Dallas, Mesquite, Fort Worth Earn Top Honors With American Planning Association Awards
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Dallas, Mesquite, and Fort Worth were recognized Friday among other Texas municipalities and organizations for outstanding efforts in planning achievements and leadership by the American Planning Association.
The Dallas Sidewalk Master Plan was recognized with the Gold Award for Implementation. Mesquite will take home the Silver Award in Implementation for its Downtown Infrastructure Plan and Front Street Station.
Fort Worth’s East Berry Street Corridor Study, recently featured on CandysDirt.com, won top honors in the Transportation Planning category.
The awards represent the state’s highest planning honors. A selection committee evaluated nominees based on originality and innovation, engagement, implementation and effectiveness, quality, and promotion of planning.
“The recipients and their projects demonstrate some of the best practices of community planning and will serve as examples for other communities across the state and nation,” the press release states.
We reached out to the Dallas Planning and Development Department for comment and were told that the Sidewalk Master Plan was developed by Director of Transportation Gus Khankarli’s team in Public Works.
“We are honored to be the recipient of this award,” Khankarli said. “It is the culmination of the passage of the Strategic Mobility plan back on April 28, 2021, that helped guide the development and subsequent adoption of the Sidewalk Master Plan which serves as a targeted path forward aimed at improving the city-wide pedestrian system performance and user experience.”
Dallas Sidewalk Master Plan
The Dallas Sidewalk Master Plan used a data-driven strategic methodology that scored and prioritized sidewalk projects based on considerations of equity, places of public accommodation, street classification, citizen requests, pedestrian safety, and activity areas, according to the city website.
Through this work, 12 focus areas were identified with $30 million of inventory priority sidewalk projects that showed the highest concentration of priority and are aimed at improving the citywide pedestrian experience.
The Implementation Award recognizes “an effort that demonstrates a significant achievement for an area — a single community or a region — in accomplishing positive changes as a result of planning,” according to an APA press release issued Friday morning.
2024 Texas Planning Awards
Below are the awards announced Friday by the American Planning Association.
Planning Awards
Community of the Year
• City of Georgetown
Comprehensive Plan
• Vision 2045, City of Amarillo Comprehensive Plan
Advancing Diversity & Social Change
• CapMetro ETOD Study
Planning Advocate
• City of Austin Mayor Pro Tem Leslie Pool
Planning Landmark
• Rio Vista Farm Bracero Reception Center
Journalism Award
• Community Impact
Texas Chapter Award — To be announced at the conference
Chapter President’s Award — To be announced at the conference
Texas Planning Legend Award — To be announced at the conference
Planning Achievement Awards
Best Practice
• Gold Award: City of Houston Livable Places
• Gold Award: Houston Parks Board Design Guidelines for Pedestrian and Bike Trails
Economic Development Planning
• Gold Award: Brownwood Downtown Plan
Environmental Planning
• Gold Award: El Paso Regional Priority Climate Action Plan
• Silver Award: San Marcos Natural Areas Land Management Plan
Grassroots Initiative
• Gold Award: Turner Alumni Association
Implementation
• Gold Award: Dallas Sidewalk Master Plan
• Silver Award: Mesquite Downtown Infrastructure Plan and Front Street Station
Public Outreach
• Gold Award: Texas Trees Foundation: Southwestern Medical District Urban Streetscape and Park Project
• Silver Award: Prairie View Livable Centers Study
Resilience
• Gold Award: Houston Resilience Hub Network Master Plan
Transportation Planning
• Gold Award: City of Fort Worth East Berry Street Corridor Study
• Silver Award: City of Midland Comprehensive Safety Action Plan
• Silver Award: TxDOT Connecting Texas 2050 Statewide Long Range Transportation Plan
Urban Design
• Gold Award: University of Houston Downtown Campus Master Plan
• Silver Award: Waco 25th Street Corridor Implementation Plan
For more information about the Texas Planning Awards Program, visit the American Planning Association website.
