News

Florida APA announces Minority Scholarship

The Florida Chapter of the American Planning Association Minority Scholarship is meant to celebrate planning and foster increased interest in planning by providing financial support for planning students who are members of underserved ethnic groups and who attend a PAB-accredited planning institution or urban planning program actively seeking PAB accreditation in the state of Florida. Two scholarships are offered: one for $2000 and one for $1500. Learn more and apply here: 2017 Minority Scholarship Application Package

Director of SURP/PA & Coauthors Win “Best Paper” (again)

American Real Estate Society
Steven Bourassa, Director of the School of Urban and Regional Planning and the School of Public Administration, and his coauthors Martin Hoesli of the University of Geneva (Switzerland) and Elias Oikarinen and Janne Engblom of the University of Turku (Finland) have won the prize for the best paper in real estate market analysis presented at the American Real Estate Society (ARES) Annual Meeting held in San Diego in April 2017. The paper is titled “Revisiting the House Price-Income Relationship” and aims to resolve some longstanding issues about how personal income growth affects housing markets in metropolitan areas. The paper applies state-of-the-art statistical techniques to analysis of data for the 50 largest metropolitan areas in the U.S. For a second consecutive year, Bourassa and Hoesli have won a “Best Paper” prize at the ARES conference.

RSVP for SURP’s Fall Kick-off and Orientation

Join us Friday, Aug 25 at the Biergarten

Join us Friday, August 25 for the Fall Kick-Off and Orientation to be held Friday, August 25th from 7 to 9 pm at the Biergarten, 309 Via de Palmas #90, Boca Raton, FL 33432. All new and continuing SURP students, faculty, mentors, and supporters are invited to attend. This will be a great opportunity for students, faculty, and professional planners to interact.

New students will receive an orientation, can meet with continuing students, and also learn about professional planning and student planning organizations (Planning Society @ FAU).

In addition, the event will provide an opportunity for participants in the Mentorship Program to meet. Food and drinks will be provided. We hope to see you there!

Please RSVP so we can cater for the right number of attendees

Questions? Please contact us.

FAU Planning Abroad – London 2018

FAU Planning Abroad London 2018

During Spring Break 2018, Peter Henn will lead FAU Planning Abroad to London to study modern urban planning and design and transportation in a historical city. To secure a spot, students must sign up by December 2017. The School of Urban and Regional Planning is offering $500 scholarships to qualified students to help cover the cost of the trip. Get ready for some fun!

For more information contact Peter J. Henn, J.D., AICP, Florida Atlantic University’s School of Urban & Regional Planning, at PHenn@FAU.edu or telephone 561-558-3884.

2017 FAU Incubator for Sustainable & Resilient Communities

FAU Incubator

On April 25-26, 2017 CUES partnered with FAU’s Center for Environmental Studies (CES) to offer the inaugural FAU Incubator for Sustainable & Resilient Communities. The cities of Hollywood and West Palm Beach participated, addressing concerns about flooding and aging infrastructure, connectivity and economic development. The FAU Incubator offers leadership and expertise based on best practices and provides guidance on developing implementable plans and policies. Watch the 2-minute video here.

Earn a GIS Certificate with Your MURP Degree

Access to geospatial data has transformed Geographical Information Systems (GIS) technology into one of the most widely-used and comprehensive analytical tools for local governments and city planners. To respond to the growing demand for GIS professionals, the Department of Geosciences jointly with the School of Urban and Regional Planning has developed a 15-credit graduate GIS certificate program. Students can apply the credits earned as part of the certificate towards the Master of Urban and Regional Planning (MURP) degree. For more information please see the certificate program’s web page here.

SURP Associate Professor Eric Dumbaugh to Lead Road Safety Project

Eric Dumbaugh , Ph.D., AICP

FAU will receive $1.5 million in total for the next five years from the US Department of Transportation to co-direct the Collaborative Sciences Center for Road Safety, a National University Transportation Center housed at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. This is one of five national centers with the aim to reduce injuries and fatalities on the nation’s roads by providing a new model for understanding and addressing traffic safety issues.

“We are very excited to join forces with the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill and our partner universities to work collaboratively to address and improve road safety issues that impact millions of drivers throughout our country,” said Eric Dumbaugh, Ph.D., associate director of the Collaborative Sciences Center for Road Safety, and an associate professor in FAU’s School of Urban and Regional Planning within FAU’s College for Design and Social Inquiry.

Researchers from FAU’s College for Design and Social Inquiry will work with the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill; Duke University; the University of California, Berkeley; and the University of Tennessee, Knoxville on transportation research, planning, public health, data science and engineering programs related to the Collaborative Sciences Center for Road Safety.

