The City Planning minor provides students with the knowledge of how cities function, how urban processes might be researched, and how urban environments can be transformed through planning, policy, design, and social action. While the minor cannot convey the full scope of city planning, various combinations of courses in the minor program can, we feel, augment a major program with a particular slant or emphasis on planning issues or processes.
Declaring the Minor
To declare, students must submit the CED Minor Declaration Form, available on the CED website. Once this request has been approved, you will see the minor added to your Cal Central student profile. It is your responsibility to track your progress towards minor completion using the Academic Progress Report and CED Advising Services.
DEADLINE TO SUBMIT FORM: Prior to the start of classes for a student's final semester.
Other Major and Minor Programs Offered by the Department of City and Regional Planning
Students who have a strong interest in an area of study outside their major often decide to complete a minor program.
General Guidelines
All minors must be declared no later than one semester before a student's Expected Graduation Term (EGT).
A letter grade of C- or higher is required in two of the lower division requirements listed below to declare the minor. To declare, students must submit the CED Minor Declaration Form, available on the CED website.
DEADLINE TO SUBMIT FORM: One semester prior to a student's final semester.
Each course used to fulfill minor requirements must be completed with a letter grade of C- or above.
Students must earn a 2.0 GPA in the upper division requirements for the minor.
Any course used in fulfillment of minor requirements may also be used to fulfill major and upper division CED non-major requirements.
Courses used to fulfill a breadth requirement may also be used to satisfy minor requirements.
Students may apply the non-CED version of a CED cross-listed course towards the minor.
Students may use up to two courses taken abroad to fulfill upper division minor requirements, with faculty approval of the individual courses.
Prerequisites
Course List
Code
Title
Units
Select two courses from the following, from different subject areas:
The City: Theories and Methods in Urban Studies [4]
Select four additional upper division courses
At least three courses must be from List 1 below (Planning courses), and not more than one course must from List 2 below (Planning-related courses); all four courses may be from List 1.
Terms offered: Fall 2024, Spring 2024
The Freshman Seminar Program has been designed to provide new students with the opportunity to explore an intellectual topic with a faculty member in a small-seminar setting. Freshman Seminars are offered in all campus departments, and topics vary from department to department and semester to semester. Freshman Seminar: Read More [+]
Rules & Requirements
Repeat rules: Course may be repeated for credit when topic changes.
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 1 hour of seminar per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: City and Regional Planning/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: The grading option will be decided by the instructor when the class is offered. Final Exam To be decided by the instructor when the class is offered.
Terms offered: Spring 2024, Spring 2023, Spring 2022
Cities become more dependent on the data flows that connect infrastructures between themselves, and users to infrastructures. Design and operation of smart, efficient, and resilient cities nowadays require data science skills. This course provides an introduction to working with data generated within transportation systems, power grids, communication networks, as well as collected via crowd-sensing and remote sensing technologies, to build demand- and supply-side urban services based on data analytics. Data Science for Smart Cities: Read More [+]
Objectives & Outcomes
Course Objectives: Become familiar with urban big data and sensor data collection techniques.
Develop intuition in various machine learning classification algorithms, as well as regression modelling. Develop intuition in various machine learning classification algorithms, as well as regression modelling. Foster critical thinking about real-world actionability from analytics. Learn how to use data science techniques in urban decision-making and scenario generation.
Student Learning Outcomes: Develop capabilities in a range of data science techniques.
Gain the ability to solve problems in smart city research and practice.
Think critically about how to assess analytics for cities.
Use data analytics in the smart city domain.
Rules & Requirements
Prerequisites: This course is a Data Science connector course and is meant to be taken concurrent with or after Foundations of Data Science COMPSCI C8/INFO C8/STAT C8. Students may take more than one Data Science connector course if they wish, concurrently or after taking the C8 course
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 2 hours of lecture per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: City and Regional Planning/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Alternative to final exam.
Instructor: Gonzalez
Formerly known as: Civil and Environmental Engineering 88
Terms offered: Fall 2006, Spring 2006, Spring 2005
Supervised experiences in the study of off-campus organizations relevant to specific aspects of city planning. Regular individual meetings with faculty sponsor and written report required. Field Studies in City and Regional Planning: Read More [+]
Rules & Requirements
Repeat rules: Course may be repeated for credit without restriction.
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 1-3 hours of fieldwork per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: City and Regional Planning/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Offered for pass/not pass grade only. Final exam not required.
