Jeff Levine

Jeff Levine, AICP, has been involved with land use planning on the local and regional level for 25 years. He is interested in how to apply best practices in theory and research in local municipal settings. His research interests are in the areas where public finance, private equity, and land use planning intersect, as well as how transportation, housing and sustainability interact in small- to mid-sized cities and regions.

In 2022, Jeff served on the Maine Legislature's Commission To Increase Housing Opportunities in Maine by Studying Zoning and Land Use Restrictions. He then worked with the Legislature to pass LD2003, a major reform of state zoning laws that requires that communities allow multifamily housing wherever they permit housing, and also requires that communities allow Accessory Dwelling Units. LD2003 also provides density bonuses for affordable housing developments in growth areas. Jeff then worked with the Governor's Office of Policy Innovation & the Future and the state Housing Opportunities Program on regulations and guidance materials for the new law.

He is the author of Leadership in Planning: How to Communicate Ideas and Effect Positive Change (Routledge, 2021.) Most recently before joining DUSP, Jeff was the Director of Planning & Urban Development for Portland, ME, where he led a multidisciplinary team in developing a new Comprehensive Plan. In Portland, Jeff introduced best practices in housing policy, land use, and equity planning, while managing the largest private investment in the City since the Great Fire of 1866.

Prior to that, Jeff was the Director of Planning & Community Development for Brookline, MA, where he managed the completion of the town's award-winning Comprehensive Plan and a public realm plan for the Route 9 corridor into Boston. Previously, he worked as the Director of Transportation & Long Range Planning for the City of Somerville, MA, and as a regional planner for the Cape Cod Commission.

A New England native, he has been involved in a number of land use transformations, including the redevelopment of the Assembly Square district in Somerville; planning for the introduction of a new light rail transit line in Somerville; redevelopment of John Kennedy’s boyhood church into a mixed-income housing development in Brookline; and the redevelopment of the Bayside district in Portland. Jeff has also been involved in Metropolitan Planning Organizations in Boston, on Cape Cod, and in Portland. Jeff is an adjunct faculty member at the Muskie School of Public Service, and was previously an adjunct at Tufts University, at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, and at the APA Planning Leadership Institute. He has a degree in urban planning from the University of Minnesota and an undergraduate degree from Wesleyan University.

Currently, in addition to his teaching duties, Jeff is conducting research on the land use and planning impacts of legalized adult use cannabis in the US and Canada. He is also working on a book on leadership in urban planning. Jeff also consults with public and private clients on comprehensive planning, zoning, and developments issues.