In this assignment, I interviewed Craig Rost, who’s been working in a planning field for 28 years and currently holds the position of executive director of Champaign Economic Development Corporation. He has a bachelor degree in Landscape Architecture and master degree in Urban Planning concentrating on economic development from the UIUC. The reason I chose him as practitioner to interview is that he has inspired me to learn more about economic development and process of creating and building development projects which I really want to do in my life. Taking his class, I’ve discovered what I really want to study and do in my career. Therefore, I think he is one of the most influential teachers in my life and interviewing him was a great experience
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We receive our funding from local government, local businesses and industry. Promoting Research Park is one of the examples of what we do. I spend my 25 percent of my time managing our organization. Another 25 percent is spent solving problems, working with companies and businesses, visiting local businesses to let them know we’re interested in succeeding here and finding out what they need in the way of employment, what kind of employers they’re having trouble finding. Basically, we try to get information of how they’re doing. Another quarter of my time probably spent promoting community and getting know what’s going on the county, and how Rantoul, Champaign and Urbana are working with each other. In the end, I do spend time working with small villages.
Can you describe your experience in working with City Council?
I worked in Champaign City Manager’s Office for 25 years and my primary responsibility was to be the connection between private business and our council. A big chunk of my time was in relationship building and I also used to spend more time working on projects. So, you are the one who discuss about the process of projects with private businesses?
Yes, the way this usually works is I would start a conversation with private developers, then I and Planning Director figure out how do we start to visualize the project and who else needs …show more content…
Implementing planning process in proper way helps a lot gaining trusts from the public
1. What are some of your strategies to gain citizen input into your initiatives?
We do opinion and hold neighborhood meetings and business interest meetings. First evolve, you’re open with your information, and ask people to tell you what they think or what they want, and then providing opportunities in those public sessions. Basically, the best thing you could do to gain citizen input would be you put up all those plans on the wall, invite people in several times and explain what’s going on. Particularly, when planning big public works projects, there’s always lot of misconception about projects.
Would you give me an example of a particularly challenging situation and then talk about how you dealt with
We receive our funding from local government, local businesses and industry. Promoting Research Park is one of the examples of what we do. I spend my 25 percent of my time managing our organization. Another 25 percent is spent solving problems, working with companies and businesses, visiting local businesses to let them know we’re interested in succeeding here and finding out what they need in the way of employment, what kind of employers they’re having trouble finding. Basically, we try to get information of how they’re doing. Another quarter of my time probably spent promoting community and getting know what’s going on the county, and how Rantoul, Champaign and Urbana are working with each other. In the end, I do spend time working with small villages.
Can you describe your experience in working with City Council?
I worked in Champaign City Manager’s Office for 25 years and my primary responsibility was to be the connection between private business and our council. A big chunk of my time was in relationship building and I also used to spend more time working on projects. So, you are the one who discuss about the process of projects with private businesses?
Yes, the way this usually works is I would start a conversation with private developers, then I and Planning Director figure out how do we start to visualize the project and who else needs …show more content…
Implementing planning process in proper way helps a lot gaining trusts from the public
1. What are some of your strategies to gain citizen input into your initiatives?
We do opinion and hold neighborhood meetings and business interest meetings. First evolve, you’re open with your information, and ask people to tell you what they think or what they want, and then providing opportunities in those public sessions. Basically, the best thing you could do to gain citizen input would be you put up all those plans on the wall, invite people in several times and explain what’s going on. Particularly, when planning big public works projects, there’s always lot of misconception about projects.
Would you give me an example of a particularly challenging situation and then talk about how you dealt with