Background
In April 2020, Montgomery Planning selected the Urban Land Institute’s (ULI) Advisory Services Program to convene a virtual Advisory Services Panel of independent, volunteer land use and real estate experts to review and provide recommendations on Montgomery Planning’s preliminary recommendations on the update to the policy’s schools element. The SSP identifies how school facility infrastructure adequacy is defined and measured with respect to the approval of new development. The ULI panel also provided a national perspective on best practices and resources related to policies that guide growth, infrastructure funding and school capacity issues. Montgomery Planning staff will incorporate feedback from the ULI panel into the recommendations presented during a Planning Board briefing on May 28.
“I was very impressed with the expertise and perspective on the virtual ULI panel,” said Montgomery Planning Director Gwen Wright. “The update to the county’s growth policy is one of our most important initiatives, and I’m confident this update will lay the groundwork for how our county can grow and thrive into the future.”
ULI is a global, multidisciplinary real estate organization whose work is driven by more than 45,000 members dedicated to responsible land use and building thriving communities.
The virtual ULI Advisory Services panel included national experts who worked intensively for two and a half days on analyzing data and preliminary SSP recommendations, researching best practices from around the country, and conducting interviews with stakeholders, county agencies and community members. The ULI panel’s final report and recommendations will be delivered in early June.
Panelists
The Honorable Glenda E. Hood is President of Hood Partners, a strategic consulting firm focused on civic innovation serving the business, government and independent sectors. Hood served as Florida Secretary of State from 2003-2005 and Mayor/CEO of the City of Orlando from 1992-2003. Before being elected Orlando’s first woman Mayor, she was a City Council member for 10 years and president of her own public relations business. As Mayor, Hood was a strong advocate of growth management and smart growth principles to build safe, livable neighborhoods, a revitalized downtown and a strong local economy. Under her leadership, the City’s land area grew by 50 percent; older and historic in-town neighborhoods were revitalized; compatible new mixed-use infill was constructed; the city’s largest parks initiative developed new parks and refurbished existing ones; unprecedented partnerships in education were established; transportation alternatives were championed; Orlando became a high-tech center and competitive world market; and the arts became a civic priority. Hood spearheaded the redevelopment plan for the Orlando Naval Training Center, the most ambitious economic development project in the City’s history which has been recognized as one of the country’s best examples of reuse of former government properties and a model for incorporating all elements of smart growth and civic engagement. She has been a key advisor on domestic security and disaster preparedness for the State of Florida and federal Department of Homeland Security. The Orlando Sentinel has referred to Hood as a “tireless visionary” with “marketing savvy”, “tenacity and experience”. As Secretary of State, Hood was responsible for the Department’s Divisions of Administrative Services, Corporations, Cultural Affairs, Elections, Historical Resources, and Library and Information Services; and was instrumental in crafting the State’s Strategic Plan for Economic Development and leading numerous international business initiatives. Hood has served as President of the National League of Cities, the Florida League of Cities, and Chair of the Florida Chamber of Commerce. She is a Trustee of the Urban Land Institute (ULI) and active participant and chair of more than 20 ULI Advisory Services and Daniel Rose Center for Public Leadership panels; a Fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration; and long-standing board member and Past Chair of Partners for Livable Communities. Hood serves as a corporate board member of Delta Apparel (NYSE: DLA), Baskerville-Donovan, Inc., and chairs both the SantaFe HealthCare, Inc. and Axiom Bank, NA, boards. She is also a board member of the Orlando Land Trust, Alabama’s Kentuck Art Center and Festival and the Florida Chamber of Commerce where she chairs the Small Business Council. Hood received her BA degree in Spanish from Rollins College after studying in Costa Rica and Spain. She attended the Harvard University Kennedy School of Government Executive Program, and participated in the Mayor’s Urban Design Institute at the University of Virginia and the Society of International Business Fellows.
Eric Fladager is the Comprehensive Planning Manager with the City of Fort Worth Planning & Data Analytics Department. Eric manages the Comprehensive Planning Section of the Department, which is responsible for the City’s Comprehensive Plan. Eric’s team is also responsible for developing long-range plans for specific geographic areas of the city. Examples include the Lake Worth Vision Plan, the Northside Economic Development Strategy and Action Plan, the Texas Motor Speedway Area Master Plan, Urban Village Master Plans, and Neighborhood Empowerment Zone Plans.
Geoff Koski is Bleakly Advisory Group’s president and leader of the Atlanta-based real estate and economic development consulting firm. Geoff has over 15 years of experience researching, analyzing, and reporting on real estate and community development trends across the United States. He joined Bleakly Advisory Group in 2012, bringing with him extensive experience in assessing the market and financial potential of various real estate product types and mixed-used developments. In addition to guiding the eight-person professional staff at Bleakly, Geoff’s work is often focused on:
- assisting public and private sector clients maximize the value of their real estate and development opportunities by providing insights on local economics and demographics,
- helping Georgia cities create and use tax allocation districts (TADs), and
- assessing the economic impacts of new real estate projects.
Recently, Geoff and his team have been serving the Atlanta Public School system by devising enrollment forecasts down to the school-zone level. The 50,000-student system is in the midst of a facility master planning effort and Bleakly’s innovative work illustrates how the city of Atlanta’s urban real estate trends are impacting public school operations.
As the founder and principal of Worthington Advisors LLC, Heather brings 20 years of leadership in local government organizations, including most recently as Director of Long Range Planning in the City of Minneapolis. Her team led the creation, engagement, and policy adoption of the Minneapolis 2040 Comprehensive Plan.
About the ULI Advisory Services
With the goal of improving quality of life and caliber of development everywhere, ULI’s Advisory Services convenes a multidisciplinary panel of experts who may have backgrounds in development, planning, finance, economics, architecture and public administration to review and give unbiased feedback on some of the most complex problems facing communities. Over the past 70 years, ULI has held more than 700 advisory panels that work with local leaders to provide practical solutions and objective recommendations to revive, rethink and restore communities around the globe and improve the lives of people who live in those communities.
This vASP (virtual Advisory Services panel), was ULI’s first such program executed in an entirely virtual format. It was created as a programmatic pivot to during these uncertain times and is a complement to the existing Advisory and Technical Assistance services offered by ULI. The vASP is 2.5-day panel that convenes a multi-disciplinary panel of 4 to 6 experts who reside all over the US, and who possess a range of professional backgrounds so that their collective skills meet the needs of an identified land use or policy challenge. Using a problem statement that includes four to six guiding questions, and briefing materials, the panel convenes virtually to learn from the sponsor, engages in facilitated stakeholder interviews, deliberate, and build consensus on recommendations that address the guiding challenge questions.