing and editing next year.

Spring 2023 Posts:

  1. Happy New Year from the Carolina Planning Journal!
  2. Planning for 36 Hours in Fanwood, New Jersey by Kathryn Cunningham
  3. The case for a K-12 planning education by Isabel Soberal
  4. Too Big to Dismantle: Planning for Reuse of the Tarheel Army Missile Plant by Ian Baltutis
  5. Masters Student Panel on Master’s Project Proposal Development by Jo Kwon
  6. Wrestling with Equity: Dr. Jamaal Green Returns to DCRP by Lance Gloss
  7. Winter photo contest winner
  8. What prevents older LGBTQ+ adults from aging in place? An interview with Marisa Turesky, Urban Planning Ph.D. Candidate  by Candela Cerpa
  9. Planning for 36 Hours in Seattle, Washington by Nik Reasor
  10. Schoolyards: An Untapped Community Resource? by Emma Vinella-Brusher
  11. 1970’s Detroit Gets in a Twitter Feud by Abby Cover
  12. From the Archives) Film Analysis: Oil Culture in The Umbrellas of Cherbourg
  13. Planning for 36 Hours in Delhi, India by Ian Baltutis
  14. Planning for 36 Hours in Oakland, California by Kathryn Cunningham
  15. The Arctic: An Uncertain Time for Arctic Cooperation by Samantha Pace
  16. Planning for 36 Hours Stockholm, Sweden by Nik Reasor
Volume 48 Journal Editing Session
First Spring 2023 Meeting

Please follow us on LinkedIn and Facebook and wait for the new volume on Urban Analytics: Capabilities and Critiques in May 2023.

This will be our last post from 2022-23 editors. Thank you so much for a great Spring semester to everyone who read, wrote, and edited the volume and blog!

Your 2022-23 Editors:

LANCE GLOSS | Editor-in-Chief & JO KWON | Managing Editor

Lance is a second-generation urban planner with a passion for economic development strategies that center natural resource conservation and community uplift. He served as Managing Editor of the Urban Journal at Brown University, Section Editor at the College Hill Independent, and Senior Planner for the City of Grand Junction. Hailing from sunny Colorado, he earned his BA in Urban Studies at Brown and will earn his Master’s in City and Regional Planning in 2023. Outside of work, he can be found on his bicycle, in the woods, or on the rugby pitch.

Jo is a fourth-year Ph.D. student in City and Regional Planning with an interest in using visuals in environmental planning. She has been a part of CPJ since 2019. With a background in Statistics and English Literature, she received her M.A. in Computational Media at Duke University. In her free time, she enjoys indie films, live performances, climbing, and drinking coffee.

Wrestling with Equity: Dr. Jamaal Green Returns to DCRP

February 7, 2023 /

By Lance Gloss, Editor-in-Chief

Many research projects in urban planning address status quo conditions in government. Jamaal Green, Assistant Professor at the University of Pennsylvania Weitzman School of Design, breathes new life into this format by focusing on the critical questions of who wins, and who loses, when governments choose business-as-usual.

Dr. Green returned to his alma mater of Carolina Planning to deliver a well-attended address, sponsored by CPJ and Angles, DCRP DEI, and DCRP’s Planning in Practice Speaker Series. He engaged the crowd with a tale of two projects he took on while working at the State of Oregon’s Office of Reporting, Research, Analytics and Implementation (ORRAI) in the Department of Human Services (DHS). A vibrant discussion ensued.

DHS’ Family Reunification Decision Support Tool

The first case dealt with a forward-thinking effort to revise DHS’ Family Reunification Decision Support Tool. DHS staff use this tool to make life-altering decisions about whether children enter state-supervised care or return to their families. Dr. Green and his colleagues recognized that the algorithm behind the Decision Support Tool was more likely to misclassify risk for Black and indigenous kids than for their white counterparts.

To address this disparity, ORRAI developed a “fairness correction score” to manage racial bias. This novel approach used a standardized method for error rate balancing. This adjusted the algorithmic result to ensure that misclassification risk was equal across racial groups, thereby eliminating the structural disparity and changing the lives of many children. The adjustment was recently phased out due to concerns over newer, similar adjustments in California and Pennsylvania that received negative attention. However, Dr. Green cites innovation as a serious step toward fairer governance.

Cannabis Dispensaries in Oregon and Washington

In the second case, Dr. Green shared findings on the spatial distribution of legal and gray market cannabis dispensaries in Oregon and Washington. By mapping these dispensaries and testing their prevalence against demographic indicators, Dr. Green showed that higher poverty, higher unemployment, and higher numbers of people of color correlated with cannabis sales locations.

This problem is multi-faceted in ways that suggest to Dr. Green a need to liberalize zoning regulations that pertain to cannabis sales. The confounding variable, he noted, was likely to be zoning. Because wealthier and whiter neighborhoods tend to have less commercial zoning, they end up with fewer dispensaries. This resulted in an unequal distribution of the social costs of cannabis sales.

