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ONLINE EXCLUSIVE: Students compete in urban planning competition

Written by Ali Mustansir, The Shorthorn staff

Thursday, 23 April 2009 09:45 PM

MBA and MSRE grad student Luz Henry, left, presents her groups Urban Plan project to facilitator Betsy del Monte. The Urban Plan is a five-week project where students explore city planning and will present their work to a mock city council. Various colors of the blocks indicated the type of construct, from blue representing offices to black as parking structures. (The Shorthorn: Meghan Williams)

Students get a taste of real-world city planning as they compete in a simulated urban development project.

UrbanPlan is an Urban Land Institute program which places teams of students in positions that simulate situations developers face when bringing development to neighborhoods. Real estate associate professor Andrew Hansz holds the competition in his real estate analysis course each semester.

Team members are given different jobs:
Financial Analysis — This member focuses on the financial aspect of the project. They will be responsible for money usage and projected returns.
Site Planner — Determines where buildings, parks and other structures will be positioned.
Marketing Director — Focuses on what the target market is and how to reach that market.
City Liaison — Represents government interest.
Neighborhood Liaison — Represents the community in and around the development.

Some of the community issues the teams face are historical buildings, a homeless shelter and a fictional Wal-Mart clone called QMart.

The teams meet weekly from April 9 to May 7. On the final day, teams will present the projects to a mock city council comprised of ULI representatives. The council will then select one of the projects as winner.

During the first two weeks, they reviewed statements from neighborhood and city organizations and analyzed financial data and their target markets. They assembled a development plan on a street map of the area using Lego Duplo blocks.

The third week was called facilitation. ULI representatives came to the class to advise the teams. Facilitators instruct by asking questions about the project and decisions made by students.

Facilitator Betsy del Monte said the main thing she looks for is that each student understands their role and how they fit into the team.
“We try to simplify but replicate what happens in the real world,” she said. “The importance of this exercise is for students to understand how to balance differing constituencies.”

Facilitator-in-training Christopher Martineau said as a banker, he wants to know if the plan works from a financial viewpoint and if the public will accept and use it.

“You can do one or the other. But if you don’t do both, the project will fail,” he said.

Facilitators presented teams with questions that may be posed by the mock city council. Questions related to how different constituencies would react to the inclusion of a QMart or the removal of the homeless shelter and how they defend the choice.

Hansz said each facilitator goes through the program as part of the training under UrbanPlan director Paula Blaiser. He said UTA is one of the universities to put the competition in a classroom.

Luz Henry, master of business administration and real estate graduate student, said her team needed to focus more on who would use the facilities and how people would react to a new development.

“It made us open our minds a little bit instead of being focused on what we had,” she said.

Angela Ferrell, MBA student, said she had more respect for people who do this work, as she didn’t realize how much work went into it.

“The hardest thing was trying to find a balance to try and make everyone happy,” she said.

Real estate graduate student Yogesh Patil said his team will change some of their plan because now they know more of what the city council is going to do.

“There are a lot of disciplines in the program,” he said. “Being a team simulating a real-life project helps you understand the other sides.”

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Last Updated ( Tuesday, 23 June 2009 02:02 PM )

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