Marine Graduates from ULI's Real Estate Diversity Initiative Program

On Monday I graduated from the Urban Land Institute Real Estate Diversity Initiative! REDI provides women and people of color the opportunity to attend a comprehensive training in real estate development.

As a complement to classes covering the spectrum of the real estate development process, we worked in small teams to create a development plan and pro forma for a 110,000 sq. ft. site in the Westwood neighborhood in Denver. In an effort to provide Westwood residents with the opportunity to start building generational wealth, our team came up with a site plan where all housing units were affordable and for sale. We also integrated a large plaza and a childcare center for the benefit of the community. You can watch our team's presentation by clicking on the image on the right.

I am very proud of our team's vision, and very grateful I was able to participate in the 2020 REDI program. Huge thanks to the Urban Land Institute, my team members, mentors Rich Wilson, Richard Epstein, and Ken Hoagland, and coordinator Kimberly Ford (Ming), and my colleague, mentor, and friend Danica Powell.

Presenting at ULI - Is Boulder Living Up to its Values? A Solution-Driven Discussion on Smart Growth, Affordable Housing, and Measuring up to our Community’s Values.

ULI tackled an important question in Boulder on Tuesday night. Is Boulder Living Up To Its Values? We focused on how Boulder is aligned or not aligned with the stated community goals in our Comp Plan and debated some controversial topics like middle income housing, good design, neighborhood planning, economics versus land use, building heights, parking caps, and the all elusive “community benefit”. I joined John Tayer, Chris Meschuk, Laura Sheinbaum, Jeff Hohensee, Masyn Moyer and Jarvie Worcester on the stage to debate this topic from several angles as it relates to affordable housing, smart growth, placemaking and mobility.

We debated Form Based Code (PROS: predictable, quick, less risk - CONS: prescriptive, inflexible and no room for innovation) versus traditional development review (PROS: negotiation opportunity, flexibility CONS: unpredictable, risky, and lukewarm results).

I focused on the community benefit debate to give examples of how we are providing benefit in the wide range of projects Trestle has worked on in Boulder. Along the way, I agreed with Jeff’s comment that it often feels like a game of “whack a mole” and the results can often be death by a thousand cuts. And the consensus was the results may not be reflecting the ambitious, progressive, innovative community we all are proud of.

Most importantly, we all tried to provide solutions to the question “Can we do better?”. While there is no silver bullet, there were lots of great ideas discussed, including bold leadership, predictable processes, Form Based Code, equitable community participation, and innovative housing shifts. I suggested that we harness the millennial energy to bring new ideas to the table and connect the innovation with the doers and implementers and decision makers to create a path forward.

Click here to see the Facebook Livestream or review the full panel’s presentation deck here.