Topics | Speeches

William Fulton

A journalist, urban planner, researcher, pundit, and best-selling author -- and now a practicing elected official as a member of the Venture (Calf.) City Council -- William Fulton has played a key role in re-shaping the way urban and metropolitan growth issues are debated in the post-suburban era.

He is president and CEO of Solimar Research Group, a California-based public policy research firm, and a senior scholar at the School of Policy , Planning, and Development at the University of Southern California . He is the author of three books considered classics in their field. The Reluctant Metropolis: The Politics of Urban Growth in Los Angeles , an L.A. Times best-seller, uses novelistic storytelling techniques to trace the way a leading metropolis grew and developed. The Regional City : Planning for the End of Sprawl , co-authored with architect Peter Calthorpe, is a pathbreaking work that has reshaped understanding of how metropolitan regions should be planned and designed. More than a decade after its original publication, Guide to California Planning remains the standard textbook for urban planning classes. Fulton is also founder and publisher of the monthly periodical California Planning & Development Report.

Since founding Solimar in 1999, Fulton has participated in a wide range of projects documenting changing trends in metropolitan growth and assisting government agencies, land conservation organizations, and developers respond to those changing trends. He was the principal author of a series of papers for the Brookings Institution Metropolitan Policy Program on changing growth trends, including Who Sprawls Most? How Growth Patterns Differ Across the U.S. Under his leadership, Solimar has created innovative methods to identify suitable sites for infill development and test the economic feasibility of infill development policies. In partnership with the Smart Growth Leadership Institute, Fulton has assisted communities from Florida to Alaska in implementing “smart growth policies,” and as an elected official he has taken a leadership role in doing the same in Ventura .

Fulton has also been active in the economic development arena as well. He is the economic development columnist for Governing magazine and has worked on a series of economic development strategies for communities across the country, focusing on Arizona and Upstate New York.

Speech Topics

Smart Growth: Myth and Reality -- "Smart Growth" is America's hottest planning buzzword. But what does it really mean? And do "Smart Growth" ideas really work? Fulton addresses how government planning policies, transportation investments, and open space protection programs can -- and cannot -- shape the future growth patterns of cities and metropolitan areas.

Who Sprawls Most? -- Who really sprawls most in America? The answer might not be what you think -- and it might affect the way you think about future growth in your own region. Growth and sprawl are not synonomous: some regions are sprawling but not growing; others are growing but not sprawling. It's vital to see how differing patterns shape regions in different ways.

Sprawl Hits The Wall: Planning For The Post-Suburban Era In The Regional City -- For decades, metropolitan growth in America has been built upon a few basic assumptions -- that land is cheap and plentiful, traffic will flow easily, cities and suburbs are different. But in a post-suburban era, all these assumptions are being turned upside down. As "sprawl hits the wall" in region after region, new regional cities are emerging -- and facing vastly different challenges in the 21st Century.

The New Housing Crisis: The Disconnect Between People and Housing -- Ozzie and Harriet are long gone, but even in the 21st Century we are building our communities as if they were still around. In the last 20 years, there's been a vast increase in the diversity of U.S. population -- more large immigrant families, more seniors and young people living alone, more "non-traditional" families. Yet the vast majority of our new housing still consists of auto-oriented, single-family detached residence. As our population becomes more diverse, our housing stock is becoming less diverse. What causes this disconnect? Is there anything we can do about it?

Recent Speeches

Mid-Sized Cities Conference -- Rochester, New York, November 13, 2002. Commentator: "Smart Growth, Regionalism, and Mid-Sized Cities"
Grantmakers In The Arts -- Charlotte, North Carolina, October 28, 2002. Commentator: "Smart Growth And The Arts"

Association of Bay Area Governments Annual Assembly -- Oakland, California, October 17, 2002. Keynote speaker: "The Future of Growth and Sprawl in the San Francisco Bay Area Regional City"

Oregon Planning Institute -- Eugene, Oregon, October 3, 2002. Keynote speaker: "Smart Growth: Can Oregon Learn From The Rest Of Us?"

State Of The Inland Empire Conference -- Riverside, California, September 20, 2002. Keynote speaker: "Sprawl Hits The Wall In The Inland Empire"

Urban Land Institute Southwest Regional Conference -- Beverly Hills, California, June 5, 2002. Keynote speaker: "The Reluctant Metropolis: America's Biggest Urban Challenge"

Kansas City Design Center -- Kansas City, Missouri, May 7, 2002. Guest lecturer: "Sustaining The Sense Of A Region"

Greater Boise Chamber of Commerce -- Sun Valley, Idaho, April 29, 2002. Keynote speaker: "Responsible Growth In Metropolitan Boise and The Intermountain West"

Massachusetts Institute of Technology "Resilient City" Series -- Cambridge, Massachusetts, April 22, 2002. Keynote Speaker: "After the Unrest: Ten Years of Rebuilding Los Angeles Following the Trauma of 1992"

Planning The Post-Sprawl Era -- University of Southern California, Los Angeles, November 30, 2001. Closing speaker: "Principles For Planning the Post-Sprawl Era".

Huntington Beach Economic Conference -- Huntington Beach, California, November 16, 2001. Keynote Speaker: "Growth and Change in California -- and West Orange County".

The Brookings Institution Luncheon Series -- Washington, D.C., March 13, 2001. Featured speaker: "The Regional City: Planning for the End of Sprawl".

Thinning Metropolis Conference -- Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, September 9, 2000. Keynote Speaker: "Thicker and Thicker: Can the 'Thinning Metropolis' Learn From The Experience of Growing Sunbelt Cities?

Last updated December 18, 2006

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