Upfront Planning Podcast

Jeanine Jerkovic, CEcD Economic Development Director for the City of Surprise and Macri Utakis, Associate Director of Rider Levett Bucknall talk about their experience and what they heard at SemiCon 2026 in Taiwan with all the impact in the Arizona semiconductor market and supporting uses. Hear why this continues to be such an important industry for Arizona, how it’s being supported and what’s new...

A Fun Spooky Halloween episode as Jessica interviews several people in and around the historic Town of Florence to hear about their experiences at the Old Courthouse, the former Building F, the Silver King Hotel, the old Candyshop and the stories from the BLue Mist Motel and the State Prision in Florence. Listen in and hear about one of the most historic and haunted areas in Arizona. See Priv...

Code Compliance Supervisor Chip Hart and Planning Manager Darren Gerard talk to us about the ins and outs of code compliance and what causes them to go out and investigate a property. Hear about a few crazy stories from site visits in and out of Arizona, things that seem to be daily complaints and hear about some positive outcomes for people just needing help. Hear how their job keeps them on thie...

San Tan Valley's 1st Town Manager Brent Billingsly talks about what it’s like not just to be on the ground starting a new Town but starting one with over 100,000 people on day 1! Hear about what he loves about starting from the ground up, what it takes, lessons learned and what to expect from Day 1. Hear how it gets done and how you can hear more about the Town's development as Arizona's 92nd inco...

Les Presmyk talks about mining in Arizona and what it means to be the State Mine Inspector. Hear about his background working in the mines over the last several decades, as an engineer for SRP, as a Councilman in Gilbert and how he works to ensure safety to the hundreds of mines throughout the state as the State Mine Inspector. Les tells some great history and educates us about the minerals found...

Patrick Beazley, Civil Engineer from Lloyd Sports + Engineering, talks about the World Cup and imposter syndrome. Hear what went into the 2-foot base for the pitch and what it was like being on the field during the quarter finals.  Hear how he went after his dream job in the US through a simple email and listen in as we get into important questions like how do you keep grass healthy under a dome,...

Mark follows up with this fun and honest episode about what projects have just failed.  Hear him tell the stories of what projects went sideways and why and what he learned in the process.  Mark and Jessica dive into all the ways the best intentions on projects go sideways and endure a fiery death, maybe not that bad, but why it happens and who some, many years later even rise like a slow, tired P...

Mark Stapp, Executive Director for the ASU's Master of Real Estate Development program joins the podcast to talk about his work in real estate development and how he came to join ASU and become one of the Phoenix Business Journal's 2026 Most Admired Leaders.  Hear about his development background and work which makes him a sought-after analyst to the Governor's office on pressing housing and econo...

Larry Harmer dives into what 50 years in planning looks like and all the projects in and out of Arizona he has worked on, and yes it is ALOT! Many you will even know about!  Hear about his work in Tempe early on including a planning comic book, the original Tempe Town Lake Plans and working in Salem, Oregon on their floating bridge.  He has lots of stories, so many we likely need a Part 2!       ...

The RVi team joins the podcast to do a MAJOR update!  In case you haven't heard already, Jessica is now officially with RVi in their Scottsdale office.  Hear from Regional Vice President Mark Reddie, Principal Alex Stedman and Vice President - Principal Brett Anderson about what RVi does, what projects they work on and all about the culture that made Jessica join the fabulous RVi team.    See Priv...

Lance Holman, President and CEO with Holman Capital, joins the podcast to talk about his approach over the last 20 years!  This is such an interesting discussion about what to do when Bonds fail and how to get the funds to keep things moving smoothly.  He talks about the additional funding opportunities that he has seen succeed and provide more positive financial outcomes with more security and le...

Brett Par, Vice President at RVi in the California office,  joins the podcast to talk about his design approach to amazing projects in California, Arizona, and even overseas, which include envisioning exciting resort projects that take into account the natural environment and feel to create unique destinations.  Listen in to hear his process and how he got to be “the guy” for some very c...

What if the most innovative community in America is built around what's missing? In this episode of The Upfront Planning Podcast , Jessica sits down with Ryan Johnson, founder and CEO of Culdesac, the groundbreaking developer behind America's first purpose-built car-free neighborhood. From a childhood spent in suburban Phoenix cul-de-sacs to a life-changing trip to Europe, Ryan shares the inspirat...

Steve Betts talks with Jessica about creating a forever building with the Helios Education site in Phoenix.  Hear about the innovative ways the design team thought 100 years in the future for the buildings' use, energy needs, future water needs, the impact of less parking needs, and how to expand the buildings' usable space without expanding the footprint. Most impressive is hearing how they...

Town Manager Terry Hinton in Duncan, Arizona talks about managing a small Town and what goes into being a man of many hats in rural Towns and how all the amazing goals he has achieved in 3 short years!

Jessica talks about the recent 2026 National Planning Conference in Detroit, Michigan and what ideas and discussions she is bringing back to use in AZ.

Jessica does a download of the recent Arizona Association of Economic Development (AAED) Spring Conference iin Tucson, AZ.  Hear about the great sessions, the first teaming conference with RVi and how she handles a very active extrovert conference... was she able to network all the entire time!?

Why are architect’s so sensitive? We’ve got Ben Ayers and Dane Astle, both Arizona Architects who tell us about why they are the way they are in this entertaining episode. They will tell us what creates good looking projects and how we can get more of those great designs and places. We will talk about what’s hot and what’s not in their eyes of architecture.

Amy Weidman with Harvard Investments joins the podcast to talk about thier development projects moving forward as well a thier massive new development in the west valley, Rio 1900 "Soltstice".  Hear about why and how this project came to be and what it means for West Phoenix area.

Jessica quickly downloads all the sessions and takeaways from the Baltimore ULI Housing Opportunity Conference in March.  Hear about great ideas, tools, upcoming housing opportunities, and what we can take from the past.

Carolyn Oberholzer of Bergin, Frakes, Smalley & Oberholtzer and Lindsay Schube of Gammage and Burnham join the podcast to talk about what it's like to be a zoning attorney and what even is a zoning attorney.  Learn what makes land attorneys so cool and why they need to be so different from what you may think an attorney is. Listen in as we hear about all their crazy stories as these two f...

 Tempe Mayor Corey Woods and City of Phoenix Planning Director Josh Bednarek join the Upfront Planning podcast to talk about the big housing issue and what needs to be done locally, at the state and federal level to get housing opportunities and costs for everyone back on track.  Discussion goes further into why there is so much opposition to housing and what is at the heart of the matte...

ULI Arizona Trends Day 2026 recap with Angie Grendahl, MRED .  Hear about the sessions, the take aways and what it was like working on the team to put this huge one day event together gathering over 1,100 professionals from around AZ and the country. Hear about the economic forecast with breaking news, they keynote, the debate and all the interesting sessions for future trends you might not k...

Santiago Fajardo discusses some of the ins and outs of buying properties and investments internationally.  Hear how deals get cash deals done and the crazy stories that go with buying international.

Maggie Soffel from Arizona State University and Enrique Bojorquez-Gaxiola from the City of Phoenix continue to discuss Rio Reimagined in greater detail, following the recent report that the City of Phoenix has been working to make it a reality.