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- Community Planning in Alabama: A Primer for PC and BZA Members-Home Study
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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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- The Legal Foundation for Planning and Zoning in Alabama
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Fee: $82.00
Item Number: 25SUAPI101-0722
Dates: 7/22/2025 - 7/22/2025
Times: 8:00 AM - 9:30 AM
Days: Tu
Sessions: 1
Building: CAPZO ZOOM TRAINING
Room: ZOOM TRAINING
Instructor: Adrienne Jones
This workshop will provide local officials and the citizens who serve on local planning commissions and boards of adjustment with a basic understanding of the constitutional and statutory framework for comprehensive and regulatory planning in Alabama. Although a number of constitutional issues and landmark cases will be included in the material presented, they will be discussed from a layman’s point of view and not from a legalistic view point.
TOPICS I NCLUDE: (1) The evolution of legal principles relating to the public regulation of private property; (2) The origins of the current Alabama planning enabling legislation and recent efforts to amend it; the landmark decisions of the US Supreme Court relating to the regulatory and planning powers of local governments; (3) The major constitutional issues being raised in current land use litigation; (4) The procedural and strategic aspects of land use litigation; (5) Alternative approaches to the resolution of regulatory issues and developmental conflicts.
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- Powers, Duties, and Responsibilities of Planning Commissions and Boards of Adjustment
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Fee: $82.00
Item Number: 25SUAPI101-0722A
Dates: 7/22/2025 - 7/22/2025
Times: 9:30 AM - 11:00 AM
Days: Tu
Sessions: 1
Building: CAPZO ZOOM TRAINING
Room: CAPZO ZOOM TRAINING
Instructor: Adrienne Jones
This workshop is designed for local officials, staff, and others who want a more thorough understanding of the powers, duties, and responsibilities of planning commissions and boards of adjustment. What you will learn: (1) the legal authority and responsibility under Alabama law for planning commission and board of adjustment members – what each can do and cannot do; (2) Where the planning commission’s authority ends and the board of adjustment’s authority begins; the relationship between the city council and the planning commission; (3) how the law says an aggrieved party can appeal a determination by boards of adjustment, building inspector, etc.
TOPICS INCLUDE: (1) How Chapter 52 of the Code of Alabama assign responsibility for local planning among four governmental entities; (2) How the comprehensive or master plan is implemented in part through various regulatory devices. (The role of zoning in land use planning); (3) How the board of adjustment serves as a “safety valve” to minimize hardships; (4) Proper and improper uses of variances; (5) Administrative and legal issues in local planning: The test of “hardship,” “takings,” and other topics. A number of case studies and examples are used throughout the workshop to maintain the program’s focus on practical day-to-day issues faced by the typical Alabama municipality.
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- Comprehensive Planning: How to Prepare, Update and Implement Your Plan
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Fee: $82.00
Item Number: 25SUAPI102-0722C
Dates: 7/22/2025 - 7/22/2025
Times: 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Days: Tu
Sessions: 1
Building: CAPZO ZOOM TRAINING
Room: CAPZO ZOOM TRAINING
Instructor: Adrienne Jones
When your city decides to create a planning commission, enabling legislation in Alabama states that your commission must prepare a master or comprehensive plan. Therefore, preparing and adopting a master plan is a mandatory requirement, not an option. When the comprehensive plan is adopted, it must serve as the foundation for the city’s planning program and, as such, must be continually reviewed and periodically updated. The purpose of this workshop is to discuss ways your city can fulfill these responsibilities.
TOPICS INCLUDE: (1) The basic surveys and studies which form the foundation of the plan; (2) Successful approaches to involving the community in formulating goals and evaluating alternatives; (3) The statutory requirements to adopting and updating the plan; (4) The implementation of the plan through regulatory and functional planning; (5) The political and institutional implications of the plan as a public statement of the city’s development policies.
This workshop provides a practical orientation and guide to those citizens who serve as appointed members of local planning commissions or as elected members of city councils. Local officials, staff, engineers, consultants, and others also benefit from a better understanding of the key role comprehensive planning plays in the development of their community.
