Graduates with this concentration of study find positions as local or regional land use planners, urban designers, environmental analysts with state and national agencies and NGOs, or infrastructure and comprehensive development planners in the private sector.
Students focus on actions that directly affect the physical character, transformation, rehabilitation, and preservation of cities and regions. Students study such topics as land use and urban design plans, "smart growth" policies, public spaces in cities, strategies for increasing housing opportunities, sustainability, and the redevelopment and preservation of urban neighborhoods.
With this concentration, students develop the knowledge and skills to:
- Draft urban design guidelines and policies
- Conduct environmental impact assessments
- Use geographical information systems (GIS)
- Facilitate community participation
- Resolve environmental and development disputes.
The land use, environmental planning, and urban design concentration focuses on how planners help guide the physical transformation, rehabilitation, design, and preservation of cities and regions. In this concentration students may further specialize in one of two areas — land use and environment or urban design.
Listed below are suggestions for the concentrations. These are only suggestions, as the hallmark of Cornell's graduate program is individual flexibility where each student develops his/her own program of study in consultation with his/her faculty committee.
Area 1: Land-Use and Environment Expectations
Students selecting the land-use and environmental planning area may wish to complete the following courses:
1. A couple of the following four courses:
- CRP 5520 Land Use Planning
- CRP 5540 Introduction to Environmental Planning
- CRP 5810 Principles of Spatial Design and Aesthetics
- CRP 5560 Design in Real Estate Development
2. An appropriate course in law to satisfy the MRP core requirement, for example:
- CRP 6530 Legal Aspects of Land Use Planning
- CRP 5540 Resource Management and Environmental Law
- CRP 5510 Environmental Law
3. An appropriate course in planning methods to supplement CRP 5250 and satisfy the MRP core requirement, for example:
- CRP 5080 Introduction to GIS
- CRP 5460 Introduction to Community and Environmental Dispute Resolution
- Other courses at the suggestion of the advisor
4. At least one workshop to fulfill the MRP workshop requirement, for example:
- City and Regional Planning Workshop (CRP 5071, introduced 2008-2009)
- Land Use, Environment, and Urban Design Workshop (CRP 5072, introduced 2008-2009)
5.
Other electives such as those suggested below.
Area 2: Urban Design/Physical Planning Expectations
Students selecting the urban design area may wish to complete the following courses in the area of urban design and preservation. They also draw on the real estate program offerings as well as those from landscape architecture:
1. The following course unless a similar one has been completed elsewhere:
- CRP 5810 Principles of Spatial Design and Aesthetics
2. An appropriate course in law to satisfy the MRP core requirement, for example:
- CRP 6530 Legal Aspects of Land Use Planning
- CRP 6570 Real Estate Law
3. An appropriate course (or two) in planning methods to supplement CRP 5250 and satisfy the MRP core requirement. For students who do not have a degree in architecture, landscape architecture or related areas. The following may be of interest.
- CRP 5202 Visual Methods in Planning
- CRP 5072 Land Use, Environment, and Urban Design Workshop
- CRP 5080 Introduction to GIS
- CRP 5670 Measured Drawings
- CRP 5460 Introduction to Community and Environmental Dispute Resolution
- Other courses at the suggestion of the advisor
4. At least one advanced workshop; this may be, for example:
- CRP 5073 or 5650 Historic Preservation Planning Workshop
- CRP 5075 Real Estate Development Workshop
- LA 7020 Advanced Design Studio (urban design offerings, in particular the Spring capstone)
5.
Other courses in urban design are listed below.
Beyond these suggestions, students design their concentration in ways that best meet their interests and future plans, in dialogue with their advisors.
Elective Courses
Many courses in CRP are applicable to and appropriate for land-use, environmental planning, and urban design. The courses listed are suggestive only, not exhaustive (and do not include any courses outside CRP, of which there are many in programs such as architecture, landscape architecture, engineering, and design, environment, and analysis). Not all courses are guaranteed to be offered every year.
Land Use and Environment
- CRP 5072 Land Use, Environment, and Urban Design Workshop
- CRP 5202 Visual Methods in Planning
- CRP 5520 Land Use Planning
- CRP 5530 Land Use Regulations
- CRP 5440 Resource Management and Environmental Law
- CRP 5540 Introduction to Environmental Planning
- CRP 5460 Introduction to Community and Environmental Dispute Resolution
- CRP 6050 Urban Public Finance
- CRP 6120 Devolution, Privatization, and the New Public Management
- CRP 6430 Affordable Housing
- CRP 6503 Comparative Land Use Policy
- CRP 6650 Preservation Planning and Urban Change
- CRP 6740 Urban Transformations in the Global South
- CRP 6760 Latin American Cities
- CRP 5074 Project Planning in Developing Countries
- CRP 6790 Infrastructure in the Third World
- AEM 6510 Environmental and Resource Economics
- CEE 3610 Introduction to Transportation Engineering
- DSOC 6320 Environmental Governance
- NTRES 6340 International Conservation
Urban Design
- CRP 5072 Land Use, Environment, and Urban Design Workshop
- CRP 5080 Introduction to GIS
- CRP 5202 Visual Methods in Planning
- CRP 5320 Real Estate Development Process.
- CRP 5460 Introduction to Community and Environmental Dispute Resolution
- CRP 5560 Design in Real Estate Development
- CRP 5620 Perspectives on Preservation
- CRP 5630 Problems in Contemporary Preservation Practice
- CRP 5650 Fieldwork in History & Preservation
- CRP 5670 Measured Drawings
- CRP 6530 Legal Aspects of Land Use Planning
- CRP 6580 Residential Development.
- CRP 6630 Historic Preservation Law
- CRP 6640 Economics and Financing of Neighborhood Conservation and Preservation
- CRP 6650 Preservation Planning and Urban Change
- CRP 6680 The History of Urban Form in America
- DEA 6500 Programming Methods in Design
- DEA6600 Environment and Social Behavior
- DEA 6610 Environments and Health
- LA 5050 Graphic Communication I
- LA 5060 Graphic Communication II
- LA 7020 Advanced Design Studio
Faculty
K. Balassiano,
R. Booth,
J. Chusid,
J. Forester,
A. Forsyth,
D. Funk,
A. Karriem,
D. Lewis,
P. Oliver,
B. Olson,
R. Pendall,
S. Schmidt,
M. Tomlan 
