Center for Planning Excellence - CPEX

Louisiana's future is being decided in rooms like this one. Mayors. Planners. Leaders. The people shaping what comes next for our state.

Join them at the 2026 Louisiana Smart Growth Summit, October 21 & 22 at the Manship Theatre in Downtown Baton Rouge — marking CPEX's 20th anniversary of turning ideas into action.

Early bird registration is open now through July 31. Reserve your seat: summit.cpex.org/registration

Our summer interns were busy in June!

Kyle and Luka, our community design interns, jumped into a public meeting in Lafayette to help facilitate community engagement around the Lafayette Growth Plan.

Max, who supports our urban forestry efforts, helped with the KidFest tree planting in Scotlandville to cultivate greener, more welcoming spaces for families in the community.

Kyle also tagged along for round two of community engagement at the Napoleonville Heat Planning Study Open House to understand how heat affect life in Napoleonville.

Not pictured are our other superstar interns: Joshua, who is supporting our finance team, and Marie and Allan, who are working with our resilience team on hazard mitigtion, floodplain management, and tribal resilience projects.

We're grateful for this crew and the energy they have brought to our work this summer!

A safer, easier-to-walk downtown doesn't just feel better, it's good for business too!

That idea is at the heart of the West Monroe Main Street Demonstration Project. Before making permanent changes, the City of West Monroe and West Monroe Main Street are partnering with CPEX to test ideas first.

That's why we kicked off the project last month with a walkshop (also known as a walk audit) alongside the advisory committee to see firsthand what could make downtown streets safer and easier to navigate. We also gathered community feedback on the future demonstration during the Downtown Gallery Crawl.

This model has worked in similar-sized Louisiana communities. It's a low-risk, low-cost way to make community-guided decisions grounded in real life experience rather than guesswork.

More people walking downtown means more people stopping in, shopping, and staying a while. Downtown West Monroe already has the charm. This project is about making it even easier for people to enjoy it!

Stay tuned to see the demonstration setup later this year!

We're hiring a Director of Government Relations!

In this role, you will build the statewide relationships and partnerships that turn bold ideas into real policy progress for communities across the state. This position is based in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

If you are ready to connect people, ideas, and institutions around a shared vision for Louisiana's future, learn how to apply at the link in our bio!