North Central
The North Central Section includes the following Texas counties: Collin, Dallas, Ellis, Fannin, Freestone, Grayson, Hopkins, Hunt, Kaufman, Navarro, and Rockwall.
Have a great idea for a program or want to get more involved? Do not hesitate to click below to send us an email.
Your North Central Texas Section of APA board believes in APA’s mission of creating great communities. Most importantly we are here to serve our members and provide opportunities to elevate and unite a diverse planning profession.
Officers
| Director | Chelsey Smith, AICP | Burns & McDonnell |
|---|---|---|
| Director-Elect | Vivian Fung, AICP | Olsson Studio |
| Secretary | Michelle Queen, AICP | Olsson Studio |
| Treasurer | Ruoyu Liu | CDM Smith |
| Past Director | Staron Faucher, AICP | WSP |
| Communications Chair | Katherine Linares, AICP, CNU-A | Verdunity |
| Professional Development Officer | Kim Dresdner, AICP | Gensler |
| Networking Coordinator | VACANT | |
| Focus North Texas Chair | Brooks Wilson, AICP | |
| Emerging Planning Leaders Representative | Mike Grace, AICP | Metro Development Consulting |
| Student Representative | Juan Carlos Pina Espinosa | UTA |
| Student Representative | Kalvin Eddleman | UNT |
Join us for Focus North Texas 2025
Focus North Texas is back for 2025! Along with the Midwest section, we are hosting the day long event at the Westin Galleria on Friday, Feb. 21. Learn more about the event, registration, sponsorships and session proposals by visiting fnt2025.com.
All session proposals must be submitted by Dec. 13, 2024.
Get Involved: Join a Subcommittee
APATX North Central Section is looking for subcommittee volunteers and are immediately looking for people for the following roles :
- organize and staff networking and professional development activities
- make connections and engage planning students
- assist our communications director with developing materials, website updates and social media posts
- welcome new members to the section
We encourage section members from all backgrounds to participate - email apatx.northcentral@gmail.com and let us know how you want to help!
Provide Us Your Feedback!
The APATX Midwest and North Central Sections strive to support professional development and networking of planners across the DFW region by providing programming and resources that keep planners informed about the topics and issues impacting communities, foster connections across planning sectors and adjacent fields, and provide opportunities to maintain AICP certification.
The objective of the survey is to learn what impacts APATX Section participation with the goal of understanding how to better support the needs across the profession and encourage participation in sections opportunities.
Provide us your thoughts and suggestions by taking the survey below. You will also be entered to win a $50 Amazon gift card!
Member Participation Survey
Upcoming Events
November Lunch & Learn
Join us for a virtual lunch and learn to watch a Planetizen Course. This month’s topic is:
Arbitrary Lines: How Zoning Broke the American City and How to Fix It – Course #9275344 - 1 CM Credit (67 minutes long)
When: Thursday, November 14, 2024 from 12:00pm-1:10pm
Course Overview
The traditional “American Dream” that inspired most of today’s suburbs was defined by homogeneity and symbolized by single-family homes, white picket fences, and cars in driveways. Today, roughly two-thirds of North Americans live in suburbs—and also in single-family detached houses. Yet the traditional American Dream is now dead. A 2016 survey of affluent Americans, a demographic with a suburban lifestyle by default for decades, found that they no longer list suburban living among their top terms to describe the American Dream.
This shift in preference does not condemn suburbs to the dustbin of history, however. As documented in this course, suburbs now face a new era of unparalleled opportunity. These new opportunities are not the result of the early pandemic rush to buy suburban houses. Rather, years of historically low interest rates and the largest generation in U.S. history have unleashed unprecedented amounts of pent-up demand. Suburbs are ready for a new, far more resilient, chapter. The future of suburbs will be shaped by the same economic, demographic, technological, and environmental forces that spurred a renaissance in urban neighborhoods and downtowns across North America.
“Suburban Remix” optimistically chronicles this new story about how suburbs can make a conscious choice to plan to become as central to society as they were for much of the latter half of the 20th century. Without damaging a blade of grass on a single front lawn, suburbs across North America can transform tens of millions of acres of “grayfields”—outmoded malls, strip centers, office parks, and similar outmoded places—into a new generation of compact, dense, walkable, mixed-use, urban, places that accommodate multiple versions of the American Dream.
Speaker Information: David Dixon
Residential Architecture Magazine named David to their Hall of Fame as “the person we call to ask about cities.” He led planning in post-Katrina New Orleans and in recent years has led planning for Canada’s largest innovation cluster, revitalized downtowns for cities large and small, and initiated a broad reappraisal of the role of density in building more livable, resilient, and equitable communities. His impact has not gone unnoticed—he has won dozens of awards from The Congress for the New Urbanism, the American Institute of Architects, the American Planning Association, and the International Downtown Association. A Fellow of the American Institute of Architects, David was honored with the Institute’s Thomas Jefferson Medal for “a lifetime of creating livable neighborhoods, vibrant civic spaces, and vital downtowns.” David co-authored Urban Design for an Urban Century (Wiley, 2015) with Lance Brown FAIA and co-edited Suburban Remix: Creating the next generation of urban places (Island Press, 2018) with Jason Beske AICP.
November Lunch & Learn Registration
APA Texas North Central Section Virtual CM Cram Session
Catch up on CM credits before the year is over! Join us from 12/9-12/12 to get your CM credits before the end of the year. Sessions will take place during the lunch hour each day. Fill out the form below and additional information will be forthcoming.
Board Meetings and Stay in Touch
The North Central Texas Section Boards meets via Teams every month. Contact the section Secretary if you’d like to attend the next section Board Meeting.
Want to subscribe to the APATX North Central Section newsletter, where we bring you the news you need to know? Make sure you update your contact information on the APA website under “MyAPA”.
Be sure to check out our socials for more ways to see what the section is up to and stay in touch.
Click here to see information about past events and notifications