Twin Cities campus

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Twin Cities Campus

Urban and Regional Planning Minor

HHH Administration
Hubert H. Humphrey School of Public Affairs
Link to a list of faculty for this program.
Contact Information
Student Services, Hubert H. Humphrey School of Public Affairs, University of Minnesota, 301 19th Avenue South, Minneapolis, MN 55455 (612-624-3800; fax: 612-626-0002)
  • Program Type: Graduate minor related to major
  • Requirements for this program are current for Fall 2024
  • Length of program in credits (master's): 9
  • Length of program in credits (doctoral): 12
  • This program does not require summer semesters for timely completion.
Planners bring together knowledge and expertise from many diverse disciplines to shape neighborhoods, cities, and regions. The Urban and Regional Planning minor helps students to think across those fields of expertise and act upon links among environmental systems, infrastructure development, and housing and community development. The minor teaches technical and analytical skills needed to think strategically about developing and implementing plans at the neighborhood, city, and regional level.
Program Delivery
  • via classroom (the majority of instruction is face-to-face)
Prerequisites for Admission
Special Application Requirements:
Students interested in the minor are strongly encouraged to confer with their major field advisor and director of graduate studies, and the Urban and Regional Planning director of graduate studies regarding feasibility and requirements.
For an online application or for more information about graduate education admissions, see the General Information section of this website.
Program Requirements
Use of 4xxx courses towards program requirements is not permitted.
No more than 3 credits may be taken S/N. All other courses must be completed with grades of B or higher. The minimum cumulative GPA for minor field coursework is 3.00.
Core Course (3 credits)
Take the following course:
PA 5004 - Introduction to Planning (3.0 cr)
Additional Course (3 credits)
Select a course from the following in consultation with the Urban and Regional Planning director of graduate studies:
PA 5211 - Land Use Planning (3.0 cr)
PA 5234 - Urban Transportation Planning and Policy (3.0 cr)
PA 5242 - Environmental Planning, Policy, and Decision Making (3.0 cr)
PA 5261 - Housing Policy (3.0 cr)
PA 5262 - Neighborhood Revitalization Theories and Strategies (3.0 cr)
Electives (3 to 6 credits)
Master's students select 3 credits, and doctoral students select 6 credits from the following in consultation with the Urban and Regional Planning director of graduate studies. Other PA courses may be selected with approval of the Urban and Regional Planning director of graduate studies.
PA 5003 - Introduction to Financial Analysis and Management (1.5 cr)
PA 5021 - Microeconomics for Policy Analysis (3.0 cr)
PA 5113 - State and Local Public Finance (3.0 cr)
PA 5114 - Budget Analysis in Public and Nonprofit Orgs (1.5 cr)
PA 5206 - The City of White Supremacy (3.0 cr)
PA 5209 - Urban Planning and Health Equity (3.0 cr)
PA 5211 - Land Use Planning (3.0 cr)
PA 5212 - Managing Urban Growth and Change (3.0 cr)
PA 5213 - Introduction to Site Planning (3.0 cr)
PA 5221 - Private Sector Development (3.0 cr)
PA 5231 - Transit Planning and Management (3.0 cr)
PA 5233 - Sustainable Transportation (3.0 cr)
PA 5234 - Urban Transportation Planning and Policy (3.0 cr)
PA 5242 - Environmental Planning, Policy, and Decision Making (3.0 cr)
PA 5243 - Environmental Justice in Urban Planning & Public Policy (3.0 cr)
PA 5251 - Strategic Planning and Management (3.0 cr)
PA 5261 - Housing Policy (3.0 cr)
PA 5262 - Neighborhood Revitalization Theories and Strategies (3.0 cr)
PA 5271 - Geographic Information Systems: Applications in Planning and Policy Analysis (3.0 cr)
PA 5281 - Immigrants, Urban Planning and Policymaking in the U.S. (3.0 cr)
PA 5290 - Topics in Planning (0.5-4.0 cr)
PA 5511 - Community Economic Development (3.0 cr)
PA 5521 - Development Planning and Policy Analysis (4.0 cr)
PA 5751 - Addressing Climate and Energy Challenges at the Local Scale (3.0 cr)
PA 5880 - Exploring Global Cities (1.0-3.0 cr)
Program Sub-plans
Students are required to complete one of the following sub-plans.
Students may not complete the program with more than one sub-plan.