Dr. Green said that dispensaries should be allowed to locate in more zones and under fewer restrictions to lessen the exposure differential. This would allow dispensaries to locate where their markets are; as there is evidence that marijuana use does not correspond with income or race—unlike the location of dispensaries—liberalizing the regulations should be enough to reduce the disparity. The question is whether the wealthy and the white also bear the social costs of cannabis sales.

The brilliance of Dr. Green’s lecture came in his comparison of the cases. On close examination, these two remedies for racial disparities are structural opposites. In the DHS case, an algorithm functions in a biased manner and must be normalized to reduce this bias. In the cannabis dispensary case, overregulation in the absence of a market failure causes biased outcomes. The remedy in that case was liberalization, not a targeted tightening of rules. In this way, the cases serve as a critical lesson for planners interested in fairness and equity. Similar goals cannot always be achieved with similar tools. Recognizing the details and the mechanisms at hand must precede intervention, lest a misguided move worsens the problem.

As Measured Against…

The professor also pointed to another subtext that spans both cases. In researching these topics, he found what many of us in the planning profession encounter: the use of whiteness as what Dr. Green called the “ur-reference.” That is, studies of this kind tend to measure problems for people of color relative to a normative baseline associated with conditions for white people. This results in the recurrent “non-white” category.

In these cases, Dr. Green urged a different view, in which whiteness is seen as the intervention on the landscape. The DHS algorithm may have been structurally biased to promote the safety of white children when the true norm is miscalculated risk. Dispensary zoning may have been crafted (intentionally or not) to protect white neighborhoods when the true norm is market-driven location choices. While by no means a definitive treatise on racial reference points, Dr. Green left the many students and faculty in attendance with a provocative reframing. This degree of innovative thinking certainly explains his rapid rise to prominence since graduating from DCRP. We are grateful to the professor for sharing his time and expertise.

Lance is a second-generation urban planner with a passion for economic development strategies that center natural resource conservation and community uplift. He served as Managing Editor of the Urban Journal at Brown University, Section Editor at the College Hill Independent, and Senior Planner for the City of Grand Junction. Hailing from sunny Colorado, he earned his BA in Urban Studies at Brown and will earn his Master in City and Regional Planning at UNC-Chapel Hill in 2023. Outside of work, he can be found on his bicycle, in the woods, or on the rugby pitch.

Edited by Jo Kwon

Featured Image by Jo Kwon

Masters Student Panel on Master’s Project Proposal Development

January 31, 2023 /

By Jo Kwon, Managing Editor

Last week PLAN 590: Master’s Project Proposal Development had a panel of past and present students to talk about their experiences of developing their Master’s Project (MP). The seminar-based course prepares first year master’s students to work on their MP. The panel included Lance Gloss (second year student at DCRP), Graham Zicekefoose (second year student at Eastern Washington University), Lauren Prunkl (DCRP Class of 2022, Transportation Analyst at Kittelson & Associates in Charlotte), and Emily Gvino (DCRP Class of 2021, Planner at Clarion Associates in Chapel Hill).

Lance’s project on Urban Forestry Planning in the Drought-Prone West

Lance’s project has evolved from his initial ideas when he took PLAN 590. His project compares fourteen urban forestry plans, including Austin, Phoenix, and Colorado Springs. He used qualitative methods, such as coding and interviews, and underwent the Institutional Review Boards (IRB) process. As his project evolved, his main research question did not change: how do cities keep their green infrastructure functional during a drought? After spending much time in the literature, the details of answering his research question changed and became clear over time.

Graham’s thesis on Geospatial Determinants of Vehicular Residency

Graham’s thesis idea developed during his volunteer work in Spokane, Washington. He realized that the data for an accurate count of people who are homeless were not easy to find. Without the data, the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) cannot support homeless assistance programs well. The count for vehicular residency is especially challenging, given their constant movement. For his project, he identifies and interviews individuals who are facing vehicular homelessness. While working on his thesis, he found the lack of literature on vehicular residency challenging.

Lauren’s project on Exploring Eviction Data Collection Methods

Lauren had an idea for her project before starting her proposal with her previous work at Greenville. She found that court data on evictions were inconsistent, and the quality was not good. Although the issue is important to research, she had to narrow down her question to fit into the MP timeline. Through literature reviews and discussions with peers and advisors, she focused her project on only looking at eviction court data instead of including transportation data. She conducted interviews by searching online groups, researching organizations, and numerous cold call emails.

Emily’s project on Addressing the Health Impacts of Extreme Heat in the Southeastern United States

Emily was a dual degree student in MCRP and the Gillings School of Global Public Health (Health Behavior). Her project on extreme heat began with collecting data via a survey of public health practitioners for her summer practicum for the public health degree requirements, working with the Carolinas Integrated Sciences Assessment. While she retained the same research question, the outcomes of her project evolved from the proposal stage. She took time to narrow down her project in the methods and analysis to devote more time to a simplified but more developed final result.

