Iris Patten, College of Architecture and Landscape Architecture

Iris Patten primarily teaches courses in the School of Landscape Architecture and Planning.  Her courses leverage her research interests and professional experience. Below is a summary of typical courses taught with their descriptions and the semester in which they have been previously offered.

FALL SEMESTER

PLG 501 - INTRODUCTION TO PLANNING

Course Description
What is planning?  Simply put, it is the processes and policies through which we influence the development of cities, towns, and regions.  Planning can be thought of as trying to match human activities with the physical environment.  This matching process is influenced by legal, political, market, social, and environmental factors.  To ask the question “why plan?” is like asking “why be concerned with the future?”  And just about everyone – developers, landowners, investors, politicians, home owners, community groups, and ordinary citizens – is affected by planning that produces change in communities. 

Course Objectives
The main goal of this course is to introduce the major concepts and issues in urban and regional planning.  The course will expose students to the social, economic, environmental, structural, demographic, legal, cultural and political problems that cities face today. 

PLG 512 - COMPREHENSIVE PLANNING

Course Description
This course combines both the theory and practice of strategic and comprehensive planning.  Strategic planning had its inception in public corporations, the military and non-profit organizations.  Comprehensive planning is an older, more traditional planning technique used by public jurisdictions.  This course will illustrate how various jurisdictions around the United States develop their Comprehensive Plans (called General Plans in Arizona) and will focus on how they can become more sustainable and embrace more proactive planning techniques. The course assignments will examine the relationships and perhaps conflicts between the strategic and comprehensive planning processes and explore the challenges of planning for underrepresented ethnic groups.

Course Objectives
At the end of the semester you should know:

1. What a “normal” general plan looks like–its objectives, the ways in which it frames the issues
2. The elements of strategic planning and how they complement or conflict with how comprehensive and general plans are formulated or structured
3. The challenges and nuances associated with planning for non-traditional communities.

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SPRING SEMESTER

PLG 559 - LAND USE & GROWTH CONTROLS

Course Description
This course examines basic and advanced land use concepts; the tools utilized for land use planning and regulation; and, the methodology of land use planning.  Current planning and legal issues dealing with the regulation of land use, growth, the sequence of growth, and the management of growth are analyzed.  Issues of equity in managing and controlling land use are also explored.

Course Objectives 
At the end of the semester students should know:

1. Learn the basics of land use planning;
2. Understand the different tools utilized in land use planning and regulation;
3. Learn the more sophisticated methods of land use planning and regulation;
4. Understand the equity issues associated with land use controls;
5. Learn different techniques utilized in growth management; and 
6. Relate course content to real world planning practice.