Margarita Piel McCoy Collection, 1963-2015

Summary

Abstract:

Margarita Piel McCoy began her work in the planning industry in 1959 when she was elected a member on the planning board for Sudbury, Massachusetts. McCoy attended Wells College and Northwestern University in 1940, then transferred to Boston University where she earned her Bachelor of Arts in English in 1944. After finishing graduate school at the University of Southern California in 1970, McCoy went on to become the first full-time female planning professor and the first female department chair in the planning industry in the United States. Margarita McCoy was a professor at Cal Poly Pomona's Department of Urban and Regional Planning from 1975 to 1989, and she also served as the department's chair from 1977 to 1983. She served for a decade in private practice as an advisor and consultant for developing city preservation plans and served an additional nine years on the City of La Habra Heights Planning Commission. The collection consists of planning documents and publications from organizations like the American Institute of Certified Planners (AICP), the Urban Land Institute (ULI), the National Education Development Committee's Planning Design Accreditation Program (NEDC), The Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning (ACSP), the International City/County Management Association (IMCA), and the American Planning Association (APA). Also included are meeting minutes and agendas from the City of La Habra Heights Planning Commission, teaching materials, city, county, and regional reports, procedures, speeches, maps, official city plans and drafts, planning publications, conference ephemera, conference notes, photographs, schedules, correspondence, campaign correspondence, and university student and faculty documents.

Extent:

9.66 linear feet

Language:

English .

Preferred citation:

For information about citing items in this collection consult the appropriate style manual, or see the Citing Archival Materialsguide.

Background

Scope and content:

The Margarita Piel McCoy Collection documents McCoy's 50 year career in the planning industry and highlights the professional activities and accomplishments of the first full-time female planning professor and the first female department chair in the planning industry in the United States. Documents included in the collection are meeting minutes and agendas from the City of La Habra Heights Planning Commission, teaching materials, city, county, and regional reports, planning procedures, speeches, maps, official city plans and drafts, planning publications, conference ephemera, conference notes, photographs, schedules, professional organization and faculty correspondence, campaign correspondence, and university student and faculty documents. The City of La Habra Heights Meeting Minutes and Agendas document the plans, activities, and engagements of the La Habra Heights Planning Commission from 2002-2011. McCoy served nine years on this planning commission, held over three hundred hearings, and developed a sturdy foundation of public support for more control over local area plans that often fell to entwined real estate and governmental entities.

McCoy gave numerous speeches to students, professional planners, university faculty, and conference attendees discussing the value of growth and preservation, the importance of creating more diversity within the planning industry by creating more opportunities for women and minorities, her personal experience and development as trailblazer in the planning industry, and discussions about the current state and future of city planning.

Correspondence ranges from campaign support in various planning organizations and awards, faculty and conference planning correspondence, and private practice correspondence. Email records and postcards are the primary formats of correspondence. Margarita's faculty documents from Cal Poly and student applications and progress reports from USC are included. Planning association and organization correspondence from The American Institute of Certified Planners and the American Planning Association are also included.

Handwritten conference notes from the People-to-People Urban Planning Delegation to Europe and the USSR, and the Conference on Urban Development in the Pacific Rim, conference brochures, city and sightseeing brochures, postcards, newspaper clippings, and conference schedules and correspondence are included.

Most of the collection's reports, plans, and procedures span from the early 1970s to late 1990s and consist of drafts and publications of city plans, reports, and environmental impact statements of areas spanning from Los Angeles to Orange County, with an emphasis on coastal plans, the development of the Marina, wildlife and habitat preservation, water preservation, regional grants, relevant planning dissertations and publications, city and regional maps, and private properties. Plans are identified mostly by county; however, some are city-specific and project-specific.

McCoy's career and engagement in professional organizations not only informed her planning career, but also informed the standards and expectations for her students and future planners. Correspondence and membership documentation from the American Institute of Certified Planners (AICP) and the International City/County Management Association (IMCA), the leading organization of local government professionals dedicated to creating and sustaining thriving communities throughout the world, are included in the collection.

