2024 Report
Connect. Educate. Empower.
This past year saw the completion of our strategic plan, a wildly successful and enjoyable conference in Cheyenne, and a period of exciting transformation for our organization.
Since 1979, the Western Planner has connected and educated planners across the broad expanses of the West. With our leadership comprised of representatives from each of the 13 states in the West, we focus on supporting rural, county, tribal and small town professional and citizen planners.
Original planning content, written by planners for planners.
Cross-state coordination and networking.
Professional development for planners with networking, mentoring, monthly job blasts, and a broad regional job resource for planners.
Recognition of fellow planners and highlighting project via awards and articles.
Initiatives (e.g., restarting the Tribal & Indigenous Planning Division, emerging conference scholarship, Western Matters Rural Summit).
Regional planning conferences relevant to small city, town, county, rural and tribal planners.
Western Planner held our annual conference in partnership with our good friends WYOPASS on August 6-9, 2024, in the Red Lion.
The event was a fantastic success, with over 180 attendees, numerous quality sessions, memorable socials, hopping trolleys to downtown, and enjoying the fun of Cheyenne!
We were grateful to have as our keynote, the honorable Mark Gordon, Governor of Wyoming address us and speak to the complex planning and housing issues facing the state. Fire Chief and Laramie County Planning Commission Chair Jason Caughey also spoke and offered his insights. Senator John Barrasso couldn’t attend, but sent a video message to attendees discussing our housing challenges.
The rest of the event, we had between 4 and 6 tracks at any given time, including several mobile tours, covering a wide range of topics from working with utility scale solar projects, to housing, to historic preservation, to practical advice on RFPs. For this year’s Karen B. Smith Symposium, Dillon Hoyt from Utah’s Public Lands Coordinating Office spoke on resource management planning and working with adjacent public lands.
Unique to this conference, we offered three special workshops: GIS, Housing, and Planning Commissioner training. This was the first time Western Planner tried these formats and we’ll work to refine and improve these offerings going forward.
We enjoyed evenings around Cheyenne, hosting an amazing opening reception at the Westby Edge Brewery, where planners from around the West connected and reconnected. We also hosted our memorable awards reception at the Botanic Garden with delicious food truck catered dinner on Wednesday, and held a pub crawl Thursday night with trolleys for attendees.
A huge thanks to our sponsors for helping to make this event such a success, particularly Visit Cheyenne,
We’re elated that our 2025 conference will be held in Bend, Oregon in partnership with Oregon APA and the Tribal and Indigenous Division of the APA. Registration is open now; visit westernplanner.org/2025 for more information.
Western Planner held our annual conference in partnership with our good friends WYOPASS on August 6-9, 2024, in the Red Lion.
The event was a fantastic success, with over 180 attendees, numerous quality sessions, memorable socials, hopping trolleys to downtown, and enjoying the fun of Cheyenne!
We were grateful to have as our keynote, the honorable Mark Gordon, Governor of Wyoming address us and speak to the complex planning and housing issues facing the state. Fire Chief and Laramie County Planning Commission Chair Jason Caughey also spoke and offered his insights. Senator John Barrasso couldn’t attend, but sent a video message to attendees discussing our housing challenges.
The rest of the event, we had between 4 and 6 tracks at any given time, including several mobile tours, covering a wide range of topics from working with utility scale solar projects, to housing, to historic preservation, to practical advice on RFPs. For this year’s Karen B. Smith Symposium, Dillon Hoyt from Utah’s Public Lands Coordinating Office spoke on resource management planning and working with adjacent public lands.
Unique to this conference, we offered three special workshops: GIS, Housing, and Planning Commissioner training. This was the first time Western Planner tried these formats and we’ll work to refine and improve these offerings going forward.
We enjoyed evenings around Cheyenne, hosting an amazing opening reception at the Westby Edge Brewery, where planners from around the West connected and reconnected. We also hosted our memorable awards reception at the Botanic Garden with delicious food truck catered dinner on Wednesday, and held a pub crawl Thursday night with trolleys for attendees.
A huge thanks to our sponsors for helping to make this event such a success, particularly Visit Cheyenne,
We’re elated that our 2025 conference will be held in Bend, Oregon in partnership with Oregon APA and the Tribal and Indigenous Division of the APA. Registration is open now; visit westernplanner.org/2025 for more information.
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