Garlynn Woodsong
Managing Director, Woodsong Associates
Garlynn Woodsong, the Managing Director of the planning consultancy Woodsong Associates, has more than 20 years of experience in regional planning, urban analytics, scenario planning, transit‐oriented development, transportation policy and funding, zoning code audits, code updates, and real estate development. He was instrumental in the development and deployment of the RapidFire and UrbanFootprint urban/regional scenario planning decision-support tools while with Calthorpe Associates in Berkeley, CA. Among notable project he previously worked, is the Bay Area TOD Study, alongside Shelley Poticha, Peter Calthorpe, Dena Belzer, Hank Dittmar, and Abby Thorne-Lyman, while with the MPO for the San Francisco Bay Area, MTC. After 2012, he took a break from the planning industry, to focus on real estate development, producing the first adaptive re-use conversion of a SFR into a 4-plex under the modern commercial building code in Portland, OR. Since then, he helped an associate co-found the planning firm Cascadia Partners, with which he parted ways at the end of 2020. His focus is on making the connections between planning, greenhouse gas emission reductions, public health, economic development, development feasibility, implementation strategies, natural and working land conservation + restoration, and strategic planning for equitable outcomes. Garlynn co-founded PLACE Initiative with colleagues focused on improving policy and urban design to address change; they hope to help grow the group through partnerships and harnessing the energy and power of new voices to effectively deploy the strategies of urbanism to reduce demand for energy while implementing a just transition to the livable future we need.