Planner Perspectives: Alyssa Kelly and John Trant

Community Planners work to create and implement pathways for improving and expanding cities, towns, and other areas. Their knowledge of land use, zoning ordinances, and critical infrastructure is more important than ever as communities grapple with challenges from affordable housing to climate change. In this edition of Planner Perspectives, we talk with planners Alyssa Kelly and John Trant from  Strategic Solutions, LLC in Pittsburgh, PA, about their roles as experienced community planners and consultants — and how their work is helping communities balance growth and resiliency with a changing world.

What was your path to becoming a planner?

Alyssa: My path was actually pretty straightforward. I have both my undergraduate and graduate degree in planning. In my freshman and sophomore years of college, I did kind of stumble upon the [planning] major because I felt like I was interested in a lot of different things. And planning to me, touched on all those different facets of creativity and policy and things in which I was interested. So, from there on, I’ve been in the planning field, and felt like it was a great path for me.

John: I went to Penn State for landscape architecture and geography. [After earning my degree], I went to work for a firm that did planning and landscape architecture where I was focused more on planning projects. I also went to law school at night while I was working at that firm and then went to a municipal government entity in house and finished my law degree. So, I was exposed to the in-house, municipal side of things and that really sent me down this path in terms of what our firm does and what I do and like to do. I did work at a law firm briefly, but my career has been mostly on the municipal side as municipal management and planning. Then I started Strategic Solutions 15 years ago to focus on a variety of services for municipalities, including planning.

What are top skills or qualities that make a good planner?

Alyssa: As a planner, you’re a connector. You’re connecting different departments within a municipality, or different kind of roles with different professional expertise, whether it’s engineering, a landscape architect, or  a policy person. And so, you have to be able to relate to folks and understand where they’re coming from, what their goals are and their role and tie all the pieces together while moving people forward in that way.

John: Our company logo shows three dots connected by squiggly lines that represents the idea of connecting the dots. And that’s what we do. We like to connect the dots for people, so we can actually recommend projects and changes that will take effect in a positive way for communities. We connect those dots to make sure everything makes sense from an operations standpoint, a community standpoint, and an engagement standpoint. And it all works together.

How do municipalities benefit from using a community planner?

John: I think planners bring a perspective that often is broader than other folks might bring. And so, when we offer that broader perspective, the community can not only identify potential threats or challenges that are  down the road that they may not be thinking about. We can help them avoid or mitigate those challenges. But we also find opportunities for enhancements and efficiencies within their community, that somebody that’s not looking the bigger picture might not see – especially when somebody’s focused on a specific task or role or operation.

How do you get to know and engage with a community you’ve never worked with?

John: Our company tagline is Listen, Engage, Advise. And those three words guide everything that we do. We will do advanced work to do some general research on a community that we’re not familiar with, but when we get into a community and start a project, we do a whole lot of listening. In fact, sometimes we’ll go into situations that are not ideal from an operations standpoint, or there might be some major change happening, or some controversial issue. We find that having someone like us there to just listen and advise in a way that’s active is helpful, so folks know that they’re being heard and understood. From there we ultimately engage them in the process with the information that they provided to us.

What are some of the ways a planner engages with the public and gets their input?

Alyssa: I would say it depends on the project. The best way to approach it is to start broadly with all the different ways you might normally engage in a community and then try to focus it for that particular project in that particular community. Some communities may be really excited or supportive of just an online survey. Some folks want to meet in person and have conversations and listen and learn about the project.

John: For most projects, we’ll have a steering committee and that’s usually a pretty good representation of the community and stakeholders and people who are definitely invested in the community. We always want to approach it meaningfully, not just to engage for the sake of engaging. I think [that approach] is always important and something we are always cognizant of.

What do you believe are some of the top challenges facing planners today?

