Florida State University
AC-4: Graduate Program

The Department of Urban & Regional Planning at Florida State University prepares students to contribute to the development of resilient communities and ecosystems in order to promote human capabilities, social justice, sustainable livelihoods, and community health and safety. Through this program, students learn to think critically, exhibit technical competence, facilitate adaptive learning, and effectively engage the political process over the course of their professional planning careers.
Students select one of the six specializations listed below as their focus of study, with dual specializations possible:
Building Healthy Communities-This specialty reflects the recent resurgence of interest in what civic stakeholders, local communities, and global society are doing to ensure that urban and urbanizing landscapes are healthy and desirable places. The way a community is planned--its land development patterns, transportation and housing options, or community design--plays an important role in shaping the health of those living there.
Environmental Planning -The environmental planning specialization deals with the protection and stewardship of air, water, land, and other natural resources. Concerns include both the management of natural resources directly, as well as the mitigation of adverse impacts on these resources caused by human settlements and activities. The specialization offers an overview of key environmental issues, and provides the theoretical, methodological, and legal background necessary for the planner to have an effective role in dealing with these issues.
Land Use and Comprehensive Planning - The Land Use and Comprehensive Planning specialization focuses on the development and implementation of policies to manage the location, timing, type, and density/intensity of land development. The land development process consists of three types of activities that need to be coordinated if desirable development outcomes are to be achieved. The private market system provides much of the motivation, incentives, and capital of the development process. The public sector regulates development in order to prevent land use conflicts and to help ensure that the location, type, density/intensity, and timing of development are consistent with public policy goals and the ability of land and public facilities to support development. The public sector also acts as a stimulant to private development through the construction of roads, schools, sewer and water systems, and other facilities that are necessary for land development. The specialization is concerned with how well these three functions are carried out and coordinated in order to improve the outcomes of the city building process. There is a special focus on the range of policy solutions implemented by government in the past, the methods of evaluating the need for policy solutions, and the methods for designing policy and implementation strategies.
Neighborhood Planning and Community Design- The Neighborhood Planning + Community Design specialization is concerned with the creation, preservation, and revitalization of neighborhoods and other small-area places, including commercial and public spaces that serve resident populations. It focuses on building the economic, physical, social, and political capital necessary to effect change through neighborhood revitalization strategies that aim to design equitable places and build human capital. Neighborhood planning evolved from the failures of urban renewal and anti-poverty based policies of the 1950s and 1960s. In response to the failures of top down approaches to revitalizing urban neighborhoods, neighborhood planning emerged as a bottom up, place-based strategy to incorporate community organizations and residents in the planning process. Community Design further shapes neighborhoods as planners work alongside community residents to design urban environments derived from place-based solutions that build human capital and promote social justice. The housing component also covers the general issue of providing decent, safe, and affordable housing for all residents, in locations that promote the well-being of households and the community.
Planning for Developing Areas - The Planning for Developing Areas specialization prepares students for the challenges of guiding economic and social development in the context of increasing globalization, commonly defined as the increasing interconnectedness of people, places, and institutions worldwide. Development planners work in urban and rural developing areas around the world. Courses address cross-cutting issues such as globalization, democratization, gender and development, and sustainable development. Courses provide students with an understanding of the legal and institutional context within which planners operate and of sector-specific issues and strategies. Students also develop skills in the preparation of development plans, in the design, management and implementation of development projects, and in participatory planning and research.
Transportation Planning - Transportation is essential to the function of cities and the well-being of their residents. Transportation systems make the exchange of goods and services possible, and they help shape the form of the built urban environment. The ways in which transportation systems are designed and used affect all other aspects of planning, from the environment to housing, community development to health, and land use development. Transportation planners draw on insights and tools from a variety of academic disciplines, including planning, geography, economics, public administration, engineering, and the design disciplines to examine, design, plan, and manage the multimodal transportation system in a way that is safe, efficient, effective, equitable, and sustainable. Transportation planning students take courses that enable them to work as professionals in a variety of contexts at all geographic scales, domestically and internationally. The curriculum covers all surface urban transportation modes: highway/automobile, public transit, pedestrian, and bicycling.

The FSU-FAMU College of Engineering Mechanical Engineering program offers an M.S. in Sustainable Energy with the following courses, highlighting energy developed in sustainable methodology: Analysis in Mechanical Engineering I, Engineering Electrochemistry, Energy Conversion Systems for Sustainability, Sustainable Power Generation, Sustainable Energy Utilization, plus electives, seminar, and thesis credits.

This certificate provides an in depth understanding of land use, environmental laws and acts in the state of Florida, U.S., and internationally. Students take the certificate along with their J.D. degree, indicating to employers and others that they have achieved special competency in the fields of environmental, energy, and land use law.