Recommendations for Students Working on Master’s Project/Thesis

  • Get familiar with the IRB process! Most of the panelists emphasized their struggles with the lengthy process. Many students’ first interaction with the IRB process is after they have chosen research methods that require human subjects. After finalizing a set of methods, trying to start the IRB process as early as possible can be useful.
  • Reach out to people! All four panelists sent cold-call emails to planners, experts, organizations, and others. Even if they did not receive emails back, they found other connections by attending related events to build relationships with experts in the field. Moreover, starting by communicating with your advisor frequently can be helpful.
  • “What do you want to achieve in the future?” (from Emily) Master’s projects can lead to students’ future jobs. In developing your project, you can foster networking and relationships, build your skill sets, and carve out your professional niche. 
  • “The idea does not have to be earth-shattering to be meaningful or beneficial to the field.” (from Emily) The project idea can be simple, and doing it well is a good strategy.
  • “Create your support group!” (from Lauren) Even after PLAN 590, meet with people familiar with your work one-on-one and in groups. 
  • “Take a deep breath and eat an elephant one bite at a time!” (from Graham) A MP can seem like a major project that will take forever. Creating small goals and achieving them day by day is crucial. 
  • “Don’t worry too much! Take time and write one sentence. Write a question with a question.” (from Lance) Projects can change over time, but continuing to narrow or reframe your research question is helpful. 
Source: Pure BookKeeping

Resources for a Master’s Project

Jo (Joungwon) Kwon is a fourth-year Ph.D. student in the Department of City and Regional Planning. She is interested in using visualizations in plans, specifically in environmental planning. She has been a part of CPJ since 2019. With a background in Statistics and English Literature, she received her M.A. in Computational Media at Duke University. In her free time, she enjoys watching indie films, going to live performances, and drinking good coffee.

Edited by Candela Cerpa

Featured image: Master’s Student Panel on Zoom

Happy New Year from the Carolina Planning Journal!

January 3, 2023 / / 1 Comment

2022 was a special year for the Carolina Planning Journal! We published Volume 47 of our print journal on Planning for Healthy Cities. In the Fall of 2022, we had new writers and editors, including Ian Baltutis, Candela Cerpa, Abby Cover, Kathyrn Cunningham, Ryan Ford, Henry Read, Nik Reasor, Nicholas Stover, Isabel Soberal, Asher Eskind, and Chris Samoray, and our new faculty advisor Dr. Allie Thomas. We also had returning writers and editors Emma Vinella-Brusher, James Hamilton, Walker Harrison, Cameron Mcbroom-Fitterer, Amy Patronella, and Rene Marker-Katz. Angles had a busy semester with 32 posts and 16,797 views.

Summer & Fall 2022 Posts:

  1. Introducing Our New Editors for 2022
  2. Archive from 2021: A Queer People’s Atlas of Bull City: Exploring the History and Movement of Queer Bars in Durham, North Carolina (Part 1)
  3. 36 hours: Mérida, Yucatán
  4. 36 hours: Durham, North Carolina
  5. Volume 48 Call for Papers
  6. Machine Learning and Planning Research
  7. 36 hours: Madrid, Spain
  8. Archive from 2018: Undergrads analyze UNC spaces
  9. 36 hours: Lagos, Nigeria
  10. A Queer People’s Atlas of Bull City: Exploring the History and Movement of Queer Bars in Durham, North Carolina (Part 2)
  11. UNC’s Community Workshop Series (CWS)
  12. 36 hours: Dublin, Ireland
  13. Demilitarization or Militourism: “Act on Reconstruction of Cities that Formerly Served as Naval Ports” in Japan
  14. What are the Urbanists Listening to?
  15. Planner’s Playlist
  16. 36 hours: Cartegena, Columbia
  17. Southeast & Caribbean Disaster Resilience Partnership
  18. 2022 North Carolina APA Conference in Winston-Salem
  19. Reflections of the Center for Urban & Regional Studies (CURS) Roundtable on Governance and Smart Cities
  20. Boom Supersonic, North Carolina, and the Risks we Choose to Take 
  21. Subscriptions for CPJ Volume 47 on Planning for Healthy Cities
  22. 36 Hours: Reykjavik, Iceland
  23. Archive from 2017: How Hey Arnold inspired suburban millennials to dream about the city
  24. 36 Hours: Dallas, Texas
  25. Cheonggyecheon: A Revolution of Environment, Rule, and Interaction within Seoul  
  26. Drawing Lines is Hard and We Need to Be More Decisive About It
  27. Mitch Silver’s Real Talk on “Planning with Purpose”
  28. Comparing the Public and Private Decision-Making Process for the People’s Park Housing Project in Berkeley, CA
  29. Announcing the Carolina Angles Winter Photo Contest
  30. Women Are Needed in Spaces Where Decisions Are Being Made
  31. 36 Hours: Toulouse, France
  32. Archive from 2018: What XKCD Can Teach You About Planning

Please follow us on LinkedIn and Facebook and wait for the new volume on Urban Analytics: Capabilities and Critiques in May 2023.

Thank you so much for a great year to everyone who read, wrote, and edited the volume and blog. Here’s to another great year!

