Message from the President
Hello fellow PAW members! 

We have made it through 2020 and 2021 looks very promising indeed. Have you seen everything we’ve been up to? We have webinars, conference planning, and Hoppy Hours all taking place right now! The webinars have been organized and moderated by our very talented Board Member Mary Reinbold, AICP. We have a few more webinars before we take a pause to focus on our conference offerings. This year we are offering our usual Spring Conference but in the Fall this November 15th and 16th. Then return to our Spring Conference schedule in 2022. This quick transition could offer an excellent opportunity to provide in-depth session tracks with follow-up or continuation a few months later. See the Call for Sessions later in the Newsletter. We also have our first Hoppy Hour of the year next month on June 3rd at 5:15 PM where we will speak with Ben Alworth, the Director of Operations at the Stemilt Winery in Wenatchee. This is sure to be an excellent informal engagement opportunity for everyone. 

This newsletter will get into all of the details for what we’ve done and anticipate tackling during the remainder of the year. It feels good to get my sleeves rolled up and get some collaboration and training offerings on the table for Washington State. I look forward to seeing (in-person and virtually) many of you at these events!

As ever, we encourage ideas from our membership. Please reach out to us if you have ideas for virtual social hours, training requests, or need help seeking a specialist for a project you are working on. Remember, “Good planning doesn’t just happen…”


Cheers,
Marla S. Powers
PAW President, Conference Chair
Board Member since 2015
UPCOMING EVENTS
HOPPY HOUR
June 3rd 5:15-6:15PM

Join PAW in welcoming
Ben Alworth of Kyle Mathison Orchards
for
THE PAW HOPPY HOUR
and his presentation on:
Stemilt Creek Winery Keeps Pouring After Covid:
The Future of the Wine Industry in Central Washington State
Wine can be ordered prior to the event at
Stemitt Creek Winery's website or at our tasting room at
110 N. Wenatchee Avenue, Wenatchee, WA 98801

Our Hoppy Hour will feature a friendly competition. Please head to the linked submittal worksheet and tell us about your parklette success. Submittals are due by May 28, 2021 and the winner, as selected by Ben Alworth of Stemilt Creek Winery, will win a bottle of wine!

Digital Plan Review 2.0 Webinar
Digital Plan Review 2.0
June 11, 2021 at 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM

The webinar will focus on digital plan review using Blue Beam. Our speakers will share examples of what works well for them and a few tips and tricks using Blue Beam to coordinate digital plan review. With a deeper dive into collaborative team review best practices, each presenter will discuss what has worked for them and wrap things up with an extensive Q&A session. Attendance at the first digital plan review webinar is not a requirement for attendance. 

Presenters:

Dan Ireland, Principal, SCJ Alliance

Micah Chappell, Technical Code Development Manager, City of Seattle (and WABO board member)

Kim Barker, CBO – Plans Examiner, City of Bellingham

Moderator:

Mary Reinbold
Silver Linings: Planning Beyond the Pandemic with PAW Proposal Deadline & Conference
The Planning Association of Washington (PAW) invites you to submit a session proposal(s) for its 2021 Conference to be held IN-PERSON, November 15th and 16th in 2021 at the Campbell’s Resort in Lake Chelan. Areas of interest will include: Silver Linings for the Planning Community and Planner's Skills Camp.

Please transmit an email message with session proposals attached as a Microsoft Word document named with the proposed session title only. Please use the following guidelines in preparing your session proposal:
  • Include a paragraph describing the topic and the proposed means of delivering the information.
  • Proposals should contain a clear but concise explanation of what participants will learn from the session and how the presentation relates to the conference theme and/or one of the Planner’s Skills Camp Track.
  • Provide contact information (names, titles, email addresses, mailing addresses, and phone numbers) for the speakers/moderator along with short speaker bios.
  • Sessions should be approximately 90 minutes in length.

The deadline for proposals is July 15, 2021.

Please email session proposals to the Conference Chair: Marla Powers.
2021 Planning Awards Program
Call for Nominations

Sponsored by: The Washington Chapter of the American Planning Association and the Planning Association of Washington

The Washington Chapter of the American Planning Association (APAWA) and the Planning Association of Washington (PAW) are pleased to announce the 2021 Awards Program.
 
For the 35th year, the associations will jointly honor outstanding contributions to the field of planning in Washington State. The joint award program goals are to recognize great planning efforts in Washington, to promote excellent planning in government and the private sector, and to increase public awareness of the roles of APAWA and PAW in supporting outstanding planning in Washington. 
Applications must be received by 5:00 PM on Friday, June 11, 2021

Awards will be presented at the 2021 APA Annual Conference remotely in October 2021
Celebrate successful planning and showcase your projects! 

2021 award winners will have their projects/plans featured in the Western Planner Magazine, Washington Chapter of the APA Newsletter, PAW newsletter and APA Washington's Planning Commissioner quarterly newsletter. 
If you have any questions about the awards process, please contact the committee co-chairs:
           

Board Member Spotlight
LLOYD SKINNER

Born in Jersey City and raised in New Jersey and Ohio, I came out to the Northwest in 1975 as something of a lark, expecting to return in a few years. The mountains, waters, and freedom were too much to abandon, however, and I've been here ever since. My senior thesis at Princeton was on nineteenth century utopian communities, and somehow planning studies at the University of Washington had a similar vibe. (Sitting around with friends one time back then I was asked what I was studying and I blurted: "Ego transcendence." My wife said, "Lloyd, you're in the wrong department.")

