"The Next West: 20th Anniversary Land Use Conference" Successfully Concludes: "The Largest Gathering of its Kind in the U.S. West"

The 20th Anniversary Land Use Conference organized by the Rocky Mountain Land Use Institute (RMLUI), the University of Denver Sturm College of Law, and the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy took place last Thursday and Friday.

This year's conference, entitled "The Next West," explored "both change and continuity in the region's communities and landscapes over the past two decades while beginning to look ahead to the next 20 years," according to Bill Shutkin, Director of the RMLUI.

The program included presentations by the nation's leading land use practitioners as well as some of the leading figures in developing land use policies including Ralph Becker, Mayor of Salt Lake City, Utah, and Jim Mazzocco, Planning and Development Services, City of Tucson, Arizona.

Among the most thought provoking panels (and there were many) were:

• Water: Beyond Dams and Diversions
• Embracing Sustainability in Community Plans
• Living Outside the City: Designing for Rural Communities
• Public Rail Transit in the Rocky Mountain West: The Potential of Regional Transit for Smart Growth in the 21st Century
• Federal Agency Planning and Initiatives for Sustainability in the Rocky Mountain West

Fred Cheever, Associate Dean of Academic Affairs and Professor of Law, pointed to the important of the conference and its wide appeal in the land use planning field when he described the event as "the largest gathering of land use lawyers, planners, and other professionals in the western United States and probably the whole country."