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2025 APA UT Fall Conference

2025 APA UT Fall Conference

October 9-10, 2025


The Depot and Megaplex Theaters at the Gateway
13 North 400 West
Salt lake City, Utah 84101

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Planners from across the region will gather in Salt Lake City this fall for APA Utah’s 2025 Fall Conference. Over two days, the conference will feature a robust lineup of sessions that address the diverse needs of both urban and rural communities. Designed for professional planners, citizen planners, and elected officials alike, the program will cover critical topics such as planning ethics, historic preservation, transportation, housing, and inclusion. Attendees can also take part in mobile tours offering real-world case studies of planning and environmental projects throughout the Salt Lake area.

Sessions

October 10, 2025 1:45 pm

Multifamily Infill and Adaptive Reuse in SLC Historic Districts

Salt Lake City’s South Temple and Central City historic districts preserve many of the city’s early mansions and ornate homes. Learn from city planners and developers about the districts and visit ...

October 9, 2025 8:00 am

Opening Remarks

October 9, 2025 8:30 am

Keynote Address

October 9, 2025 10:00 am

Awards Ceremony

October 9, 2025 11:30 am

Pardon My Blindspot

We all have default planning settings, without even knowing it. What’s yours? Does housing ‘obviously’ mean single-family homes? Does ‘transportation’ automatically mean cars and roads? The 2021 AI...

October 9, 2025 11:30 am

Seeing is Believing: New City and Town Center Visualization Resources

Centers are the heart of a community where people gather, where public spaces, commerce, housing, and transportation choices meet. A new State-funded website with exciting new vignettes and 3D pano...

October 9, 2025 11:30 am

Step Into the Plan: Public Engagement Gets a Digital Upgrade

Explore the shift from conventional public meetings to immersive technology in land use planning. This highly graphic and interactive presentation showcases how immersive technology, blending story...

October 9, 2025 11:00 am

Downtown Bike Tour

Let’s ride bikes downtown! This short loop takes us past all your favorite landmarks: the Salt Palace, Abravanel Hall, Temple Square, City Creek, Regent Street, and Gallivan Plaza. We’ll stop along...

October 9, 2025 11:00 am

Beehive & Lion Houses

Please join us for a behind-the-scenes tour of the Beehive House and the Lion House during restoration. These 1850s adobe structures have been used as residences, schools, social centers, offices, ...

October 9, 2025 1:45 pm

Going From Advisory General Plans to Mandatory Compliance – A Good Idea?

Utah has always been a state where local general plans are advisory. There has been discussion in recent years at the legislative level of switching to make us a mandatory plan compliance state. Is...

October 9, 2025 1:45 pm

Ballpark Next: Co-Creating a Human-Centered Design Framework for the Smith’s Ballpark Site

Since 1928, Smith’s Ballpark has been a beloved sports and cultural landmark in Salt Lake City. With the Bees’ departure, the community now looks ahead to a bold new vision for the 14-acre site. He...

October 9, 2025 1:45 pm

A Way Forward: Urban Design Roles, Tools, and Imaginations

Urban design practice is changing rapidly, and planners are part of that shift. This session explores the expanding definition of the “urban designer” to include planners, policymakers, data scient...

October 9, 2025 1:45 pm

Form-Based Code in the Real World

This walking tour will discuss how Salt Lake City’s first form-based code has resulted in significant mixed-use, infill development in the Central Ninth neighborhood. The emerging neighborhoo...

October 9, 2025 1:45 pm

Ground-up Community Led Placemaking

Join us for an open conversation about community-led placemaking in the Central Ninth neighborhood, where residents, creatives, and local advocates are shaping public space from the ground up. This...

October 9, 2025 3:00 pm

Great Salt Lake Basin Water Planning

Similar to patterns observed in other major waterbodies worldwide, declining water levels in the Great Salt Lake (GSL) Basin emphasize the challenges posed by a limited water supply in the face of ...

October 9, 2025 3:00 pm

Corridors versus Centers: Match of the Century

City and town centers are a key part of Utah’s approach to handling growth. But what about corridors like a “Main Street”? Do they matter too? We’ll talk about the pros and ...

October 9, 2025 3:00 pm

Collaborative Visions: Advanced Visualization Tools for Informed Community Planning

This session showcases cutting-edge visualization techniques transforming urban planning engagement. Experience immersive 3D renderings, dynamic simulations, and interactive decision-making tools t...

October 10, 2025 10:15 am

Zoning for Zucchini: The City Planner’s Role in Nourishing Communities

Explore how city planning shapes access to healthy food. This presentation highlights the use of healthy food audits, zoning policies, and land-use strategies to address food deserts and food swamp...

October 10, 2025 10:15 am

Transportation Safety for All Ages

Everybody wants safe roads, but balancing priorities is tricky. This session identifies road safety risk factors from different perspectives. Recognizing that words matter, we reflect on ways to ta...

October 10, 2025 10:15 am

Town Center Visualization Tools

October 10, 2025 9:45 am

Growing a Walkable Urban Center in Sugar House

This walking tour explores the zoning and planning that shaped a thriving, walkable business district in Sugar House, one of Salt Lake City’s oldest neighborhoods. Sugar House has rapidly developed...

October 10, 2025 11:30 am

Plugging Your Community Into the Grid

This session will help planners understand the Statewide MPO Regional Roadway Grid Study’s value and impacts for their communities, including performance metrics, projects, and starting point...

October 10, 2025 11:30 am

Trees are Infrastructure Too: How to Plan Ahead Before They’re Gone

In cities across Utah, cities are cutting down mature trees due to reactive planning, policy gaps, or infrastructure conflicts. This session explores how to prevent those losses by treating trees a...

