Upfront Planning Podcast

Alexandra Gino, Senior Designer at Gensler talks about her journey from London to Arizona and how she gets to work on all her favorite projects and drive her passion for architecture while staying so involved in the development community, finding new connections for fun and exciting projects.

Cheryl Lombard talks about being back in AZ and what she did while in Washington D.C. Hear about the new excitement in NAIOP with Cheryl at the helm and what they are doing to change the development discussion.

Happy Halloween Everyone

Shade Shutters from ASU talks about the ASU Decision Theater and how he is creating tools to help determine communities to get the right information to make the best of their workforce and know what to prepare for in the future for jobs we haven't even imagined yet. Listen in on this interesting and thought provoking discussion. 

Hear the "Hot Takes" Session led by Ryan Wozniak, Eileen Baden, Lucas Atencio and myself at the 2025 AZ State Planning Conference as we get real and talk about the real issues that planner's need addressed and how we can support each other.

Jenn Daniels from Horizon Stategies and former Mayor of the Town of Gilbert joins us to talk about a great new class for municipaliity leaders called "Civic Craft" to give them a year long course to give them a leg up on running thier communities.

Architects Ben Ayers and Hannah Hackathorn from Mancini Duffy design firm talk about their entry into the Arizona market and the new ways to approach design projects and collaborate with teams which can create better projects and talk a bit about the the unique new “bundle and save” package for rural municipalities and tribes to ensure smaller communities have quality companies bidding for their p...

Sculptor Arthur H. Norby joins the podcast to talk about what he did before becoming a sculptor and what drives him to create these amazing pieces, how they get picked for public art installations and what he sees need to be done to put more art in our communities.

Angie Grendahl, the Director of Development for The Athens Group which develops destination locations including luxury resorts, golf courses, luxury communities and recreational destinations talks about how she got into working on these amazing projects as well as what goes into a project of this scale from working on The Phoenician to the newly announced Legacy project in Mesa.    

Jessica's annual anticipated Fast and Funny session and all the hilarious answers from lessons learned as a planner in the field!

Massimo Sommacampagna of Bolzano Contruction and Trinity Development Partners talks about the current market in Arizona and how his companies are working in the Infill and Townhome market helping to advoocate and push for more housing supply and affodability.

Jessica interviews over 25 attendees to hear about what they took away and liked from the 2025 Conference in Scottsdale. Listen in for some old favorites like Tempe Mayor Corey Woods and Mesa Mayor Mark Feeman and also good friends such as: Maricopa Mayor Nancy Smith, Chander Mayor and League President Kevin Hartke and Phoenix Councilwoman Debra Stark with lots of others from around Arizona.

Eric Trevan of aLocal Solutions and Amber Sommer talk to us about the recent rural Policy forum in Thatcher, Arizona and what was shared nad learned for the Rural and Tribal communities.  Hear about the way to empower your commuities and ways that small comunities are gaining a foothold in the econmic development market and ways that are anabling them with less to be more competitive in the m...

Chandler Unified School District Superintendent Frank Narducci joins the podcast to talk about how they work hard to maintain a quality education while balancing the challenges of the district.  More and more housing for teachers as well as housing for incoming students has become harder and harder to find, directly impacting the ability of the district to bring in new students and maintain q...

Steve Betts joins the podcast to talk about how starting out in law as a government affairs attorney and senior advisor for Senator John McCain to become a  major developer of some amazing projects in Arizona to serving on numerous and impactful boards, committees as a volunteer creating a lasting Legacy in Arizona in ways that serves his passion projects while using his extensive background...

Nicole Boyer, the Planning and Development Director in Port Aransas, Texas joins the podcast to talk about what its like to plan in a coastal community that grows from just over 3,000 people to over 100,000 during the summer.  Hear how they handle short term rentals, parking issues and how they dealt with the impact of category 4 Hurricane Harvey in their community in 2017.  Listen in on...

Linda Morales, AICP from the The Planning Center in Tucson talks about her rise to one of the more infulential Planning firms in Tucson and Arizona and how she got involved with the David Monthan Airforce Base

James A. Castañeda, AICP from Somos Group in California joins the podcast to talk about his planning career and his "21 Lessons Learned Over 21 Years".

Rick E. Cunningham of LDG Development, LLC  and master moderator joins us to talk "Full Spectrum Housing" and what hehas seen over his career in Atlana, Omaha and other regions aroud the Country.  Hear what me thinks is needed to get this problem solved.

Dr. Ladd Keith, AICP of the University of Arizona Planning Department and Director of their Heat Resilience Initiative spends some time with Jessica to talk about their research and what they have learned are the best ways to combat the effect of the increasing extreme heat events, how cities can be better prepared and what the biggest cause of death by natural causes can teach us about our enviro...

John Adamucci with Grow Sciences joins us to talk about the process of creating a craft cannabis brand with quality products that take into account specialized and scientific grow facilities, product control and management and why this is not a business for everyone.

Jessica does a debrief about her experience as part of the Mesa Leadership Class of 2025 and what you can expect and why its not just for communty leaders.  Listen in as she talks aobut all the activities, classes, ride alongs and even getting to ride in a PIT manuever with the police department.  Oh the things you never knew your were missing from Municipal Leadership classes.

Pinal Partnership's Rina Rien joins us to talk about her life as a developer in California with the Irvine Company and more before moving to Arizona and being on the lobbying side and education with Pinal Partnership helping rural communities.

Andrew Spurgin, former AZ Planner, now Colorado Planner talks about the transition to planning in a new state and learning whats important there and how to make the transition smoothly and build a new network and planning support base while in the middle of your career as well as the similarities and differences between planning in other states he has worked in from the east coast to the west coas...

Michelle Dodds formerly from the City of Phoenix Historic Preservation Office and Arianna Urban with the Arizona State Preservation Office talk about what gets reviewed when you submit plans for a designated historic properties.  Hear the good and the bad of what is able to be preserved and what unfortunately can fall through the cracks sometimes.  Learn how it all works and why it's ben...