HUNTSVILLE, Ala. — City planners are in charge of developing comprehensive plans and designs for the use of space within cities, towns or developments.
Another thing city planners must be is flexible.
"We have to be very flexible because how cities develop and grow is very dynamic," said the City of Madison's Director of Development Services, Mary Beth Broeren, AICP.
That's because in every facet of life, things are changing!
And things are definitely changing in The Valley with the sheer amount of commercial and residential growth taking place here.
Something city planners and residents have to be extremely flexible with is road work.
"All cities really are in a constant evaluation process. You'll have your transportation plan that might identify the projects that you want to do, but then development may change. You may have development occur someplace that you really weren't expecting it. You may have public facilities in an opportunity to arise where you get to put in a park or a school. And that may change the prioritization of when you do those traffic improvements," said Broeren.
Another main responsibility of someone working in city development is matchmaking, setting up clients and contractors as they see fit and that will work best for the community.
They often do work with school systems, helping them navigate important infrastructure decisions.
"Well, the school district is a separate entity from the city. We work very closely with the school district in keeping them apprized of growth and where we see that growth occurring. they're looking at student projections. You know, in fact, we give them updates on residential development on an annual basis, and then we also try to help them to locate school property if they're looking for a future school site," said Broeren.
Finding the land needed for these developments also falls under the city planning umbrella. You can't just plop down a business, school or park just anywhere.
"If we're dealing with public infrastructure projects, then the city needs to acquire that property. Sometimes it's an outright acquisition. Sometimes we're able to get property donated. That often happens in the case of park projects," said Broeren.
City developers are constantly thinking about the greater good of their community and one of the tasks that require the most community input would be bringing businesses to the area in which they develop.
"The community regularly lets us know that they would like certain businesses. But in terms of businesses, a lot of times, that's a function of finding a developer who can put a deal together. It is also a function of property owners, property owners who maybe have commercial land that's conducive to commercial land and have to be willing to sell that land at a price point that works and so it's really a matchmaking effort. That's what a lot of commercial development is," said Broeren.