Last summer, he was selected for an eight-week internship at the China Academy of Urban Planning and Design in Beijing.  The introduction to Michael’s paper, “A River Ran through It,” is a case study of Yuhuan, a disappearing Chinese island and aspiring eco-city. An excerpt follows:

“In the summer of 2011, while working at CAUPD’s Beijing headquarters, I helped develop a master plan for Yuhuan County, Zhejiang Province’s easternmost municipality, about 300 kilometers south of Shanghai. My team and I spent nine days in Yuhuan, toured the Singapore-sized county, and met with local government officials.

This paper, whose intended audience is urban planners and other sustainable development practitioners working in China, uses Yuhuan to explore the broader planning and policy challenges and opportunities China faces as it urbanizes.”

Michael concludes that Yuhuan — and, presumably, other Chinese cities — should integrate sustainable development best practices from some of the world’s best-planned “eco-cities.

Recently, Arnold Cogan, Founding Principal of COC, led a group of executives from the Port of Portland to Devens, Massachusetts to learn firsthand of the eco-industrial development practices there that can be applied to Port facilities.  Andreas Koenig, Senior Advisor for Sustainable Management for Re-Tem Global, Inc., who has been a consultant to Devens for the past 12 years, also led the group.  Keith Leavitt, the Port’s General Manager for Business Development and Properties, and Tom Imeson, the Port’s Public Affairs Director, represented the Port.

An eco-industrial area is a community of manufacturing and service enterprises located on a common property or in the same region.  Member companies enjoy enhanced environmental, economic and social performance by collaborating to manage resources.

The Devens Eco-Industrial Park is located on 4,400 acres approximately 35 miles from Boston.  It has been operating for about 15 years and is home to about 90 businesses, 70% of which are small to medium manufacturing, distribution and recycling enterprises.

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts was instrumental in creating the expedited permitting process used in Devens.  Earlier this year, the Oregon Legislature passed SB 766 whose overriding purpose is to make it possible to expedite the process of permitting job-generating industries.  The experience in Devens may be useful as Oregon explores the potential of SB 766.

The following week Ellen guest lectured with former graduate student and colleague Abigail Cermak (currently with Portland’s Bureau of Environmental Services) for PSU’s graduate Public Involvement in Planning class.  They were asked to focus on best practices in public involvement with diverse communities.  Ellen and Abigail presented a framework of their personal experiences with their work in the Latino community and made recommendations for approaches working in other diverse communities.  The overall emphasis to the students was that as a planner you do not walk into a community as the “expert” but instead an ally. This is the framework from which to start all public involvement work.  At Cogan Owens Cogan, Ellen looks forward to continuing to work with clients on developing frameworks for their own best practice public involvement efforts with diverse communities.   Each city, community and place is different, but there are key fundamental approaches toward ensuring successful outcomes in terms of effective and adequate participation and outreach.

For those that have had the opportunity to work with Elaine, or read her writing, we know that every interaction leaves us better afterwards than we were going in.

See the full PCJ article here.

Kudos, Elaine. Please keep up the great work!!!