Greggory Hull’s 2017 ULI Fall Meeting Blog
To those at the Rose Center and Urban Land Institute I would like to express my gratitude for awarding me a scholarship allowing me to travel on behalf of Rio Rancho, New Mexico to the 2017 ULI Fall Meeting in Los Angeles, California.
As a newly elected Mayor in 2014, I quickly identified the need to reach out to outside organizations to help Rio Rancho in the planning and growth process. Rio Rancho is a very young city that grew quickly from a population of 1500 to nearly 1 00k in just 30 short years. The Urban Land Institute has played an integral role in helping Rio Rancho and myself develop a vision for development on how key areas within the city make the most sense and benefit the most people. Rio Rancho has adopted the motto “City of Vision” and never before has the need for a clear vision been stronger or more apparent. Forging strong relationships in the economic development and city planning arena are critical to planning our steps forward.
Attending the 2017 conference provided an invaluable experience and wealth of information and ideas that I was able to bring home to Rio Rancho. The various sessions and speakers offered up to date, relevant, real time information that will help lead Rio Rancho forward. The sessions on Technologies Impact of the real estate industry, Capitalizing on Resilience, Satellite Cities and Evolution of Retail were most informative as each of these sessions provided information that Rio Rancho can put to use and apply practically almost immediately. I found the selected panels to have a strong blend of real experience and knowledge providing an extremely informative experience. Each of the speakers, at varying levels, offered many insights on the do’s and don’ts in their various areas of expertise. Having resources available like this to learn from gives me hope that cities like Rio Rancho can invest ourselves in proven success as best practices.
I would highly recommend any city leader, planner or economic development professional to attend a ULI conference as the information provided is insightful, relevant and timely. I once again would like to express my appreciation to ULI for providing this opportunity to myself and the City of Rio Rancho.
