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Planetizen ranks Levin College's MUPDD program the 8th best urban planning program out of 100 North American planning programs by tuition and financial aid, and 8th best in student body diversity. It is also ranked among the best urban planning programs by specialty areas in both Community Development and Economic Development.

Jason Russell
Jason Russell, an Ohio native, received a Master’s degree in Urban Planning, Design, and Development at Cleveland State University with a concentration in Neighborhood Development. Through his studies he has become an advocate for social equity and affordable housing. During his time at CSU, Jason served as president of the student chapter of the American Planning Association. Under his leadership, the group has increased membership from about 10 members to 30, while implementing new programs for greater community involvement, including an urban garden project at Jane Addams High School. In 2009, Jason was awarded the American Institute of Certified Planners Outstanding Student Award. Jason completed his undergraduate studies at Lehigh University as a football student-athlete. Jason is committed to Northeast Ohio and revitalization of its older communities.

Christine Dersi
Christine Dersi received her Master’s degree in Urban Planning, Design, and Development at Cleveland State University with a concentration in Neighborhood Development with a strong interest in regionalism. During her graduate studies, Christine worked as a graduate assistant for the Center for Neighborhood Development at CSU, interned for ParkWorks, a local nonprofit, and served as membership chair of the student chapter of the American Planning Association (APA). She also served a national position with APA as the Region IV Student Representative Council Executive Member and was recently elected Treasurer/Secretary for the New Urbanism Division of APA. Christine was recently awarded the Wallace G. Teare Prize, an award presented to a graduating student by the Levin College. Christine completed her undergraduate work at Allegheny College in Meadville, Pennsylvania as an Environmental Studies major and attended high school at Saint Joseph Academy on the west side of Cleveland.

The Master of Urban Planning, Design & Development (MUPDD) program prepares men and women for planning practice in a wide variety of organizational settings and professional pursuits. The curriculum combines an appreciation of planning as a profession, substantive studies regarding urban challenges and opportunities, and a set of analytical skills useful to planning practice. Together these prepare future planners with the theory, skills, and practical experience needed to fairly and efficiently facilitate the transformation and revitalization of cities and their regions, building better places to live, work and play.

The MUPDD program is fully accredited as a planning program by the Planning Accreditation Board. We have graduated over 180 students since the program's inception in 1990. Our MUPDD graduates are employed today by cities, townships, community development corporations, social service organizations and planning firms across Ohio and the United States.

Students who will find value in the MUPDD program are as follows:

• Recent college graduates and mid-career planners and public sector administrators whose work is focused on economic development, land use, environmental issues, real estate development and urban design;
• Employees in federal, state, county, and local governments;
• Employees in regional planning authorities and special districts; and
• Executives and senior staff at nonprofit organizations working at the neighborhood scale on revitalization

The MUPDD Program curriculum includes twelve (4 credit hour) classes for a total of 48 semester hours. A full-time student can complete the program in two academic years. The program is structured to accommodate both full-time students and working part-time students. Most of our required classes are offered in the evenings, with some courses offered during summer sessions and weekends.The planning core consists of eight classes (32 credits), leaving four classes (16 credit hours) for electives. For those students so inclined, five specialization fields are offered, which require completion of three or more classes. Internships are available for elective credit. Students may choose to do an exit project or thesis if they wish. Courses taken in a specialization area, electives, an internship, exit project, or thesis must total 16 credit hours.

Required Planning Core Courses: (32 credit hours)
The planning core courses are required, and are designed to provide students with a solid analytical, methodological and theoretical basis for work in the planning specializations or elective courses.

The planning core includes three largely quantitative courses (Applied Quantitative Reasoning I, Public Finance and Economics, and Urban Spatial Structures), and four topical courses on key planning areas: Urban Planning, Urban Design, Planning Law and Development Process/Market Analysis. Students should strive to take PDD 601 and 603 in their first or second semester. These classes should be completed prior to taking PDD 605 and 610. After completing the balance of their coursework in electives and/or a specialization, students generally take the planning studio in their final
semester. This integrative course synthesizes the tools and skills around a collective project in a studio environment.

The planning core is as follows:

Core Courses	Typical Schedule Offered
PDD 601: Applied Quantitative Reasoning I	Fall, Spring, Summer
PDD 603: Public Finance and Economics	Fall, Spring, Summer
PDD 605: Urban Spatial Structures	Spring, sometimes Summer
PDD 607: Introduction to Urban Planning	Fall, Spring
PDD 608: Urban Design Seminar	Fall only
PDD 609: Planning Law	Spring only
PDD 610: The Development Process/Market Analysis	Fall only
PDD 611: Studio	Fall, Spring

Areas of Specialization:
The Master of Urban Planning, Design and Development Program offers six specializations in subfields of planning. Students generally complete a minimum of 12 credit hours (typically 3-4 additional courses) in one of these optional specializations:

