Steve Butler

Steve Butler, FAICP, (he/him) is the Planning & Policy Director at Municipal Research and Services Center (MSRC), which he joined in February 2015. In that role, he researches and provides guidance on planning, land use, zoning, affordable housing, and related topics, as well as manages MRSC’s policy team. He has been involved in most aspects of community planning for over 40 years, both in the public and private sectors. Steve has served as president of statewide planning associations in both Washington and Maine and was elected to the American Institute of Certified Planners College of Fellows in 2008. 

Steve is currently on the APA-WA’s Board of Directors as a co-chair of both its Scholarship Committee and its Youth in Planning Task Force. He is a member/former chair of the UW School of Urban Design and Planning’s Professionals Council and serves as its Planning Lecture Committee co-chair. He was a member of the American Institute of Certified Planners’ (AICP) Ethics Committee from 2011-2020. 

In his spare time, Steve likes to read, travel (both domestically and internationally), listen to alternative music, ride his non-motorized bicycle, give tours for the Seattle Architecture Foundation, and mentor college students who are interested in planning. 

He received a M.S. in Urban and Regional Planning from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a B.A. in sociology from St. Lawrence University (Canton, New York).