Women’s History Month Women’s History Month is a month-long celebration in March, acknowledging women’s accomplishments and contributions throughout history and now. This month, we provide a few highlights from the ladies at Baseline. Julie Esterl, Principal Planner – When I was hired as a planning technician in 2015, one of the first clients I began… Read more »
Streetscapes – Attractive and Functional Aspects
Streetscapes play an important role in forming the visual aspects, function, and identity of a built environment. Streetscapes help with traffic calming, accessibility, character, a sense of history or community, urban public life, moving people safely and efficiently, and supporting land use function and aesthetics. When designing streetscapes, a deep… Read more »
New Planning Department Changes
Baseline made a big change in our planning department this summer. For the last 12 years, Vince Harris has been the director of our planning department, he is taking a step back from this role and reducing hours to slowly transition into retirement. Ben Thurston has moved into the planning director role and has taken the lead. Ben is most excited about exploring opportunities to expand Baseline’s planning services into new areas that align with the interests and passions of our staff. This includes our current effort to market and grow our landscape architecture services. He is also excited about the challenge of refining our project management and execution in a way that truly balances our triangle of employees, clients, and finances.
New Staff Highlight: Sarah Williams, PLA, CPSI
Baseline Welcomes Sarah Williams Baseline’s newest addition to our staff is Sarah Williams, a landscape architect who comes to us from Norris Designs. She graduated from Colorado State University and has been working as a landscape architect for several years. When choosing career paths, Sarah credits her experience and passions for leading her to landscape… Read more »
Celebrating National Planners Week – Day 5!
Planning Story of the Day “Back in 1999, I was the planning manager for the City of Lakewood. I was asked by the mayor and city manager to provide an entire day tour for a gentleman coming in from New Jersey who was considering buying 100 acres in Lakewood to develop (his first development project… Read more »
Celebrating National Community Planners Week – Day 4!
Planning Story of the Day “As planners, we are routinely asked to facilitate neighborhood meetings. Development proposals are presented to neighboring property owners to inform and to identify potential compatibility concerns. We are particularly adept at active listening, and creative problem-solving whenever we can. On one occasion, at particularly well-attended neighborhood meeting for a housing… Read more »
Celebrating National Community Planners Week – Day 3!
Planning Stories of the Day “I left my former City position due to a disagreement with the City Manager who told me I could not require public sidewalks (ADA requirement) in a big, downtown project. Public infrastructure for all!” — Andrew Baker, Associate Planner “At the Colorado APA Conference this year, one of the workshops… Read more »
Celebrating National Community Planners Week – Day 2!
Planning Story of the Day “When I worked for the City of Janesville, one of my tasks was to develop a parks and trails map. It was rewarding to create something that the public used to learn about the great and abundant public amenities available to them – to help them get outside and be… Read more »
Baseline Celebrates National Community Planners Week
Planning Story of the Day “My favorite planning story is a cautionary tale about maintaining perspective. Pretty early in my career, I was the case planner for a variance on a single-family residential property and we recommended that the Board deny the variance. During the public hearing, when it became clear that Board would not… Read more »
Baseline Helps Girl Scouts Earn STEM Badges
Baseline recently hosted Girl Scout Troop 1503 in support of receiving their STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) badges. Baseline’s Civil Engineering Division Manager Noah Nemmers and Planner Melanie Nieske delivered a presentation to the troop about the planning, surveying and civil engineering professions and discussed the types of problems Baseline encounters and solves on… Read more »
Baseline Gets Rezoning Approval
Baseline coordinated the writing of new planned development zoning standards for this commercial corner located in Rooney Valley in Unincorporated Jefferson County for our client, Three Dinos, LLC. The rezoning project is located at the southeast corner of C-470 and West Alameda Parkway. Over several years, Baseline has held community meetings and worked with the… Read more »
Community Planning
Community planning is about more than just building and expanding – it’s valuing the people who live in the area and working with a vision not only for the current project but for future years to come. Whether a project is residential, commercial, or municipal, community planners need to consider the needs of the whole… Read more »
Construction Begins Today for a Baseline-Designed Project in Garden City!
Over the last four years, Baseline has worked in collaboration with Garden City on its 8th Avenue Realignment & Rehabilitation project where we’ve completed survey, traffic analysis, and conceptual and final design for realignment and rehabilitation spanning over five City blocks. Click here for more on this exciting project.
Register for Land & Development Conference
If you’re involved in Colorado real estate, you know how difficult it is to keep up with key issues such as land-demand projections, navigating the entitlement process and major infrastructure projects along the Front Range. On the morning of Tuesday, September 17, the Colorado Real Estate Journal along with NAIOP and Cassidy Turley will bring… Read more »
Key to Senior Housing – Give Them Community
By Noah Nemmers, PE “Over the next 25 years, seniors will double in number to 70 million and represent 20 percent of the population – a first in the United States.” – Ecumen With stats like these, no wonder Colorado’s largest gathering of senior housing developers, investors, operators, brokers, lenders and real estate professionals turned… Read more »
Will QR Codes Replace Paper Building Permits?
By Vince Harris, AICP What started out as an idea by New York City’s Buildings Commissioner, Robert LiMandri, may find its way to Denver. Engineering News-Record’s “QR Codes Unlocking Secrets of NYC Building Permits” reports LiMandri is using QR codes to hold building project information so viewers can access it through their smartphones. LiMandri got the… Read more »
Jeffco Innovators Echo Encouraging Signs for Real Estate
By Noah Nemmers, PE, PLS & Vince Harris, AICP If you’re looking for signs the real estate market is turning around, Colorado has plenty–especially in Baseline’s home county. Baseline Corporation was proud to be a sponsor of last month’s 2012 South Jeffco Innovators Real Estate Event from the Jefferson County Economic Development Corporation (Jeffco EDC). Consisting… Read more »
A + B Bidding Provides Alternative Approach
By Chris Rundall, P.E., LEED AP I know A+B Bidding has been around for awhile, but I didn’t have a reason to research it until recently. I was discussing alternative approaches to construction bidding with a local contractor in Steamboat Springs, and he mentioned this approach to project bidding: ______________________________________________________________________________ A + B x (the… Read more »
Colorado Transportation Funding
By Chris Rundall Here in Colorado, consumers pay a 40.4 cents-per-gallon tax on gasoline: of this tax, 18.4 cents goes to the federal government and 22 cents goes to the state. The state tax portion, which funds maintenance and improvements to our state’s roads and bridges, has not changed since 1991. However, inflation and improved vehicle… Read more »
Urban Infill Development
In the Denver Metro area and Northern Colorado when “urban infill” projects are mentioned, we might think of the downtown Denver area just North of Coors Field or Stapleton as prime examples of the term. Wikipedia defines infill as “the use of land within a built-up area for further construction; especially as part of a… Read more »
