Master Program and Areas of Concentration

Note: Students must take required courses and choose two from the list of recommended courses unless advisor agrees to waive core or allow alternative course/s

Economic Development Planning

Concentration Coordinator: H. Renski

Economic development is the process by which communities secure the resources necessary to provide for and sustain economic opportunities for their residents. New technologies and global trade have altered the competitive landscape of business—creating new opportunities for some cities and towns while posing great challenges for others. Economic developers continue to deal with the on-going challenges of aging infrastructure, persistent disparities between metropolitan suburbs relative to inner-cities and rural places, dislocated and underemployed workers, and growing income inequality. Rapid environmental change potentially poses an even greater challenge, as planners and economic developers must now balance the demands for economic growth with the demands for environmental sustainability.

The field of economic development has undergone rapid changes, as well. In the past, economic development was primarily a profession of place marketing, real estate development and the use of financial incentives to recruit mobile businesses from other regions or states. Today, the most successful regions are those that have developed the capacity for spawning innovation and entrepreneurship. Successful economic development in today's environment requires a greater understanding of the forces that are driving economic change. It also entails a long-term, integrated, and strategic approach to economic development planning that mobilizes all the institutional and policy resources that the region has to offer: development finance tools, workforce development programs, funds for financing new businesses, technical assistance with product commercialization and technological modernization, university R&D and technology transfer, natural assets and amenities, not to mention the regional strengths of businesses and the workers themselves.

The economic development concentration at LARP provides students with a strong foundation needed to become leaders in the growing field of economic development planning. The curriculum integrates theory, methods and practice. Topics of study include state and local economic development policy, science and technology- and entrepreneurship-based economic development, challenges of rural economic development, workforce development, industrial planning, public and private developmental finance, applied economic and spatial analysis.

Core Courses:

• Economic Development Issues in Planning (RP 643) Spring (1 st year)
• Spatial Analysis and Regional Development (RP 693G) Fall (2 nd Year)

Possible electives include:

• Independent study and research in Economic Development (RP 696)*
• Urban Policies (RP 577)
• Growth Management (RP 645)
• Real Estate Law and Development Finance (RP 692R)
• Planning Tools and Techniques (RP 652)
• Microeconomics for Public Policy and Administration (PubP 605)
• Public Economics ( PubP 606)
• Topics in Urban and Housing Policy (PubP 697BB)
• Business and Its Environment (SOM 783)
• Tourism Planning and Development (HT-MGT 633)
• Economic Development: Structural Problems (ECON 765)
• Economic Development: Policy Issues (ECON 766)
• Spatial Data Analysis (GEO- SCI 591D)
• Rethinking Economy (GEO- SCI 660)
• Housing and Urban Development (GEO- SCI 670)

Other electives courses will be considered, subject to permission of the Economic Development Concentration Head and Regional Planning Program Director.

* Independent studies require prior approval of the Economic Development Concentration Head and the faculty supervisor. The proposed independent study is expected to address a topic of mutual interest to both the student and the instructor.

Landscape and Environmental Planning.

Concentration Coordinator: R. Ryan

This concentration focuses on environmental policy and planning as they relate to preserving, protecting, restoring and enhancing the environmental quality of habitats and landscapes in the context of built form and regional growth. Important knowledge and skills gained in this concentration include landscape assessment, plan formulation and evaluation of landscape units ranging from the site to the watershed and ecosystem scale, and use of Geographic Information Systems as a tool of spatial analysis and assessment.

Core Courses:

• Landscape Pattern and Process (ED/RP 547)
• Resource Policy and Planning (ED/RP 553) or Sustainable Cities (ED/RP 591b)

Recommended Courses:

• Air Pollution and Climate Change Biology (ENVIRSCI 504)
• Case Studies in Land Conservation (NRC 597C) [for 3 credits]
• Ecosystem Management (NRC 597M)
• Forest and Wetland Hydrology (FOR 528)
• The Human Impact on the Natural Environment (GEO 592B)
• Land Use and Watershed Management (FOREST 697Q)
• Landscape Planning Studio (LA 536)
• Landscape Planning Studio II (RP 609/RP 697A)
• [only if not taken as a core alternative to Planning Studio II]
• Social Conflict and Natural Resources Policy (NRC 697D)
• Urban Natural Resource Management (FOREST 597U)
• Urban Forestry (FOREST 697U)
• Watershed Science and Management (WFCON 597R)
• Wetlands Ecology and Conservation (WFCON 768)
• Wildlife Habitat Ecology and Management (WFCON 564 )

Social, Policy and Community Planning

Concentration Coordinator: E. Pader

This concentration focuses on equitable, sustainable planning, policy and design for diverse publics. It builds on the assertion that regardless of project, successful planning in the 21 st century requires reconciling a multitude of often conflicting frameworks of thought and action. The primary goals of this concentration are 1) To understand how culture, class, race/ethnicity, physical and cognitive health, social philosophy, stakeholder interests, and other human factors influence an individual's/group's potentials, preferences and policy decisions; 2) To apply this knowledge to the exploration of the appropriate questions to ask and learn research and interpretive methods for an engaged, inclusive and responsible planning process. Substantial topics of study include, but are not limited to, the built environment, housing policy, urban development, urban design, spatial relations, public health, discriminatory practices and social change.

Core Courses:

• Urban Policies (RP 577) or Housing and Public Health (RP 591G)
• People and the Environment (RP 691R)

Recommended Courses:

• Anthropological Research  Methods (Anth 775)  
• Conflict Resolution (Pub Pol 621)
• Culture, Community & Health (Pub Health 590C)
• Ethics of Public Policy (Pub Pol 622)
• Gender & Health (Pub Health 582)
• Housing and Urban Development (Geog 670)
• Landscape and Memory (Hist 697U)
• Public Anthropology   (Anth 697EE)
• Public Welfare Policy (PoliSci 783)
• Qualitative Policy Researh (Anth 775)
• Qualitative Research Methods (Pub Health 608)
• Race, Ethnicity and the Social Imagination (Soc 723)
• Rethinking Economy (Geog 660)
• Social Class Inequality (Soc 724)
• Sociology of Culture (Soc 729)
• Spirit of Place (Geog 626)
• Sustainable Cities (RP 591b)
• Visual and Graphic Thinking (Geog 692W)

Urban and Regional Land Use Planning

Concentration Coordinator: E. Hamin

Core Courses:

• Tools and Techniques (RP652), focusing on introduction to land use, municipal planning, zoning, subdivision control
• Growth Management (RP645), focusing on state and regional policy and emerging land use management tools

Recommended Courses:

Landscape Architecture and Regional Planning

• Sustainable Communities (RP591)
• Urban Policies (RP 577)
• Resource Policy and Planning (RP 553)
• Site Design (LA 601; permission of instructor)
• Urban Design (LA604; permission of instructor)
• People and the Environment (LA 691E)
• Landscape Pattern and Process (LA 547)

Other Departments:

• Public Transportation Systems (CEE 510; statistics prereq)
• Transportation Systems Analysis (CEE 509; statistics prereq)
• Courses in Public Policy (601, 602, 605, 697S)
• Courses in GeoSciences (510, 530, 666, 670)
• Urban History (HIS 657)
• Tourism Policy (HT-MGT 633)
• Hospitality-Financial Management (HT-MGT 693A)

Student-Designed Concentration

Concentration Coordinator: M. Hamin

Students who have interests that do not fall into the existing categories may, with the approval of the GPD, develop their own concentration proposal. Students should prepare a one-page memo indicating the focus of their studies and the courses they propose to fulfill the concentration. The memo, signed by the student and GPD, must be given to the LARP office.