Technical Assistance Panels

Practical insights, better communities

The Advisory Services program offers expertise and technical assistance for communities and organizations facing land use challenges.

The Advisory Services program is, in my opinion, the very best outreach program offered by ULI. It truly reflects our core mission of making the built environment better for all.

Jim DeFrancia

Life Trustee, ULI / Principal, Lowe Enterprises

For more than 70 years, ULI members have delivered change in our cities through ULI’s Advisory Services. Whether it be the devastation of disaster, food access and healthy design, or a shortage of housing choices, Advisory Services panels have offered unbiased and independent solutions to the most complex problems facing communities.

Through this program, ULI members integrate into communities dealing with a wide array of real estate and land use challenges to provide unbiased, expert advice and specific recommendations for improvement. Members link together with local leaders to draft a plan to revive, rethink, and restore communities around the globe to ultimately enact change and improve the lives of the people who live there.

Panels bring together the best and brightest from ULI’s diverse membership — developers, planners, financiers, market analysts, economists, architects, designers, and public officials — to provide practical solutions and objective advice not available from any other source.

Advisory Services Panels (ASPs) offer an in-person deep-dive. This five-day format allows for a sponsor dinner with 7-10 panelists, followed by an in-depth briefing day composed of a tour of the site and meetings with sponsor representatives, a day of hour-long interviews with typically 70 to 100 key community representatives, and two days devoted to formulating recommendations. On the final day on site, the panel makes an oral presentation of its findings to the sponsor, which can opt to hold the presentation publicly. A written report is prepared and published.

Project Analysis Sessions (PASs) offer concise and immediate expert feedback. The intimate, conversational format of a PAS lends itself to an open exchange of ideas among diverse industry practitioners with distinct points of view. From the streamlined three-hour session to the “deeper-dive” eight-hour session (offered both in-person and virtually), the intimate conversational format encourages creative thinking and problem-solving. Project Analysis Sessions engage 4-6 member experts.

Technical Assistance Panels (TAPs) are one of a series of products offered under the ULI Advisory Services program run and implemented by district councils. Designed to provide direct assistance to communities by addressing their challenging land use and real estate issues, TAPs draw on local expertise to solve uniquely local challenges.