Planner Perspectives: Molly Gaudioso and John Steinmetz

Community Planners work to create and implement pathways for improving and expanding cities, towns, and other areas. Their knowledge of land use, zoning laws, transportation systems, and other infrastructure are more important than ever as communities face challenges such as affordable housing, transportation infrastructure, and environmental concerns. In this edition of Planner Perspectives, we talk with Molly Gaudioso and John Steinmetz of Colliers Engineering & Design, in Rochester, NY on their roles as experienced community planners and how their important work is helping communities balance growth and resiliency with a changing world.

Can you describe the role of a community planner and how you got into this profession?

Molly: Community planning really started as a formal profession, around the turn of the century; the early 1900s bringing a recognized “best practice” to land use and community development. We look not just at physical development of an area but also the impact on community health and wellbeing. As planning practitioners, we work with communities to develop their future land use vision, which through various State statutes and other things, helps provide a foundation for strong local policy and strong decision making when it comes to development and investment of any kind. And, it goes without saying that to achieve this, planners have to be effective communicators.

I have my Masters in City and Regional Planning, but there is no single educational path to [working in this field]. I discovered planning as an undergrad.  I majored in business administration and minored in economics and environmental studies. And there was an elective course that actually counted as a credit for all three. A quote from one of our textbooks said: “The need for planning comes down to two words: interconnectedness and complexity.” That really resonated with me considering the wide variety of disciplines and perspectives we connect with. You can really go in any direction.

John: I think for years people kind of fell into planning by accident. You don’t really have young people saying I want to be a planner when I grow up. I wanted to be an architect. While preparing to study architecture at [The University of] Buffalo, I took an introduction to city planning class like Molly did. I’ve never looked back. So, I think it’s one of those professions that is still a little under the radar. Our company does a lot of [mentoring] with high school kids in architecture and engineering, and we’ve been added to the speaker rotation. So, we’ve grabbed a couple young people out of those pools and now they’re interested in planning, which is nice to see.

Do most planners start their careers in the public sector?

John: Planning may be one of the few professions that is dominated by public sector professionals. I spent six years in the public sector and Molly worked in the public sector for a time as well. I think as a consultant you benefit from that experience. Working for a city or county or village, or whatever the case may be, makes you understand public-sector decision making and governmental processes — which is typically the realm of code enforcement officers and attorneys. But if you can understand it as a planner, you’re going to be much more effective trying to guide long-range decision making. One of the things I like about planning in the public or private sector is that you get exposed to a wide variety of projects even if you don’t specialize in any one of them.

How does a municipality retain the services of a community planner?

John: Our favorite way to get hired is direct source, but it doesn’t happen that often. Sometimes people will hire us if a specialized service is needed, and they may say “we’re not going to go out to bid because we won’t get enough responses or quotes, or we just want to work with John and Molly due to their specialized skillset.” So that’s obviously our favorite way to get hired. The more common way is through the release of a request for proposal (RFP) or request for qualifications (RFQ). Once we receive an RFP or RFQ, we’ll submit our response, and five to ten other firms will submit their responses and [the client will] review them, rank them, conduct interviews, and then select their preferred consultant. We’ve found the solicitation process is essentially the same from state to state to state.  It’s a pretty time-consuming process for us to keep work coming in the door. You take your best shot and try to win the work.

Molly: I think it also depends too on the nature of the planning services that the municipality is looking for. A city like Rochester, NY has a whole planning staff, so their day-to-day stuff is generally taken care of. They’ll hire consultants when they want to do larger code updates, comprehensive plan updates, transportation, or corridor studies, etc. These things might be a bigger, heavier lift for them that requires more specialized expertise.

I think something a little less common is that some smaller communities will keep planners on retainer. So, if something like a development application comes up, they can keep the planner on the books to help review it as needed. A big barrier to obtaining planning services, however, is often a lack of available local funding. Although we’ve seen an uptick in planning grants that have helped smaller communities with less resources.

How important is public engagement in community planning?

Molly: Every project we do, we like to have some level of public engagement – and we try to go well beyond what is considered minimum or required engagement. Every single project we [work on], starts with a public kickoff meeting and we try to make [those meetings] fun and interactive. That first meeting is where a lot of expectations are set, and where public input actually can have an impact. You want people to know the scope of the project. You want to make sure that there’s an understanding of what’s being considered and ultimately the public’s parameters of influence. This helps prevent frustration later down the line. Throughout the process, you should make sure you’re giving updates and keeping lines of communications open, whether through public meetings, pop-up events, or online activities. It’s especially important for us to hear from the people that are living [in a community] to help make sure that whatever it is we’re working on is tailored to their voice, their needs, and their values.

Frequently we will hold open houses during the middle of the project where we present preliminary ideas and get feedback before finalizing the material and going to a public hearing. Most of the time, people are just asking questions. They want to know how it’s going to impact them. The open houses allow for that. And so, the public hearing tends to have very little comment when you get to that stage because there’s more understanding by the public and you can ease anxiety in some situations.

John: Public engagement has really gotten robust over the last 10 years. It used to be a traditional face-to-face public meeting, and a written survey were pretty much all you had, and sometimes you might do some visual surveys in person. Then COVID hit and changed public engagement forever. Despite the awfulness of the pandemic, it really did help public engagement in the sense that people started to embrace virtual meetings and online surveys. The online opportunities have become very popular, which is good for folks that might not be able to attend in person. It also reduces the amount of travel we have to do as consultants, which reduces project costs and allows us to spend less time away from our families.

