UPDATE (9/10/18): This event will offer two (2) AICP CM Credits to professional planners seeking to fulfil AICP continuing education requirements.

Join the City of Pittsburgh Department of City Planning for light dinner and a panel discussion as we seek to identify new and improved forms of public engagement to meet our goals of equity, diversity and involvement throughout the Comprehensive Planning process.

The panel will feature presentations from experts from around the country, and will be followed by a question & answer session.

The Pittsburgh Department of City Planning Presents…

Public Engagement and the Comprehensive Plan

Pittsburgh is planning for its future on many fronts, with a range of approaches to ensure that the people who live, work, and learn here are engaged in shaping the future of the City. A key component of this work is public engagement, but how do we best do it?

A Comprehensive Plan provides the opportunity to set a long term, implementable framework for shaping the future of Pittsburgh. At this panel, experts from across the country and from Pittsburgh will discuss lessons learned and opportunities for incorporating meaningful and equitable public engagement in the Comprehensive Planning process.

Panelists include:

Patrice Carroll is a Strategic Advisor for the City of Seattle, Office of Planning and Community Development. Patrice was the Project Manager for Seattle 2035, the update of the City’s Comprehensive Plan, and is currently working with several communities to update design guidelines and develop a community plan for an area surrounding an infill light rail station. Before coming to Seattle, Patrice worked as a planner in public, private, and nonprofit sectors in Philadelphia, Calgary and Sydney. In Philadelphia, Patrice led a series of complex multi-sector partnerships for federal, state, and city government including USDA’s Urban Resources Partnership, a $2.4 million federal investment in Philadelphia to restore urban environments and TreeVitalize, an $8 million multi-partner investment to restore tree cover in the 5-county Philadelphia region. Patrice holds a Master of City Planning degree, with a Certificate in Urban Design, from the University of Pennsylvania.

Matt Dugan worked on the staff team to create Imagine Austin, the city’s first comprehensive plan in 30 years, and is now working on implementing it. He takes a comprehensive approach to developing plans and codes by analyzing economic, social and infrastructure issues regarding the built and natural environments. He believes in utilizing a participatory planning process that helps stakeholders identify problems, articulate solutions and choose the best alternative to guide development in their communities. Matt has a masters degree in urban and regional planning from Virginia Commonwealth University and a bachelors degree in economics from the University of Texas at Austin, and is a member of the American Institute of Certified Planners. He lives in the suburbs with his wife and three kids.

James Rojas is an urban planner, community activist, and artist. He has developed an innovative public-engagement and community-visioning method that uses art-making as its medium. Through this method he has engaged thousands of people by facilitating over four hundred workshops and building over fifty interactive models around the world - from the streets of New York and San Francisco, to Mexico, Canada, Europe, and South America. He has collaborated with municipalities, non-profits, community groups, educational institutions, and museums, to engage, educate, and empower the public on transportation, housing, open space, and health issues. Rojas is also one of the few nationally recognized urban planners to examine U.S. Latino cultural influences on urban design and sustainability.

Gabriel Halili is an architect and urban planner with experience in design, community engagement, and advocacy. Before Hester Street, Gabo was a project manager at the Municipal Art Society of New York (MAS) working on urban planning, preservation, policy, and community education. He was also part of MAS’s Livable Neighborhoods Program that, in 2016, delivered workshops to five New York City neighborhoods outside Manhattan. These workshops trained communities on local urban planning and government processes, economic development, and cultural asset mapping. In 2015, Gabo received his master’s degree from Cornell University in City and Regional Planning. While there, his studies focused on community-based planning, civic technology, and Southeast Asian studies. A licensed architect in the Philippines, Gabo has extensive design experience in a variety of projects including residences, hotels, and high-rise towers. His professional degree in Architecture is from the University of Santo Tomas, Manila.

Julia Lindgren has extensive experience working in community engaged design and planning. As a trained architect, she believes that design can serve as a catalyst to enhance livability for all communities, particularly those with limited resources. Most recently, Julia worked as a Designer at Interface Studio Architects in Philadelphia where she designed and documented ground-up residential infill, mixed-use multi-family, and commercial interior projects with a focus on sustainability and community health. While at ISA, Julia led an outcomes-based design studio in partnership with public health practitioners and community developers that explored how various design decisions can be leveraged to optimize population-level health impacts. Before that, Julia was a Project Manager at bcWORKSHOP in Dallas and Brownsville, Texas where she developed and implemented initiatives at the neighborhood and regional scales to improve community equity through projects that included rapid recovery disaster housing, resident-informed participatory home design, and UTRGV inclusionary planning. She holds a Bachelors of Architecture degree from Lehigh University and a Masters of Architecture degree from the University of Washington.

The panel will be moderated by Ray Gastil, the Director of the City of Pittsburgh Department of City Planning.