Upfront Planning Podcast

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.

Maggie Soffel from Arizona State University talks about Rio Reimagined.  A multi-jurisdictional river project spanning 55 miles along the Rio Salado and Gila Rivers in Arizona, traversing 6 cities and 2 Native American communities.  Hear the background of how this project came to be back in 1966, the push for it by former Senator John McCain, and why it was reignited in 2018.  Hear...

Tom Bilsten tells us the importance of being agile and faster than a dog with some amusing stories in public outreach.  Tom is a well respected community outreach expert and a lifelong community builder who sat with us to tell all the crazy stories of how he gets his job done so well and how he approaches obstacles in his job.  He has some unbelievable stories with dogs at large, ungodly...

Jackie Guthrie, AICP,  one of the first professional planners Jessica met in her career reminisces about the fun and crazy projects she worked on over the long career as a land planner working on private sector projects large and small as well as who she hired and worked with as a young planner herself.  Hear all the crazy stories of projects you may not normally hear about and how she a...

Culdesac is an innovative carless community in Tempe, AZ.  Tempe Development Director Ryan Levesque, AICP talks about how it came to be and what the City needed to do to make it a reality for the entitlements and thinking differently about their site planning and design requirements.   Hear what he says the project made them look into their code again and see what really is needed. 

Laney Corey and Lucas Jensen join the podcast to talk about building their planning careers and making connections in planning.  Hear where their careers have led them and how they have been so successful at growing their planning career.

Hannah Whitwer from The Society of St. Vincent de Paul and Joe Cable, PE from Bowman Consulting and an active church member within the Church of Latter-Day Saints joins us to talk about the ways nonprofits are trying to help address the housing and homelessness issues in Arizona.  This enormous topic is more than just a single fix, but engagement with the community and volunteers across many...

Jen Ruby and Jamie Blakeman join Upfront Planning to talk about their experience working through the development process.  From working through municipal staff comments to dealing with neighbors and being accused of murder.  What they feel are the best practices and how we can all create better projects through collaboration.

Former American Planning Association president Kurt Christiansen, FAICP joins the podcast to talk about what its like being on the National APA Board, what life is like after retirement for him, how he decided to be a part of the National Board and what he hops for the future of the planning profession. 

Carolyn Oberholzer of Bergin, Frakes, Smalley & Oberholtzer and Lindsay Schube of Gammage and Burnham join the podcast to talk about what its 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 then what you may think an attorney is. Listen in as we hear about all their crazy stories as these two fr...

Dorn Policy Group's Lucas Atencio explains a few new bills taking affects in January 2026 such as: HB2721, HB 2720, HB 2297 and more.  Listen in to what they means for the jurisdictions in Arizona.  Hear what he thinks will be the effect of this bill and how he has seen various agencies responding to them as well as the upcoming elections including the Governor's race which will be heati...

Board Chairman Thomas Galvin talks about the role, challenges and the fun parts of being a Maricopa County Board Supervisor.  Hear how he is able to manage this difficult position with important cases, difficult decisions, challenging opposition and passionate speakers to keep the County on track and moving efficiently with the 4th largest county in the US which is larger than 26 states by po...