Planning Center looks back

As it celebrates its 30th anniversary, an urban planning firm anticipates emerging trends in cities and suburbs.Neighborhoods change in 30 years, and so do companies.

The Planning Center, a Costa Mesa company that works with developers and governments to prepare plans and environmental reports, commemorated its 30th anniversary last week.

Walls at the Planning Center’s headquarters are covered with posters showing plans for development within and outside of Orange County.

The Costa Mesa offices are the company’s third home, President Randal Jackson said.

Jackson, who has been with the company for 28 years, said the firm started near Newport Center.

At the time, the workplace had a decidedly casual feel.

Jackson recalled that the first office’s tables were made from old doors.

“We came to work in shorts,” Jackson said.

In those early years, employees worked on what Brian Judd, the firm’s director of community planning and design, referred to as design.

For Planning Center staffers, design means outlining a plan for a neighborhood by laying out where features like streets, homes and parks will be built.

At first, Judd said the Planning Center’s clients were mostly in the private sector; the move toward working with municipal governments came later.

In the past, the firm worked with Newport Beach officials to craft a master plan for the city’s parks. The firm’s evolution led to a move away from Newport Center. In the mid-1980s, the company moved to offices near John Wayne Airport, because, as Jackson explained, the company “needed to be corporate.”

The third move, to Costa Mesa, was made in 1998, Judd said. The Planning Center’s current offices reveal a mix between the objectives of being businesslike and being creative. For example, the firm’s lobby resembles just about any professional space, whereas the room that houses the Planning Center’s designers has an open feel in order to foster interaction.

“It kind of has to be collaborative,” Judd said.

In addition to working on plans and preparing environmental documents, Judd also sees the firm as having a “think tank” aspect. He pointed to a forthcoming report on “the new suburbanism” as an example. The report, Judd said, will look at ways for suburban areas to adjust to increasing populations.

“Suburbia’s the opportunity to accommodate future growth,” Judd said.

* ANDREW EDWARDS covers business and the environment for the Daily Pilot. He can be reached at (714) 966-4624 or by e-mail at andrew.edwards @latimes.com.

20051024iou9ylknCOURTENAY NEARBURG / DAILY PILOT(LA)Brian Judd is the director of community planning and design at the Planning Center, which turns 30 this year.