Combined Planning Resources

PLANNING EXPERTS

CHRIS BALERNA, LEED APChris has worked in the design and construction services industry for over 16 years specializing in a wide range of project management and project controls activities. His recent experience has focused on management and coordination of large multi-project municipal urban infrastructure programs establishing, implementing, and monitoring program system controls for costs, schedule, and risk. Chris is a key team member supporting Program Managers and Project Managers to provide oversight, consistency, and quality assurance across the programs. He also manages and mentors Kleinfelder’s team of Project Controls, Community Relations, and 3-D/Visualization Specialists at Kleinfelder’s Cambridge office. Chris earned a bachelor’s degree in biology from Bowdoin College and a master’s degree in city and regional planning from Boston University.

NATHALIE BEAUVAIS, INTERNATIONAL ASSOC. AIA, LEED AP Nathalie has over 30 years of experience in architecture, urban design, and planning with a strong emphasis on climate change and the integration of planning and engineering expertise. She is experienced in managing complex projects requiring comprehensive analyses and developing strategic frameworks and decisional processes for successful design development and implementation. Her work also centers on the built and social environments and economic impact assessments. She is leading the planning and implementation of strategic plans, sustainable and resilient design guidelines, and management expertise of large Real Estate (RE) portfolios for several municipalities and state agencies in the Northeast. In 2016, Ms. Beauvais started the BSA/BSLA Global Design Initiative for Refugee Children building playgrounds in refugee camps and in precarious urban conditions. The Initiative was awarded the 2020 AIA National Collaborative Achievement Award. Nathalie earned a bachelor’s degree in architecture from Université Laval and a master’s degree in architecture from Harvard University. She has been teaching on resiliency and sustainability at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design, Northeastern University and Wentworth Institute of Technology.

Kleinfelder and Poggemeyer, a Kleinfelder company, offer a range of planning services. From community and land use planning (including zoning, economic development, visioning, and grant financing) to resilience, hazard mitigation, and climate adaptation planning, Kleinfelder and Poggemeyer’s planning staff includes three AICP-certified professionals, including one AICP–Certified Environmental Planner.

Combined Planning Resources

© 2021 Kleinfelder. All rights reserved.

LAUREN FALCONE, AICPLauren has 25 years of experience in community planning and economic development and works with communities to facilitate a public planning process that creates a vision with realistic goals and objectives that can help community leaders move their organization into a financially stable future. Lauren also specializes in financial programs that can provide infrastructure improvements and business/industry retention, expansion, and recruitment strategies. Notable projects include planning documents in Grafton, Ohio (Comprehensive Plan), Worthington, Ohio (Community-wide Visioning), and Ottawa County, Ohio (Four-county Workforce Development/ Economic Development Strategy). Her experience includes public meetings, interview tools, surveys, visioning, SWOT/SOAR analysis, action plans, and implementation. Lauren earned a bachelor’s degree in public administration from Miami University and a master’s degree in public administration from Cleveland State University. She has been a member of the City of Westlake Planning Commission since 2017.

BETSY FREDERICK, LEED APBetsy is an environmental planner with 35 years of experience in the resource management field. She has diverse experience including regulatory compliance negotiation, reporting, program development and permitting; pollution prevention and waste minimization plan development and implementation; and strategic planning for growth and resource management. Betsy has specialized in bringing a strong planning and “smart growth” component to environmental resource management and infrastructure/utility development and operations, having managed land use studies as well as municipal, preservation, water resources, and environmental master plans for a wide range of communities and organizations throughout New England. She has focused on water resource and stormwater management for low impact design applications and green infrastructure development. Betsy earned a bachelor’s degree in history from Boston College and a master’s degree in preservation planning from Boston University.

PATRICK MARCHMAN, AICP CEPPatrick has 15 years of experience in environmental, hazard mitigation, and climate adaptation planning. He has also managed a statewide transportation-related realty program and has done extensive volunteer work in the climate adaptation space, including founding and leading an industry-leading group focusing on managed retreat and climate-induced relocation for the American Society of Adaptation Professionals. He has worked for the public and private sectors on a wide range of projects and on scales from the international to single structures. Notable projects include managing the acquisition review for nearly 600 parcels on the U.S. side for the Gordie Howe International Bridge project and the NEPA and regulatory processes for billion-dollar energy projects in the Gulf of Mexico. He also has Certified Environmental Planner advanced specialty certification through the American Institute of Certified Planners (AICP). Patrick earned a bachelor’s degree in decision sciences from Georgia State University and a master’s degree in marine affairs focusing on coastal and watershed planning from the University of Washington in Seattle.