October 10, 2025 11:30 am

Youth Voices, Real Choices: Engagement in Action + Fishbowl Discussion

Youth are not just the future — they are key voices in today’s planning decisions. This interactive session, led by Meagan Booth and Jake Young, will highlight practical, tested methods for involvi...

October 10, 2025 11:30 am

The Role of Staff

October 10, 2025 1:45 pm

Statewide Bikeways Map

October 10, 2025 1:45 pm

Everything Bagel

October 10, 2025 1:45 pm

Reimagining Public Spaces: Playful Learning Landscapes

Playful Learning Landscapes is a global movement that is situated at the intersection of placemaking and early learning. By transforming public spaces into opportunities for playful learning, we cr...

October 10, 2025 1:45 pm

Infill Options

October 10, 2025 1:45 pm

Take Back the Streets: Reimagining Streets as Public Space

Public streets are our most abundant shared spaces—but are they serving people or just vehicles? Join us for a walking tour of Salt Lake City’s downtown to explore how streets are being reclaimed a...

October 10, 2025 3:00 pm

Public Transit’s Multiplier Effect: Quantifying Indirect Benefits Beyond Ridership

This session explores the direct and indirect impacts of public transit on reducing vehicle miles traveled (VMT) and greenhouse gas emissions. Using multilevel structural equation modeling and data...

October 10, 2025 3:00 pm

Takeaways From GOEO’s State Housing Capacity Analysis

Utah is growing fast and, despite record permitting, housing supply is struggling to keep up. Several constraints limit our collective capacity to build more housing, but the comparative impacts of...

October 10, 2025 3:00 pm

Beyond the Wheelchair, Inclusive Play is so Much More

A common misconception is that “All-Abilities” playgrounds need to be designed for the mobility device or wheelchair user. Inclusive play involves so much more! Statistics show that more children h...

October 10, 2025 3:00 pm

Revisit HB 368

Presenters

Jason Boal

Urban Planner
Snell & Wilmer

Meagan Booth

Utah APA Vice President/ Salt Lake City Planning Division Principal Planner

Brent Chamberlain

Commissioner
Kane County

Karson Eilers

Policy Director
Utah League of Cities and Towns

Reid Ewing, Ph.D.

Distinguished Professor of City and Metropolitan Planning
University of Utah

Sophie Frankenburg

Planner
Logan Simpson

Alyssa Gamble

Moderate Income Housing Program Manager
Housing Community Development Division of the Department of Workforce Services

Andrea Garfinkel-Castro

Community and Economic Development Director, WFRC

John Janson, AICP

Consultant
Planning Solutions

Ted Knowlton, AICP

Deputy Director
Wasatch Front Regional Council (WFRC)

Jon Larsen, PE

Director of the Transportation Division
Salt Lake City

Cody Lutz

Planning Project Manager
Envision Utah

Nick Norris

Planning Director
Salt Lake City

Meg Padjen

Community and Economic Development Director, WFRC

Wilf Sommerkorn

Deputy Executive Director
Utah Land Use Institute

Rob Terry

Statewide Land Use Training Director
State of Utah

Hugh Van Wagenen

Active Transportation Planner
Wasatch Front Regional Council

Ryan Wallace

Associate Principal and Urban Design Director
MHTN

Dan Wayne

Community Planning Director
Mountainland Association of Governments

Jake Young, AICP

Planning Program Manager
SLCo Regional Development

Tim Watkins

Community Planner, WFRC

Bruce Meighen

CEO & Principal Planner at Logan Simpson

Andy Hulka

Principal Planner, Salt Lake City Planning Division

Keegan Galloro

Transportation Planner, Salt Lake City Transportation Division

Emily Utt

Curator, Church History Department
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

Makena Hawley

Project Manager
Salt Lake City Community Reinvestment Agency

Sharvari Raje

Urban Designer
Perkins&Will

Amy Hawkins

Ballpark Community Council Chair
Director of the Personalized Medicine Certificate at the University of Utah

Molly O'Neill Robinson

Career-line Instructor, University of Utah, College of Architecture & Planning
Department of City & Metropolitan Planning

Keri Nakamura

Central Ninth Community Council

Landon Kraczek

Student
University of Utah

Jason Foster

Architect
GSBS Architects

Erika Chmielewski

Urban Design
GSBS Architects

Cole Fritz

Practice Technology Specialist / PSOMAS

Christian Kirkham, AICP

Urban Designer & Visualization Specialist / PSOMAS

Alysia Ducuara

Executive Director
Get Healthy Utah

Katherine Colburn

Board Member
Transport Futures

Tim Baird

Associate
Utah office of Fehr & Peers

Calvin Clark

Mountainland Association of Governments

Nancy Monteith

Senior Landscape Architect
Salt Lake City Public Lands

Landis Wenger

Regional Trails and Active Transportation Coordinator, Cache County

Sarah Lytle

Executive Director, Playful Learning Landscapes

Sara Javoronok

Senior Planner

Lex Traughber

Senior Planner

Dustin Holt

Co-Founder
Alpha Development Group

Blake Thomas

Senior Advisor on Real Estate and Capital Projects
Salt Lake City Mayor's Office

Jessica Thesing

Deputy Director
Downtown Alliance SLC

Meg Ryan

Senior Land Use Manager
Utah League of Cities & Towns

Ben Rodes

Landscape Architect
GSBS Architects

Hannaneh Abdollahzadeh Kalantari

Doctoral Research Assistant
University of Utah

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