Your 2022-23 Editors:

LANCE GLOSS | Editor-in-Chief & JO KWON | Managing Editor

Lance is a second-generation urban planner with a passion for economic development strategies that center natural resource conservation and community uplift. He served as Managing Editor of the Urban Journal at Brown University, Section Editor at the College Hill Independent, and Senior Planner for the City of Grand Junction. Hailing from sunny Colorado, he earned his BA in Urban Studies at Brown and will earn his Master’s in City and Regional Planning in 2023. Outside of work, he can be found on his bicycle, in the woods, or on the rugby pitch. Jo (Joungwon) is a fourth-year Ph.D. student in City and Regional Planning with an interest in using visuals in environmental planning. She has been a part of CPJ since 2019. With a background in Statistics and English Literature, she received her M.A. in Computational Media at Duke University. In her free time, she enjoys indie films, live performances, climbing, and drinking coffee.

2022 North Carolina APA Conference in Winston-Salem

September 27, 2022 /

By Lance Gloss

Attendees at the 2022 APA-NC Conference were relieved to return to an in-person format after two years of virtual events during the height of the COVID-19 Pandemic. Planners from cities and firms throughout the state gathered in Winston-Salem from September 13th to 16th. They shared updates from their work, shared laughs, and considered the evolving practice of planning in North Carolina.


Architect and urban designer Dan Parolek delivered a compelling keynote presentation featuring recent work by his firm, Opticos. He shared stories of major development code revisions and innovative master plans throughout the country. Much of this work focuses on form-based codes and the diversification of housing typologies.


Parolek’s presentation reflected the teachings in his seminal book, Missing Middle Housing: Thinking Big and Building Small to Respond to Today’s Housing Crisis, named a Top Urban Planning Book of 2020 by Planetizen. Parolek shared slides from the recent Prairie Queen plan for New Urbanist bungalows outside Omaha, NE, and noted that demonstrated demand for walkable neighborhoods had made a case for missing middle housing increasingly self-explanatory.


Amidst sessions on natural hazards, traffic calming, and the overhaul of Charlotte’s Unified Development Ordinance, students and alumni from the UNC Department of City and Regional Planning made several appearances. Awards for recent successes were made to John Anagnost (MCRP ’16) of Raleigh and Ben Berolzheimer (MCRP ’20) of Carrboro, while Lauren Prunkl (MCRP ’22) received the Outstanding Student of the year award. Recent alum Julia Maron (MCRP ’22) presented on Natural Hazard Resilience at a Regional Scale with Julia Maron with her colleagues from Kleinfelder.


The Carolina Planning Journal also made its mark on the proceedings. Former Angles Editor Emma Vinella-Brusher moderated a discussion between CPJ podcast host Michael English and CPJ Editor-in-Chief, Lance Gloss. The discussion covered the intersection of equity and media in planning, from the rise of TikTok as a news source to the potential of social media and print media to advance social justice. Fifty engaged attendees asked questions about building accurate knowledge in an era of unclear bias and rampant misinformation.

Emma Vinella-Brusher, Lance Gloss, and Michael English

Overall, the conference was rousing, thanks to the leadership of the APA-NC steering committee and a particularly heavy lift by Tiffany White at the City of Winston-Salem. Planners returned to their home communities across the state more energized, reconnected, and better informed.

If you’d like to learn more about APA North Carolina, check out our website.

Lance is a second-generation urban planner with a passion for economic development strategies that center natural resource conservation and community uplift. He served as Managing Editor of the Urban Journal at Brown University, Section Editor at the College Hill Independent, and Senior Planner for the City of Grand Junction. Hailing from sunny Colorado, he earned his BA in Urban Studies at Brown and will earn his Master in City and Regional Planning at UNC-Chapel Hill in 2023. Outside of work, he can be found on his bicycle, in the woods, or on the rugby pitch.

Edited by Jo Kwon

Featured Image by UNC DCRP

Master’s Project Abstracts: COVID-19 Case Studies

October 28, 2021 /

The research conducted by the Department of City and Regional Planning reflects the planning challenges of the moment, and this relevance is no better represented than through the graduated class of 2021’s Master’s Projects focused on COVID-19. Below are abstracts and corresponding links from selected Master’s Projects that span issues of transportation and housing in response to the global pandemic.

For a complete list of DCRP Master’s Projects see here, and for more information on the Master’s Project process, here.

Active Transportation Policy Decisions in Response to COVID-19: Case Studies from Four North America Cities

Emma Stockton

This Master’s Project explores the planning processes, implementation, and public reactions to new active transportation infrastructure built in response to the COVID-19 pandemic in four North American cities (Washington, DC, Chapel Hill, NC, Oakland, CA, Halifax, Nova Scotia). The implementation of active transportation infrastructure moved abnormally quickly to respond to an increased demand for walking and biking in local areas due to COVID-19 lockdowns, restriction of travel and closure of many businesses. Interviews were conducted with transportation planners working for each of the four cities to gain insight into each city’s experience, lessons learned, and predictions for the future of active transportation infrastructure. The case studies particularly focus on two topics: the community engagement process with residents while physical distancing measures were in place, as well as equity considerations and perceptions of new active transportation programs. It is crucial to understand how these decisions were made as well as the implications of these decisions to guide future active transportation planning, implementation, and evaluation.