• Housing and Neighborhood Development
  The specialization in Housing And Neighborhood Development provides an introduction to the planning, production, financing, and management of housing. It also analyzes housing policies and programs and legal issues that arise from these, as well as land use and zoning. It provides an overview of neighborhood planning, including housing, and the factors, policies and organizations that influence neighborhood development. This specialization will provide the necessary background for those interested in working for nonprofit community development corporations and housing providers, public agencies that engage in housing and neighborhood development activities, and for-profit development and planning organizations.
• Economic Development
  The specialization in Economic Development introduces planning students to urban economic development. Economic development is focused on the process of creating jobs and wealth. It is the role of the private sector to create wealth by producing tradeable goods and services and engaging in these exchanges. It is the role of the public sector to facilitate and promote the creation of jobs and wealth by the private sector, and to ensure that it does so in a way that serves the short and long-term interests of the broad population. The economic development specialization helps planning students acquire the skills to responsibly invest public money on behalf of worthy job-creating ventures.
• Real Estate Development and Finance
  The specialization in Real Estate Development and Finance focuses on financing built improvements in the urban environment. This focus is most often needed because the planner is responsible for providing or seeking government loans or grants. Types of urban development projects may include housing for sale, rental housing, retail/commercial investment property, office buildings, and industrial development. Because of brownfields and other problems in assembling and developing urban projects on previously used land, a typical real estate deal would have a financing “gap”. This specialization familiarizes the student with financing issues such as mortgage subordination, valuation, and tax issues so that these difficult multi-layered financing structures can be devised.
• Geographic Information Systems (GIS)
  The Specialization in Geographic Information Systems (GIS) is designed to provide students with skills in the use of GIS, a computerized data base management system for capture, storage, retrieval, analysis and display of spatial (locationally defined) data. GIS has been widely spread into fields such as land use, transportation, utility management, housing, emergency services, natural resource management, environment, demographics, public safety, and public heath. The application of GIS technology in the planning context is becoming increasingly common as large and small planning offices begin to take advantage of all this information system has to offer. Through the GIS specialization, students gain both an understanding of the theoretical foundations of GIS, and hands-on experience in the use of this technology.
• Environmental Sustainability
  The environmental sustainability specialization provides students with an understanding of concepts, methods, and practice in environmental planning. Environmental planning entails integration of ecological and human health concerns into other areas of planning, most particularly in land use decisions, land development regulation, ecological function (surface water, ground water, habitat, etc.) and ambient quality of life for humans. Environmental planners work on planning problems such as storm water management, land use and stream quality, wildlife habitat preservation, open space and parks, urban sprawl/growth management, air quality, land remediation, and water quality.
• Historic Preservation
  The specialization in historic preservation introduces students to the context and techniques required to preserve America's material culture in its cities and countryside. Historic preservation in America as a movement began in the 1960s to protect buildings and sites with cultural, economic, or historic value from destruction or inappropriate renovation. Historic preservation planners work within a framework developed by the United States Secretary of the Interior and the National Trust for Historic Preservation with local, regional, and state governments and with nonprofit agencies and organizations.

Graduate certificate programs in the economic development, real estate development and finance, and GIS specializations are also offered through CSU and the College of Urban Affairs. Non-degree-seeking graduate students (typically practitioners) may enroll in these classes. Students should meet with the Graduate Advisor of the MUPDD Program Director to plan their schedules.

Elective Credit:
Students who do not wish to specialize in a single area may fill out their program of study from a number of graduate classes. Four classes beyond the planning core are required. These may be in planning, public administration, or outside the College of Urban Affairs. These courses should be chosen in consultation with the Program Director. An exit project or master’s thesis may be taken for credit, but is not required. Prior to completing an exit project, the student seeks out a Master of Urban Planning, Design & Development faculty member to work with. A thesis requires a committee of three members of graduate faculty, including a Master of Urban Planning, Design & Development faculty member as chair.

Internships
An internship is not required; however, students without related work experience are encouraged to seek an internship placement. Paid and unpaid internships are arranged through the Office of Student Services. Interested students may receive elective credit for internship work.

Graduate level training in urban planning offers students the opportunity to pursue careers in city or regional planning, housing and neighborhood development, real estate finance and development, economic development, environmental planning, and geographic information systems (GIS). Courses are designed to train new planners in the latest techniques and theories and to upgrade the skills of existing planners.

Planning program graduates are employed in the public, private, and nonprofit sectors. Many graduates pursue careers in:

• City and county planning agencies
• City and county economic development agencies
• Metropolitan planning organizations
• Community development organizations
• State and federal government agencies
• Watershed organizations
• Public or non-profit housing agencies
• Private sector planning and design firms
• Public park systems
• School districts
• Nonprofit advocacy organizations
• University research centers
• Philanthropic foundations