The last thing you want are surprises at the podium. Including neighborhood groups and community activists in your planning process, and giving them "ownership" in design solutions is a key element in the development review and approval process.

Many boards and commissions will ask if you've included the public in your planning process. These reviewing entities don't want to resolve disputes and have to design your project "at the table".

Proactive solicitation of public input prior to a public hearing is one key factor to William Guman & Associates having earned an overwhelming approval rate of our development applications.





Who you have representing your development proposal may arguably be the most important part of your success to having it approved.

As a former City Planning Commissioner, an elected City Councilman, and Regional Building Commissioner, Bill Guman knows from firsthand experience exactly what these officials want to see, hear, and know before casting their vote to approve your proposal.

As a former Director of Planning, Acting City Manager, and Deputy City Manager, Dave Nickerson knows which key issues planning staff needs to be comfortable with before they'll recommend approval to a planning commission or council.

Together, Bill Guman and Dave Nickerson bring over 50 years combined experience to the table in dealing effectively at the highest level with entities having jurisdiction over whether or not your development proposal is approved.

Imagine soliciting an investor as a partner who knows very little about proposal; you have hundreds of thousands - perhaps millions - of dollars in time and other due diligence already on the line. It's your job to sell your proposal and close the deal. But if your partner is not solidly convinced, all your efforts mean nothing.

Consider that a typical review board - a Planning Commission, City Council, etc. - has the same jurisdiction to "buy" into your proposal, or to kill it. With this kind of clout, you should view any one of these entities as your partner, too; if they're not convinced, all your efforts again mean nothing.

Our Strategy

"A picture may be worth a thousand words, but an actual field trip to show firsthand what we had in mind was worth considerably more.

In 2004, our client hosted a fly-in for key municipal staff people to tour a couple of large, premier age-targeted communities in Henderson, Nevada. These communities were comparable to what we had planned to develop near Colorado Springs. Nothing like this had ever been proposed before in El Paso County, and there were a lot of questions as to exactly what we had in mind.

Representatives of William Guman & Associates helped facilitate the tour, being deliberate to point out the attractive amenities and design elements in Henderson that would be integral to our Colorado project.

Our efforts paid off. At the public hearing a couple weeks after our trip, these same municipal staffers actually 'sold' our development proposal to the Board of Commissioners even before we made our presentation. Our proposal won unanimous approval."