by KARA SCHWEISS
Planning is a first step in executing a concept, but in the context of community planning it includes considering what already exists as much as what is to be constructed or modified, said Michael Helgerson, executive director of Metropolitan Area Planning Agency (MAPA), which serves the greater Omaha-Council Bluffs area.
The balance between preservation and progress is embedded in their work.
“One of the major projects that we’ve been working on over the last almost 10, 15 years now is a project called Heartland 2050 that looks out 20 years into the future,” Helgerson said. “How do we grow? What impacts will that have on our ability to provide infrastructure to be able to actually preserve the quality of life that people have? And those land-use decisions: continuing suburban sprawl versus a more compact development pattern or even having redevelopment in areas of the community that really hadn’t seen that kind of investment; and within that, that preservation of quality of life is really a very central piece of it.”
So, the question of what to keep is just as important as the question of what to change, he said.
“One of the big things that we think about is called system preservation; as our infrastructure grows, do we have the resources to be able to maintain it?” he explained. “And that’s often a challenging thing to get at, but it’s something that we’re very, very focused on.”
He added that thoughtful consideration may still present hard choices to make.
“Ultimately, when we think about master planning out 20, 30 years, how does that context change, and what happens kind of along the way? And boy, that’s just a moving target. I think the core thread of all of that is really working with community members and community leaders to make those intentional choices. And sometimes that’s preserving things that are great, and sometimes that’s not,” he said. “Those trade-offs, that’s such a big part of what we end up having to look at and work on, as we do planning work at the regional level and in partnership with our member community.”
Helgerson has always been community-oriented, even before working his way up at MAPA after joining the organization as an assistant transportation planner in 2013. He received his bachelor’s degree in community and regional planning from Iowa State University and his master’s in public administration-public management at UNO in 2016. His volunteer experiences include community organizations like United Way of the Midlands and Habitat for Humanity; professional organizations like the Omaha Inland Port Authority, where he is a founding board member and Urban Land Institute and the American Planning Association. Iowa State’s College of Design honored him with its Design Achievement Award in 2024.
“There are always a lot of opportunities to say yes to stepping up and serving within the profession,” he said. “And I really enjoy that process of working alongside other community leader,” he said. “(It’s) interesting to work alongside people who are passionate about similar things but have really different professional backgrounds.”