BELLA PURDYBella is a climate resiliency specialist, urban planner, and designer with 7 years of experience. Bella has demonstrated experience developing resiliency plans, adaptation projects, and regulatory recommendations for municipalities and public agencies preparing for climate change. She is passionate about working directly with communities to provide equitable designs and just outcomes. As a fellow at the City of Boston Environment Department, Bella developed resiliency design guidelines for protecting historic buildings from flood and heat impacts. She also has three years of experience as an architectural designer at the research and sustainability-focused architecture and planning firm, KieranTimberlake. Bella earned a bachelor’s degree in architecture from the University of Virginia and a master’s degree in urban planning from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

PAUL TECPANECATL, AICPPaul has worked in the planning and community development field for over 40 years, with a strong background of service in the private, public, and nonprofit sectors. His experience includes neighborhood, city and regional planning; organizational strategic plan development; housing and neighborhood revitalization strategy development; administration of HUD programs; historic preservation planning; Section 106 reviews; and zoning/land use regulation work. As Housing Commissioner for the City of Toledo, he administered over $12 million of federal funds annually, drafted Toledo’s Historic Preservation Ordinance as Planner for the Toledo-Lucas County Plan Commissions, and served as Executive Director of the Northriver Development Corporation in the Vistula Neighborhood in Toledo. Notable projects include zoning code and subdivision regulation updates in Orrville and Fremont, Ohio and planning studies in Adams County, Ohio (Economic Development/Tourism Plan), St. Mary’s, Ohio (Miami-Erie Canal Collaborative Development/Tourism Plan), and Miami County, Ohio (Northern Miami County Trail Development/Tourism Plan). Paul earned a bachelor’s degree in urban studies from Xavier University in Cincinnati and a master’s degree in community planning from the University of Cincinnati, and between 1996 and 2006, he was an instructor in the Graduate Department of Geography and Planning at the University of Toledo.

Contact us at www.kleinfelder.com or www.poggemeyer.com for more information.


VARIOUS MASSACHUSETTS MUNICIPALITIESKleinfelder completed a watershed-wide analysis to optimize and coordinate regional stormwater management. Kleinfelder led a multidisciplinary consultant team to address precipitation-based flooding in the Upper Mystic River Watershed. Through this project (funded in part via an EEA Municipal Vulnerability Preparedness Action grant), the team coordination with RMC member municipalities to build consensus around six priority wetland-scale opportunities, advance these to 10% conceptual design, and collaborate updates for a regional flood model.

Kleinfelder and its consultant partners helped improve the sophistication and calibration of the Upper Mystic River regional flood model by integrating piped infrastructure and detailed subcatchment data. This effort included extensive outreach activities, including interviews with 16 municipalities and the Mystic River Watershed Association to validate model outputs for present day and 2070 10-year, 24-hour storm events. The development of the regional flood model tool constituted a novel data-sharing effort, bridging data gaps between communities. The improved regional model helps assess flood mitigation benefits of watershed projects at a regional scale and provides data that allows municipalities to better understand shared flood vulnerabilities under changing climate conditions.

Kleinfelder conducted a GIS-Based desktop analysis to identify potential sites within the watershed where constructed stormwater wetland projects could provide regional flood mitigation benefits. This analysis investigated many site-specific suitability factors, including opportunity size, active land use and land

City of Cambridge on behalf of the Resilient Mystic CollaborativeUpper Mystic River Watershed Analysis


SIMILAR PROJECTS COMPLETED BY KLEINFELDER• Ipswich Basin Water

Resources Planning Study

• Scituate-Marshfield-Duxbury Regional Coastal Hazards Assessment

• Gloucester Watershed Resiliency Plan

16 Municipalities Collaborate to Collect Regional DataRegional Flood Model Tool Development

cover, parcel ownership, topography, slope, soil, and bedrock conditions, as well as watershed factors (e.g., subcatchment imperviousness and localized flood impacts) using data provided by the municipalities, or obtained via Mass GIS or other local and federal government data sources.

