Skip to main content
APA NPC25 Main banner
AARP ad for their livability index
Tyler Technologies
ESRI
AECOM
Icon Legend
This session is not in your schedule.
This session is in your schedule.
Presentation Icons
Bus
Bus
Ticketed Event
Ticketed Event
Passport
Passport
Meal
Meal
Bicycle
Bicycle
Public Trans
Public Trans
Walking
Walking
Log CM for AICP

Standard Slide Presentations

Housing Challenges and Solutions

Small Town Planners Do Housing and Find Success

Friday, April 25, 2025
1:30 PM - 2:15 PM CT
Location: Channel 1
CM: .75
Passport
Despite what your job description says, housing is a planner's responsibility. Housing is a complicated and resource-intensive problem. This makes it exceptionally difficult for small towns and rural communities because the needed time, money, expertise, and political will are not always available.

Learn from case studies of two very different Kansas communities, each with a population of around 50,000 and looking to meet a diverse and significant set of housing needs. One is a manufacturing and agricultural community just far enough away from the metro area, the other a landlocked university town within minutes of a military installation. While each took an individualized approach, three key tenets proved successful for both communities. Leave with specific examples of the data used, the relationships built, and the economic tools found to be most successful in creating policies and increasing the production of safe, equitable, and diverse housing.

Learning Objectives:

  • Understand how planners, even in small towns, can have a role in housing policy and production.
  • Identify and utilize relationships, data, tools, and strategies for housing policy and production.
  • Learn from three case studies that apply relationships, data, tools, and strategies; focus on the planner's role; and offer key takeaways, lessons learned, and measurable indicators of success.