Today’s guest is Carol Stricklin, AICP, the Director of the Pinellas County Housing and Community Development Department. Carol is responsible for the Community Development and Planning Divisions. Her department manages the County’s grant-funded affordable housing programs and is administering $80 million in sales tax funds set aside for the production of affordable housing.
Welcome back to the She’s Wild Podcast hosted by Nancy Surak! Today’s guest is Carol Stricklin, AICP, the Director of the Pinellas County Housing and Community Development Department. Carol is responsible for the Community Development and Planning Divisions. Her department manages the County’s grant-funded affordable housing programs and is administering $80 million in sales tax funds set aside for the production of affordable housing. Carol has over 35 years of experience in public and private sector planning in Florida. Her areas of expertise include economic development, redevelopment, and affordable housing.
Carol has had an impressive career journey, starting in Orlando and eventually becoming the Director for Pinellas County Housing and Community Development. She's seen how the market has changed within Pinellas County over the past ten years, and she's got a lot of insights to share. For starters, she explains that the "missing middle" is a big problem when it comes to affordable housing. Basically, there's a real lack of options for people who don't qualify for government assistance but still can't afford market-rate rent. It's a complex issue, but Carol is optimistic that they can make progress if they continue to work together and focus on finding creative solutions.
Memorable Moments:
7:20- We're trying to spread a wide net, not just reaching out to our traditional affordable housing development partners, but to but to the market rate developers to try to get some mixed income projects. So putting that money out there to help leverage deals is a lot of what we're doing.
9:26- If you attract a workforce, and then can't give them an affordable place to live, you can't continue to grow your economy.
17:48- Planning is a long game. So sometimes it takes 10 years to be an overnight success. But to go back to communities and see those projects is, is one of the most rewarding things I do.
24:40- If, you know a young career professional has an opportunity to work in that sort of transformative part of the real estate industry where we're looking at energy efficiency, green building sustainability, climate change, you know, I would say go into the industry and focus on that that sort of that future ESG initiative.
27:13- Looking outside of the sort of purely the professional associations to look at the other segments of the industry, I think has just been really beneficial to my career.
Connect with Nancy:
Instagram: https://instagram.com/nancysurak
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nancysurak/
Website: www.nancysurak.com
Connect with Carol
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/carol-stricklin-47128013/
Carol’s Book Recommendation:
The Infinite Game by Simon Sinek via Amazon: https://amzn.to/3OPPk3X
She's WILD Sound Production by:
Luke Surak, Surak Productions: surakproductions@gmail.com
Nancy Surak 00:00
Welcome to She's Wild, the podcast for women and land in development. I'm your host, Nancy Surak. I created this podcast as a way to collect conversations of women in the land and development industry. I've been a land broker on the west coast of Florida for nearly 20 years. And I love to empower other women and to tell them about this amazing industry. But I find often that there just aren't enough women being featured on big stages, whether that's at local conferences, or nationally. So I set out to find these women myself that are killing it in my business across North America that are changing the communities that they live in every single day, whether they're building condos, multifamily, single family, office, or industrial projects, I hope that you will find this space to be inspirational, motivating, and educational. From time to time, I will feature women who are not only in my business, but also career coaches, and motivational speakers. Today's guest is Carol Stricklin, the Housing and Community Development Director for Pinellas County Government on the west coast of Florida. Carol has 30 years of public administration experience. And all of that has been inland planning. You'll hear her career experience, and how she's leading her team today to get community buy in on tackling big problems like affordable housing and a built out community. I really enjoyed talking to Carol, and I hope that you'll enjoy listening in as well. I Carol, I'm so glad that you joined us today so that we can learn more about your history and what you're doing and Pinellas County, Florida. Everyone, we have a special guest Her name is Carol Strickland. And I'm gonna go ahead and just dive right in Carol, why don't you introduce yourself, and tell us all about where you're from and what you're doing.
Carol Stricklin 02:01
Good morning, Nancy. I'm thrilled to be here. I'm Carol Stricklin and I'm a certified planner. My current role is Housing and Community Development Director for Pinellas County, where I'm responsible for planning and affordable housing initiatives at the county level.
Nancy Surak 02:22
So let's take it back a little bit. Tell me how did you originally decide that you wanted to be a planner? Where did that come from? Did you go to school for for land planning or urban planning? Or did you come about this career path through another way?
Carol Stricklin 02:37
Well, I did get a master's degree in public administration. But really, my involvement with planning just came out of a fascination with cities and places. I traveled in Europe when I was young. I lived in New York City. And just that experience of being in the urban environment and understanding the way places were put together, drew me to this profession.