John: I think that resources to do planning are limited in a lot of communities, whether it’s staffing, financial or otherwise. A lot of communities are running into some landmines because they don’t have the resources to put behind planning for the future. There are some grants available to help communities with the financial resources, so they at least have the temporary capacity to do a planning project. That doesn’t fill a gap in terms of staffing resources for the long haul. It’s more like for one-off projects, but it does help to fill that gap.

Alyssa: I’d also say it’s a challenge to navigate and keep relationships positive with residents and local government officials because they are really passionate about certain projects and their communities. We have to show that we are doing important work to bring the things they care about to life and allow them to have a say in their community. So having and maintaining positive relationships at all levels is important in moving processes forward.

What are your thoughts about Artificial Intelligence in the planning profession?

John: We’ve been very deliberate around AI training, what it is, and how we can use it. We do have some folks on the team that already use it. I think from a planner’s perspective, one of the benefits could be the aggregation of lots of data points and in summarizing that data. Because one of the things that planners do is pull all kinds of data from all kinds of sources. And AI can help assimilate that and summarize it and analyze It.

The caution is, as everybody knows, is you never know exactly what you’re going to get and the accuracy of it. So, we are not blind to that. We’re aware of it. We use it as it makes sense, but we’re cautious about plugging everything through AI and generating plans and ordinances through that process.

What are planners learning from climate change and some of the natural disasters we are seeing such as the devastating wildfires in California?

John: I think recent events just highlight the importance of that big picture planning, because planners are dealing with infrastructure, they’re dealing with people, and they’re dealing with all the services that those people demand or require, whether in time of an emergency or not.

It’s a planner’s job to bring all those pieces together, from the waterlines that bring the water through to the community to communications around a particular emergency or preparedness for an emergency. So, I think what’s been going on recently emphasizes the need for connecting all those dots from the physical infrastructure, water lines, roadways, to the people that manage that emergency response, and then ultimately to the clean-up and rebuilding afterwards.

What would you say would be a dream project to work on from a planning perspective?

Alyssa: That’s a hard question. I guess I really just like working on projects where there are tangible benefits – where you can see something come from it or you can see something that’s being built based on the regulations that you worked on. Or see an area developed based on a specific master plan. So, I would say that any project where, you can see the fruition of those efforts and it come to life,  those are the dream projects for me, for sure.

John: I agree with Alyssa. [I think the dream projects] are those where we get to do the planning, then the ordinance writing, then the development reviews, and then see the projects come out of the ground in a way that everybody anticipated and planned for. Those are the best projects. I do also think on my bucket list is to do more projects that help communities that are grappling with blight. There are a lot of initiatives around blighted properties right now and I’m hopeful, at some point, to be able to work meaningfully with a community to figure out how to right size their infrastructure and operations that may not have been updated in 50 years and bring them to present day standards that serve today’s needs.

Is there a specific project you’ve worked on that you are most proud of?

John: We did the planning and ordinance writing for what’s called the Marketplace in Moon Township, near the Pittsburgh Airport. That’s one of those projects where it was a vacant and somewhat dilapidated, huge site. It used to house an old Kmart and some light industrial buildings. We worked with the community to do a master plan for mixed use development and then wrote the ordinances around that — and it really took off. Now there’s a residential component, office component, retail, and restaurants. And it’s all working together, and the community is super happy with it. So, for me, that’s one that I’m proud of — and I get to drive by it every time I go to the airport.

Alyssa: I’d have to say that my highlight project so far has been the work in Neshannock Township. It’s a community that we, as John said, had previously done planning for. We worked on regulations for them, we’ve done development reviews, and I worked on their comprehensive plan, creating that vision for the community over the next several years. And so that’s been a really fun and rewarding project to be a part of.

Founded in 2009, Strategic Solutions, LLC provides a range of professional consulting services to public and private clients in government spaces. Drawing on a vast background in government management and planning, our team facilitates open and effective communication designed to “connect the dots” to help our clients set and achieve their goals. Strategic Solutions is a professional partner with General Code.