Areas of Concentration
The concentration is meant to insure synergy among courses elected, and to lay the foundation for a satisfying and productive career and extended learning on the job. You should bear in mind that planning is a diverse and evolving profession and that personal interests and career options often change after graduation. Moreover, the mix of courses elected normally allows some breadth in the subsequent definition of one's expertise as you attempt to match your qualifications with employer requirements.
Highly focused studies will sometimes elevate your marketability in certain niches if you are an entry level planner, but may limit access to others. Excessive breadth may limit your claims of specialized expertise, however, many positions do indeed require competent generalists.
The program supports three official concentrations:
This concentration focuses on:
- The marriage of Community Development and Urban Economic Development. Communities, regions and nations suffering economic insufficiency, stagnation or decline—evidenced in under or unemployment, poverty, diminished opportunity, environmental decline or fiscal decay—often seek remedies for these shortcomings through strategic economic development planning.
- In this concentration, considerable attention will be given to means for assessing economic impact and apportioning growth's gains across people, places and sectors.
This concentration focuses on:
- Practices and innovations in land use regulation and public investment
- Analytical methods including transportation modeling, land market evaluation, environmental impact analysis and use of decision support systems
- Administration of policies and plans
- Management of collaborative processes across diverse interest groups
- Planning politics and governance
This concentration focuses on responding effectively to the following recent trends and demands on the profession:
- Stronger residential real estate markets in urban centers, especially in the Front Range communities
- Planning for mixed-use and high density neighborhoods
- Necessity for understanding of urban form and the interactions between uses, facilities, and services within complex urban contexts
- Higher levels of public participation
- Wider scope of in design review and increased level of discretion that necessitates design creativity in review processes.
A set of foundation courses is identified in each concentration, plus additional supporting electives.
For a detailed description of the MURP Concentrations and Guidelines, please click here.