Three evolveEA Plans Win APA Awards
The Pennsylvania Planning Conference was held in Lancaster this week, where evolveEA team members and partners were honored at the PA Chapter of the American Planning Association annual awards ceremony. Three of our planning projects received awards:
- Allentown Vision 2030 Comprehensive & Economic Development Plan
- Riverlife Completing the Loop
- SPC Smart Moves Connections
Each of these plans have been celebrated in their locales as shared visions for a more equitable and sustainable future, highlighting quality of life issues such as mobility, economic opportunity, and environmental justice.
Allentown Vision 2030
The Allentown Vision 2030 Plan is a roadmap for Pennsylvania’s fastest growing city to provide infrastructure, programming, and resources for its diverse populations, linking People and Processes to key Places throughout the city. evolveEA partnered with Fourth Economy Consulting to lead the planning process, which included four bilingual public meetings in different neighborhoods of Allentown to introduce the project and involve the community in collective visioning.
Mayor of Allentown, Matt Tuerk, wrote about the Vision 2030 Plan:
“In the short time since the Plan was published, it has been an invaluable resource to guide decision-making, and has contributed to my inspiration to serve as Allentown’s mayor… I believe it could become a national model for economic development planning.”
Completing the Loop
Completing the Loop is a vision and strategic plan to connect and enhance Pittsburgh’s network of riverfront trails and green spaces (the Loop), providing improved mobility and access to neighborhoods that were historically disconnected from the riverfront while repairing the local ecology. As the organization dedicated to creating and maintaining the Loop, Riverlife contracted evolveEA to lead the extensive community visioning and resulting action plan articulated in the final report.
Deputy Director of Pittsburgh City Planning, Andrew Dash AICP wrote the following to the awards jury:
“…the plan’s innovative approach can be a model for other cities where maintaining, developing, and preserving natural resources is a decentralized and collaborative effort. I am excited for the opportunities this plan presents for our city and the vibrant places to be realized with each step of its implementation.”
Smart Moves Connections
Cluster Map of the region’s centers of commerce and activity
Smart Moves Connections is the regional transit vision for the ten counties of Southwestern Pennsylvania, proposing a network of multimodal transit hubs that will improve regional connectivity. Engaged by the Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission (SPC) with our partners Delta Development Group, CivicMapper, and TranSystems, evolveEA developed novel land use analysis tools to identify transit-supportive clusters throughout the region and led a robust public engagement process. This included an interactive Cluster Map of recommended hub sites and transit corridors that helps SPC and regional partners pursue funding for implementation projects.
SPC Senior Transit Planner, Dave Totten AICP, who worked with us on the project wrote:
“Some of the results of the SmartMoves Connections project are already coming to pass…, and SPC planners continue to rely on the Cluster Map to analyze or support decisions about new multimodal investment.”
Further information about these projects: