Community Planning

We Plan to Make a Difference

MUNICIPAL PLANNING SERVICES

Our talented team of professional planners, designers, and downtown revitalization specialists share a passion for community building and commitment to serving the public interest. Over the past sixteen years, we have established an unmatched reputation of providing efficient and cost-effective municipal planning services to communities throughout the West. We offer our municipal clients an array of tools and services that address their specific planning and community development needs.

We are here to support you with:

Demand Responsive On-Call Services
Planning Department Administration
Development Review
Comprehensive and Master Plans Updates
Zoning and Development Code Updates
Marijuana Regulations
Strategic Planning and Implementation
Development Standards and Guidelines
Community Enhancement/Code Enforcement
Urban Design
Economic Development Strategies
ArcGIS (Mapping, Data Collection, and Mapping analysis)
Customer Service Support

COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT

Numerous communities depend on us to draw on a variety of our community engagement tools to connect with their communities. We host online surveys, interactive community meetings, harness social media and instigate on-the-ground collaboration with community stakeholders that provide the foundation of any community Plan. We develop community engagement strategies that will work for your community – whether they be high or low tech, we ensure that our tools and techniques are specifically designed to for your community and ensure transparent communication that garner trust with the public, stakeholders, elected and appointed officials and staff.

COMPREHENSIVE PLANNING

We believe that developing a Comprehensive or Master Plan is truly a community event. The process must be fun and exciting while dealing effectively and practically with serious issues that any City/Town or County faces as it changes and grows. We offer our multi-disciplinary expertise and experience in land use planning, urban design, economics, mapping and demographic data analysis, as well as innovative community engagement techniques and implementation strategies to ensure that any community’s vision becomes a reality.

We believe communities are just like people – they change and grow. We are proud to have worked with such a diverse range of communities throughout the West in helping them harness their community initiatives and solidify their vision, goals, and strategies to achieve their desired futures.

ENTITLEMENT SERVICES

MDS Staff leverages their public sector planning experience to assist private sector clients through the development review process – smoothly and effortlessly.

ZONING AND DEVELOPMENT REGULATIONS

Communities turn to MDS for updates to their regulatory framework because of our proven track record in delivering clear, user-friendly and enforceable land use regulations. We specialize in evaluating, drafting, and amending consensus-based land development regulations to ensure your community’s vision becomes a reality.

Featured Community Planning Clients

"I thoroughly enjoyed working with McCool Development Solutions on our City's recent Master Plan. Starting with a limited budget they were always eager to brainstorm new and innovative ways to get things done with less and utilize their time effectively. They listened and understood what our community wanted and helped us improve our initial framework with what is now a stellar plan for a City. McCool was always prompt, responsive, knowledgeable and best of all they were easy to work with whether in public meetings or strategic planning calls."

Wade Broadhead City of Florence Planning Director
"MDS has served as our town planning consultants over the past eleven years and has made a tremendous contribution to the progression and organization of the community development, building, and planning functions of the town. Carrie McCool and her talented staff have forged a seamless partnership with town staff and are true team players. I have received countless compliments from developers and citizens regarding our planning consultants’ ability to articulate complex issues in a comprehensible format and their effective community engagement strategies that built community consensus and positive rapport with community members, elected officials, and commissions."

Kara Winters Morrison Town Manager
"I have worked with quite a few planners, and planning consultants in my previous stints in several states and municipalities, and MDS is far and away the best I have ever had the pleasure of collaborating with….with their help this dynamic is changing."

Gabe Engeland Trinidad City Manager
“At the tail end of the 2013 flood recovery, our town experienced an influx of development applications and a number of Planning Division vacancies. McCool Development Solutions efficiently and effectively processed a variety of complex development applications from pre-application to building permit issuance. Carrie and her staff operated as an extension of our staff and assisted us with various special projects including staff training, which allowed us to achieve our department's goals while meeting the demands of the development community. McCool Development Solutions is the leader in providing municipal planning services, and I highly recommend them to any community.”

Alison Chilcott Town of Estes Park, Former Community Development Director
“On behalf of the Town of Gilcrest, I’d like to thank you for your firm’s sixteen years of service to our community. With your help, we continue to reach our community goals, have streamlined our development review processes, improved our community image, have graphically exciting User Guides, a town Brand/Logo and an administrative site plan amendment process! Again, thank you.”

-Trudy Peterson, Gilcrest Town Administrator

Trudy Peterson Gilcrest Town Administrator