Joe DiStefano leads the regional and large-scale master planning team at Calthorpe Associates. He is an urban planner with more than 15 years experience in land use, transportation, and regional and corridor planning and policy. His work and research ranges from federal and local transportation and land use planning and policy to transit-oriented design and implementation strategies. Mr. DiStefano also specializes in the relationship between land use and climate and energy impacts and has lectured extensively on the subject. At Calthorpe Associates, he has worked on and managed a variety of projects, including:

• Fresno Southeast Growth Area: Currently leading an effort to design and implement a 9,000 acre sustainable master plan in Fresno, California. Plans for the Southeast Growth Area, currently under development, will serve as a model for how to better accommodate future population growth to meet vehicle travel, pollution, and green house gas reduction targets and reduce energy and water consumption. The project will also show how a more compact land form, organized around transit, walkability, and community health can protect valuable agricultural lands, spur broad-based economic development, and make better use of limited resources and infrastructure dollars. Planning and designs for this growth area will demonstrate how regional location and community design can result in a truly sustainable development pattern – one that meets aggressive  and interrelated goals of environmental, community, and fiscal sustainability. Alternative plans and designs are being put to the test and analyzed to ensure they meet goals and targets, and to bring a truly informed discussion about Fresno and the region’s future to citizens and decision makers.
• Louisiana Speaks Regional Planning - Managed the award-winning effort to develop a long range regional vision for Southern Louisiana in the wake of the damage from summer 2005 hurricanes Katrina and Rita. The project explored alternative ways that future development could be accommodated in the context of varying storm protection and coastal restoration schemes, economic futures, and cultural patterns. Detailed regional growth scenarios illustrated various ways Southern Louisiana and its constituent communities can recover and evolve over the long-term. The regional vision that emerged was driven by the input of more than 27,000 citizens and stakeholders. Calthorpe Associates designed and led hands-on workshops across the state, as well as an extensive campaign to engage citizens in determining the direction and quality of hurricane recovery and future growth. Final products included vision maps illustrating the stages of recovery and growth across the South Louisiana landscape, as well as a detailed strategic plan that tackles near-term recovery actions, long-term growth policies, and the institutional framework required to realize the vision. The Louisiana Speaks Regional Plan was adopted by the Louisiana Recovery Authority in May 2007 and early actions are underway to realize its key components. See www.louisianaspeaks.org for more info.
• West Bench Master Plan - Managed an environmentally sustainable Master Plan for more than 90,000 acres of mining land reuse and new development along the western edge of the Salt Lake Valley, Utah. The plan represents 7 years of detailed and comprehensive design studies, development programming, environmental study, capacity analysis, and scenario building and modeling. The Master Plan features a community structure based on an organized hierarchy of walkable mixed use centers, a balanced transportation network, a rich open space network, and terrain-responsive residential types. See www.kennecottland.com for more info.
• Palm Deira Master Plan - Managed an international team of consultants in the development of a master plan for a major new development in Dubai, United Arab Emirates . With a projected population of nearly 500,000, the project organizes varying land uses and intensities around a strong network of regional and local transit lines.
• Capital Metro Long Range Transit Planning - Managed an effort to develop a long range transit plan and land use strategy for the Capital Metropolitan Planning Authority in Central Texas ( Austin and surrounding areas). The development of the plan incorporates public input through workshops and media outlets, as well as the development of a series of land use - transit scenarios that comprehensively model the effects of coordinated land use and transportation planning in the region.
• Envision Central Texas - Managed the Calthorpe Associates team for this regional planning effort for the Central Texas Region (Austin and surrounding counties). The project integrated public input from communities throughout the region to inform regional land use and transportation decisions. Extensive public input through regional and subregional growth visioning workshops formed the basis for a series of regional growth alternatives. The project also incorporated site-level design workshops which served to illustrate how human-scale and transit-oriented urban design concepts can be applied in communities throughout the Central Texas region. See www.envisioncentraltexas.org for more info.
• Southern California COMPASS - Southern California COMPASS - Managed the Calthorpe Associates team for this regional planning effort with the Southern California Association of Governments. The region encompasses 6 counties and is home to more than 17 million people. Extensive public input through workshops and other venues formed the basis of alternatives for regional growth that explore different ways the region can accommodate projected population and employment. Land use and transportation modeling measure the consequences of different growth patterns and serve to inform regional decision making. See www.compassblueprint.org for more info.
• Smart Growth Twin Cities - Managed a 2-year regional planning effort for the Twin Cities region in Minnesota . The multi-phase project included developing regional and subregional development alternatives through a public workshop process, enhancing regional land use and transportation databases and models, and creating detailed opportunity site designs that explore ways to utilize walkable and transit-oriented urban design strategies in selected communities in the Twin Cities region.
• Envision Utah - Managed a regional visioning and planning project along the 180-mile Wasatch Front region of Utah. The planning process, guided by an extensive study of the values of local residents, utilized an extensive public workshop process to develop regional growth strategies and a series of preferred development types for the region. In addition, a sophisticated land use-transportation modeling process analyzed a series of growth and infrastructure scenarios that were then be presented to decision-makers and the public through a comprehensive media campaign. See www.envisionutah.org for more info.
• St. Louis Multi-Modal Transportation Investment Analysis - Identified alternatives for new rail corridor alignments based on opportunities for development and redevelopment along three potential light rail corridor study areas. The project included extensive GIS analysis as well as prototype station-area designs for urban, suburban, and greenfield sites.
• I-35W Coalition Build-Out Study -Worked with the University of Minnesota's Design Center for American Urban Landscape on a 2020 land use and transportation plan for the I-35W Corridor Coalition, a group of seven first-ring suburbs in the Twin Cities Region.

Mr. DiStefano has lectured on regional and corridor planning, and the interaction between land use and climate and energy, throughout the US and abroad.

Prior to joining Calthorpe Associates, Mr. DiStefano worked with the Surface Transportation Policy Project (STPP) in Washington D.C., where he helped prepare the Smart Growth Toolkit, a decision-makers' manual to aid growth management and smart growth practices at the local and regional level. His work at STPP culminated in the publication of the book Five Years of Progress, which examines state and local projects funded and/or made possible by the Federal Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act of 1991 (ISTEA).

At a transportation consulting firm in Los Angeles, Mr. DiStefano worked with the Los Angeles Metropolitan Transportation Authority and the California Department of Transportation on studies of the Metrolink commuter rail system and the Metro Rail subway and light rail lines.

Joe DiStefano received his Masters in City and Regional Planning at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and a Bachelor of Arts in History from the University of California at Berkeley.