History

The Ohio Chapter of the American Planning Association (APA Ohio) was founded in October 1919 in Cleveland as The Ohio State Conference on City Planning, later known simply as The Ohio Planning Conference (OPC).

The organization's purpose was for "the interchange of ideas upon, and to promote the cause of, city, town, and regional planning in the state of Ohio.”   Our founders included Alfred Bettman, the Cincinnati Attorney who championed the completion of the 1925 Cincinnati Comprehensive Plan – the first for a major city in the U.S. – and who wrote the famous 1926 amicus curiae brief – funded through an OPC grant – in the Village of Euclid v. Ambler Realty, which upheld the constitutionality of zoning.   

In recognition of its historical legacy, OPC (now APA Ohio) is known as the "First Statewide Association of Citizens and Planners,” and it was designated as a National Planning Landmark by the American Planning Association.