The collection also includes documentation related to the National Education Development Committee's Planning Design Accreditation Program (NEDC), which played a significant role in the history of accreditation for planning education by evaluating the overall quality of planning education through the establishment of a Task Force on Accreditation to prepare the founding standards and procedures, which were officially adopted in 1984. Academic Planning documents during McCoy's time as faculty and department chair at Cal Poly, and correspondence with the AICP Vice President and Chair, Mary Lou Henry, and National Policy Coordinating Committee work is reflected in the collection. Correspondence to and from McCoy during her time chairing the AICP are also included. McCoy engaged with and held leadership roles and membership with all of the listed organizations during varying stages throughout her career. Conference and program correspondence from the American Institute of Certified Planners (AICP) and accreditation documents, speeches, and conference reports regarding Cal Poly planning education, and membership directories and rosters from the Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning (ACSP) and the Urban Land Institute from the Los Angeles District during the mid-to-late 1990's are included. The Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning (ACSP) is a consortium of over 100 university departments and programs offering planning degrees and programs offering degrees affiliated with planning. Correspondence and nomination from McCoy's colleagues regarding the College of Fellows of the American Institute of Certified Planners (FAICP), are included. FAICP is the highest honor the American Institute of Certified Planners bestows upon a member and recognizes long-time members for their transformational improvements to the field of planning and excellence in professional practice, teaching and mentoring, research, and community service and leadership. Folders are arranged alphabetically by title.

Biographical / historical:

Margarita Piel McCoy was born in New York City on May 25th, 1923, to Margarita Schiele and Rudolf Alfred Piel, both from families in the brewing industry. She married Alfred McCoy in 1941 and worked as a mother and stay-at-home spouse until she began her 50-year career in the planning industry in 1958. She had two children, Alfred McCoy and Lady Margarita Ground; four grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren. She earned her Bachelor of Arts in English at Boston University in 1944 and was elected a member of the Planning Board in Sudbury, Massachusetts in 1959. McCoy used this opportunity to engage in hands-on urban planning work through enacting the board's first subdivision regulations, first General Plan, standardized development approval procedures, and enacted a Sudbury River flood plain ordinance which became a model for much of New England. After following her husband to army bases and assignments across the United States, an abrupt divorce left McCoy in Los Angeles in debt, alone, and unemployed. McCoy took night classes to gain the math skills she needed for the required coursework of a planning education. She earned her master's degree in 1970 from the University of Southern California and stayed at the institution as program administrator, advising students.

McCoy was keen on creating a more equitable and diverse community of students and professional planners. She modeled this by being the first female professor of urban and regional planning, and the first female chair of a planning department in the United States at California Polytechnic University, Pomona. She deferred her admission into USC's doctoral program in 1975 to accept a position as professor in the Department of Urban Planning at California Polytechnic State University, Pomona which, at the time, was a new program. McCoy dedicated fifteen years as professor and seven years as department chair.

Throughout her career in planning education, she served in leadership roles in professional organizations such as the American Planning Association (APA), the American Institute of Certified Planners (AICP), and the Associate of Collegiate Schools of Planning (ACSP). She was a commissioner on the American Institute of Certified Planners (1979-82, 1990-94) and was elected to a term as its president (1981-82). She also served as a director (1979-82) of the American Planning Association (APA) and was a founder of its Planning and Women Division. As a member of the Planning Accreditation Board and the Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning (ACSP), she inspected many United States planning schools and advocated for affirmative action plans to create more opportunities for advancement in the planning industry. By the time of her retirement from Cal Poly, three of the eight professors in her department were women.

After retiring from academia in 1989, McCoy dedicated another ten years of her life in private practice as an advisor and consultant in developing plans focused on balancing growth, preservation, and protection from natural hazards. After retiring from her private practice, she served nine years on her local planning commission at the City of La Habra Heights, held over three hundred hearings and won widespread public support for more control on growth.

Margarita Piel McCoy received several awards and recognitions throughout her planning career. The Margarita McCoy award was established by the Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning in 1995. In 2003, she was honored by the American Planning Association as "a name synonymous with service to the planning profession." In 2005 McCoy received the Contribution to Women Award from the American Planning Association. In 2006, she received the American Planning Association National Women Planning Award, and in 2008 she received the University of Southern California Sol Price School of Public Policy Alumni Guardian Award. In 2018, McCoy was nominated for the American Planning Association National Planning Excellence Planning Pioneers Award. McCoy passed away on March 31, 2016 at the age of 92.

Processing information:

Christina Garcia, 2024

Rules or conventions:

Describing Archives: A Content Standard

Indexed terms

Subjects:

Ephemera
Maps
Documents
Photographs

Restrictions:

This collection is open for research use.

Terms of access:

Copyright for unpublished materials authored or otherwise produced by the creator(s) of this collection has not been transferred to California State University, Northridge. Copyright status for other materials is unknown. Transmission or reproduction of materials protected by U.S. Copyright Law (Title 17, U.S.C.) beyond that allowed by fair use requires the written permission of the copyright owners. Works not in the public domain cannot be commercially exploited without permission of the copyright owners. Responsibility for any use rests exclusively with the user.

Preferred citation:

For information about citing items in this collection consult the appropriate style manual, or see the Citing Archival Materialsguide.

Location of this collection:

California State University, Northridge, Urban Archives

18111 Nordhoff Street

Northridge, CA 91330, US

Contact:

(818) 677-4594

Website