Project Proposal

Link Project Description

My mentor is Kevin Hall and he is the director of the Natural lands, trails and sustainability department for the City of Durango. This department helps to develop the city’s green infrastructure and sustainability programs. This department plans, develops and maintains new trails, parks, outdoor recreation facilities and open space amenities. I hope to offer new opinions about how to develop the land and hope that Kevin can provide the knowledge and guidance to help me succeed in developing and presenting my plan.

I knew Kevin as a family friend before the start of my search for an internship. When I began discussing my interests in design, planning and sustainability with my family his name came up. I brought this up with our LINK counselor, Rachel, and we scheduled an interview. Kevin was hesitant in the beginning to take me on as an intern due to his worry that he could not spend excessive amounts of time teaching and instructing me. However I demonstrated my independence when I helped brainstorm the possible idea for my project and believe that exhibiting my independence helped in securing my internship.

For my internship I am planning on helping to develop a portion of land adjacent and across the river from where I live. I am going to create a plan that balances the different needs of this land and then propose my plan to the board of directors for Natural lands, trails and sustainability department for the city of Durango. These different needs include insuring that people using the river for recreational means have easy access to a put-in, and also that the park is pleasant for people living in and around the area.

I am interested in design, planning, and sustainability and I hope that though this internship I can gain more knowledge about the processes of planning and proposing a potential idea for land use. I also hope that through this internship I can help the city of Durango by giving different possible ideas for how the land could be used. To accomplish this I am going to have to research and become proficient in the technology that the city of Durango uses to plan and develop land before my internship begins. This technology provides aerial views of land and then lines and other markings can be placed on the pictures. After it begins I am going to determine a way to decide how the public wishes the land to be used. This will be through asking people that live around the area along with people that would frequent the park, such as kayakers and hikers. Once I have determined the importance of this land for each group, I can see what aspects I need to stress in my proposal and what are not as important. Then I can begin process of planning with the knowledge of what features should be used in the park. Once I have completed my plan I will need to consult with my mentor, Kevin, to see if it meets the needs of the city and then after making any needed changes I will present my plan to the board of directs that Kevin is a part of. I believe that this project is relevant to the city of Durango because I can offer other options on how the land should be developed that will reflect my needs and that of the public. These other opinions will provide the City of Durango more choices for how to develop the land and have it be an effective use of space for the community. I hope that through creating and presenting my plan I can gain a better grasp of how the land planning process works and gauge if it is something that I truly am interested in a wish pursuing further.