Hiring a Planning Consultant

Hiring a planning consultant for your community can be a daunting process. Selecting the wrong consultant can make any planning project quite painful. Not only can the process to get to the final product be tough, but the final plan also may not be quite what you originally envisioned. So the anxiety can build within you to make the right selection. All of a sudden, you’re off on the wrong foot already, as you cannot even be comfortable during the hiring process.

This is akin to a series of posts on my previous blog (The Baseball Opinion) entitled “Over a Beer and Peanuts”. It was an apropos title for a series of posts where I talked baseball with others.

To help make this process a little easier, I’ve reached out to a few friends in the planning field to get their thoughts on how to make the hiring process better. Amy Haase, Jeff Ray, and Bruce Fountain all have extensive experience in planning and zoning. But they also provide different viewpoints based on the varying roles they have played in the consultant hiring process over the years.

Amy Haase

Amy is a Principal and Project Manager with the Community and Regional Planning group at RDG Planning & Design. Over her 25-year career, she has led a wide range of projects, providing comprehensive planning, housing market studies, and neighborhood and downtown revitalization studies for communities across the Midwest.

Jeff Ray

Jeff Ray is a seasoned urban planner with over three decades of experience guiding land development, zoning administration, and community revitalization across both public and private sectors. As Principal of Ray Planning Solutions, LLC, he provides expert consulting to municipalities, counties, nonprofits, and developers, specializing in comprehensive planning, downtown redevelopment, and entitlement strategies. He has also served as President of the Nebraska Chapter of APA.

Bruce Fountain

The Community Development Director for the City of La Vista, Bruce has an extensive background in planning and economic development. This includes experience in business recruitment, retention, and expansion, comprehensive planning, strategic corridor planning studies, site planning, tax increment financing, and urban renewal projects. Bruce has served as both a Planning Commissioner and City Councilman in communities where he has lived. He has served as President of the Nebraska Chapter of APA.

Check It Out on YouTube

If you’re interested in our thoughts on the consultant hiring process, check out the YouTube video through the link below:

Click Here for the YouTube Video on this Topic

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