Housing Policy for Eviction Prevention during COVID-19

Lauren Turner

The COVID-19 pandemic has increased housing instability and put millions of renters at risk of displacement since stay-at-home orders began in the US in March 2020. Federal, state, and local actors rushed to expand and adapt existing housing policies, and create new ones, to prevent the additional public health disaster of millions of Americans being evicted. This paper examines two housing policy measures – eviction moratoria and emergency rental assistance (ERA) – taken to prevent evictions during COVID-19, exploring these policies at the federal, state, and local level. The paper uses the state of North Carolina, specifically Orange County, as a case study, examining Orange County’s Emergency Housing Assistance (EHA) fund. Finally, this paper examines how the COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the weaknesses of US affordable housing policy, and explores potential policy proposals for the future of housing in the US.

How Has COVID-19 Affected Telework Attitudes and Behaviors?

Christian Snelgrove

Any change is difficult, but massive disruptions such as COVID-19 often make people see their daily habits in a new light. Transportation systems and habits have been acutely affected by the pandemic, and one significant way this disruption has manifested is in a large shift from traditional commuting to telework. The question is how long these changes will last, if at all. Using a cross-sectional attitudinal survey, my paper examines how COVID-19 has affected telework attitudes and behaviors. I asked respondents to report their pre-COVID-19 and current telework attitudes and behavior, as well as different socioeconomic and attitudinal indicators to further stratify the data. My data indicate a sizeable shift in workers’ desired commuting behavior. My respondents largely had positive experiences with telework, resulting in them wanting to telework most of the time moving forward. Commute-mode preferences shifted as well, with many respondents who previously preferred to drive alone now wishing to primarily telework. These results suggest a significant change in commuting attitudes that should be harnessed. Many employers have made large investments in telework technology and training due to the pandemic. This serves as an opportunity to offer workers more choice, creating a working environment better attuned to their needs.

Lane Reallocations during COVID: A Comparison of Interventions and Decision-Making Process

Joshua Mayo

This paper aims to look at the political factors around lane reallocations on commercial and mixed-use streets in the United States during the COVID pandemic. Using multiple case studies, this project will examine the political factors around the decision-making process, implementation, and discussions about the future of these interventions. Case study analysis will be conducted by examining the messaging in public meetings and associated materials, and supplemented by the author’s experience as staff at one of the case studies. This paper is targeted at people interested in the impacts of the COVID pandemic on support for active travel, and aims to set up future research on how these interventions fare after the pandemic.

Post-Pandemic Utilization of Office to Residential Adaptive Reuse Strategies in Cities

Shane Sweeney

American cities are facing an epidemic. Affordable housing is nearly impossible to find in desirable cities. This shortage has cost-burdened almost half of American families who spend 30% or more of their gross income on housing. The COVID-19 pandemic has also exacerbated previously grim outlooks for the office market. Cities nationwide are experiencing historic highs in office vacancy rates and catastrophic deficits in net absorption. Adaptive reuse is an innovative, sustainable, and viable solution to this two-pronged problem. It is the process of taking an older or underutilized structure and repurposing that structure for a new or different use. In this present situation, city officials have the ability to work with owners of underutilized office buildings to assist in repurposing these structures into residential units through a number of tools such as tax credits, grants, expedited permitting, trusts, affordable housing incentives, and much more. Adaptive reuse is a multi-dimensional solution to an emerging problem which encapsulates the real-estate market, city dynamics, zoning, housing stock and prices, homelessness, and long-term sustainability of cities. This paper serves as a guide to planners, students, and citizens to elaborately define the problems at hand, explore a successful case study, provide a repeatable and thorough analysis, present feasible tools and policies to enact change, and discuss the challenges of doing so. With this research, planners in large urban areas can assess the need and usefulness of adaptive reuse to help curb the constantly changing problems cities face and the effects of COVID-19 in their communities.

By James Hamilton

Featured image courtesy of Carolina Angles

Reflecting on a Summer of Planning

September 30, 2021 /

This summer, Carolina Planning Master’s students participated in a range of in-person and remote opportunities across the country. This week, we are sharing highlights and reflections from eight students.

Sam Stites – MCRP 2022, Economic Development
Labor Organizing Fellow, NC Raise UP/Fight for $15 (Brevard, NC)

Labor rights are central to promoting the sustainability, health, and well-being of our communities and the broader economy, yet are often overlooked in economic development by actors who hold power. This is perhaps most true in North Carolina, recently designated as the worst state for worker protections, wages, and the right to organize unions using metrics gathered by Oxfam. In seeking to learn more about the challenges faced by labor at large and locally, I was grateful to join NC Raise Up as a Fellow in their 2021 Organizing Academy based in Western North Carolina. The North Carolina arm of the national ‘Fight for $15,’ NC Raise Up provided fellows with the training and education to organize fast food and grocery store workers through direct engagement. Through this work, I spoke with dozens of workers for whom wage theft, harassment, and unsafe work conditions are the rule, not the exception. I also had the opportunity to work with dozens of seasoned labor organizers and organizations, who inspired me to wear movement work on my front sleeve. Ultimately, we documented unfair labor practices, mobilized entire workplaces, delivered strike notices, and cultivated solidarity. I left proud, focused, and equipped to address labor in school and beyond.

