The Ohio Planning Conference (OPC) is an

association Association may refer to: *Club (organization), an association of two or more people united by a common interest or goal *Trade association, an organization founded and funded by businesses that operate in a specific industry *Voluntary associatio ...

citizen Citizenship is a "relationship between an individual and a state to which the individual owes allegiance and in turn is entitled to its protection". Each state determines the conditions under which it will recognize persons as its citizens, and ...

s and planners that promotes city and regional planning in the state of

Ohio Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...

. OPC is a chapter of the

American Planning Association The American Planning Association (APA) is a professional organization representing the field of urban planning in the United States. APA was formed in 1978, when two separate professional planning organizations, the American Institute of Pla ...

(APA) and is APA's second-oldest chapter. In 2010, the group changed its name to APA Ohio. OPC was founded in October 1919 in

Cleveland, Ohio Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U.S. ...

for the "interchange of ideas upon, and to promote the cause of, city, town and regional planning in the State of Ohio" as the Ohio State Conference on City Planning. Among OPC's founders and its second president was

Alfred Bettman Alfred Bettman (1873 – 1945) was one of the key founders of modern urban planning. Zoning, as it is known today, can be attributed to his successful arguments before the U.S. Supreme Court, which resulted in the 1926 decision in favor of the Vil ...

, a

Cincinnati, Ohio Cincinnati ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located at the northern side of the confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers, the latter of which marks the state line wit ...

-based attorney who later wrote the amicus curiae brief in

Village of Euclid, Ohio v. Ambler Realty Co. ''Village of Euclid v. Ambler Realty Co.'', 272 U.S. 365 (1926), more commonly ''Euclid v. Ambler'', was a United States Supreme Court landmark case argued in 1926. It was the first significant case regarding the relatively new practice of zoning. ...

, a 1926

United States Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point o ...

decision that paved the way for the use of

zoning Zoning is a method of urban planning in which a municipality or other tier of government divides land into areas called zones, each of which has a set of regulations for new development that differs from other zones. Zones may be defined for a si ...

throughout the U.S. OPC provided Bettman the

seed money Seed money, sometimes known as seed funding or seed capital, is a form of securities offering in which an investor invests capital in a startup company in exchange for an equity stake or convertible note stake in the company. The term ''seed'' su ...

to file the brief. A second notable early leader and president of the organization was Ernest J. Bohn, a pioneer in

public housing Public housing is a form of housing tenure in which the property is usually owned by a government authority, either central or local. Although the common goal of public housing is to provide affordable housing, the details, terminology, def ...

in the Cleveland area. Both Mr. Bettman and Mr. Bohn, along with another founder, Charlotte Rumbold, have been recognized through APA's national planning pioneer program. In light of OPC's legacy as the first statewide association of citizens and planners, APA recognized the founding of OPC as one of 88 national planning landmarksNational Planning Landmarks, 1986-2007
,

. Accessed 2007-04-25. OPC publishes a bimonthly

newsletter A newsletter is a printed or electronic report containing news concerning the activities of a business or an organization that is sent to its members, customers, employees or other subscribers. Newsletters generally contain one main topic of int ...

, ''The Ohio Planners News'', and conducts an annual statewide conference as well as other educational and training activities. In addition to the state organization, OPC has six regional sections: Akron, Central Ohio, Cleveland, Greater Cincinnati, Miami Valley, and Northwest Ohio.

References

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External links

Ohio Planning Conference
Professional planning institutes Organizations based in Cleveland 1919 establishments in Ohio