Could Planners Adopt a 'Place Sherpa' Role?

Today, notes Wolfe, city-related dialogues are more focused on day-to-day realities than grand visions of the City Beautiful.

Beyond architecture and urban design critiques, cities and towns face the affordability crisis, the complex push for zoning revisions, and ever-evolving dialogues around public safety. Even the reimagining of downtowns in a post-COVID era now directly confronts these pressing concerns.

For example, last week in Santa Fe, Chainbreaker—a local social justice group—convened a panel on housing and the unhoused. Community members gathered to share their experiences and concerns about housing and homelessness in Santa Fe. A panel discussion (among a journalist, activist, a former unhoused person, and a leading housing organization representative) ranged from the urgent need for increased housing supply to concerns about rising rents and displacement, the prospect of stricter controls on short-term rentals, and the role of pending revisions to the comprehensive plan and land use code. 

Noting a rich discussion that lacked the presence of all key stakeholders, Wolfe underscores the challenge around many divisive urban issues: how to bridge divides in a way that might foster true collaboration?

He provides a new name for a fine-tuned approach that centers on proper issue identification, contextual knowledge of a place, and an assurance that the appropriate stakeholders can move forward: the way of the“Place Sherpa,” a specialized urbanist and guide who empowers individuals, organizations, and communities to gain a deep understanding, observe, and collaboratively shape their built environments. 

Unlike traditional experts who might primarily diagnose problems and prescribe top-down solutions, a Place Sherpa walks alongside stakeholders, suggests Wolfe:

They provide a toolkit to demystify urban complexities, foster acute observation, and facilitate locally-informed, more innate placemaking. They bridge the gap between expert knowledge and lived experience, ensuring that urban evolution is empathetic, sustainable, and truly beloved by its inhabitants. 

If such a Sherpa doesn’t immediately demand a podium or command a climb, and their nature is to walk alongside, patiently ask questions, and share knowledge gleaned from other journeys and examples, one key question is whether planners could add the way of the Sherpa to their professional roles.