Henry Read – MCRP 2022, Land Use & Environmental Planning
Planning Intern, Piedmont Triad Regional Council (Kernersville, NC)

My time at the Piedmont Triad Regional Council gave me the opportunity to experience a wide range of planning work. Nearly every week provided a new challenge, from rewriting small towns’ zoning codes to comply with new state standards to mapping the amenities available at regional blueways’ access points, to assembling an ADA inspection best practices guide and kit bag for PTRC to use after I returned to school. The team at PTRC was very gracious in providing support and advice, but also gave me free rein to pick my assignments and tackle them as I saw fit. I even got to speak to town councils and at public events as an official representative of the Council of Government, which was an intimidating and gratifying privilege. It feels great to know I made a lasting contribution to many Peidmont communities through my efforts. And I am definitely going to get a lot of use out of the new Legacy Trails blueway map!

Lauren Prunkl – MCRP 2022, Transportation
Transportation Planning Intern, Kittelson & Associates (Virtual)

During my summer internship at Kittelson & Associates, I enjoyed jumping in on several different projects. One that has stood out was a corridor study in and around Tampa, FL. Last semester, I completed a semester-long corridor study project with a classmate for school regarding a road connecting Durham and Chapel Hill, NC. It was great to be involved throughout the summer with the Tampa project and see how these types of projects take shape in practice. I didn’t expect to learn so much about the Florida Department of Transportation’s (DOT) policies and processes for implementation such as Context Classification and Complete Streets. I had the opportunity to assist with the Context Classification process for the existing conditions phase of the corridor study project as well as see how Complete Streets can be implemented through the Resurfacing, Restoration, and Rehabilitation (RRR) process for example. I learned a ton about transportation consulting which gave me new perspectives regarding the relationship between consultants and DOTs since I had previously interned in the local non-profit and government spaces which operate quite differently.

Pierce Holloway – MCRP 2022, Land Use & Environmental Planning
Team Lead, NASA Develop (Virtual)

This past summer, I had the awesome opportunity to serve as a Team Lead for a group of 4 analysts investigating Urban Heat Island (UHI) impacts in Fairfax County, Virginia. My position had me responsible for delegating tasks within the team as well as running communication between partners, analysts, and science advisors. We used remote sensing data to compute land surface temperature, albedo, canopy cover, and land use which was fed into the INVEST Urban cooling model to determine heat mitigation index values for the entire county. We also investigated socio-demographic data for local populations to determine where vulnerable populations are located in relation to areas experiencing the worst UHI impacts.

Josephine Justin – MCRP 2023, Land Use & Environmental Planning
Fellow, Climate Action Corps/City of Los Angeles (Los Angeles, CA)

I spent this summer in Los Angeles as a California Climate Corps Fellow working with the City of LA’s new Climate Emergency Mobilization Office (CEMO). As a fellow, I worked with the director of the office to ensure that City climate policies are built on equity and justice and avoid unintended consequences. Additionally, we worked to facilitate the voices of the Community Assemblies and the Climate Emergency Commission and to innovate governance strategies to ensure communities and equitable solutions are at the heart of the City’s climate strategy. Finally, we coordinated and collaborated with City leaders to achieve the goals of LA’s Green New Deal.

Katie Burket – MCRP 2022, Housing & Community Development
Planning Intern, Charlotte Planning, Design & Development (Virtual)

This summer I started an internship with Charlotte Planning, Design, & Development and will continue to work with them throughout the academic year. I am working with the Unified Development Ordinance (UDO) team, and they are just about to release a draft of their new UDO for public comment so the department has been busy and moving quickly. Many of my tasks so far have been with the community engagement team trying to think through the planning of community events to communicate about the UDO. It has been a great experience so far and I’ve learned a lot about the processes involved in local government planning. I believe this internship is offered every year, and I would highly recommend it to any planning students looking to get some general planning experience!

Emma Vinella-Brusher – MCRP/MPH 2023, Transportation/Health Behavior
Low Income Fare Pilot Intern, District Department of Transportation/The Lab @ DC (Virtual)

As part of the District Department of Transportation (DDOT) internship program, I was placed with The Lab @ DC, a data science/social science/civic design team within the Mayor’s Office. I was the only staff member working full-time on the city’s Low-Income Fare Pilot Program, so my job was to get the study ready for an early 2022 kickoff. This included making recommendations regarding gathering community input, establishing data-sharing agreements and MOUs, enrolling residents receiving government assistance, and collecting participant mobility data. The results of the study will help WMATA understand the impact of low- or no-fare transit on the health and well-being of low-income DC residents. It was a very busy but enriching summer, and I thoroughly appreciated getting exposure to two different DC government agencies. I recommend this internship program for anyone interested in transportation planning and/or local government!

Florence Dwyer – MCRP 2021, Transportation
Intern, District Department of Transportation (Virtual)

Over the summer, I worked virtually with DDOT (District Department of Transportation) on various freight-related projects in the District. My main project was to create a policy and operational framework that is data-driven and equitable to determine where automated enforcement cameras for truck restrictions could best be deployed. I researched best practices from other jurisdictions to inform this project. Another task I am currently working on is researching e-cargo bike pilot programs.

