DEPARTMENT OF URBAN & REGIONAL PLANNING
Undergraduate Department of Urban & Regional Planning
COLLEGE OF SOCIAL SCIENCES & PUBLIC POLICY
Department of Urban & Regional Planning Website
Chair: Mike Duncan; Professors: Brown, Butler, Chapin, Coutts, Duncan; Associate Professors: Holmes, Kinahan; Assistant Professors: Echavarria, McSorley, Sachdeva, Siddiq; Teaching Faculty: Felkner; Planner in Residence: Smith; Senior Planner: Ventimiglia; Professors Emeriti: Cowart, Deyle, Doan, Miles, RuBino, Thompson
The profession of Urban and Regional Planning encompasses all aspects of the development of human settlements, including the use of land, protection of the environment, economic productivity, and the future allocation of physical and social public resources. Planning's initial concern with the form and structure of cities continues, but it has grown to include all aspects of the formulation and implementation of public policy, at all levels of society. Today, the field is a diverse one, incorporating the many issues developed over the past decades and expanding to include new areas of concern. This has resulted in the establishment of new priorities and the emergence of new policy directions, including environmental sustainability, social-ecological resilience, human service delivery systems, affordable housing, attention to job growth, global competitiveness, and access to health services, as well as more traditional activities such as the provision and financing of roads, infrastructure, and public services.
As an institutional and professional activity, planning is now practiced in the public sector at all levels of government and in the private sector through firms that service local governments, development interests, and community groups. At each stage in the development of the profession, new skills and knowledge have been called for, creating new employment opportunities and an expansion of the backgrounds held by professionals in the field. Today, planners have ties to the various social sciences, natural sciences, law, engineering, business, the design professions, and others. Consequently, majors from throughout the University have been attracted to the field and have thrived in a discipline that welcomes individuals with backgrounds in science, policy, design, and computer applications.
What unites people from these various backgrounds into the professional field of planning is a commitment to making the world a better place through collaboration, consensus building, and enlightened and informed public policy. While both the problems and the means for dealing with them may differ, all planners are concerned with systematically studying problems, their likely future levels, and formulating appropriate policies and programs to deal with them. Moreover, unlike many other problem-oriented professions, planning is distinguished by its concern with coordinated policy responses. Planners have adopted a broad view that focuses on the interrelationships between problems and the necessary interrelatedness of solutions.
Above all, planners are committed to a particular concern: improving the “quality of life” in the places they work. This extends to employment, schools, health, housing, community facilities, and the physical, social, and natural environments. While any single professional may focus on a narrower range of issues, the field as a whole focuses on the entire set of issues affecting the livability of the built and natural environment. Planners attempt to address these issues in ways that recognize the differing and legitimate concerns of many diverse and partisan interests. Accordingly, planning is a demanding and exciting field. It is beset by challenges that are created by the difficulties in finding solutions to thorny problems and in obtaining a consensus among diverse interests on policies and programs to address these problems. At the same time, it is a rewarding field. Planners know that they can and do make significant contributions to the well-being of their cities, states, and nations.
The Department of Urban and Regional Planning offers two non-major programs for undergraduates interested in planning and urban affairs. These programs are designed to complement an existing major for those students who wish to develop an appreciation of planning or who wish to lay the foundation for graduate study in planning. These programs are the undergraduate planning studies minor and Combined Bachelor's/Master's Pathway. Within each of these programs, students may satisfy their minor requirements.
Because of the variety of issues and contexts within which planners work, there is no one undergraduate background that is more important than others. Students may combine their interests in planning and urban affairs with undergraduate majors in the variety of social sciences, physical or natural sciences, business, engineering, design professions, communications, criminology and criminal justice, and others.
Planning Studies Minor Program
This program is designed for students who wish to apply their major field to problems and issues in planning and urban affairs. The program consists of a series of courses that provide an overview of planning and that introduce the student to issues, organizations, policies, and implementation strategies. Students may earn a minor in urban and regional planning by completing a four-course sequence that is composed of three required courses and one elective course. URP 3000 is a prerequisite for all the elective courses as well as URP 4022. Electives are chosen from among a set of courses representing the major policy areas taught by the department.
Students interested in the planning studies minor program are advised to see the department's Academic Programs Specialist for advice on the availability of courses.
Required Courses
URS 1006 World Cities: Quality of Life
URP 3000 Introduction to Planning and Urban Development
URP 4022 Collective Decision Making
Elective Courses (Choose One)
URP 4104 Consequences of Planning
URP 4314 Introduction to Growth Management and Comprehensive Planning
URP 4318 Growth Management and Environmental Planning
URP 4354 International Transportation Planning
URP 4402 Sustainable Development Planning in the Americas
URP 4404 River Basin Management and Planning
URP 4408 Food Systems Planning
URP 4423 Introduction to Environmental Planning and Resource Management
URP 4612 Strategies for Urban and Regional Planning in Less Developed Countries
URP 4618 Planning for Developing Regions
URP 4710 Introduction to Transportation Issues and Transportation Planning
URP 4715 Bike and Pedestrian Planning
URP 4741 Introduction to Issues in Housing and Community Development
URP 4811 Multicultural Urbanism
URP 4936r Special Topics in Urban and Regional Planning
Combined Bachelor's/Master's Pathway
This undergraduate program is designed for students who anticipate continuing to graduate school to earn the professional master's degree in planning. Students who are accepted into the Combined Bachelor's/Master's Pathway may take up to 12 credit hours of graduate courses in Urban and Regional Planning. These credits will count toward the completion of both their bachelor's degree and the Master of Science in Planning (MSP) degree upon their admission to the MSP program. The program thus allows students the opportunity to take a more challenging set of courses and begin their graduate studies early. This program is closely coordinated with the department's graduate program, offering students the possibility of preferred admission with advanced standing at the graduate level. Students make application for advanced standing after admission to the master's program.
FSU students must have completed at least 90 credit hours of coursework. Honors Program students may be considered for admission after completing 60 credit hours, while transfer students must have completed at least 24 credit hours at FSU. Students must have a grade point average of 3.0 or higher to be admitted to the Combined Bachelor's/Master's Pathway (although there can be some flexibility with this requirement). Students must complete URP 3000 Introduction to Urban Planning and Development OR URP4022 Collective Decision Making and earn a grade of B or better in those classes prior to admission into the Combined Bachelor's/Master's Pathway.
Students completing this program with an upper-division GPA of at least 3.0 may be offered admission to the master's program in planning with advanced standing for up to twelve semester hours of coursework in which the grade of “B” or higher was earned.
Students interested in the combined bachelor's/master's pathway program are advised to see the department's Academic Programs Specialist to apply.
July 1 is the application deadline to begin combined pathway coursework in Fall, November 1 is the deadline to begin coursework in Spring, and March 15 is the deadline to begin coursework in Summer.
Required Course
URP 3000 Introduction to Planning and Urban Development (3),
OR
URP 4022 Collaborative Decision Making (3).
Elective Courses (Choose One to Four)
Students interested in the Combined Bachelor's/Master's Pathway are advised to see the department's Master's Program Director for advising on appropriate courses to take.
Definition of Prefixes
IDH—Interdisciplinary Humanities
URP—Urban and Regional Planning
URS—Urban and Regional Studies