“The establishment of these new designated centers will help to foster novel ideas that will lead and influence the future of transportation safety in the United States through multidisciplinary research, education, collaboration, and technology transfer activities,” said Daniel C. Flynn, Ph.D., FAU’s vice president for research.

Special Issue of Housing Policy Debate Edited by John Renne

The latest issue of the journal Housing Policy Debate is a special issue co-edited by SURP’s John Renne, Associate Professor and Director of the Center for Urban and Environmental Solutions in the School of Urban and Regional Planning. The issue includes 15 papers focused on how location choices and associated transportation costs affect housing affordability.

Bourassa and Hoesli Win Best Paper Prize

SURP Director Steven Bourassa and co-author Martin Hoesli of the University of Geneva have won the “Innovative Thinking Out of the Box” best paper prize for their paper, “High Frequency House Price Indexes with Scarce Data”, presented at the 2016 American Real Estate Society (ARES) Annual Meeting in Denver, Colorado. The paper presents a method for calculating house price indexes for small areas, such as city neighborhoods, on a monthly or quarterly basis. The paper is forthcoming in the Journal of Real Estate Literature, which is published by ARES. The prize is sponsored by the Homer Hoyt Institute.

Congratulations to Frank Schnidman on His Retirement

Frank Schnidman

Frank Schnidman, the FAU John M. DeGrove Eminent Scholar Chair in Growth Management and Development, is retiring. Frank began his involvement with FAU and Dr. DeGrove in the late 1970s when they organized seminars and conferences, and in the 1980s when they worked together on significant growth management and platted lands research and publications. In 1987 DeGrove recruited Schnidman to move to Florida and work at the Joint Center for Environmental and Urban Problems, now the Center for Urban and Environmental Solutions (CUES). He has been involved with the Joint Center and CUES, the Institute of Government, and the School of Urban and Regional Planning for most of the past 30 years.

“At 67, it is time to step back and refocus goals and objectives. I hope to work with my co-authors to prepare a comprehensive updated 4th edition of our two-volume 1,600 plus page treatise, Handling the Land Use Case, first published in 1984. I will continue to do consulting regarding redevelopment, and I will spend more time with family.”

SURP thanks Frank for his years of care and nurturing of our planning students and, hopefully, we can have him periodically return to guest lecture!

Bryan McConnell Brings IT Expertise to SURP

The School of Urban and Regional Planning is pleased to welcome Bryan McConnell, MBA, who has been appointed Faculty Research Associate and Computer Systems Analyst.  He has an MBA in International Business from Florida Atlantic University (FAU) and is finishing a second master’s degree in Information Technology and Operations Management.  Mr. McConnell joined FAU from the early childhood education industry where he worked in IT support and database management for hundreds of schools geographically dispersed across the US.  Prior to education, Mr. McConnell worked in the telecommunications industry with a focus on applications development and database creation.  He created and supported applications to enable the company’s primary task of laying fiber optic cables for corporate and residential customers.  Mr. McConnell is working to utilize technology to meet the educational needs of students while preparing for technological changes in Urban and Regional Planning.

SURP Welcomes Dr. Louis Merlin

The School of Urban and Regional Planning is pleased to welcome Louis A. Merlin, who is a new Assistant Professor starting with the Fall 2016 semester.  Dr. Merlin draws upon a strong background in Mathematics and Operations Research as well as experience as a professional urban planner in his teaching and research. Dr. Merlin is particularly interested in developing mathematical models that shed insight into pressing urban policy questions.

Dr. Merlin’s educational background includes a BA in Mathematics with Honors from Yale, and National Science Foundation funded graduate work towards Master’s Degrees in Operations Research and in City and Regional Planning from the Georgia Institute of Technology.  While at Georgia Tech, he was awarded both the Glatting Jackson Student Award and the American Institute of Certified Planners Outstanding Student Award.  After a haitus working in professional practice, Merlin earned a doctoral degree in City and Regional Planning from the University of North Carolina, with his research work funded by the prestigious Royster Society of Fellows.

Professionally, Dr. Merlin’s first full-time job was working in data-mining for the marketing department of a credit card company.  Later, after earning his Master’s of City and Regional Planning, he worked as an urban planning consultant for EDAW | AECOM, based out of their Atlanta office. His professional engagements focused on comprehensive planning, redevelopment planning, and corridor planning for local and regional governments throughout the southeastern US.  During this time he specialized in data analysis and modeling for EDAW | AECOM, including economic and fiscal impact assessments as well as land use forecasting.

Dr. Merlin’s current research concerns how to better integrate transportation and land use through the development of accessibility-based performance measures and tools, as well as the implications of self-driving cars for the transportation sustainability.

Dr. Merlin is a member of the American Institute of Certified Planners.

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