Masters
Doctoral
 
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PA 5004 - Introduction to Planning
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Grading Basis: A-F only
Typically offered: Every Fall
History/institutional development of urban planning as profession. Intellectual foundations, planning theory. Roles of urban planners in U.S./international settings. Scope, legitimacy, limitations of planning/planning process. Issues in planning ethics/settings of diverse populations/stakeholders. prereq: Major/minor in urban/regional planning or instr consent
PA 5211 - Land Use Planning
Credits: 3.0 [max 6.0]
Grading Basis: A-F only
Typically offered: Every Fall
Physical/spatial basis for land use planning at community/regional level. Role of public sector in guiding private development. Land use regulations, comprehensive planning, growth management, innovative land use planning/policies. prereq: Major or minor in urban/regional planning or instr consent
PA 5234 - Urban Transportation Planning and Policy
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Course Equivalencies: CEGE 8202/PA 8202
Grading Basis: A-F or Aud
Typically offered: Every Spring
This course will integrate key theories and practices, traditional and emerging policy instruments, and techniques for urban and transportation planning. The goal is to introduce students to essential concepts, influential thinkers, and important debates associated with the land use-transportation connection as a foundation for both professional and academic work. By the end of the course, students will be able to comprehend urban transportation planning process and demand forecasting; the theories and empirical evidence on land use and transportation interactions; land use and transportation policy instruments and their effectiveness; and land use and transportation planning in developing countries.
PA 5242 - Environmental Planning, Policy, and Decision Making
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Typically offered: Every Fall
Theory and practice. Ethical, legal, and institutional frameworks relative to a range of environmental issues. Innovative environmental decision making informed by collaboration, conflict resolution, adaptive management, and resilience thinking. prereq: Grad or instr consent
PA 5261 - Housing Policy
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Course Equivalencies: Hsg 5463/PA 5261
Grading Basis: A-F or Aud
Typically offered: Every Spring
Institutional/environmental setting for housing policy in the United States. Competing views of solving housing problems through public intervention in the market. Federal/local public sector responses to housing problems. prereq: Grad or instr consent
PA 5262 - Neighborhood Revitalization Theories and Strategies
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Course Equivalencies: PA 5262/PA 8203
Grading Basis: OPT No Aud
Typically offered: Every Fall
Policymaking/politics of planning in housing, community development, social policy. Connecting policy to local/regional politics. Role of institutional decision-making structures on policy outcomes. Importance of citizens, social movements, interest groups in policymaking process.
PA 5003 - Introduction to Financial Analysis and Management
Credits: 1.5 [max 1.5]
Grading Basis: A-F or Aud
Typically offered: Every Fall, Spring & Summer
Finance/accounting concepts/tools in public/nonprofit organizations. Fund accounting. Balance sheet/income statement analysis. Cash flow analysis. Public/nonprofit sector budgeting processes. Lectures, discussions. Cases. prereq: Public policy major/minor or major in development practice, public affairs or liberal studies or grad nonprofit mgmt cert or instr consent
PA 5021 - Microeconomics for Policy Analysis
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Grading Basis: A-F or Aud
Typically offered: Every Fall
Introduction to tools useful for public policy. Intermediate microeconomics.
PA 5113 - State and Local Public Finance
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Typically offered: Every Spring
Theory/practice of financing. Providing public services at state/local level of government. Emphasizes integrating theory/practice, applying materials to specific policy areas, and documenting wide range of institutional arrangements across/within the 50 states.
PA 5114 - Budget Analysis in Public and Nonprofit Orgs
Credits: 1.5 [max 3.0]
Course Equivalencies: PA 5111/PA 5114
Prerequisites: PA 5003
Typically offered: Every Spring
Techniques, terminology, concepts and skills for developing and analyzing operating and capital budgets in public and nonprofit organizations. Budget analysis using case studies, problem sets, and spreadsheets. Time value of money, cost-benefit analysis, break-even analysis, sensitivity analysis, and fiscal analysis. prereq: PA 5003
PA 5206 - The City of White Supremacy
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Typically offered: Every Fall
The title of this course is meant to signal the objective of scrutinizing how systems of white supremacy have shaped the American city and how the American city functions in ways that reproduce and reinforce white supremacy. The colonization of the Americas coincided with the fabrication of racial identities that set the terms for membership in what became a white supremacist/racial state wherein all things, including spatial thinking and design, conformed to a racial calculus. As Lipsitz (2007: 12) tells us, ?The lived experience of race has a spatial dimension, and the lived experience of space has a racial dimension.? The core of this class will, however, focus on later developments characteristic of the period of rapid urbanization from the Jim Crow era through the New Deal and Civil Rights periods to today. The first section of the course will focus on frameworks for understanding white supremacy generally, and as it relates to urban development specifically. The second section considers specific domains of urban policy and planning using white supremacy as the analytic framework. In these weeks we examine how white supremacy has been expressed across a range of urban development issue areas, including housing, transportation, the urban environment, education, criminal justice, and urban design, and how policies and planning practice have maintained or disrupted systems of white supremacy.
