About me
Rocky Piro is a recently retired urban planner and professor. He served as Director of the Colorado Center for Sustainable Urbanism at the University of Colorado Denver. He also worked as Associate Research Professor at CU’s College of Architecture and Planning. Previously he was the Manager for Planning and Community Development for the City of Denver and Program Manager for Growth Management at the Puget Sound Regional Council in Seattle.
He served on the Board of Directors for the International Urban Planning and Environment Association, is past chair for the Regional and Intergovernmental Planning Division of the American Planning Association, and served on the exam committee for the American Institute of Certified Planners. In 2010 he was inducted into the Institute’s College of Fellows. That same year he also received the Myer Wolfe Award for Excellence in Planning.
Piro has also authored and co-authored a number of articles and publications, including The Comprehensive Plan: Sustainable, Resilient, and Equitable Communities for 21st Century (2022), Emerging Trends in Regional Planning (2017), Spatial Planning: Parallel Patterns of Growth and Shrinkage (2012), “Integrating Land Use Policy into Regional Transport Planning” in Spatial Planning, Urban Form and Sustainable Transport (2005), and “Interjurisdictional Growth Management: Integrating Local, Regional, and State Planning” in Integrating City Planning and Environmental Improvement (1999).
His areas of interest include smart growth, sustainability, healthy communities, collaborative planning, and community engagement. Dr. Piro attended Valparaiso University (Indiana), Christ Seminary (St. Louis), The College of Architecture and Planning at the University of Colorado Denver, and the University of Washington (Seattle), where he earned a doctorate in Urban Design and Planning. Prior to the pandemic, he completed a guest professorship at Nürtingen-Geislingen University in Germany. He is a frequent presenter at local, national, and international events. He has spoken at conferences in Australia, Germany, Great Britain, The Netherlands, Portugal, and South Africa, as well as across the United States.
