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December 18, 2007 APA Award Recognizes Newport Beach for Hard-Won Victory WASHINGTON, DC — The American Planning Association (APA) has named the City of Newport Beach, California, recipient of the 2008 National Planning Excellence Award for a Hard-Won Victory. The award recognizes the successful efforts of planners, city staff, city council members and thousands of community residents to resolve a years-long political dispute involving adoption of the first comprehensive revision of the city's General Plan in more than 30 years. "The City of Newport Beach and its unflappable citizens are to be commended for their perseverance in revising the city's general plan," said Carol Rhea, AICP, Chair of the 2008 National Planning Awards Jury. "This is a win for all community members who recognize the important role planning has in creating and protecting a sense of place and quality of life." Representatives from Newport Beach will receive their award at a luncheon ceremony April 30 during APA's National Planning Conference. A 30-minute video about all 11 of the 2008 National Planning Excellence, Achievement, and Leadership Awardees will be shown at the luncheon. Accomplishments of the award recipients also will be highlighted in the April 2008 issue of Planning magazine and on the APA website. "Residents can feel proud that their involvement in the planning process will help keep Newport Beach a strong, healthy, and livable community," said Newport Beach Mayor Ed Selich, who chaired the General Plan Update Committee that managed the process. The City Council wanted to develop a sustainable growth plan that would protect Newport Beach's environmental and other special assets valued by residents, and directed their planners to undertake the most extensive public outreach and visioning campaign in the city's history. They used public forums, education, and technology, such as real time traffic modeling of growth scenarios, to engage residents. Through this extensive and varied program, the city educated the community about the general plan, explained why it needed to be updated, described how new mixed-use and pedestrian-oriented development measures could improve quality of life and the environment, and received input from thousands of residents. The revised plan redirects the city's historic, auto-oriented development pattern to a more compact approach that emphasizes mixed use, walkability, and community interaction. Cumulatively, these changes will reduce the number of daily automobile trips by 28,000 and will help lessen the city's "carbon footprint" and improve quality of life by reducing traffic congestion and vehicle commute times. To comply with a citizen initiative approved by Newport Beach voters in 2000, the general plan had to be approved by the voters. Despite a court challenge to the Environmental Impact Report and a competing initiative on the same ballot, the general plan was approved by 54 percent of voters. For a list of all of the APA 2008 National Planning Excellence, Achievement, and Leadership Award recipients, visit www.planning.org/awards/2008winners.htm. APA's national awards program, the profession's highest honor, is a proud tradition established more than 50 years ago to recognize outstanding community plans, planning programs and initiatives, public education efforts, and individuals for their leadership on planning issues.
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