Sandy has 28 years experience in project management, natural resource assessment, open space planning, community planning, and geographic information systems (GIS). In addition to serving as a planning consultant to public and private sector clients, she has worked in regional, county, and city agencies. She performs overall management of planning projects and emphasizes the areas of environmental analysis, transportation, land use, socioeconomics, water and energy resources, and urban redevelopment. She manages database and GIS applications that support community and regional plans; natural resource agency operations; and utility plans, operations, and marketing.
Project Experience
Geographic Information Systems (GIS) / Database projects:
Primary consultant to Maricopa County DOT for environmental modeling; to Maricopa Association of Governments (MAG) for Air Quality mapping, and to three Arizona towns for GIS applications and base maps. Consultant team member on many projects.
Roles have included thematic map production, database integration and maintenance, ArcView Avenue programming, needs assessments, application design, training, and data delivery specifications.
Clients have included the Regional Transportation Commission of Clark County, NV; Maricopa County, AZ, Flood Control District; Surprise, AZ, Wickenburg, AZ; Maricopa County, AZ, Department of Transportation; City of Tempe, AZ; and MAG (the Urban Atlas, Regional Aviation System Plan, and Employment Database).
Community and Resource Planning
Consultant team member on many projects. Roles have included planning analyst, researcher, mapper, presenter at meetings, and author of plan elements (land use, recreation, open space, and demographics) and zoning ordinances. Projects have included the AZ Governor�s Transportation Vision 21 Analysis; MAG Valley Vision 2025; Maricopa County, AZ Comprehensive Plan; the Colorado City, Arizona General Plan; the MAG Growth Management Blue Ribbon Study; the MAG Regional PM10 Emission Inventory; the City of Scottsdale Airpark/Core Economic Study and the ADOT I-17 Multimodal Corridor Profile.
Project Experience with Previous Employer:
Bureau of Land Management (BLM), Arizona�Agua Fria National Monument/Bradshaw-Harquahala Planning Areas RMPs and EIS.
Managed the scoping-phase content analysis, public participation, and meetings with utility stakeholders for the RMP. Responsible for the lands and realty, corridors, minerals, and paleontology resources for alternative development. Managed the GIS analysis and mapping, including liaison to ESRI, for pilot implementation of BLM ePlanning. Oversaw sophisticated GIS modeling, some of it three-dimensional, for components including population and land use change, visual resources, utilities, transportation, recreation, and wildland-urban interface issues.
Bureau of Land Management (BLM), Colorado�Canyons of the Ancients National Monument RMP and EIS. Oversaw the GIS analysis and mapping components of the RMP, as well as participates in resource planning for this complex project.
Bureau of Land Management (BLM), Arizona�Lake Havasu Field Office RMP and EIS. Senior reviewer of content of the cultural and minerals alternatives.
Navajo Nation�Community Plans for St. Michaels, Cameron, Ganado, Steamboat, and Cornfields Chapters. Managed the work with a committee appointed by each chapter to devise a land use plan for the chapter. The plans emphasize housing site selection and infrastructure location, based upon environmental and socio-economic analysis.
Tonto National Forest, Arizona�Wildlife & Fish GIS. Managed compilation, organization, and development of GIS information for dozens of individual species and several natural resources management areas. Developed user-friendly standard analytical GIS methods.
Town of Pinetop-Lakeside, Arizona�Water Resources Element. Managed this element of the Town�s general plan required to address the available surface water, groundwater, and effluent supplies and to plan for how the water supply will adequately serve the future growth of the Town. Special issues included the complexity of determining water capacity given the large number of providers, and forest fire vulnerability.
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers�Va Shly�ay Akimel Feasibility Study, Environmental Impact Statement. Managed the GIS and land use aspects of the EIS. GIS mapping required use of ArcInfo/ArcView 8.2 and AutoCAD. Land use planning required interpretation of community master plans and interaction with community representatives.
Town of Superior, Arizona�Downtown Redevelopment Feasibility Study. Managed the study to determine a program for downtown revitalization. Issues included methods for the Town to benefit from its rich mining history and from its striking setting in the mountains of the Sonoran desert, centering on a scenic waterway.
Town of Cave Creek, Arizona�GIS Services. Supervised the development and maintenance of GIS layers, cartographic design, and training of town staff.
Prior Experience
Maricopa County Department of Transportation. GIS Project Manager - 1994-1995. Managed team performing mapping and analysis for Comprehensive and Transportation Plan.
Senior Planner for two Consulting firms, a City, and a Regional Agency, 1974-1989.
M.S. Geography, Pennsylvania State University, 1975
B.S. Geography, Pennsylvania State University, 1972
Special Training
Graduate studies, University of Louisville, 1978
Advanced ARC/INFO GIS analysis, Environmental Systems Research Institute
Professional Memberships
American Institute of Certified Planners
Continuing Professional Development Certificate
American Planning Association Arizona Chapter,
Professional Development Committee, organizer and speaker, many workshops, 1993�2003
Virginia Chapter,
Board of Directors, two terms
Certificates and Licenses
American Institute of Certified Planners, Member No. 4061