The American Planning Association selected a lone Canadian recipient for its 2019 National Planning Excellence Award in Vancouver’s Northeast False Creek Plan.

According to a recent press release, the Northeast False Creek Plan garnered the Pierre L’enfant International Planning Award. The award comprises one of five accolades the APA considers its highest honors — with the other four being the “National Planning Excellence Award for Planning Pioneers,” “Advancing Diversity & Social Change in Honor of Paul Davidoff,” the “HUD Secretary’s Opportunity & Empowerment Award,” and the “Daniel Burnham Award for a Comprehensive Plan.”

The APA’s National Awards Program was established more than 50 years ago. The current slate of awardees is recognized for "superb work in comprehensive planning, urban design, transportation planning, resilience, public outreach, economic development planning, environmental planning and more."

The two-tiered awards are selected through a juried process. Five recipients were selected to receive the National Planning Excellence Awards, the highest honor, while 20 were named Achievement Award winners for their efforts in areas of specialization within the planning profession.

“This year’s award recipients demonstrate how planning helps create communities that offer access and opportunity for all,” said Wendy Shabay, AICP, 2019 Awards jury chair. “Planning is vital to keep communities thriving and to ensure quality of life for residents.”

Adopted by the Vancouver City Council in February 2018, the 20-year plan was originally an infrastructure project, but “has evolved into a transformative planning process about people, reconciliation, cultural redress, and reconnecting communities,” the APA stated on its webpage about the awardee.

Northeast False Creek occupies a small percentage of the downtown Vancouver peninsula and consists of “a complex pattern of mostly brownfields along one kilometer of False Creek,” it said.

All award recipients were to be recognized during APA’s National Planning Conference at a special awards luncheon on Monday, April 15 in San Francisco, Calif.

Find out more about each of the 2019 award recipients at planning.org/awards/2019.