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- Comprehensive Planning and You: Updating Your Comprehensive Plan
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Fee: $219.00
Item Number: 25SUAPIREC-0912R
Dates: 9/12/2025 - 9/12/2025
Times: 1:00 PM - 4:30 PM
Days: F
Sessions: 1
Building: CAPZO ZOOM TRAINING
Room: CAPZO ZOOM TRAINING
Instructor: Todd McDonald
This recertification course will help those citizens who serve as members of local planning commissions or elected officials to better understand the legal requirements and process of reviewing and updating the comprehensive plan. This course will also give local officials, staff, engineers, and other consultants a better understanding of the role the comprehensive plan plays in growth and development in their community.
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- The Legal Foundation for Planning and Zoning in Alabama
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Fee: $82.00
Item Number: 25FAAPI1011113
Dates: 11/13/2025 - 11/13/2025
Times: 8:00 AM - 9:30 AM
Days: Th
Sessions: 1
Building: CAPZO ZOOM TRAINING
Room: ZOOM TRAINING
Instructor: Adrienne Jones
This workshop will provide local officials and the citizens who serve on local planning commissions and boards of adjustment with a basic understanding of the constitutional and statutory framework for comprehensive and regulatory planning in Alabama. Although a number of constitutional issues and landmark cases will be included in the material presented, they will be discussed from a layman’s point of view and not from a legalistic view point.
TOPICS I NCLUDE: (1) The evolution of legal principles relating to the public regulation of private property; (2) The origins of the current Alabama planning enabling legislation and recent efforts to amend it; the landmark decisions of the US Supreme Court relating to the regulatory and planning powers of local governments; (3) The major constitutional issues being raised in current land use litigation; (4) The procedural and strategic aspects of land use litigation; (5) Alternative approaches to the resolution of regulatory issues and developmental conflicts.
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- Powers, Duties, and Responsibilities of Planning Commissions and Boards of Adjustment
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Fee: $82.00
Item Number: 25FAAPI1021113
Dates: 11/13/2025 - 11/13/2025
Times: 9:30 AM - 11:00 AM
Days: Th
Sessions: 1
Building: CAPZO ZOOM TRAINING
Room: ZOOM TRAINING
Instructor: Adrienne Jones
This workshop is designed for local officials, staff, and others who want a more thorough understanding of the powers, duties, and responsibilities of planning commissions and boards of adjustment. What you will learn: (1) the legal authority and responsibility under Alabama law for planning commission and board of adjustment members – what each can do and cannot do; (2) Where the planning commission’s authority ends and the board of adjustment’s authority begins; the relationship between the city council and the planning commission; (3) how the law says an aggrieved party can appeal a determination by boards of adjustment, building inspector, etc.
TOPICS INCLUDE: (1) How Chapter 52 of the Code of Alabama assign responsibility for local planning among four governmental entities; (2) How the comprehensive or master plan is implemented in part through various regulatory devices. (The role of zoning in land use planning); (3) How the board of adjustment serves as a “safety valve” to minimize hardships; (4) Proper and improper uses of variances; (5) Administrative and legal issues in local planning: The test of “hardship,” “takings,” and other topics. A number of case studies and examples are used throughout the workshop to maintain the program’s focus on practical day-to-day issues faced by the typical Alabama municipality.
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- Comprehensive Planning: How to Prepare, Update and Implement Your Plan
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Fee: $82.00
Item Number: 25FAAPI1031113
Dates: 11/13/2025 - 11/13/2025
Times: 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Days: Th
Sessions: 1
Building: CAPZO ZOOM TRAINING
Room: ZOOM TRAINING
Instructor: Adrienne Jones
When your city decides to create a planning commission, enabling legislation in Alabama states that your commission must prepare a master or comprehensive plan. Therefore, preparing and adopting a master plan is a mandatory requirement, not an option. When the comprehensive plan is adopted, it must serve as the foundation for the city’s planning program and, as such, must be continually reviewed and periodically updated. The purpose of this workshop is to discuss ways your city can fulfill these responsibilities.
TOPICS INCLUDE: (1) The basic surveys and studies which form the foundation of the plan; (2) Successful approaches to involving the community in formulating goals and evaluating alternatives; (3) The statutory requirements to adopting and updating the plan; (4) The implementation of the plan through regulatory and functional planning; (5) The political and institutional implications of the plan as a public statement of the city’s development policies.
This workshop provides a practical orientation and guide to those citizens who serve as appointed members of local planning commissions or as elected members of city councils. Local officials, staff, engineers, consultants, and others also benefit from a better understanding of the key role comprehensive planning plays in the development of their community.
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