To ensure that the prioritization of project opportunities reflected the consensus of the many stakeholders that contributed data and feedback throughout the process, a multi-criteria prioritization tool to rank project opportunities was co-produced over the course of three working sessions with the RMC’s Upper Mystic Stormwater Working Group. This process helped prioritize criteria amongst four sub-categories (e.g., Hydrologic suitability, Equity & Environmental Justice, Regional Connectivity, and Cost & Ease of Implementation) into tiers of criteria and co-benefits. The RMC provided a space for participatory engagement and feedback, and the Working Group was able to collaborate on the technical approach, building consensus around priority watershed opportunities.

Upon identification of priority near-term projects, Kleinfelder oversaw the development of 10% conceptual designs for wetland-scale green infrastructure at six locations, and estimated co-benefits for each project. Kleinfelder also explored innovative technologies, such as Active Reservoir Management (ARM). The team investigated the most opportunistic locations for ARM and developed draft operations’ control logic at several pilot locations, outlining procedures for strategic drawdown of water levels in the advance of a forecasted large storm event.

Following concept development, the flood mitigation benefits of GI+ARM project opportunities were modeled as alternatives within the regional flood model. The team performed scenario modeling to determine the residual flooding from a significant storm event, such as the 10% 2070 storm (comparable to a precipitation event today with 25% recurrence probability), estimating the benefits of watershed-scale adoption of these technologies. The modeling results, which included new baseline data sets, were uploaded to a webmap tool and made accessible to all watershed communities.

Upper Mystic River Watershed | Watershed-Wide Analysis to Optimize and Coordinate Regional Stormwater Management

On-site Data Collection along the Mystic River


HURON COUNTY, OTTAWA COUNTY, SANDUSKY COUNTY AND SENECA COUNTY, OHIOEconomic development and workforce development organizations in Huron, Ottawa, Sandusky and Seneca Counties have partnered together under the 4CG initiative. 4CG represents the 4 County Group 4 Collaborative Growth. The group began working together six years ago to collectively address the region’s workforce challenges.

Their collaborative work received support from the Area 7 Workforce Development Board and the Ohio Department of Job & Family Services. Phase I of the project (Workforce and Economic Development Strategy) was fully funded and a contract for a year-long project was awarded to Poggemeyer Design Group. A SIX-PHASED APPROACH INCLUDED

• Phase I –Discovery (project familiarization)

• Phase I –Project Design (regional economic and background assessment, completion of industry specific workforce needs assessment, potential training partners, data summary)

• Phase III –Collaborative Input (focus groups, surveys, key person interviews)

• Phase IV –Visioning

• Phase V –Economic Development Strategy and Talent, Attraction, Implementation Regional Plan

• Phase VI –Four County Review/Adoption

Huron, Ottawa, Sandusky and Seneca Counties4CG Regional Strategic Workforce & Economic Development Strategy


SIMILAR PROJECTS COMPLETED BY PDG• Village of Whitehouse,

Ohio Economic Development Strategy

• City of Luna Pier, Michigan Economic Recovery Strategy

The 4-County Workforce and ED Charrette Provided Collaborative Input SWOT Analysis Public Input

Job Growth Statistics by County

4CG Regional Strategic Workforce & Economic Development Strategy

SurveyMonkey 4CG Public Input Results

4CG Regional Strategic Workforce & Economic Development Strategy

4CG Workforce Employment & Wage Statistics Convey Local and Regional Data

CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTSAs prime consultant, Kleinfelder has supported the City of Cambridge’s climate change vulnerability and adaptation efforts since 2010. Kleinfelder implemented a Climate Change Vulnerability Assessment (CCVA) for the City, exploring the impacts of changes in heat, rainfall, sea level rise, and storm surge on critical infrastructure, vulnerable populations, public health, and the economy. This study provided the foundation for the ongoing Climate Change Preparedness and Resiliency Plan (CCPR), which Kleinfelder is also leading.

