APA Responds to Disasters in the Gulf Coast Region
Below are some of the ways APA has been working hard to respond to the disaster in the Gulf Coast Region:

• APA is collaborating with Congressional offices on federal legislation related to Safe Growth, rebuilding initiatives, and a variety of issues such as housing, transportation and the environment. As part of this effort, APA will testify next Tuesday at a formal hearing of the U.S. House of Representatives Transportation and Infrastructure Subcommittee. This hearing is specifically focused on how to appropriately plan for redevelopment and recovery. Both Governor Blanco and Mayor Nagin are being asked to appear as well.
• APA is providing a six-person team to evaluate and make recommendations regarding the planning function in New Orleans at the request of local officials. We have been having conversations with ULI about coordinating with their effort. Fernando Costa is active in both APA and ULI, as are most accomplished big city planning directors. Currently, the plan is that our team will be in New Orleans for about a week and our team's visit will be ahead of the ULI Panel Advisory service visit. Our team's report will feed into the ULI effort; ULI is looking at how a Redevelopment Authority might be given broad powers to oversee the rebuilding effort. After the ULI visit, our team would go back to work with the Planning Commission and the City Council. Everyone is aware of the statutory responsibilities of both the Council and the Commission. We also are working closely with Tim Jackson, AICP, Chair of the New Orleans Planning Commission and former La. Chapter President.
• APA's Disaster Recovery Task Force has met twice by teleconference to coordinate the activities of all APA's components -- Chapters, Divisions, etc. -- in carrying out the broad initiatives defined by our leaders at the Fall Meetings in Buffalo. Those areas are listed below, followed by the names of the component groups that will pursue each one:
  
  1. Establish and be able to convey the planning principles that need to be embodied within disaster preparedness, mitigation and recovery planning. [Divisions Council]
  2. Focus our efforts on channeling volunteers, financial and other resources to assist in the recovery and advance our Development Plan objectives. [Chapter Presidents Council, Divisions Council, Student Representatives Council]
  3. Use Community Planning Teams to address a variety of planning, rebuilding, mitigation, and other needs. For instance, the sponsorship or adoption of a particular community's planning needs. [American Institute of Certified Planners, Divisions Council]
  4. Focus on building planning capacity to address immediate rebuilding needs, and assist other communities with disaster preparedness planning. [Chapter Presidents Council]
  5. Use existing APA opportunities, conferences and venues to focus on these issues. [All components]
  6. Articulate how our members can be involved on a personal basis and help build the capacity for planning. [American Institute of Certified Planners, Divisions Council]

What the Foundation will do to help:
We are soliciting gifts to the Planning Foundation of APA that will be used exclusively to support the planning efforts that will be undertaken by APA and our Chapters in Louisiana and Mississippi. Coordinating pro bono efforts of members will require financial support. Tax-deductible donations to the Planning Foundation should be noted as "Katrina relief." http://www.planning.org/foundation/default.htm

• The Foundation will support a new audio conference called Disaster Recovery, free for planners and others in the Gulf region that was held on Monday, Sept. 19, 2005 at 4 p.m. EDT. More than 250 people participated. The conference focused on emergency permitting, visioning the next steps, rebuilding local businesses, historic preservation and FEMA long-term recovery planning.
• The Foundation will support education and constituent building (long-term support-building) using schools as "centers of community," building a planning curriculum in Gulf Coast schools, special planning projects by community members and school kids, and establishing a potential link with the Gates Foundation.
• The Foundation will coordinate circuit-riding planners to assist small communities to bring the discussion to the residents in a variety of venues, utilizing volunteer planners, Fellows, etc.
• The Foundation will help planning firms and individuals rebuild their planning libraries, with our own publications and others.
• The Foundation is exploring an "Adopt a City" program, possibly in collaboration with ICMA, similar in structure to the concept of sister cities.

Other APA Activities:

• Pro-bono Planning Assistance Teams of APA's Professional Institute, AICP, will work with the impacted communities, on location, offering their assistance, expertise and knowledge. The volunteer experts will help community leaders address a variety of planning, rebuilding, hazard mitigation, and other needs.
• APA continues to update our Katrina section of the website with a collection of research materials and articles, opportunities for member involvement. www.planning.org/katrina The Planners Toolkit section of Planning for Post-Disaster Recovery and Reconstruction, PAS Report 483/484, the first all-hazards guidance manual for local planners developing plans for post-disaster recovery and reconstruction is available for free online. This manual includes a model ordinance and case studies of five different hazard scenarios - flood, earthquake, tornado, wildfire and hurricane. The report also offers planning tools for managing long-term community recovery after a natural disaster. We have reprinted this report and we and FEMA made copies available at the louisiana workshop.
• We have created a resume posting section for members and others who wish to provide pro bono services. Many of our members have experienced floods, wildfires, earthquakes and other disasters and can offer valuable assistance to their colleagues and communities in these states. http://www.planning.org/katrina/volunteering.htm
• AICP Training provided a Safe Growth workshop in Washington, D.C. in September. This workshop was originally planned as part of our "super topic" curriculum on Safe Growth, which has been a focus of APA for the past two years. This specific workshop curriculum was modified to focus more on disaster recovery and mitigation planning.
• APA is developing a special conference track and workshops for the National Planning Conference in San Antonio in April 2006, to educate our members about disaster mitigation and recovery.
• We are also continuing coordination of our efforts with other professional organizations and associations. As planners at the local level are making contacts with local Congressional leaders, our Policy staff in D.C. is making contacts as well.
• We have created a page listing offers of temporary employment for planners displaced by the hurricane. We know that many of our members have been directly affected and may need housing or jobs. http://www.planning.org/katrina/tempjobs.htm
• We offered a new audio conference called Disaster Recovery, free for planners and others in the Gulf region on Monday, Sept. 19, 2005 at 4 p.m. EDT. More than 250 people participated. The conference focused on emergency permitting, visioning the next steps, rebuilding local businesses, historic preservation and FEMA long-term recovery planning.
• At our Leadership Meeting in Buffalo in late September, our national leadership worked to devise an organizational strategic framework to effectively respond to the needs of our members and everyone in the affected areas. The Board of Directors adopted a statement outlining APA's response to recovery from Hurricane Katrina, including key planning principles to make the recovery most effective and equitable.
• APA will sponsor a meeting of design profession organizations, to discuss how to leverage each other's efforts.

Other APA Member Services:

• We have communicated with our members in private practice in southern Louisiana and Mississippi, and made them aware how to apply for recovery work through FEMA. Our concern is that planners from other parts of the country may end up doing much of this vital work. Out-of-state planners who come to help may lack the local knowledge and expertise needed to be effective in the work of rebuilding in a way that offers the greatest choices to residents, and that creates lasting value in these communities. We have offered to help our members at private planning firms in southern Louisiana and Mississippi find planning work through contracts with FEMA. Through short- and long-term contracts through FEMA, we hope to be able to help our members get involved in this work, in which the comprehensive perspective that planners offer will have a positive impact.
• APA has extended one year of free membership to current members in the impacted areas.
• We are offering an expanded number of scholarships to the 2006 National Planning Conference in San Antonio to members from the impacted areas.

APA Public Information and Communications:

• APA members have given extensive interviews with more than 50 publications including the Associated Press, The New York Times, Chicago Tribune, Boston Globe, Engineering News-Record and National Public Radio. Most recent coverage is available on the Katrina section of the website.
• APA was part of a podcast hosted by Engineering News-Record discussing Planning Visions, Post-Katrina.
• APA held a briefing session, open to media nationwide, to discuss next steps and considerations in the rebuilding process.