Anyway, it's been fun. I spent time working as a forester for a Canadian firm and then for the Makahs out at Neah Bay, finally landed a planning job for the City of Seattle, and eventually moved over to the private sector working for consulting firms. I set up the planning program at Adolfson Associates and, when we were purchased by Environmental Science Associates, headed up its Northwest Region. In a firm that prides itself on cutting edge estuarine and wetlands restoration, I often reminded colleagues that the human ecosystem, with walkable communities and great streets, was also beautiful and every bit as critical.

I was introduced to PAW years ago via the Washington Chapter of the APA, where I was on the board as co-chair of the annual Planning Awards Program. I loved its great group of planners, its fun conferences, and its attention to planning issues on both sides of the mountains, and have felt at home here ever since. The Board is dedicated and hard-working, and as treasurer I've helped the organization work through a challenging pandemic year-plus, ready to come out the other side with a live in-person conference this fall. I'm looking forward to seeing you all there!
Organizational Spotlight
The City of SeaTac Planning Division 

The City of SeaTac Planning Division joined PAW to both support the work the association does and to provide all of the planning staff the opportunity to join in PAW’s great educational events. Over my career, I have found that PAW trainings, be it webinars, boot camps, or conferences, provide the best practical training for front line planners in our state. The SeaTac planning staff is a mix of newer and seasoned planners, some from in-state and some out-of-state. PAW provides valuable training resources to help our diverse staff the gain the tools and knowledge they need to grow in their careers.
 
Our membership also benefits the residents of SeaTac that want to support our planning effort by being on our Planning Commission. The PAW sponsored Short Course is a great “Washington Planning 101” class for new commissioners.  Plus, as many of us have experienced, sometimes hearing information from a third-party, rather than staff, is needed to fully digest an idea.  
Graduate Project Spotlight
Kelley Dolan
Eastern Washington University

My thesis topic stemmed from a desire to better understand how planners are addressing the increasing number and severity of wildfires, and how they are preparing for wildfire impacts on communities. My project acknowledges that while wildfire is inevitable, the counties with a stronger network of plans will be more prepared for wildfire events and therefore, better able to prevent the most consequential damage.
 
The APA created a Multi-Hazard Planning Framework for Communities in the Wildland-Urban Interface (2018) audit for jurisdictions of any size to help them self-evaluate the quality and preparedness of their plans in the event of hazards like floods, wildfire, landslides, etc. Using this framework, with a specific emphasis on the hazard of wildfire in the wildland-urban interfaces, I reviewed and evaluated each of Eastern Washington's twenty counties and tribal communities network of plans. The audit focuses on the existence of plans (comprehensive plan, community wildfire protection plan, hazard mitigation plan, green infrastructure plan, climate adaptation plan, parks and open space plan, watershed plan), as well as their land-use and development regulations and plans for public investment. The audit also focuses on the linkages of each plan to the others and how each plan can address the specific hazard. 
 
My project is aimed at seeing how Eastern Washington's planning approaches measure up to the best practices outlined by the APA Multi-Hazard Planning Framework. While conducting these audits, I'm gaining a better understanding of how a county or tribes' plans work together to address a hazard. My project is ongoing right now, but my hope is that countywide plans are meeting the guidelines suggested in the APA framework and that I will be able to find trends in Eastern Washington wildfire planning.
Transformations: Ourselves, Our Culture,
Our Calling
The 2021 Cultural Resource Protection Summit marks our 14th gathering, and as many of us still eagerly await vaccination, it will be our 2nd Virtual Summit, as well! The Summit family is still hard at work fulfilling the mission we have had since
the Summit’s inception: The primary goal in organizing the annual Summit has been to facilitate amongst all affected arties an open, frank discussion about the intersection between cultural resources and land use. The Summit is designed
to promote collaborative cultural resource planning as an effective means of finding resolution to issues before they escalate into emotionally-charged, divisive, and expensive stalemates or law suits.

This year, the Summit agenda includes an engaging array of cutting-edge topics that will encourage attendees to examine some of the Transformations underway, both in ourselves and in our collective groups, and how these might shape innovative solutions for today’s most pressing challenges to effective cultural resource protection. Panel discussions, lightning talks, and small group discussions will highlight useful examples of the links between transformative CRM and responsible land use. We will also reserve time for Q&A, general socializing, and even the inaugural Summit Book Club! We are working hard to ensure the 14th Annual Summit will be another much-needed boost for our community, even if we must gather virtually again.

Please join us online for two days of invigorating conversation that will help you improve your technical skills while deepening your connection to why we do this work. Then, with renewed commitment, move forward with helpful tools for
protecting cultural resources and transforming the way we care for them.

SUMMIT HIGHLIGHTS:

Continuation of several important conversations begun at the 13th Annual Summit:

  • Decolonizing Anthropology
  • Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Issues and Goals
  • Disposition of Archaeological Collections
  • Federal, State, and Local legislative and regulatory news

Implementation of several new ways of communicating and socializing:

  • Inaugural Summit Book Club (Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer)
  • “Lunch Tables” for casual topical discussions (self-select; visit one or all!)
  • Additional socializing between sessions (Main Room or Breakouts)
  • Online Discussion Board before/during/after the Summit (registrants only)

Student Rates available! Email Mary Rossi for information. Be sure to submit contest form, too.
Free Registration opportunity! Go to the Summit website and enter to win a free registration! One award will be made in each of these categories: Tribes, agencies, consultants, and students
Planning Association of Washington
1-877-460-5880