Paul Zykofsky, AICP, Associate AIA

Associate Director

Paul Zykofsky directs the Local Government Commission’s programs related to land use and transportation planning, community design and health and the built environment, and has been Director of the Commission’s Center for Livable Commu­nities since 1995. The Local Government Commission is a non-profit, non-partisan, membership organization of local elected officials and city and county staff throughout California and other states. The Center was established in 1993 to help communities be proactive in their land-use and transportation planning and to encourage the adoption of programs and policies that lead to more livable, sustainable and walkable communities.

Mr. Zykofsky is co-author of Building Livable Communities: A Policymaker's Guide to Transit Oriented Development and Emergency Response: Traffic Calming and Traditional Neighborhood Streets. Mr. Zykofsky led the team that put together the LGC’s “Compact Development Compact Disk (CD2),” a toolkit that contains presentations, interactive tools and case studies on higher density housing. In 2006, Mr. Zykofsky co-wrote (with Dan Burden of Walkable Communities) the section on “walkability” in the American Planning Association’s Planning and Urban Design Standards. He has also edited documents on infill development, street design, traffic calming, traffic safety, smart growth, form-based codes, smart economic develop­ment and community engagement in the planning process.

Mr. Zykofsky provides technical assistance to communities throughout the nation on issues related to infill development, transit-oriented development, street and sidewalk design, and public participation in the planning process. He has prepared over 20 Community Image Surveys that have been used to involve residents in visioning and planning efforts.

During the past 12 years, Mr. Zykofsky has directed a first-of-its-kind project — in collabora­tion with the California Department of Health Services — to promote physical activity by improving the design of the pedestrian environment. He directed the LGC’s Leadership for Healthy Communities project, part of a national initiative supported by The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. In 2008-9, Mr. Zykofsky was a member of a committee assembled by the Institute of Medicine that prepared a report on “Local Government Actions to Prevent Childhood Obesity.” He currently oversees a project to provide technical assistance to the 14 Building Healthy Communities supported by The California Endowment. Mr. Zykofsky is a frequent presenter at local, regional and national conferences on a wide range of topics related to land use, transportation and community design and is on the Steering Committee of the national “Rail-Volution” conference that focuses on building more livable communities through transit.

Mr. Zykofsky has extensive experience facilitating public workshops and planning processes, and giving educational presentations to local elected officials, staff and community leaders. He was born and raised in Mexico, is fluent in Spanish and often gives presentations or facilitates workshops for Spanish-speaking residents. His training and experience include the following:

• Charrette facilitation:  Since 2001, Mr. Zykofsky has helped facilitate over 40 multi-day design charrettes — funded through Caltrans Community Based Transportation Planning or Environmental Justice grants — in cities, unincorporated towns and Indian reservations or rancherias throughout California. The charrettes typically involve a series of workshops, stakeholder meetings, participatory exercises, presentations and walkability assessments aimed at helping communities develop plans to create more walk­able, bicycle-friendly and sustainable places. In over 20 communities he has facilitated and provided interpreting for Spanish-speaking participants in charrettes and workshops.
• Safe Routes to School Program facilitation:  In March 2005 Mr. Zykofsky was in the first group of 25 people from across the nation trained to be a facilitator to assist communities in developing Safe Routes to School Programs. Since then he has conducted Safe Routes to School workshops in over 25 communities in California, Kentucky, Iowa, Indiana, Louisiana and Nevada. In 2009 Zykofsky developed a half-day workshop in Spanish which he’s facilitated in several cities in California’s Central Valley.
• Pedestrian Safety courses:  During 2006 Mr. Zykofsky became one of 10 nationally certified instructors for the Federal Highway Administration courses on pedestrian safety and developing a pedestrian safety plan. Since then he has given the course in over 15 regions across the U.S. He has also conducted a one-day version of the course in 13 California regions and 12 smaller cities.
• Complete Streets workshops:  In May 2008 Mr. Zykofsky was one of 12 people chosen by the National Complete Streets Coalition to participate in a week-long train-the-trainers session in Decatur, GA. Since then he has facilitated over a dozen workshops in jurisdictions in California, Hawaii, Washington, North Dakota, Maine and Texas. The highly interactive workshops are designed to assist local jurisdictions to develop a Complete Streets policy and/or implement an existing policy.
• Walkable Community Workshop facilitation:  In 2004 Mr. Zykofsky was one of eight people in California trained by the Department of Health Services and the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) to facilitate walkability assessments and half-day Walkable Community Workshops. Since then he has conducted numerous walkability assessments and workshops throughout California.
• Context Sensitive Solutions courses: During 2004, Mr. Zykofsky was one of four instructors for the University of California at Davis Extension that developed and administered eleven 3-day classes on Context Sensitive Solutions to several hundred planners and engineers in Caltrans district offices.
• Educational Courses: For the past five years Mr. Zykofsky has been part of a team at UC Davis Extension that teaches a series of courses on sustainable development for the Green Building certificate program started in 2006. He also teaches a one-day course on Sustainable Transportation.

Mr. Zykofsky studied at Swarthmore College and obtained the degrees of Bachelor of Architecture, summa cum laude, and Master of Urban Planning (Urban Design) from the City College of New York. He is a member of the American Institute of Certified Planners and an Associate Member of the American Institute of Architects.