ULI San Francisco : Content: UrbanPlan Testimonials

Urban Land Institute

URBANPLAN TESTIMONIALS

ULI Member Volunteers 

UrbanPlan is in a class by itself: advancing ULI’s mission and brand while enriching students, the broader community and ULI members alike. You can’t grasp the power and sophistication of the program until you’ve done it. 

         -Rick Dishnica; Chair, MFCBlue;  President, The Dishnica Company, Point Richmond, CA 

Our goal is to create a more sophisticated level of discourse among local stakeholders involved in land use decisions. The education of tomorrow’s voters, neighbors, community leaders, public officials and land use professionals is mission critical for ULI.   

         -Ron Nahas; IOPCGold; ULI Foundation governor; Principal, Rafanelli, & Nahas, Orinda, CA 

Like Advisory Service Panels, UP does what ULI does best:  help external audiences understand how market and non-market forces in their community effect what can be approved, financed, built, and sustainably tenanted.  That insight is essential for any meaningful discussion about land use. 

         -Bryan Thornton; Partner, Pacific Coast Capital; Co- Chair, UP Committee, San Francisco, CA 

UP is the best of “One ULI.” We commend the Executive Committee and Trustees for their support of this program.  We hope that ULI continues to provide the high quality, national support essential to sustaining it.                                   

         -Thomas “Skeet” Harris; SSDCBlue; Past Chair, ULI Charlotte; President, T.B. Harris & Assoc, Charlotte, NC

UP volunteer training can stand on its own as a professional development class. It takes you back to the fundamentals of your business. I sign up whenever Paula comes to Charlotte for a training session.  You get more out of it every time. It makes me a more effective developer. 

         -John D. Porter, III; Vice-chair, MFCBlue; Sr. VP, Charter Properties, Charlotte, NC  

Every City & Regional Planning student should take UP.  Actually, every practicing planner should take it. Understanding markets and risk make planners better communicators with developer partners. Understanding social and political influences help developers manage risk more effectively. UP could transform the public/private dialogue. 

         -Mark Rhoades, AICP; past Planning Manager, City of Berkeley; Partner, Citycentric Investments, Oakland, CA 

Urban Plan Volunteer Training goes deeper than any traditional real estate development class. The takeaway value transcends effective volunteering. The intellectual discipline & Socratic method of questioning is an asset in my professional life.  

          -Kim Diamond; Principal, ev8 Consulting, San Francisco, CA 

Students 

The UP “roles” forced us to walk in the shoes of the other players in the development process. It was extremely uncomfortable having our “ideology” run into reality.  We gained critical insights into the complex, interrelated, economic, and political aspects of public/private development.

          -Rick Gosalvez; Master of City & Regional Planning candidate, San Jose State University, San Jose, CA 

Professors 

UrbanPlan distills and transmits the essence of the development process more effectively, more comprehensively, in less time, with more lasting results than any other program suitable for a classroom environment.   

         -David Green; Associate Principal, Perkins & Will; Professor of Urban Design, Georgia Tech, Atlanta, GA  

Teachers

Want our future voters to understand your world? Support UrbanPlan. Students discover how market and non-market forces influence the decisions they make in their proposals - decisions that have profound, real world consequences.    

         -Gabrielle Kashani, Economics teacher, Piedmont High School, Piedmont, CA