HUNTSVILLE — The learning never stops, nor does the pursuit or exchange of ideas. It’s why a contingent from the City’s Planning Department recently attended the National Planning Conference in Denver.
Yes, the scenic Rocky Mountains were on the horizon. But in the eyes of the Huntsville planners in Colorado, the thought probably occurred, “What if we moved the mountains over here?”
That’s the mission of city planners – to see things others don’t, to imagine seemingly unimaginable scenarios. And when you get planners from across the country together, that’s a lot of unique perspectives and a lot of imagination in the same room. And that’s why Huntsville’s team was there.
“When we were there, we were looking for good ideas,” said Dennis Madsen, the city’s manager of Urban and Long-Range Planning. “We’re not shy about stealing someone else’s idea.”
That’s the purpose of the conference, to share ideas, best practices, what works and what doesn’t. Huntsville’s group gave as much insight to cities as it took from others.
Interesting artwork dotted the downtown landscape in Denver at the National Planning Conference.
As the host city, Denver served as a sort of laboratory for the planners. The city features light rail public transit and free bus service in its downtown area. And while Denver is a much more populous city than Huntsville, its population density is also more than four times higher than Huntsville’s.
Still, there is something to be learned.
“We got to hear about their population density and how we can learn from that before we have the same in Huntsville,” said Manager of Planning and Zoning Services Thomas Nunez. “It gives us an opportunity to use zoning in the center core of the city (to manage increased population density) while still having the suburban areas. It helps Huntsville grow in a healthy way.”
Said Madsen, “We can make sure, with the density, we have the infrastructure in place to handle it.”
The sprawling conference, organized by the National Planning Conference, also included a visit to nearby Boulder as another laboratory, so to speak, and covered an array of topics that included numerous issues with which Huntsville is currently facing.
“I specifically attended sessions that dealt with the issues that we are currently addressing such as affordable housing, homelessness, group homes, accessory dwelling units, transit-oriented developments, property law, zoning, sustainability, and geospatial data analysis,” said City Planner Lady Kassama. “But I also was able to connect with peer planners, discuss these topics and gained valuable perspective on the nuances involved in addressing them.”
Huntsville’s group also included two young planners, Aliyah Riley and Marcus Reed, eager to soak in as much knowledge as possible. Their professional growth enhances the department as a whole.
Denver’s light rail system is the envy of many cities across the country.
“It was really eye-opening for me,” Reed said. “It was hard to get to everything. For a first-time experience, it was all I could ask for.”
In particular, Reed said he was impressed with Denver’s multi-modal streetscape.
“They had traffic down to a science,” he said.
Riley described the conference as “insightful” and immediately began applying the knowledge gleaned to her work.
“I enjoyed sessions on planning technology, public engagement, zoning reform, homelessness and maintaining culture and character as a community transforms and grows,” she said. “Several sessions on maintaining work/life balance and having healthy mental health practices were a highlight of my time at the conference.
“I have already started reflecting on these insights and how they can be implemented in improving our day-to-day service as planners.”
Ultimately, it’s all in service to Huntsville residents to help manage and design a city in the most efficient way possible both now and in the future.
Paul Gattis is a Communication Specialist for the City of Huntsville.
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