Planners are exactly the type of allies urban forests need. They think in terms of decades, frequently stay in their positions for long periods of time, and are motivated by health and environmental values. ReLeaf recognizes that nonprofits have time and money constraints, yet also believes local advocacy and working relationships with decision-makers like planners, landscape architects, public works and elected officials are critical for our collective success. Here you’ll find a collection of resources to help you collaborate with your local planners and advocate for trees together. Learn about planner perspectives and priorities with the articles, websites, videos and more listed below.
Planning Overview
An Urban Forest Advocate’s Guide to Planning
We compiled a toolkit of information and resources to introduce the world of planning and provide tips for engagement.
Survey Results
We surveyed city and county planners, urban design professionals, consultants, and urban forest nonprofits about their perspectives and experiences in regards to planning for trees. See the results here:
Planning 101
Some resources to learn an overview of planning:
- Book: Guide to California Planning by William Fulton and Paul Shigley
- Website: American Planning Association
- Article: The Evolution of Urban Planning in 10 Diagrams (CityLab)
- How Urban Design Perpetuates Racial Inequality–And What We Can Do About It (The Fast Company)
Key Planning Issues
Urban Heat Island Effect
Urban areas experience warmer temperatures due to increased infrastructure, people and waste heat, and decreased shade and evaporation. Some urban areas can be up to 22°F warmer at night than their rural neighbors. It’s these record-high nighttime lows that are most dangerous to human health.
- Website: Heat Islands (EPA)
- Website: Heat Island Group (Berkeley Lab)
- Website: Urban Planning to Mitigate Urban Heat Island Effect (Meeting of the Minds)
- Video: Why It’s Usually Hotter In A City (NPR)
- Article: Our cities are getting hotter—and it’s killing people (Curbed)
- Article: Nights Can Be More Deadly Than the Daytime During a Heat Wave (Weather.com)
- Article: Why 107-degree overnight temperatures should freak you out (Grist)
- Webcast Series: Urban Heat Island (EPA)
Complete Streets
Complete streets integrate people and place in the planning, and maintenance of transportation networks to ensure streets are safe for people of all ages and abilities and support local land uses, economies, cultures, and natural environments
- Website: National Complete Streets Coalition (Smarth Growth America)
- Book: Walkable City Rules: 101 Steps to Making Better Places by Jeff Speck
- PDF: The Benefits of Streetscale Features for Walking and Biking (APA)
- Webinar Series: Implementation & Equity 201: The Path Forward to Complete Streets (Smart Growth America)
- What Makes a Complete Street: A Brief Guide (TheCityFix)
- Video: Four Ways to make a city more walkable (Jeff Speck TEDTalk)
- Article: Build Equitable Communities with Complete Streets (NACCHO)
- Article: “In Defense of Street Trees” by Allan B. Jacobs (Places Journal)
- PDF: Complete Parks (Change Lab Solutions)
Stormwater Management
Urbanization has fundamentally changed how water moves through the environment. Impervious surfaces like streets, sidewalks, parking lots, and structures prevent rainwater from soaking into the ground.
- Website: Urban Street Stormwater Guide (National Association of City Transportation Officials)
- Webinar: More Than Good Looks: How trees influence urban stormwater management in green infrastructure practices (U.S. Forest Service)
- Article: Give me the numbers: stormwater runoff reduction function of trees (Forester Media)
- Website: Green Infrastructure (American Society of Landscape Architects)
- Article: Making Urban Trees Count (Center for Watershed Protection)
- Website: What is Green Infrastructure? (EPA)
General Plans
Every city and county must adopt “a comprehensive, long-term general plan” that guides land use planning decisions. Recent legislation has mandated that planners take into consideration climate change and environmental justice.
- PDF: General Plan Guidelines (Governor’s Office of Planning and Research (OPR))
- PDF: The Planner’s Guide to Specific Plans (OPR)
- Article: Types of Plans that Planners Use (QK)
- PDF: General Plans and Zoning Toolkit (Public Health Law & Policy)
- Website: SB 1000 Toolkit (California Environmental Justice Alliance)
- PDF: SB 1000 Draft Policies (OPR)
- PDF: Introducing SB 379 (ARCCA)
Human Health
Planners strive to create a built environment that supports health and healthy habits. Trees contribute to air and water quality as well as increased activity.
- Website: Planning for Public Health (APA)
- Blog: Plan4Health Success Story (APA)
- Article: How Urban Parks Enhance your Brain (CityLab)
- Article: 22 Reasons Trees in Cities Keep us Healthy and Save us Money (Blue Zones)
- Article: How Should We Pay for Street Trees? (City Lab)
- Website: Social Determinants of Health (HealthyPeople2020)
- PDF: How Cities can Harness the Public Health Benefits of Trees (The Nature Conservancy)
Other Areas of Interest
Planners address a varieties of issues with an array of perspectives across the world. Here are a few more resources related to planning for trees:
- PDF: Climate Ready Communities Guide (Geos Institute)
- PDF: 25 Great Ideas of New Urbanism (Congress for the New Urbanism)
- Video: What If Gentrification was about healing communities instead of displacing them? (TEDTalk)
- Article: Why Detroit Residents Pushed Back Against Tree-Planting (CityLab)
- Article: Shade- An Urban Design Mandate? (Places Journal)
- Article: Safe streets are the best tool we have to combat climate change (Curbed)
- Website: Green Surge (University of Copenhagen)
- Book: Sidewalks by Anastasia Loukaitou-Sideris
- PDF: The Road to Prop E by Dan Flanagan
Websites
Explore these websites for news and emerging ideas in the world of planning:
Podcasts
Listen to these podcasts to dive deep into the issues:
- How to Make a City. Check out the “How Landscape Design Makes a City” and “How to Plan a City” episodes.
- Placemakers: By Slate, different stories related to Urban Planning
- Strong Towns. This group has three series of podcasts, discussing all different aspects of cities and planning
- Talking Headways: Highlight different urban planning projects, largely transportation-related, but also relating to community, health, housing and more.
- Shout Engine: One episode features a conversation with walkability expert Jeff Speck
- People Behind the Plans: interviews from the American Planning Association