Congratulations to urban planning students Ethan Wherry and Farnaz Fatahi who received first and second place prizes for their poster presentations from the American Planning Association (APA) Iowa Chapter. The awards were presented at the recent APA Iowa conference in Sioux City, IA.

Ethan collaborated with Hannah Lyons, a student in sustainable development, for their first prize poster, based on their team’s 2023-2024 capstone project. The project synthesized existing documents and developed new strategies to create the first plan focused specifically on affordable housing for the City of Dubuque, Iowa. Guided by the most pressing affordable housing issues in the planning process, the capstone team engaged with community stakeholders, gathered resident input, performed data analysis, and identified challenges related to housing in order to provide recommendations to the City of Dubuque. See their poster, “Dubuque Affordable Action Plan: A local strategy for a national crisis,” and full information about their capstone project, at the related links. All SPPA capstone projects are done in coordinator with the Iowa Initiative for Sustainable Communities. 

Farnaz received second place for her poster, “Parks, Trails, and Greenways Plan,” based on a 2023-2024 capstone project she completed with four other graduate students for the City of Bondurant, Iowa. According to Farnaz, her role “involved interpreting community feedback and survey data collected by the team to understand what residents wanted in their neighborhood parks.” This led the group to design six unique parks. Farnaz explained, “We aimed for each park to feature elements that cater to various age groups, making them inviting destinations for all. Sustainability and affordability were also crucial, and we emphasized these values throughout our designs.” The capstone project’s final report can be viewed for further details.