Rodney C. Nanney, AICP, principal planner for Building Place, is an innovative provider of solutions to community planning, zoning, and local economic development challenges.  As a writer, public speaker, and community planning consultant, Mr. Nanney consistently strives to translate the tangled legalisms and technical jargon of zoning and land development into everyday language.

Mr. Nanney currently has several openings available to speak on these and related topics before your local business or community group.  Possible topics include:
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[re-posted from March 18, 2009 - worth another read!]

What makes your downtown an indispensable place?

This is the essential question that should drive local economic development planning and project implementation in downtown areas:

• Potential residents ask this question when looking for “just the right home.”
• Potential business owners ask this question when looking for the perfect location for their new retail store, service business, office, or research and development center.
• Potential visitors ask this question while deciding where to go on Friday night.

Years ago, “downtown” served as the indispensable community and commercial hub for surrounding agricultural areas – the place to be for all ages.

Many small town centers provided a market for farm products, a source of products and services for farmers, and railroad access to other markets.

“County seats” and the downtown areas of larger cities served as the central gathering place for the surrounding region, complete with government offices, schools, and a variety of entertainment venues and “watering holes.”

Today, technology, transportation improvements, and market changes have vastly increased the available choices for people to spend their time and money.  Residents now commute to work and shopping across the metropolitan region.  Business is conducted on the Internet, and most historic downtowns have been relegated to a niche market.

We know what once made downtown indispensable, but that old model will not work today.  What we need to know is…

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A key objective of community planning is the building of healthy, vibrant, and distinctive neighborhoods.

Proximity, association, and accessibility between home, work, and leisure activities are essential factors in building places with a strong sense of community.  In the book A Pattern Language, author Christopher Alexander advocates for a comprehensive change in the nature of zoning.  He envisions a work – home relationship where… (more…)

Here’s a big “Thank You!” from our Zoning Guru, Rodney Nanney, to Shelley Tucker and the Michigan Townships Association for hosting such a great series of “Summer Evening” planning/zoning workshops across the state!

All four sessions were well attended, and all four venues were top notch. It was a pleasure to have the opportunity to present our (more…)

Author’s Note:  This has been written with my deepest apologies to Martin Luther King for desecrating his 1963 March on Washington speech.  Also, this is a work of fiction, so any resemblance between the characters and any real individuals is coincidental.

Unfortunately, the art and creativity side of community planning tends to too often be lost under a sea of legalities, zoning administration, and other more mundane, day-to-day tasks.  This is especially evident in the area of planning literature, where the vast majority of articles deal primarily with the technical side of planning.

The author of the following piece, Rodney C. Nanney, AICP, is pleased to make better use of the right side of his brain by publishing another in our “planning fiction” series:

What you need to know: It’s 2027.  Automobiles have been gradually outlawed, except for emergency use, after an Islamist/neo-fascist terrorist group detonated a 100-megaton nuclear device in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia five years earlier.  The bomb caused a  series of chain reaction explosions and firestorms within the country’s oil producing infrastructure, culminating in an unanticipated but titanic detonation of the country’s underground reserves which obliterated most of the Arabian peninsula and destroyed or contaminated 90% of the world’s remaining oil reserves.

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2010 Michigan Townships Association Educational Conference Session

Thank you to everyone who attended our recent session on regulating small wind turbines at the recent Michigan Townships Association conference in Grand Rapids. Click here to view our PowerPoint presentation, and to download the handout materials. Click here to contact Mr. Nanney directly with any additional questions.

Author’s Note:  With students back at colleges and universities across the U.S., this seemed like a good time to repeat our free advice for new planning students:

In his book What Your Planning Professor Forgot to Tell You, Paul Zucker, FAICP offers practical advice for new professional planners. Reading it inspired me to reflect on the experiences that have helped me to be successful in this field, both before and after receiving my degree.

I’d like to offer some “words of wisdom” to new urban and regional planning students, which are based upon my experience and the collective wisdom of the many professional planners and others I’ve come into contact with since I started down this career path:

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