Scott Polikov How can communities reestablish their connections with place? Helping them do that is the love and avocation of Scott Polikov, urbanist, entrepreneur and a principal of the award-winning Gateway Planning Group of Fort Worth, Texas.

Polikov started his professional life in law, focusing on public policy litigation and legislation.  Pro Bono, he worked closely with the ACLU at both the national and state levels. Leaving a successful law practice with the Washington, D.C., public policy firm, Patton Boggs, he returned to Texas in the early 1990s to be more involved in local affairs.

Once back home, he was appointed director of the Texas’ Alternative Fuels Program — in the World Capital Of oil, akin to serving at the Alamo! (The oil industry almost killed his office, though today, Scott notes, even oil executives agree that natural gas and alternative technologies such as fuel cells will be necessary for national energy independence and preserving the environment).

Recruited to serve on the board of the his local transit authority and the Austin region’s Metropolitan Planning Organization, Polikov was alarmed to see the MPO asked to approve multi-billion dollar regional transportation plans with virtually zero regard for land use and urban form. He channeled his frustration into becoming a student of urban design, place-making and the economics of transportation. He also began working with the Austin-San Antonio Corridor Council on the first comprehensive governance effort for the 22-county Central and South Texas Region — quickly recognizing the imperative of regional collaboration.  Thereafter, the Austin-San Antonio Commuter Rail District was created, and the Envision Central Texas Initiative was commenced.

Today, as a town planner, Polikov works principally with fast-growing communities and developers to harness their growth into walkable, mixed-use neighborhoods.  Whether in a downtown context, or a suburban greenfield, he believes that sustaining America’s urban renaissance requires the rejection of the growth/no growth debate in favor of a more sophisticated focus on the basics: providing for a robust mix of housing types in each neighborhood; designing places with parks and other civic spaces within walking distance; letting the market dictate how uses change over time, instead of the municipal zoning commission micro-managing whether a vacant building should become a dress shop or a donut shop; injecting urban design standards into land development codes; and facilitating meaningful transportation choice by designing streets for cars, transit and people.

Polikov’s work with regionalism, transit and economic development has attracted national attention.  Putting a new twist on the centuries-old practice of leveraging regional transportation with local value capture to build communities (that’s how the railroads built the West), his firm’s work has been featured in Urban Land, the magazine of the Urban Land Institute, and Planning,  the magazine of the American Planning Association.  In this context, Scott (with his Citistate’s colleagues and other national experts) provides guidance to fast growing communities and regions on how to implement quality growth.  His clients have included such diverse places as Durango, Austin, Boise, Fort Worth and Charlotte.  As a volunteer, he serves on the board of directors of the National Civic League.

Speech Topics

  • The New Economics of Place
  • Place-Based Transportation, the Awakening of Your State DOT
  • Downtown Redux, the True Urbanism
  • Form-Based Codes, the Shape of Things to Come

Last updated August 8, 2008