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• 20 Planning April ?004 PROFLS3ION:~L PL11NiVF.R Barbara Lukermann, FAICP Barbara Lukermann could be called the Bar- bara Walters of Minnesota planning: She's tough. She's fair. She has a slight accent. And when folks are looking for someone to lead a hot-button discussion, they turn to her. A practicing planner and for 25 years pro- fessor at the Univer- sity of Minnesota, Lukermann is winner of the 2004 APA award for distin- guishedleadership by a professional planner. The award caps a broad-ranging career that includes teach- ing, research, and con- sulting. The British-born geographer has taught hundreds of planning students at the University of Minnesota's Hubert Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs, where she headed the land-use concentra- tion. She has influenced state and regional policy by her work in groups such as the Minnesota Environmental Quality Board, the Governor's Round Table on Sustainable De- velopment, and the Metropolitan Waste Con- trol Commission, which she chaired in the late 1970s. "I became committed to sewers," she says with a wry laugh. Bridging many worlds She has studied homelessness, exclusionary zoning, affordable housing, commercial cor- ridors, cluster development, nonprofits, and government spending. And she has helped guide 30 years of metropolitan growth from the first comprehensive plans in the 1960s for dozens of first-ring Twin Cities suburbs to last year's strategic growth study for exurban Lakeville. The first chair ofAICP in 1978-79> she was named a Fellow ofAICP in 2001. Lukermann's expertise has taken her to post-Mao China and post-Communist Ro- mania and Poland to do what she does best: help others understand the way cities and t• ~` ~~ ;? ~.~;., " , regions change and grow. "I've always been a bridge between the world of planning and the academic world," she says. Lukermann, 74, retired three years ago from teaching. She is now a fellow emeritus at the University's Center for Urban and Re- gional Affairs, which receives state money to engage students and faculty in ap- plied research. She is research- ing the last 50 years oftranspor- tation decisions in the metro azea with center di- rector Tom Scott. "It's really been a rewarding career," she says with the lilt of her native York- shireinhervoice. "This is why I don't know how to retire." Lukermann's enthusiasm about land-use planning has en- gagedboth srudents and citizens. Bob Erickson, city manager of Lakeville, says he has brought Lukermann in three times to facilitate strategic planning for the fast- growing southern exurb. Since 1998 the city has grown from 38,000 to 48,000. Something happens "when this English lady is presenting current trends," he says. "Her effervescent enthusiasm makes it enjoyable." Erickson credits the 29 detailed recom- mendations in her 1998 study with helping Lakeville phase in new housing, jump to fourth in the metro area in permit valuation (after the big three of Minneapolis, St. Paul, and Rochester), and "keep ahead of rapid growth." Although the Lakeville studies aze consult- ing jobs, they are just the sort of case studies Lukermann used to hone her students' skills. Real projects "She secured real projects, that she hired stu- dents to work on, or made the subject of a class," says Barbara Sporlein, a former Lukermann student who became Minneapo- lis planning director in January. As a planning student, Sporleinand amulti-disciplinary team assessed housing needs for the first-ring sub- urb of Brooklyn Pazk. "Not onlywas it great planning experience, we also got some practice in how to package a plan and present it to a city council," Sporlein says. Plus, says Sporlein, "with those experiences and Lukermann's name behind it, I got the plan- ningjob Iwanted in St. Paul right out of school." Lukermann says that seeing her students find distinguished posts with cities, congress- men, or government agencies such as the Federal Highway Administration "is a real pleasure." Curt Johnson, a writer for the CitiStates Group who formerly headed the Metropoli- tan Council, the Twin Cities regional govern- ment, says Lukermann tackled tough issues such as who pays for waste water treatment. "She stepped right into the middle of that weighty and politically radioactive issue, ran some serious numbers, and came to some conclusions. It was a courageous thing to do," Johnson says. Working on public issues seems to be Lukermann's lifeblood. Three Minnesota gov- ernors have appointed her to leadership posts. She especially prizes her chairmanship of the ` Depaztment of Natural Resources steering committee for a metropolitan "greenprint." The greenprint served as a base for the Met Council's more detailed natural resource in- ventory. Now, she says, if only communities were still required to plan, they could, as they develop, work azound these natural resources. Linda Mack Mack is the architecture and urban design columnist for the Star-Tribune in the Twin Cities. E(.LC~rF u Orric(nL Gov. Ruth Ann Minner "We need to pursue a strategy that will keep sprawl in check, reduce traffic congestion, strengthen our towns and cities, and protect our huge investment in roads, schools, and other infrastructure." Spoken like a planner, these are the words of Gov. Ruth Ann Minner of Delaware in her first State of the State address three yeazs ago. Minner called the strategy "Livable Delaware," and she set out to make good on its promise. In recognition of her leadership, Minner receives the 2004 APA award for an elected official for a significant contribution to plan-