Paul Zykofsky works as a Community Design Specialist for the Local Government Commission’s programs related to community design and healthy communities. Mr. Zykofsky provides technical assistance to communities throughout the nation on issues related to Complete Streets, active transportation, pedestrian safety, Safe Routes to School, infill development, transit-oriented development, and public participation in the planning process.
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. He has prepared over 20 Community Image Surveys that have been used to involve residents in visioning and planning efforts. 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 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:
- 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, Texas, Maine, New York, New Hampshire and Alaska. The highly interactive workshops are designed to assist local jurisdictions to develop a Complete Streets policy and/or implement an existing policy.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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, Mexico, Washington, Florida and Puerto Rico.
- 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.
- Charrette facilitation: Since 2001, Mr. Zykofsky has helped facilitate over 50 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 25 communities he has facilitated and provided interpreting for Spanish-speaking participants in charrettes and workshops.
- Educational Courses: Mr. Zykofsky has taught courses at UC Davis Extension on infill development and sustainable development (for the Green Building certificate program). He currently teaches one-day courses on Complete Streets and 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.