Terms offered: Summer 2024 8 Week Session, Summer 2023 8 Week Session, Summer 2022 8 Week Session
This course (1) provides a basic intro to census and economic data collection, processing, and analysis; (2) surveys forecasting and modeling techniques in planning; (3) demonstrates the uses of real-time urban data and analytics; and (4) provides a socio-economic-political context for the smart cities movement, focusing on data ethics and governance. Introduction to Urban Data Analytics: Read More [+]
Objectives & Outcomes
Student Learning Outcomes: This course will teach students systematic approaches to collecting, analyzing, modeling, and interpreting quantitative data used to inform robust research, and, ultimately, urban planning practice and policymaking. This contributes to the urban studies major's objective of introducing students to "conceptual tools, analytical methods, and theoretical frameworks to understand urban environments, such as economic analysis, social science theory, and visualization technologies," with the objective of training undergraduates for a future career or further graduate study in the field of urban studies and planning.
Rules & Requirements
Prerequisites: Upper division standing
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of lecture and 1.5 hours of laboratory per week
Summer: 6 weeks - 7 hours of lecture and 2 hours of laboratory per week 8 weeks - 6 hours of lecture and 1.5 hours of laboratory per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: City and Regional Planning/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Final exam required.
Terms offered: Spring 2025, Fall 2024, Summer 2024 8 Week Session
Survey of city planning as it has evolved in the United States since 1800 in response to physical, social, and economic problems; major concepts and procedures used by city planners and local governments to improve the urban environment. Introduction to City Planning: Read More [+]
Rules & Requirements
Prerequisites: Open to majors in all fields
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of lecture and 1 hour of discussion per week
Summer: 6 weeks - 8 hours of lecture and 2 hours of discussion per week 8 weeks - 6 hours of lecture and 1.5 hours of discussion per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: City and Regional Planning/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Final exam required.
Terms offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2021, Summer 2021 First 6 Week Session
Introduction to economic concepts and thinking as used in planning. Micro-economic theory is reviewed and critiqued. Economic Analysis for Planning: Read More [+]
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of lecture per week
Summer: 6 weeks - 7 hours of lecture per week 8 weeks - 6 hours of lecture per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: City and Regional Planning/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Final exam required.
Terms offered: Spring 2020, Fall 2019, Fall 2018
Introduction to political, economic and social issues involved in theory and practice of community economic development. Focus on national economic and social policies, role of local community economic development corporations (CDCs), resolution of conflicts between private-sector profitability and public sector (community) accountability through critical use of the planning process. Community and Economic Development: Read More [+]
Rules & Requirements
Credit Restrictions: Students will receive no credit for CY PLAN 113B after completing CY PLAN 160.
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of lecture and 1 hour of discussion per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: City and Regional Planning/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Final exam required.
Terms offered: Spring 2025, Summer 2024 First 6 Week Session, Spring 2024
This course is designed to introduce students to the characteristics of urban transportation systems, the methods through which they are planned and analyzed, and the dimensions of key policy issues confronting decision makers. Introduction to Urban and Regional Transportation: Read More [+]
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of lecture per week
Summer: 6 weeks - 7 hours of lecture per week 8 weeks - 6 hours of lecture per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: City and Regional Planning/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Final exam required.
Terms offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2023, Fall 2022
The course covers issues of development and urbanization from the era of colonialism to the era of contemporary globalization. Themes include modernization, urban informality and poverty, transnational economies, and the role of international institutions and agencies. Urbanization in Developing Countries: Read More [+]
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of lecture and 1 hour of discussion per week
Summer: 8 weeks - 6 hours of lecture and 1.5 hours of discussion per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: City and Regional Planning/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Final exam required.
Terms offered: Summer 2024 First 6 Week Session, Summer 2023 First 6 Week Session, Summer 2022 First 6 Week Session
The course covers issues of development and urbanization from the era of colonialism to the era of contemporary globalization. Themes include modernization, urban informality and poverty, transnational economies, and the role of international institutions and agencies. Urbanization in Developing Countries: Read More [+]
Hours & Format
Summer: 6 weeks - 7 hours of lecture per week 8 weeks - 6 hours of lecture per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: City and Regional Planning/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Alternative to final exam.
