What do legos have to do with real estate development? UrbanPlan! ULI’s land use planning and real estate development program, created by ULI and the Fisher Center for Real Estate at UC Berkeley. Iris Yang, ULI member and Attorney with Best Best & Krieger has volunteered for UrbanPlan for 10 years, since its inception at McClatchy. Over 25 ULI members are participating as volunteers at this year’s program.

UrbanPlan strives to change the land use decision-making process by providing high school seniors with the understanding, insights, and language to become engaged and informed problem solvers. Over the course of the 15 class-hour project and prior to the presentations, land use professionals, who have attended UrbanPlan volunteer training, interact several times with the student teams.

As “Facilitators,” ULI Members and UrbanPlan trained volunteers challenge the students to think more critically about the UrbanPlan issues and the specific responsibilities of their “role” (Finance, Market, Site Planner, City Liaison, or Neighborhood Liaison).

At “City Council,” ULI Members hear student presentations, engage and challenge their proposals as in an actual City Council hearing, and award the development contract to the winning team. This marks ULI Sacramento’s 11th year conducting UrbanPlan at McClatchy High.

To learn more about UrbanPlan, go to the following link:
ULI-UrbanPlan