APA National Award of Excellence

December 18, 2009 – IRVINE, California – The Great Park has been selected for the American Planning Association’s National Award of Excellence, for the Orange County Great Park Comprehensive Master Plan. The award recognizes innovative plans, programs, tools, or related efforts that promote and strengthen support for regional planning.

Carol Rhea, AICP (American Institute of Certified Planners), 2009 National Planning Awards Jury Chair: “The park plan is innovative, bringing a number of different uses and elements to the region as well as becoming a very visible example of sustainability.”

Mark Johnson, president of Civitas (a firm specializing in landscape architecture and urban design): “The plan for the Great Park achieves a new precedent for the transformation of community and landscape at a regional scale…This plan does not just focus on the redevelopment of El Toro, it rebuilds important landscapes, connects communities and establishes a new threshold of what suburban communities need to achieve.”

The award will be presented at a special awards luncheon at APA’s National Planning Conference in Minneapolis on April 28, 2009.

The Orange County Great Park Comprehensive Master Plan will also be featured in an upcoming issue of Planning magazine, APA’s flagship publication.