INTEGRATED COASTAL, DRAINAGE, AND RIVERINE FLOOD MODELING In the CCVA, Kleinfelder led a multi-disciplinary team to develop comprehensive flood modeling for use in climate change planning. The integrated models include complex interactions between hydraulics of the City’s piped stormwater and combined sewer systems, hydrology of two major river networks, dam operations on those rivers, and coastal dynamics downstream of the dams. Kleinfelder developed and oversaw the integration of highly-localized climate change projections for rainfall design storms, sea level rise, and storm surge into the models. The data, maps, and reports from these efforts gave the City a comprehensive picture of future flood risks and provide a basis for adaptation planning.

INTEGRATION WITH COMPREHENSIVE PLANNINGThe initial focus of the CCPR addresses high priority flood risks identified by the CCVA in the Alewife and Port neighborhoods. Kleinfelder led the development of adaptation strategies to mitigate flooding and build flood resiliency in this area in coordination with broader City comprehensive planning and capital

City of CambridgeClimate Change Vulnerability Assessment and Resiliency Plan


Kleinfelder is developing resiliency strategies to address vulnerability assessment findings.AWARD WINNING

PROJECT• Consulting & Engineering:

Climate Change Adaptation & Resilience

• Advancing Best Practices: Climate Change Adaptation & Resilience

–Climate Change Business Journal

Part 1 of the Climate Change Vulnerability Assessment

“I wanted to express my appreciation to the Kleinfelder team for the excellent public meeting last night. The slide deck was great and all the work that went into the graphics paid off. Overall, the objective of getting the results out and explaining where we are going next was achieved.”

John Bolduc, CCVA/CCPR, Project Manager, City of Cambridge

improvement programs. The team developed a prioritized set of short-term and medium-term resiliency measures that can be implemented as policies or special projects to help Cambridge adapt to climate change. The measures are focusing on resiliency at the parcel and building scale, the district and neighborhood scale, and citywide and regional scales. Ideas were discussed as part of an extensive stakeholder engagement effort combining focus groups, workshops, and interviews with residents.

GREEN AND GRAY ADAPTATION STRATEGIESKleinfelder developed an early screening process to identify feasible green and gray infrastructure projects and estimate their cumulative contribution to flood mitigation and urban heat island. The team modeled proposed flooding and urban heat island mitigation measures to quantify their impact. Options explored included green and gray stormwater mitigation projects, flood protection and sustainability guidelines for buildings, increasing tree canopy and cool surfaces, and multi-purpose berms, among others. Build-out projections were used to estimate the cumulative impact of these strategies on mitigating flooding and heat in the area. Kleinfelder created GIS-based tools and virtual reality for the City to communicate site-specific flood risk and design data to property owners and developers.


City of Cambridge | Climate Change Vulnerability Assessment and Resiliency Plan

Highly-Localized Climate Change Projections Map

CCVA Planning Process Timeline

WORTHINGTON, OHIOPoggemeyer Design Group, Inc. worked for the City of Worthington with a resident-appointed steering committee to complete a year-long community visioning project. PDG worked with the Visioning Committee to create a scope that would solicit input from 80% of the resident population.

A Visioning Committee “meet and greet” was held and a City tour was completed at the first site visit. Demographic data was collected and analyzed. A Communications Plan and a Public Input Plan were created and involved innovative ways to reach 80% of the residents, including key stakeholder interviews, signage, post cards, a public survey, speaker’s bureaus to various civic groups/community organizations, SOAR analysis, focus groups, a visioning session, and a charrette. Promotional items were created including t-shirts, rack cards, mailed post cards, social media cards, and community signage. Bang the Table community engagement software, Facebook, and Twitter were also utilized.

THE PROJECT INVOLVED A SEVEN-PHASED APPROACH• Phase I Discovery

• Phase II Project Design

• Phase III Listening

• Phase IV Collaborative Input

• Phase V Visioning

• Phase VI Doing

• Phase VII Public Review/Final Adoption

The entire collaborative input phase was completed on-line due to Covid-19, using Survey Monkey, Microsoft Teams, Miro Whiteboard, and Bang the Table. Participants were enthusiastic about participating on-line. Mailings were also included for those who did not have internet access.

