What Planners Need to Know about the Development and Financing of Housing

Session 7B | Thursday | 4:15 PM – 5:30 PM (PT)

About the Session

Public sector planners need to understand the role that developers play in implementing local comprehensive plans land use and housing policies. Reaching this understanding is especially important, due to the affordable housing crisis being experienced in Washington. It is crucial that planners also understand the financial pressures and decision points that developers face when deciding whether to proceed with a housing development process. At the same time, it is also important for planners to feel confident that local development standards and project review processes are reasonable and will result in high-quality projects that implement their community's vision for the future. Achieving a better understanding between public planners and private developers will result in development processes that hopefully promote the production of much-needed new housing. Case studies of successful collaboration will be presented in this conference session.

About the Moderator

Steve C. Butler, FAICP

Planning & Policy Manager, MRSC

Steve has been a professional planner for 40 years. He currently works as the Planning and Policy Manager for MRSC, where he conducts applied research and provides planning advice to cities, towns, and counties throughout Washington. He has been involved in most aspects of community planning, both in the public and private sectors, in the states of Washington, Oregon, Maine, and Wisconsin. Steve has been the President of both the American Planning Association's Washington Chapter (APA-WA) and the Maine Association of Planners. He is a co-chair of the APA-WA's Youth in Planning Task Force and UW UDP Professionals Council member. In 2008, he was inducted into AICP's College of Fellows. Steve received a M.S. in Urban and Regional Planning from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a B.A. in Sociology from St. Lawrence University (Canton, NY).

About the Speakers

Joel Ing

Partner, Edge Developers

Joel is a founding principal at Edge Developers in Seattle and has been a specialist in affordable housing and community development for over thirty years. He manages a wide range of projects throughout the Northwest, including all aspects of real estate development, and has expertise in both private and public financing structures, including regulations associated with affordable housing funding. Joel has a long history of assisting non-profit and government organizations in fulfilling their missions through publicly financed projects. He previously worked as a public finance banker and municipal credit analyst. Joel takes pride in remaining active in the community he was raised in and has served on numerous boards and volunteered for various causes. He serves on the Seattle Housing Levy Oversight Committee, is an Urban Land Institute cohort mentor, and is a Governor appointee to the Washington State Public Stadium Authority. He formerly served on the King County Housing Development Consortium Board and Washington State Affordable Housing Advisory Board.

Doug Larson

Principal and Project Director, Principal, Heartland LLC

As a Principal and Project Director of Heartland LLC, Doug deals with a vast array of client needs across both the public and private sector, utilizing Heartland's advisory-first approach to put what is best for the client at the center of all strategic thinking. He has orchestrated several complex brokerage transactions (REI, University Book Store, Weyerhaeuser, Seattle Labor Temple Association) and performed rigorous market analysis and financial modeling to support land use policy decisions around subarea plans and TDR policies (City of Issaquah, City of Lacey, Skagit County, Port of Bellingham). Doug has a B.A. in History from Gonzaga University and a Masters degree in Urban Planning - with a specialization in real estate - from the University of Washington. Doug is also a member of the UW Urban Design and Planning Professionals Council, serves on the Salal Credit Union Board Loan Committee, and is the local curriculum manager for ULI Northwest's UrbanPlan program.

Adam Weinstein, AICP

Director of Planning and Building, City of Kirkland

Adam Weinstein is the Director of Planning & Building for the City of Kirkland, WA, where he oversees long-range planning, sustainability, urban forestry, code enforcement, and all aspects of permitting. Prior to his current position, Adam managed the Planning Division for the City of Pleasanton, CA, and was a Berkeley- and Seattle-based Principal at LSA Associates, a small urban planning consulting firm. He has a BS in Landscape Architecture from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a Master of City Planning from the University of California-Berkeley. Adam lives in Seattle with his wife, two young children, and an Accessory Dwelling Unit.

Back to Schedule