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Course Catalog > Alabama Planning Institute/CAPZO Certification

Alabama Planning Institute/CAPZO Certification   

The Alabama Planning Institute has become one of the leading training programs in the nation for planning commissions, board of zoning adjustment members, and similar officials. UNA Center for Learning and Professional Development & The Alabama Planning Institute are proud to offer Certified Alabama Planning & Zoning Official Training (CAPZO) certification and recertification courses on a regular basis. 

How does certification benefit my community and me?

Certification gives evidence to your community that you have gained the knowledge and skills needed to serve most effectively in your appointed position. Your community, in turn, benefits from having its staff, local officials, PC, and BZA members with a solid foundation in the operations of the commission and the board.

Who should become certified

Local Planning Commission Members, Board of Adjustment Members, Mayors, City Council Members, Zoning & Building Staff, City Clerks, County Commissioners, County Administrators, County Engineers, City & County Attorneys, Anyone involved with local growth issues

For more information on how to earn and maintain certification, click here or email Lavonne Gatlin

Please check out our current course offerings listed here.  

  • Community Planning in Alabama: A Primer for PC and BZA Members-Home Study
  • Fee: $159.00
    Item Number: 25SUAPI106-1001A
    Dates: 6/1/2025 - 9/28/2025
    Times: 12:00 AM - 12:00 AM
    Days: Su M
    Sessions: 35
    Building: Home Study Course Self-Paced
    Room: Home Study Course Self-Paced
    Instructor: Self Paced Home Study
    REGISTRATION FOR THIS CLASS IS CLOSED. This class is already in session.

    When you register for the Home Study program you will receive a copy of The Citizen’s Guide to Planning (Fourth Edition). This book contains eight chapters which have been grouped into five assignments, as follows.  Call Hannah Thompson at 256-765-4189 (or email: hthompson@una.edu) if you register for this course online.  We will send your Home Study materials via UPS.

    Assignment 1
    Chapter 1:  Why Plan?
    Chapter 2:  Navigating the Planning Landscape
    Assignment 2
    Chapter 3:  The Comprehensive Plan
    Chapter 4:  What Are We Trying to Achieve?
    Assignment 3
    Chapter 5:  Putting the Plan to Work – Implementation
    Assignment 4
    Chapter 6:  The Plan in Action – The Application Review Process
    Assignment 5
    Chapter 7:  The Law of Planning  
    Chapter 8:  Behaving Yourself – The Ethics of Planning
    Each of these assignments features a numbered list of quotations from the text book.  For the purpose of this program, quotations are taken from Chapters 1 through 8; there are no quotations taken from the “Introduction,” or the conclusion “Being a Leader.”  The quotations are listed sequentially, just as they appear in the book. Occasionally you will find two quotations from the same page.
    Chapters 1 through 8 of the book cover 206 pages of text.  There are 134 pages from which one quotation has been selected, eleven pages with two quotations, for a total of 145 quotations.  There are 61 pages from which no quotation was selected. 

    Since 1993 when the Third Edition was published, urban planning has been subjected and responded to many changes, especially to the more difficult and critical approaches to implementation of plans.  The 2009 Fourth Edition addresses these changes and covers a much wider range of topics and more complicated techniques of analyses than those discussed in the Third Edition.  The current version of the book still deals with basic procedures and issues, but it also addresses the new techniques and procedures which are now a part of contemporary planning.  The quotations listed in the five assignments of the course have been selected in an effort to emphasize the new material presented in the course book. 
     


 

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