City of WorthingtonVision Worthington


Vision Worthington Interactive Website

"Please pass along my sincere thanks and appreciation for the excellent job on the Vision Worthington graphics. Throughout our visioning process we have been the recipient of your special talents to get our message out to Worthington residents in a creative, impactful way."

–Joe Sherman, Worthington Community Visioning

Committee Chair

Vision Worthington Meet & Greet

City of Worthington | Vision Worthington Plan

The Visioning Committee summarized what was heard and read from the community (over 300 community members at public input events and over 2,000 community members online) into an overall community vision statement and seven specific subset vision statements with related community priorities. Council is currently working with the Visioning Committee to implement the visions.


Vision Worthington Community Outreach & Engagement Branded Materials

SIMILAR PROJECTS COMPLETED BY PDG• Village of New Bremen

Comprehensive Plan

• Village of Grafton Comprehensive Plan

• City of Luna Pier Economic Recovery Strategy

• Miami Erie Canal Development and Tourism Plan

The Westport River and Estuary system is an important part of the Town character, and this plan addressed multiple water quality concerns in the natural environment and drinking water systems. Among these was a need to meet regulatory obligations associated with the Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) for nitrogen established for the East Branch of the Westport River. The TMDL is the threshold concentration of a pollutant in water above which that receiving water can no longer achieve the beneficial uses (e.g. boating and fishing) for which it is classified under the Commonwealth water quality standards. Following a modified version of EPA’s Integrated Planning Framework, which included a strong emphasis on stakeholder engagement, Kleinfelder provided the Town with a holistic approach to addressing high nutrient concentrations in their waterways and bacteria contamination in drinking water systems and rivers with broad public support.

Kleinfelder began the integrated planning process by assessing current conditions concurrent with a stakeholder engagement process. To establish baseline conditions, Kleinfelder reviewed and incorporated regulatory obligations, infrastructure data, watershed reports, and water quality sampling data into a model. The model was then used to characterize the source of nitrogen and bacteria loading from stormwater and wastewater sources. Kleinfelder also used this model to evaluate, prioritize, and recommend forward-looking strategies that would allow the Town to achieve multiple objectives including resiliency, regulatory compliance, restoration of habitat, and sustainable economic growth. Beginning stakeholder engagement early in this process allowed for the Team to identify community goals and constraints. Kleinfelder facilitated a process that promoted the sharing of data and ideas and resulted in valuable input that shaped the types of strategies recommended in the Plan.

The Integrated Plan included a phased implementation of strategies that address both nitrogen and bacteria reduction goals in the Westport River. Through the phased approach, the Town is able to incrementally implement the most beneficial and cost-effective strategies while collecting performance monitoring data that will inform future actions.

WESTPORT, MASSACHUSETTSKleinfelder prepared an Integrated Water Resources Management Plan for the Town of Westport, MA, a small community in southern Massachusetts.

Town of WestportTargeted Integrated Water Resources Planning


Buzzards Bay Coalition Westport River East Branch Sampling Stations

SIMILAR PROJECTS COMPLETED BY KLEINFELDER• City of Portland, ME

Integrated Water Resources Management Plan

• Town of Westminster, MA Comprehensive Water Resources Management Plan

• City of Worcester, MA Integrated Plan

ORVILLE, OHIOPDG was retained by the City of Orrville to update their subdivision regulations and zoning ordinance. Poggemeyer restructured and reformatted their zoning code for easier referencing and added new chapters to address architectural design standards, environmental regulations, and a new overlay zoning district (combining general commercial and light industrial uses) for the area north of their downtown.

City of OrvilleSubdivision Regulations and Zoning Ordinance Update

SIMILAR PROJECTS COMPLETED BY PDG• City of Fremont Zoning

Code Update

• Village of Holland Zoning Code Update

• Village of New London Zoning Code Update

• St Mary’s Township Zoning Code Update

• Erie Township (MI) Zoning Code Update

The City’s sign code was also revamped to address the 2015 Reed v. Gilbert U.S. Supreme Court decision regarding free speech. This project took 20 months to complete, between March 2018 to November 2019.

Smucker's Headquarters Located in Orville

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Historic Downtown Orville

Orville Zoning Map

Combined Planning Resources

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