PA 5209 - Urban Planning and Health Equity
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Typically offered: Every Spring
This interdisciplinary course examines the causes and consequences of place-based health disparities in cities, explores how health disparities can be mitigated and exacerbated by urban planning decisions, and introduces best practices in urban planning for achieving community health equity. The course will involve extensive readings, guest lectures, field-based assignments, data-collection activities, and local community involvement. Twin Cities has one of the largest disparities in health outcomes in the nation and local practitioners are pioneering new urban planning solutions to reduce place-based health disparities. The course will utilize this location advantage and use the region as an immersive learning environment. Students are expected to apply knowledge and skills learned in the class locally in the Twin Cities region. At the end of the course, students will be able to: Understand the historical foundations, current trends and challenges, and international perspectives in connecting urban planning to health equity issues; investigate how various planning sectors and urban environment dimensions, including land use, transportation, open space, housing, food systems, and community social capital, interact to affect health disparities in cities; critically evaluate how existing planning processes and decisions respond to the needs of vulnerable populations and contribute to health equity; and develop skills to engage communities and identifying community-sensitive solutions for reducing place-based health disparities. Fulfills a requirement for graduate Health Equity Minor (http://www.sph.umn.edu/academics/minor/health-equity/).
PA 5211 - Land Use Planning
Credits: 3.0 [max 6.0]
Grading Basis: A-F only
Typically offered: Every Fall
Physical/spatial basis for land use planning at community/regional level. Role of public sector in guiding private development. Land use regulations, comprehensive planning, growth management, innovative land use planning/policies. prereq: Major or minor in urban/regional planning or instr consent
PA 5212 - Managing Urban Growth and Change
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Typically offered: Periodic Fall & Spring
Theory/practice of planning, promoting, and controlling economic growth/change in urban areas. Economic development tools available to state/local policymakers, historic context of their use in the United States. legal, social, and economic implementation constraints. Interactions among economic, social, and demographic trends. prereq: Grad student or instr consent
PA 5213 - Introduction to Site Planning
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Typically offered: Every Spring
Analyzing/preparing graphic plans for development or redevelopment of property. Site planning issues, process, opportunities, details, and techniques. Hands-on preparation of a site plan. Site visits, lectures, research, presentations, exam, in-class exercises. prereq: Grad student or instr consent
PA 5221 - Private Sector Development
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Grading Basis: OPT No Aud
Typically offered: Every Spring
Roles of various participants in land development. Investment objectives, effects of regulation. Overview of development process from private/public perspective.
PA 5231 - Transit Planning and Management
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Course Equivalencies: CEGE 5213/PA 5231
Typically offered: Fall Even Year
Principles/techniques related to implementing transit systems. Historical perspective, characteristics of travel demand, demand management. Evaluating/benchmarking system performance. Transit-oriented development. Analyzing alternative transit modes. System design/finance. Case studies, field projects. prereq: Grad student or instr consent
PA 5233 - Sustainable Transportation
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Grading Basis: A-F or Aud
Typically offered: Fall Odd Year
This course emphasizes the theories and practices associated with a sustainable transportation system, especially pedestrian and bicycle transportation. It covers key concepts of sustainable transportation, climate mitigation and adaptation, and planning for pedestrian and bicycle transportation. The specific topics regarding pedestrian and bicycle transportation include benefits and advocacy, data collection and performance measures, demand forecasting, behavior and its connection with neighborhood design and zoning, safety, planning, design principles of facilities, equity, and innovations.
PA 5234 - Urban Transportation Planning and Policy
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Course Equivalencies: CEGE 8202/PA 8202
Grading Basis: A-F or Aud
Typically offered: Every Spring
This course will integrate key theories and practices, traditional and emerging policy instruments, and techniques for urban and transportation planning. The goal is to introduce students to essential concepts, influential thinkers, and important debates associated with the land use-transportation connection as a foundation for both professional and academic work. By the end of the course, students will be able to comprehend urban transportation planning process and demand forecasting; the theories and empirical evidence on land use and transportation interactions; land use and transportation policy instruments and their effectiveness; and land use and transportation planning in developing countries.
