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Lane Kendig Announces Retirement and Special Advisor Role
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Lane H. Kendig, a renowned planner and founder of our firm, recently retired at the top of his game. Known for his repeated innovations and tireless pursuit of better and more sustainable communities, Lane has had a profound impact on cities, counties, and developments across the country. His leadership in the planning profession has led to “cutting edge” concepts, proven standards, and new practices.
Lane’s friends, former clients, and colleagues (and some long-time competitors) recently gathered on April 25th, during the APA National Conference in Minneapolis, to recognize his stellar career and celebrate his retirement. With the ownership and management of Kendig Keast Collaborative now having transitioned to new President Bret C. Keast, AICP, Lane remains available to the firm and its clients in the role of Strategic Advisor.
Lane grew up in the northern suburbs of Chicago and became both a Wolverine and Tar Heel, earning a Bachelor of Architecture degree from the University of Michigan and a Master of Regional Planning degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He also served his country as a naval officer and facilities planner in Vietnam.
Lane began his professional career as a Senior Planner and then Director of Community Planning for the Bucks County Planning Commission near Philadelphia (1968-1976). Much of his planning philosophy was shaped there thanks to his involvement in natural resource protection, land neighborhood planning, development guidance, parks and recreation planning, urban design, ordinance drafting and refinement, and computer-based planning and policy methods. Initial staff reports on new zoning, growth management, and land conservation techniques (published in 1973 and 1976) later evolved into Lane’s landmark work, Performance Zoning, which was published by Planners Press in 1980.
Lane returned to his home base in the Chicago region when he became Director of the Lake County Department of Planning, Zoning and Environmental Quality (1976-1983). He began the consulting phase of his career in 1982 with the formation of Lane Kendig, Inc. This enabled him to refine many of his fresh ideas and concepts, especially related to environmental planning and zoning. Lane prepared plans and codes for the Florida Keys; Teton County, Wyoming; New Jersey’s Pinelands and Highlands regions; and Queen Anne’s County, Maryland (focused on Chesapeake Bay protection); as well as a model land development code for Florida’s springs.
Innovation and creativity remained a hallmark of Lane’s professional practice, emphasizing a clear understanding of planning issues and implementation options and a direct linkage between plans and ordinances. He conceived the concept of performance zoning in response to suburban growth problems that were not adequately addressed by conventional zoning. He later created a transportation and land use regulation system based on traffic sheds, pioneered the first computerized zoning code, and was an early leader in applying design controls. Another important contribution was the development of a planning and zoning approach centered on community character.
Lane also weaved his design ideas into numerous site plans and subdivision layouts, including for the award-winning Fields of Long Grove in Illinois. He also served as an expert witness on litigation in multiple states. Many of his clients over the years have been special places such as Nantucket and Provincetown, Massachusetts; Loudoun County, Virginia; Flagstaff, Arizona; Jackson Hole, Wyoming; Door County, Wisconsin; Guilford, Connecticut; Savannah and Chatham County, Georgia; and Williamson County, Tennessee.
Lane is responsible for three titles in the Planning Advisory Service (PAS) report series:
He has also written numerous articles for publications such as Land Use Law & Zoning Digest, Planning magazine, Naturescape magazine, Urban Land, and The Urban Lawyer.
Lane has been recognized with national awards from the American Planning Association and National Association of Counties for plans in Delaware, Illinois, and Virginia, and from the National Homebuilders Association and Best in American Living, Better Homes and Gardens, and Professional Builder magazines for The Fields of Long Grove conservation subdivision.
Over the course of a more than 40-year career, Lane has distinguished himself as an impassioned planner, a talented designer, a lively debater, and most importantly, as a mentor and friend. For years to come, his legacy will live on through the careers of those he has influenced and in the quality of the communities he has served and advised.
We hope—and know—that he will continue to cajole planners to push the envelope in all that we do, to look well beyond the typical planning horizon and anticipate challenges many decades ahead of us, and to continue developing our skills and specialties—and those of young professionals who will follow in our footsteps to sustain this special profession.
In the meantime, see you on the smooth slopes of Alta, Lane, or tacking across the sunny waters of Sturgeon Bay. Unless you’re in your workshop or polishing off that next book—or a craft brew.
Cheers, Mr. Kendig!
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