By Amy Patronella

Featured image courtesy of Pexels

Master’s Project Abstracts: North Carolina Case Studies

September 22, 2021 /

Several Master’s Projects from the graduated class of 2021 underscored the impact the Department of City and Regional Planning can have in addressing equity, resilience, and accessibility across the North Carolinian planning landscape. A selection of abstracts and accompanying links to the full report are listed below.

For a complete list of DCRP Master’s Projects see here, and for more information on the Master’s Project process, here.

“The Answer Really Lies in the Community”: Exploring Inequity in Resilience Planning through Community Voice – A Study of Post-Florence New Bern, North Carolina

By Ranger Ruffins

The most recent National Climate Assessment states that low-income and marginalized groups with “lower capacity to prepare for and cope with extreme weather and climate-related events” will continue to be most affected, and that “adaptation actions for the most vulnerable populations” should be prioritized. However, while equity is receiving more attention in planning discourse, the uneven impacts of hazards on socially vulnerable populations are often ignored by traditional planning efforts. In 2018 Hurricane Florence devastated New Bern, NC, and in its aftermath revealed communities that were disproportionately at risk from the impacts of the hurricane. Through interviews with New Bern residents, this study aims to provide valuable insight regarding challenges and barriers facing equitable resilience planning in New Bern. The participants’ stories, experiences, and insight speak to some of the factors contributing to uneven resilience across the city. This study found that the avoidance and lack of confronting racism in New Bern, coupled with issues of mistrust and poor community engagement practices, are contributing to patterns of inequitable resilience in New Bern. This paper aims to provide a further understanding of these complex challenges and offer insight that can inspire approaches to resilience planning that best serve all of New Bern’s residents.

Bicycle Parking in Chapel Hill, North Carolina: Where It’s at and Where It’s Going

By Eli Powell

Chapel Hill, North Carolina, is a bustling college town with a great number of bicyclists, yet bicycle parking is a largely neglected topic by both its Code of Ordinances and its transportation planning staff. This project seeks to change that. Over six months in 2020, I collected a fieldwork inventory of almost all bicycle parking and maintenance resources within Town limits. I published this inventory as a public-facing interactive map and used it internally to perform a site-level analysis of adherence to the Town’s bicycle parking capacity requirements and design guidelines. I then evaluated the results of this analysis and consulted bicycle parking requirements in five United States municipalities similar to Chapel Hill to formulate recommendations to Town planning staff on improving their own codified bicycle parking requirements. My findings suggest that at least half of all sites in Chapel Hill have been violating bicycle parking capacity requirements and that almost all of them have been violating design guidelines, with the most common offense being an unsatisfactory amount of long-term parking. With my assistance, the Town of Chapel Hill Planning Department will use this dataset to amend bicycle parking capacity requirements and design guidelines in the Town’s Land Use Management Ordinance. The dataset will also be useful to all Chapel Hill bicyclists for more reliably locating bicycle parking at their destinations, making the Town of Chapel Hill a more bicycle-friendly place to live, work, and visit.

Dorothea Dix Park Access Study

Lucy Laird

This project proposes improvements to the Raleigh transit network and to Dorothea Dix Park’s edges that will allow for greater accessibility to neighborhoods both proximate and farther from the park, with an eye toward environmental justice concerns.

Historic Preservation and the Plan Integration for Resilience Scorecard: Case Study in New Bern, NC.

Rachael Wolff

Climate change will lead to more frequent and powerful natural hazards that can threaten historic resources and the benefits they provide to communities. Integration of different planning efforts offers one strategy towards better understanding gaps between land use policies that support or hinder resilience of historic resources. While prior research has explored both disaster planning for historic preservation and the resilience of a community’s network of plans, these two topics have not yet been combined. This study builds upon previous applications of the Plan Integration for Resilience Scorecard and applies it to historic properties at risk from flooding in New Bern, North Carolina. Using the 100-year floodplain and Hurricane Florence flood extent as the hazard zones and a sample of historic resources designated on the National Register as the planning districts, this research analyzes whether land use policies in New Bern’s network of plans increase or decrease resilience of historic properties. Findings suggest that New Bern’s historic resources are vulnerable to flood hazards since contradictory plans do not support their resilience. However, the deep, local ties of historic preservation planning provide an opportunity to enhance resilience and protect future resources.

Making the Case for Planning Analysts: A Study for North Carolina Localities

Hallee Haygood

This project considers whether an analyst within city and county departments would be beneficial to its growth and success. An individual in this role could address roles of budget preparation, strategic planning, special projects, and more. A variety of departments currently have this type of position, and this paper outlines the recommendations for this position. In addition, it clarifies that based on qualitative interviews, it may not be necessary for all planning departments. Typically, those with over 250,000 people benefit the most from these positions. Municipalities like Raleigh, Durham, and Wake County were the most interested in this opportunity. As such, I recommend that localities consider adding these positions, and their benefits can be further studied.