Terms offered: Spring 2025, Spring 2024, Spring 2022
An intermediate course in the planning process with practicum in using planning techniques. Classes typically work on developing an area or other community plan. Some lectures, extensive field and group work, oral and written presentations of findings. Urban Planning Process--The Undergraduate Planning Studio: Read More [+]
Rules & Requirements
Prerequisites: Upper division standing; 110 or consent of instructor
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 4 hours of lecture per week
Summer: 8 weeks - 7.5 hours of lecture per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: City and Regional Planning/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Final exam required.
Terms offered: Spring 2024, Spring 2022, Spring 2021
This course will focus on the history, research methods and practices aimed at promoting community and urban health. The course will offer students frameworks for understanding and addressing inequities in community health experienced by racial and ethnic groups in the United States. The course will take a historical and comparative perspective for understanding the multiple contributors to health and disease in communities and how residents, scientists and professionals are working to improve community health. Urban & Community Health: Read More [+]
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of lecture and 1 hour of discussion per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: City and Regional Planning/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Alternative to final exam.
Terms offered: Spring 2025
This course will focus on the history, research methods and practices aimed at promoting community and urban health. The course will offer students frameworks for understanding and addressing inequities in community health experienced by racial and ethnic groups in the United States. The course will take a historical and comparative perspective for understanding the multiple contributors to health and disease in communities and how residents, scientists and professionals are working to improve community health.
Terms offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2023, Fall 2022
This course looks at the idea and practice of community in cities and suburbs and at the dynamics of neighborhood and community formation. Topics include urban social geography, ethnicity, and identity, residential choice behavior, the political economy of neighborhoods, planning for neighborhoods, and civic engagement. Instructors emphasize different topics. Class size limit depends on the instructor. The Urban Community: Read More [+]
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of lecture and 1 hour of discussion per week
Summer: 6 weeks - 7.5 hours of lecture and 2.5 hours of discussion per week 8 weeks - 6 hours of lecture and 1.5 hours of discussion per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: City and Regional Planning/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Final exam required.
Terms offered: Summer 2024 8 Week Session, Fall 2023, Summer 2023 8 Week Session
This course examines how the concept of sustainable development applies to cities and urban regions and gives students insight into a variety of contemporary urban planning issues through the sustainability lens. The course combines lectures, discussions, student projects, and guest appearances by leading practitioners in Bay Area sustainability efforts. Ways to coordinate goals of environment, economy, and equity at different scales of planning are addressed, including the region, the city, the neighborhood, and the site. Planning for Sustainability: Read More [+]
Objectives & Outcomes
Student Learning Outcomes: Describe a variety of planning approaches designed to advance and evaluate the interconnected goals related to sustainability, such as environmental preservation, social equity, and economic development.
Identify how different societies around the globe grapple with the ethical, policy, and practical challenges presented by socioeconomic disparity and the goal of creating and maintaining a healthy urban (and suburban and peri-urban) environment.
Know ways in which planners and planning practice have succeeded in dismantling the policies, institutions, and decisions that oppose the needs of the disadvantaged.
Understand the principles, tools, and techniques available for planning and developing sustainable communities at multiple scales.
Rules & Requirements
Prerequisites: Open to majors in all fields
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of lecture and 1 hour of discussion per week
Summer: 6 weeks - 7 hours of lecture and 2 hours of discussion per week 8 weeks - 6 hours of lecture and 1.5 hours of discussion per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: City and Regional Planning/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Final exam required.
Terms offered: Spring 2025, Spring 2021, Spring 2019
This course reviews what society and local communities can do in terms of policies, programs, and local planning to address the needs of citizens with disabilities. Attention will be given to the economics of disability, to the politics of producing change, and to transportation, housing, public facilities, independent living, employment, and income policies. Options will be assessed from the varying perspectives of those with disabilities and the broader society. Community Planning and Public Policy for Disability: Read More [+]
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of lecture per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: City and Regional Planning/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Final exam required.
Terms offered: Not yet offered
This course focuses on sustainable mobility, with an emphasis on the long-term importance of how land development can be leveraged to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of mobility options. Sustainable Mobility: Read More [+]
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of lecture per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: City and Regional Planning/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Final exam required.
Terms offered: Summer 2024 First 6 Week Session, Spring 2024, Summer 2023 First 6 Week Session
Introduction to housing policy in the United States, including housing affordability, the interaction between demand and supply, housing finance, zoning and land use, gentrification and displacement, and the role that housing plays in promoting household well-being. U.S. Housing, Planning, and Policy: Read More [+]
Objectives & Outcomes
Student Learning Outcomes: By the end of the class, students will understand the origins of contemporary debates in U.S. housing policy, gain familiarity with the programs, players, and best practices in the field, and develop their ability to evaluate the trade-offs and challenges inherent in different policy approaches. They will also learn how to construct policy arguments and use evidence to make their arguments stronger.
