White Plains, N.Y. (November 25, 2019) – The Urban Land Institute (ULI) New York and Westchester/Fairfield District Councils, were recently joined by representatives from over 20 municipalities throughout New York and Connecticut counties for a joint UrbanPlan for Public Officials Workshop.  Created by ULI, UrbanPlan for Public Officials offers municipal leaders with an opportunity to participate in a hands-on, simulated real estate planning exercise while working side-by-side with leading industry professionals. Through the program, members of City Councils, Assemblies, Community Boards, Town Boards, Planning Boards, Zoning Board of Appeals, IDA Boards and more are given the opportunity to learn about the fundamental forces that affect real estate development and how responsible development can shape, transform and ultimately improve our communities.

Hosted at the Judicial Institute in White Plains and led by UrbanPlan Instructor Betsy del Monte, FAIA, LEED BD+C, Architect and Sustainability Consultant with Cameron MacAllister Group, the UrbanPlan for Public Officials Workshop was an all-day exercise where public sector participants were tasked with responding to a mock “request for proposals” for the redevelopment of a blighted neighborhood in a fictional community. Each team member assumed one of five roles: Financial Analyst, Marketing Director, City Liaison, Neighborhood Liaison, or Site Planner.

Through these roles, public officials developed a visceral understanding of how various market forces (supply and demand, availability of capital, risk versus reward, etc.) clash and collaborate with non-market forces (regulation, politics, advocacy groups, etc.) to create the built environment. Using modeling Lego blocks representing differing asset classes of buildings and property usages, each team was forced to reconcile these often-competing agendas to create a well-designed, market-responsive, financeable, and buildable project. Following the creation of their plans, teams were tasked with presenting and defending their proposals in front of a volunteer-based mock City Council.

“All too often, the real estate planning and approvals process can be source of great frustration for both municipal leaders and real estate executives. With the ongoing development boom seen in the tri-state area, this frustration can lead to unrealized projects and missed opportunities for transformative development in our communities,” said Mara Winokur, AICP, PP, Senior Director of ULI Northern New Jersey and Westchester/Fairfield. “However, by offering programs like UrbanPlan for Public Officials, we feel that we can help bridge the gap between these two groups to facilitate enhanced cooperation as they work to ensure our communities are well-positioned to respond to the real estate and land use challenges of the future.”

The completed list of municipalities who participated are included below:

Norwalk, CT

City of New Rochelle, NY

Town of New Castle, NY

Village of Tarrytown, NY

Hastings, NY

Town of Ossining, NY

City of New Rochelle, NY

Town of New Canaan, CT

Village of Ardsley, NY

Village of Tarrytown, NY

Village of Pelham, NY

Village of Ossining, NY

Village of Sleepy Hollow, NY

Town of Wilton, CT

Town of Somers, NY

Town of Mount Pleasant, NY

Village of Port Chester, NY

City of Mount Vernon, NY

Village of Hastings-on-Hudson, NY

City of Yonkers, NY

Village of Dobbs Ferry, NY

City of White Plains, NY

Town of New Castle, NY

Hastings, NY

City of Mount Vernon, NY

In addition to the leadership of the local ULI chapters, the UrbanPlan curriculum relies heavily upon the assistance of dedicated volunteers from the real estate, legal, and civics communities. From 2017-2018 alone, 808 volunteers donated over 3,865 hours to UrbanPlan programs across the country. ULI New York and Westchester/Fairfield’s UrbanPlan for Public Officials Workshop was made possible through the hard work of these volunteers:

Sam Mullins, ULI New York

Monika Henn, ULI Greenprint

Douglas Hamilton, Archilier Architecture

Inbal Himelblau, IRONSKY

Jon Salony, Bayberry Advisors

Carrie Lee, Newmark Knight Frank

Jie Zhu, HLW

Tony O’Malley, Acorn

Chris Karakul, ULI New York

Felix Ciampa, ULI New York

Arthur Collins, Collins Enterprises

Lisa Sun, LS Consulting & Training

Earlier this year, Urban Land Institute of Northern New Jersey hosted the first UrbanPlan for High School Students program ever held in New Jersey at East Brunswick High School. Since 2003, UrbanPlan has reached over 52,000 high school and university students in the United States & Canada. From 2017-2018 alone, UrbanPlan reached over 3,900 students in 165 classrooms at 67 high schools across the nation.

Real estate professionals interested in participating in or sponsoring UrbanPlan can contact Mara Winokur, Senior Director of ULI Northern New Jersey & Westchester/Fairfield at 201.312.8817 or [email protected].