UrbanPlan
What is UrbanPlan?
UrbanPlan is a proven way to educate high school and college students as well as neighborhood groups and community members in the dynamics of real estate ownership, development and planning. It is a realistic, engaging, and challenging program in which participants learn the roles, issues, trade-offs, and economics involved in urban development. The program provides tomorrow’s future voters, neighbors, public officials, and land use professionals with a hands-on experience in developing realistic land use solutions to complex urban growth challenges, and was developed in partnership with the Fisher Center for Real Estate and Urban Economics at the University of California, Berkeley and a team of high school economics and government teachers.
Photo By Brandon Thibodeaux
Murl Richardson speaks with April Caldo and fellow students at Skyline High School as they take part in the ULI Urban Planning program led by volunteers at the school in Dallas, TX, on Thursday, February 8, 2018.
UrbanPlan in Dallas-Fort Worth
Since the Dallas-Fort Worth district joined the UrbanPlan effort in 2005, it has facilitated the program in over 100 classes involving over 1,400 students. UrbanPlan volunteers have two roles:
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Facilitate teams of students to redevelop a hypothetical blighted area via a public-private partnership.
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Serve on a mock city councils to judge presentations and select a winning team at the end of the session.
All volunteers must first complete ULI’s online, on-demand 90-minute training session in which they learn the intricacies of the exercise and then how best to communicate their real life experience to students in the classroom and community members. Once the one time training is completed, the time demand on the volunteers is flexible and self scheduled as the program is run at multiple times and locations each semester. **All volunteers must submit an UrbanPlan Application.
UrbanPlan is a unique way to get involved in a hands-on program of ULI, working closely with other real estate professionals while making a difference in our local community. As we expand into additional schools in North Texas, our need for additional volunteers will increase, providing even more opportunity to make an impact using your professional skills and expertise.
ULI Dallas-Fort Worth has conducted UrbanPlan in in the following schools/universities: City Lab High School; Moises E. Molina High School; Centennial High School; Highland Park High School; Lebanon Trail High School; Southern Methodist University; the University of Texas, Dallas; the University of Texas, Arlington; and Texas Christian University.