Walking and Biking while Black: Wake County, NC

Luke Lowry

For Black Americans, the risk of being a victim of traffic violence while walking or biking is higher than it is for the general public. However, for local and regional governments, racial crash disparities are not well documented, and existing methods for addressing racial crash disparities are not widespread. Consequently, the purpose of this report is to provide an example of racial crash disparities at the regional level, and to test the effectiveness of an existing method used to address racial differences in crashes. Wake County, NC was selected as the analysis region for two reasons: the robust pedestrian and bicycle crash data publicly available, and the lack of existing analysis on pedestrian and bicyclist crashes by race. The ‘High Priority Network’ method for addressing racial disparities is the most popular existing model, and it can be easily modified for different regions. The Portland Vision Zero ‘High Priority Network’ model is a prominent version of this model; thus, it was applied and tested in Wake County. Its three main components—Communities of Concern, High Crash Roads, and High Crash Intersections—were analyzed individually. The analysis revealed that the overall rates of crashes were considerably higher for Black pedestrians and bicyclists, as were the median crash rates by Census Tract. Additionally, Black pedestrians and bicyclist crash victims had consistently less access to infrastructure at the location of the crash. When applied to Wake County, the Portland model for High Priority Networks was fairly competent at locating areas within Wake County with high numbers of Black crashes and a high rate of Black crashes. By modifying the network to focus on racial metrics, the model was more effective at addressing areas of high racial disparity. While some of the racial metrics were less effective at addressing all crashes within the system, a model which combines the standard metrics used by Portland and racial-specific metrics may result in better equity outcomes while not sacrificing the overall efficacy of the model.

By James Hamilton

Featured image courtesy of Carolina Angles

From the Archives: Advice from the Class of 2017

August 27, 2021 /

Back in 2016, the UNC City and Regional Planning’s Class of 2017 answered some of the incoming class’s deepest darkest questions as they began their first year of graduate school. As the Class of 2023 wraps up week 1 of the program, we revisit this great advice, still just as relevant a full five years later.

By Rachel Wexler, Daniel Bullock, and Chris Bendix, MCRP ’17

2018: What advice do you have for students who are transitioning from working full-time to being a student full-time, in terms of getting back into an academic mindset?

2017: Depending on your priorities, you might not need to change your mindset too much. If you’re organized and efficient you can treat school like a 9 to 5. Generally though, you will likely not have a full day of rest and relaxation until summer time. So hold onto your hat. Also, it’s pass-fail and there will be times when you will need to do less than you’d ideally like to for the sake of your schedule and your own sanity.

2018: How much group-work is required, and do you have any tips for working in groups?

2017: A large amount of projects are done as groups but once tasks are delegated work is largely independent. Assign project components based on the skills each member has and the skills they want to gain. Have internal deadlines.

2018: How early should first-years start thinking about summer internships?

2017: It should always be in the back of your mind but second semester is the time to actively seek internships. With that being said, if you know you want to stay in the area and start working before summer starts, go ahead and start looking now. With that being said, internships can and may come together at the last minute and still work out really well.

2018: Do you recommend that first-years take the introductory courses for all of the DCRP specializations to get a sense of options, or is that unnecessary?

2017: No. Don’t do this. Maybe take two courses in different specializations if you’re trying to decide but really, there isn’t enough time. If you are unsure about what specialization you’re aiming for try to take courses that count towards multiple specializations. This is not hard to do if you’re wavering between ED and Housing.

2018: Any advice for balancing schoolwork and extracurricular activities like TA-ships?

2017: Be prepared to turn in work that you know you could have done better on. There is not enough time to do everything to the best of your ability. Focus on the things you want to get out of the program and forget about perfectionism.

2018: What’s your favorite bar and/or coffee shop in Carrboro/Chapel Hill?

2017:
Grey Squirrel – hip
Open Eye – study spot
Johnny’s (now called Present Day on Main) – local community vibe
Honeysuckle Tea House – if you like tea and farms this is the place
OCSC -seems to be the grad student go-to
Beer Study – for beer geeks
Zog’s – divey (now closed)
Lantern – for the fancy occasion
Steel String – nice patio and people-watching

2018: Any advice for cultivating relationships with professors in your first year?

2017: You probably heard this in undergrad but the same goes for grad school– go to office hours, ask questions, be engaged in class. They’re generally really accessible and genuinely care about helping their students but they’re not going to come to you. Try not to be too intimidated by them. They understand how ridiculously complex planning things tend to be so it’s ok if you show up and ask really basic questions. Also, use your TAs, especially if they’re DCRP PhD candidates. They’re crazy knowledgeable.  

Rachel Wexler specialized in Economic Development at DCRP, and is now a German Chancellor Fellow at ZK/U – Zentrum für Kunst und Urbanistik in Berlin, Germany.

Daniel Bullock was in the Housing and Community Development and Real Estate specialization, and now works as the Housing and Facilities Development Manager at CASA of Oregon in Sherwood, Oregon.

Chris Bendix studied both Housing and Community Development and Transportation, and is a Project Developer at Mercy Housing in Seattle, Washington.

Featured image courtesy of Alison Salomon

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Carolina Planning, the oldest student-run planning publication in the country, is produced once a year in UNC's Department of City and Regional Planning. Articles selected for the journal are written by academics and practitioners, covering a wide range of topics relevant to today’s planning challenges.

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