Upfront Planning Podcast Jessica Sarkissian

Darcy Kober, Maricopa County Assistant County Manager joins us to talk all things County Management. What its like managing the 4th most populous county in the US and what her day to day looks like and how to manage having 27 jurisdictions within your area to be in the sandbox with.

Existing and former employees talk about how they transitioned from school and interning to full time planners. Whitney and Kessiah join Jessica as they talk about all the fun and learning experiences of getting thier feet wet in thier new planning careers.

Jessica's friend and former coworker Hannah Van Nimwegen-McGuire, AICP joins us from Colorado wher she has worked most recently as a Planning Director in Manitou Springs and previosuly for Colorado Springs after she left Arizona in 2015. Hear how she feels AZ and CO planning constrasts and lessons learned.

The AZ Planning Association Women in Planning Group continues thier panel discussion with Amanda Bayham, AICP from the City of Phoenix and Denise Lacey from MCDOT to discuss what its like working in a field typically dominated by men and what they have learned as they grew in the field and learned to prioritize themselves while still growing thier careers.

Jessica is joined by Clark Princell of Valley Partnership, Rina Rien of Pinal Partnership and Deb Sydenham of the Arizona Urban Land Institute to hear about what it’s like to run one of these highly influential groups and how they are able to stay at the forefront of development, innovation and economic investment in Arizona.

Residential builders Michael Stephan from Porter Kyle and Taner Maddux from Sunstone Two Tree join the podcast to talk about HB 2570 which was recently vetoed by Arizona Governor Hobbs called the “Arizona Starter Homes Act”. Many municipalities joined together to get the veto while others in the home builder industry were in favor. Listen from both sides as we discuss the impacts of what did not get approved, what should have been approved.