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of lecture per week
Summer: 6 weeks - 7 hours of lecture per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: City and Regional Planning/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Final exam required.
Terms offered: Fall 2017, Fall 2013
Over half of the world's population is now urban. As urban populations swell, metropolitan areas in both the developed and the developing world struggle to provide basic services and address the negative externalities associated with rapid growth. Sanitation, transportation, pollution, energy services, and public safety typically fall to sub-national governments. Yet local sub-national institutions face difficulties as they tackle these challenges because development tends to spill over political boundaries and resources are limited. Such difficulties are particularly acute in the developing world due to tighter resource constraints, weak institutions, and the comparative severity of the underlying problems. Moreover, democratization and decentralization suggest that urban governance and service delivery may have become more democratic, but present challenges with respect to priority setting, coordination, and corruption. Urban and Sub-national Politics in Developing Countries: Read More [+]
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of lecture and 1-2 hours of discussion per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: City and Regional Planning/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Final exam required.
Terms offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2023, Fall 2022
The course is concerned with the multidisciplinary field and practice of urban design. It includes a review of historical approaches to urban design and current movements in the field, as well as discussion of the elements of urban form, theories of good city form, scales of urban design, implementation approaches, and challenges and opportunities for the discipline. Learning from cities via fieldwork is an integral part of the course. Urban Design: City-Building and Place-Making: Read More [+]
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of lecture per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: City and Regional Planning/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Final exam required.
Terms offered: Spring 2025, Spring 2023, Spring 2021
Community development, broadly defined as efforts to improve the quality of life in low-income communities, has existed in multiple forms for centuries. However, in the 1950s and 1960s, the United States witnessed the development of a professionalized field of community development, encompassing a wide range of institutions, policies, and programs. This course provides students with an overview of the origins of the community development field and the key theories that motivate both practice and policy. Throughout the course, case studies will provide a real-world perspective on community development and how practitioners are working to create healthy and economically vibrant communities for all. The Origins and Practice of Community Development: Read More [+]
Objectives & Outcomes
Student Learning Outcomes:
Be exposed to the key debates in community development policy.
Learn about the evolution of the community development field, including the stakeholders, financing, policies and practices that make up community development in the US.
Practice using data and argument to support a policy idea.
Reflect on the tensions between individual and structural causes of poverty, and how the construction of urban poverty has influenced policy.
Rules & Requirements
Credit Restrictions: Students will receive no credit for CY PLAN 160 after completing CY PLAN 113B.
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of lecture and 1 hour of discussion per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: City and Regional Planning/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Final exam required, with common exam group.
Terms offered: Spring 2025, Fall 2023, Fall 2022
A capstone course for urban studies majors; open to other majors by instructor approval. Topical focus varies by semester. The course involves student production of a high-quality research report from inception to completion. Lectures introduce a range of research skills typical in urban studies, and cover specific domain knowledge necessary for the completion of the research project. Students identify a research topic subject to instructor approval and prepare a formal research proposal, undertaking the analysis specified in the proposal, making public presentations of their findings, and producing a professional-quality research report.
Student Learning Outcomes: Conceptualizing, executing and completing an individual research project, including public presentations of findings, revision based on critical feedback, and the production of a final research report to the highest professional standards.
Devising policy and practical solutions to address borderland planning problems.
The fundamental principles of research project design, scheduling, and execution, as well as exposure to a variety of methodological approaches using visual, cartographic, quantitative and qualitative data sources.
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of seminar per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: City and Regional Planning/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Alternative to final exam.
Terms offered: Summer 2019, Spring 2018, Fall 2017
Supervised experiences in the study of off-campus organizations relevant to specific aspects of city planning. Regular individual meetings with faculty sponsor and a written report are required. Field Studies: Read More [+]
Rules & Requirements
Prerequisites: Consent of instructor
Credit Restrictions: Enrollment is restricted; see the Introduction to Courses and Curricula section of this catalog.
Repeat rules: Course may be repeated for credit without restriction.
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3-9 hours of fieldwork per week
Summer: 8 weeks - 6-18 hours of fieldwork per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: City and Regional Planning/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Offered for pass/not pass grade only. Final exam not required.
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