The Bloustein School is pleased to announce the establishment of the Robert W. Burchell Fund for Student Planning Conference Travel at the Bloustein School.
Created by his former students, friends, and colleagues, the Burchell Fund honors Distinguished Professor Emeritus Burchell’s lifelong commitment to further engage planning students with the profession through their attendance at planning conferences, such as the annual meetings of the Growth and Infrastructure Consortium, Rocky Mountain Land Use Institute, and the American Planning Association.
Professor David Listokin, a 45-year colleague, noted that Dr. Burchell has been a national leader in many areas of planning and urban policy for half of a century. “His pioneering work, especially in fiscal impact assessment, costs of sprawl and affordable housing, has reshaped communities across the nation. Under his leadership, the Bloustein School’s planning program became even more prominent nationally.”
Dr. Burchell served as the co-director of the Center for Urban Policy Research at the Bloustein School from 2000 through his retirement in 2018. He was the principal investigator on more than $4 million in research spanning his 30-year career at Rutgers. One of these efforts included the Impact Assessment of the New Jersey State Development and Redevelopment Plan, an encompassing study of the growth management program adopted by the New Jersey State Planning Commission in June 1992, an impact assessment done in 1992 and repeated in 2001—in both cases a requirement for passage of the State Plan.
A licensed professional planner, Dr. Burchell graduated with a B.S. in mechanical engineering from the U.S. Coast Guard Academy. He then went on to earn both an M.C.R.P. and Ph.D. from the Department of Urban Planning and Policy Development at Rutgers University.
To honor Dr. Burchell with a personal or corporate contribution, please visit http://go.rutgers.edu/ierqtw2p