PA 5242 - Environmental Planning, Policy, and Decision Making
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Typically offered: Every Fall
Theory and practice. Ethical, legal, and institutional frameworks relative to a range of environmental issues. Innovative environmental decision making informed by collaboration, conflict resolution, adaptive management, and resilience thinking. prereq: Grad or instr consent
PA 5243 - Environmental Justice in Urban Planning & Public Policy
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Grading Basis: A-F or Aud
Typically offered: Every Fall
Environmental racism can be defined as policies and practices that result in communities of Black, Indigenous and other people of color (BIPoC communities) being overexposed to environmental harms and being denied access to environmental goods. The environmental justice (EJ) movement in the United States was birthed in the 1980s with the aim of ending environmental racism. Early EJ activism was led by Black rural communities protesting the disproportionate presence of toxic waste facilities in their neighborhoods and Latinx migrant farmworkers who were overexposed to harmful pesticides. Central to the course is the understanding that structural racism, in the form of social, political, and economic forces, has denied BIPoC individuals and communities their rights to live in clean environments and access natural resources that allow communities to build and maintain their physical, mental, emotion, and fiscal health. Although the course focuses on race and racism, it takes as axiomatic that racism is intertwined with other systems of oppression including, but not limited to, sexism, classism, ableism, homophobia, and transphobia. The course begins by tracing the history of the EJ movement and unpacking the terms ?racism? and ?justice.? The main body of the course will focus on a series of issues that EJ scholars and activists address including pollution, greening, transportation, disasters, and climate change. The course ends with discussions and reflections on our roles, responsibilities and possibilities as public policy and planning scholars, researchers and practitioners to work towards ending environmental racism and achieving EJ for all. The required ?readings? for the course will include academic journal articles, news stories, governmental policies, podcasts, videos, poetry, and short stories. This will allow us to understand the theoretical and methodological approaches to EJ activism and research and explore popular and creative forms of knowledge about EJ which will add depth to our understanding and analysis of relevant plans and policies. Our time together in the classroom will primarily be a mix of lectures, group discussions, in-class exercises, and occasionally guest speakers. While we will reflect on some international issues and materials, we will largely focus on EJ in the United States.
PA 5251 - Strategic Planning and Management
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Grading Basis: OPT No Aud
Typically offered: Periodic Fall
Theory and practice of strategic planning and management for public and nonprofit organizations and networks. Strategic planning process, management systems; stakeholder analyses. Tools and techniques such as purpose expansions, SWOT analyses, oval mapping, portfolio analyses, and logic models.
PA 5261 - Housing Policy
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Course Equivalencies: Hsg 5463/PA 5261
Grading Basis: A-F or Aud
Typically offered: Every Spring
Institutional/environmental setting for housing policy in the United States. Competing views of solving housing problems through public intervention in the market. Federal/local public sector responses to housing problems. prereq: Grad or instr consent
PA 5262 - Neighborhood Revitalization Theories and Strategies
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Course Equivalencies: PA 5262/PA 8203
Grading Basis: OPT No Aud
Typically offered: Every Fall
Policymaking/politics of planning in housing, community development, social policy. Connecting policy to local/regional politics. Role of institutional decision-making structures on policy outcomes. Importance of citizens, social movements, interest groups in policymaking process.
PA 5271 - Geographic Information Systems: Applications in Planning and Policy Analysis
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Typically offered: Every Fall & Spring
Introduction to GIS. Applications in public planning and policy analysis. Operational skills in GIS software. Mapping analysis of U.S. Census material. Local/state government management/planning. Spatial statistical analysis for policy/planning. prereq: Major in urban/regional planning or instr consent
PA 5281 - Immigrants, Urban Planning and Policymaking in the U.S.
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Grading Basis: A-F or Aud
Typically offered: Spring Odd Year
This course examines the impact of contemporary immigration in the U.S. on urban planning and public affairs. Through a review of canonical scholarship and contemporary research, it engages several issues including migration theory, an exploration of immigrant settlement patterns, labor market outcomes for immigrants, and community development in immigrant communities. The course concludes with a focus on how urban planners and public policy makers can work more effectively with immigrants in the U.S.
PA 5290 - Topics in Planning
Credits: 0.5 -4.0 [max 12.0]
Typically offered: Periodic Fall & Spring
Selected topics.
PA 5511 - Community Economic Development
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Typically offered: Fall Odd Year
Contexts/motivations behind community economic development activities. Alternative strategies for organizing/initiating economic development projects. Tools/techniques for economic development analysis/planning (market analysis, feasibility studies, development plans). Implementation at local level. prereq: Grad or instr consent
PA 5521 - Development Planning and Policy Analysis
Credits: 4.0 [max 4.0]
Typically offered: Every Spring
Techniques of development planning/policy analysis at national, regional, and project levels. Effects of external shocks and government interventions on national/regional economies. Macroeconomic modeling, input-output analysis, social accounting matrices/multipliers, project evaluation. prereq: 5031 or equiv recommended or instr consent
PA 5751 - Addressing Climate and Energy Challenges at the Local Scale
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Grading Basis: A-F or Aud
Typically offered: Every Spring
Examine energy and climate innovations at local and community scales. Understand how to implement local policies, projects, and programs with a diverse set of perspectives on energy issues. Develop professional and analytical skills that support solutions to energy and climate challenges.
PA 5880 - Exploring Global Cities
Credits: 1.0 -3.0 [max 6.0]
Typically offered: Periodic Spring & Summer
Study abroad offered in cities across globe. Opportunities to study policy/planning issues in varied contexts from comparative/inter-cultural perspective. Study/work with practitioners/peers in field. Tanzania odd years/Austria even years. Additional countries may be added in future.