Dr. Knaap, a professor in the Urban Studies and Planning department within the School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation, was honored for his work on a series of growth visioning exercises around Maryland known as Reality Check Plus.

Dr. Knaap will be presented with the award during a ceremony on World Planning Day on Wednesday, Nov. 8, 2006, at the Banneker-Douglass Museum at 84 Franklin Street, Annapolis.

An economist, Dr. Knaap is the author of more than 50 articles and five books on state and local land use planning and economics. His research interests include the economics and politics of land use planning, the efficacy of economic development instruments, and impacts of environmental policy. He earned a B.S. from Willamette University, his M.S. and Ph.D. from the University of Oregon, and received post-doctoral training at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, all in economics.

For the past three years, Dr. Knaap and others at the National Center for Smart Growth have been deeply involved in “Reality Check” growth visioning exercises, first for the Washington, D.C., metropolitan region, then for the Fredericksburg, Va., region, and then in four different regions of Maryland in May and June of 2006. Dr. Knaap was nominated for the award by Richard E. Hall, president of Maryland’s APA chapter.