Outstanding Implementation

Recognizing 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. This award emphasizes long-term, measurable results. Nominated efforts should have been in continuous effect for a minimum of three (3) years, not including the time for plan preparation and approval.

Examples: Plans for smart growth, signage, farmland preservation, urban design, wetland mitigation, resource conservation, capital improvements, citizen participation, neighborhood improvement, transportation management, or sustained economic development.

Eligibility:

Open to APA members and nonmembers. Nominated efforts should have been in continuous effect for a minimum of three (3) years, not including the time for plan preparation and approval.

Criteria:

• Originality and innovation — Document how your entry presents a visionary approach or innovative concept to address needs. Explain how the use of the planning process in this context broadened accepted planning principles within the context of the situation.
• Effectiveness — Indicate the level of consistency of this implementation effort since its start. State how your entry addressed the need or problem that prompted its initiation. Be explicit about how the results have made a difference in the lives of the people affected. Convey the level of effectiveness your entry can have over time.
• Overcoming challenges — Address what steps have been taken to build momentum and public support for your entry. Detail any changes, derailments, or improvements throughout the implementation phase. Identify funding challenges or support for this effort. Report any political changes that might affect, for better or worse, the effort's long-term funding.
• Engagement — Explain how various public interests were involved and the extent of that involvement. Describe how your entry obtained public and private support. Clarify the role, significance, and participation of planners.
• Achievement — Describe how the longevity of this effort has increased the community's appetite for planning and the pursuit of similar initiatives. Clarify the extent that this effort's sustained success has been achieved beyond its general audience.