Richard Carlisle Receives Planning Association President’s Award

At its conference in October, the Michigan Association of Planning presented its annual President’s Award to Richard Carlisle, AICP, president of Ann Arbor-based Carlisle/Wortman Associates.The outgoing president of the association – in this case Steve Robinson, president of Versa Development in Southfield -- chooses as the award recipient an individual who has positively influenced his or her professional career. The two met years ago across the table in Independence Township, with Carlisle as the township’s planner and Robinson proposing a real estate development.“Out of that oppositional relationship grew an ongoing and unlikely alliance that planted the seeds for better understandings between the development community and municipal planners,” said MAP Executive Director Andrea Brown. Robinson was elected to the association’s board and became its first president representing the development community.Carlisle has been a professional planner for more than 30 years. He served as the president of the Michigan Society of Planning Officials (MSPO) during its merger with what was then the Michigan American Planning Association (MAPA) in 2000.  His leadership during that challenging juncture was instrumental in the successful joining of the two associations into the single body now known as the Michigan Association of Planning.