What are some of the biggest challenges community planners and the industry face today?

John: There are global issues, and then there are process challenges. Some global issues include housing — the cost of housing, the availability, the type. We definitely have a housing crisis in our country in terms of supply, demand, and cost. Also, I think aging infrastructure is huge challenge. Specifically, roads, bridges, water, sewer –and those things cost a lot of money. There’s no such thing as a cheap fix on any of those four pieces of infrastructure.

Another challenge I think is the emergence of electric vehicles, electric appliances — everyone is trying to be cleaner and greener in terms of less greenhouse gas emissions. That is putting a strain on our on our electrical grid so that’s a legitimate concern. Again, it goes back to infrastructure. And then I think resiliency is another big issue. Climate change and change in sea levels and warmer winters and that kind of thing is real and it’s here.

In terms of process, it is becoming harder to get residents to accept change that may address some of these global issues, but the solution may negatively impact them. For example, permitting greater housing density within or near single family neighborhoods remains a challenge. Some residents don’t want new neighbors despite the need for more types of housing.

Molly: I think so many of these issues are interconnected, so when you’re talking about addressing climate change, that also incorporates the modes of transportation that you’re promoting, for example. And to support various modes of transportation, you have to have a certain development pattern that becomes more successful, and that development pattern has impacts in terms of sustainability and resiliency and so on. It can be difficult in any one project to stay in the scope of the effort and tie those things together. Some planning best practices have become very political which is another challenge. It’s not our job to be political. It’s not our job to advocate for any one agenda. It’s more about what is sustainable, what’s going to help the community long term.

Has the use of artificial intelligence become more common in your work today?

Molly: I think it is changing the industry already for sure. [John and I] are both part of the American Institute of Certified Planners through the APA American Planning Association, so we have a code of ethics and to be mindful of the use of artificial intelligence in a manner that is done carefully and ethically.

We actually just started kind of playing around with AI in some of our design software, to generate different images for different styles of development. This is a low-cost way to help visualize land use  policy . It’s not perfect, but it’s a good starting point. With text it can be helpful in piecing together a lot of information that you can build from.  So, it’s certainly a helpful tool for us. I think it’s going to change the landscape of what our job is. What once required hours of research can be done so much faster. There’s some efficiency to it, but we also have to make sure we’re still including the human element.

John: Our division manager who has also been a planner for years has been saying that planning and landscape architecture are somewhat technology proof. AI cannot do all of the specialized work we do – at least yet. For example, AI is not going to be able to do public engagement. But one of the things that we didn’t really see coming is AI’s graphics ability as Molly mentioned. Renderings that are so valuable to conveying ideas can take a designer 20 to 40 hours of work. Now AI can do it in minutes. Is it tailored? No. But it can definitely give an idea of where we are going with a project.

What is one project that you have worked on that you are most proud of?

Molly: You’re talking to two perfectionists here! We are our greatest critics, but we completed a pretty unique project that I really enjoyed.

It’s not earth shattering from the planning perspective, but I think it’s still something that is not commonly done. We did a joint — as in concurrent –comprehensive plan and zoning code update for the village of Pittsford, NY. The process itself had some challenges, but what came out of it was a really great well-considered comprehensive plan and set of land use regulations. The plan contains a lot of the elements that help communicate to the public why changes in land use law may be necessary and how they benefit the community. For example, the Village really values walkability.

They like the traditional character of their Main Street and high-quality pedestrian environment it provides. And so, we demonstrated if you want to protect that or promote that, you want to address appropriate building setbacks, heights, sidewalks, landscaping etc., and put all these things into your zoning code to reflect that. I also think that it gave the Village an unparalleled ability to envision  future land use — you’re literally looking at that road map for development, preservation, whatever it might be, at the parcel level. and you can in real time, align the zoning code with that vision. It’s a really great thing.

John: For me it’s not a single project. It’s the opportunities we’ve gotten to complete multiple projects in the same community. That’s how we can really move the needle. I was raised in the village of Leroy, NY, so I did 15-years-worth of planning there and I still help them on an occasion. I think I probably did ten projects for the village over that time period from replacing a playground, to writing and administering a grant to preserve one of the oldest buildings in the county, to completing a comprehensive plan, waterfront plan, and design standards. For me I think that what I’m most proud of is those relationships that we’ve developed with the community over a decade or two. Planning takes time. We’re not architects that design a building and three years later it’s built. So, to see the plans I wrote 20 years ago years ago and the codes I wrote ten years ago helping a community grow in the way that they want to grow is a pretty great reward.

Colliers Engineering & Design, an affiliate of Colliers, is a trusted provider of multi-discipline engineering and architecture, design, and consulting services to public and private sector clients. Headquartered in Holmdel, New Jersey with offices throughout the United States, they specialize in providing a comprehensive suite of services including civil/site, architecture, transportation, survey/geospatial, infrastructure, governmental, geotechnical/environmental, telecommunications, utilities/energy, and project management. Colliers is professional partner of General Code, a member of the ICC Family of Solutions.