Providence Senior Planner, Mart Black, AICP, and Providence Site Evaluation & Remediation Manager, Melanie Hanks, will be featured as panelists at the upcoming 2015 American Planning Association (APA) - LA Chapter Conference. Black will be a panelist on the session titled, "Shreveport Brownfields - Leveraging Financial and Technical Assistance to Implement a Plan: An EPA Brownfields Area-Wide Planning grant and AICP Community Planning Assistance Team Coordinate to Stimulate Urban Revitalization in Downtown Shreveport." This session aims to provide insight into how these types of opportunities might be used in other communities to help implement and stimulate investments in a comprehensive plan.

Hanks will be a panelist on the session titled, "Area-wide/Multi-Lot Neighborhood Brownfield Surveys." This session will discuss the idea and application of area-wide/multi-lot neighborhood surveys and how they can support redevelopment planning. Descriptions of surveys that have been completed will be discussed and the goal of this session is to help practitioners decide if a multi-lot brownfield survey could be useful in their communities.

The conference will be held at the Hilton Baton Rouge Capitol Center on January 21-23, 2015.