APA News from Western Washington University’s Planning Program

Nicholas C. Zaferatos, Ph.D., AICP, Professor, Urban Planning and Sustainable Development, Director UPSD Program, Western Washington University

WWU was recently notified that its BA program in Urban Planning and Sustainable Development has been granted continued accreditation by the Planning Accreditation Board for a period of five years. WWU’s planning program is one of 16 accredited undergraduate planning programs in the nation and one of two accredited undergraduate programs in Washington State. In addition, Western is in the process of establishing a new Department of Urban and Environmental Planning and Policy as a third academic division within Huxley College, offering professional degree programs in urban planning, urban and sustainable design, and environmental policy.

WWU Planning Faculty Research News

A two-year research project funded under a Bullitt Foundation grant investigated the effects of Tribal governments’ exclusion from participation in Washington State’s Growth Management Act. The publication “Washington Indian Tribes and the Growth Management Act: Toward Inclusionary Regional Planning,” directed by WWU’s Urban Planning Professor Nicholas Zaferatos, aims to broaden Washington planners’ understanding of Tribal governance and the rights guaranteed under treaties in off-reservation ceded and usual and accustomed areas. The publication reviews the history of federal Indian policies that created complex on-reservation jurisdictional conditions on many Washington Indian reservations, the identification of tribal interests regarding on-reservation planning and off-reservation resource management, a review of the case law concerning tribal rights, survey data on the status of tribal-local government cooperative efforts in planning, and recommendations for amending the GMA to foster inclusionary regional planning with Tribal nations.

Download a PDF version of the report

Hard copies of the report are available upon request (send requests to [email protected]). Recommendations for legislative amendments providing for Tribal participation in regional planning were incorporated in the draft omnibus bill currently under preparation by the Washington Growth Policy Framework, a research project coordinated by the Center for Livable Community, University of Washington.