Nancy Surak 03:03
Yeah, I say that, you know, I've always been fascinated with that sort of thing, too. I think women who end up in some stage of land or development or plan planning, we've all been, we came from that as part of our fabric, right? It's like who we are. So when you did, so you get your master's degree. Now, did you get your master's degree and go right into planning or or I'm sorry, because you were in public administration? Did you go right into planning side of the public administration? Or were you doing something before that?
Carol Stricklin 03:36
My career has always been in the planning field. You know, I certainly started with an internship. But really, my career took off when I moved to the Orlando market and started working for the city of Orlando, in their land development division. So I was working with site plans and planning boards and, you know, really doing the nuts and bolts work of how plan gets entitled and cities get developed.
Nancy Surak 04:03
Okay, so So you came from Orlando, and then you move to the west coast of Florida?
Carol Stricklin 04:09
Yes, I had a great career of about 20 years in the Orlando market saw Orlando go from kind of a sleepy downtown to a vibrant urban place, worked for Orange County for a while, but about 20 years ago, I decided that I really wanted to be part of what was going on in the Tampa Bay market, and spent about 13 years with the city of Largo doing redevelopment work and recently transitioned to more of a leadership role in Pinellas County.
Nancy Surak 04:41
Well, I followed your career. So congratulations. Largo is a great little town and thank you so happy to have you at the county level. You know, I tell people and they're usually surprised by this for the last couple of years a large part of my business. My book of business from a land brokerage has actually been in Pinellas County, which for our listeners, you know, I'm going to just sort of define it. It's a built out county. So for a land broker to say a large part of my book of business has been in a built out County, sort of makes people scratch their heads sometimes. But I've was fortunate enough to be with a family who owned some vacant land and being able to help them sell it, and work in different municipalities and along with the county, so it's it's been very interesting to me and watching that community grow and evolve. So you talked a little bit about what you're doing. from a planning perspective, I'd like to dive into what are you seeing in your business today? What are things that keep you up at night? Where is your like, main focus? You know, what are some of the initiatives you guys are working on?
Carol Stricklin 05:45
Well, right now, we're very focused on the issue of affordable housing. And that really ties into your comments about Pinellas being a built out county because land costs are going up. And there's really an issue with the availability of sites to build housing. And so a lot of the name of the game is land assembly, land, reuse land redevelopment. But what we're seeing is both the affordable housing developers and the market rate developers, dealing with a lot of uncertainty in terms of not just land cost, but material cost, the time to get entitlements is a big issue, as well as labor and really just the volatility of the market.
Nancy Surak 06:32
So are you guys actually putting together a programming to help from an affordable housing standpoint, are there initiatives that the county is either looking into or doing to help maybe streamline some of those some of those timelines or other things,
Carol Stricklin 06:49
we're working on two fronts. One is on the funding side, that we are the gap financer for affordable housing, we've got the penny for Pinellas, which is $80 million. That was set aside from the sales tax to leverage investment in affordable housing. We do that through our land assembly, Land Trust, as well as providing construction funds for workforce housing. So we're trying to spread a wide net, not just reaching out to our traditional affordable housing development partners, but to but to the market rate developers to try to get some mixed income projects. So putting that money out there to help leverage deals is a lot of what we're doing. The other initiative that was more of a long game, and the County recently approved a housing compact with five municipal partners. Ford, Pinellas St. Petersburg, Clearwater, Largo and Pinellas Park, to agree to work together long term on things like regulatory reform, the missing middle, you know, trying to get that naturally occurring for affordable housing through the marketplace, as opposed to just what people think of, you know, traditionally as affordable housing as satisfies.
Nancy Surak 08:16
Yeah, I noticed I've I've been very fortunate in my career to do all the parts of the housing to be able to do numerous tax credit deals through state funding and federal funding, workforce housing, traditional market rate, multifamily traditional market rate master planned communities, I've sort of done the whole spectrum. And what I have found is that a lot of communities don't really understand what affordable housing is the definition for whatever reason, and I think I know why, but has an A potential negative connotation. People say, Well, I don't want that in my community and don't recognize that affordable housing is a critical component to an efficient running community. So I would love to know like, are you guys doing any initiatives with that just helping to educate the everyday citizen of what that is and what it really means for them?
Carol Stricklin 09:12
We are, we're working with Forward Pinellas on what's called the advantage Pinellas plan and it really looks as at housing as part of an overall strategy for economic development. You know, if you if you can't attract a workforce, then give them an affordable place to live. You can't continue to grow your economy, and also looking at the role that transportation plays and where people live and how they get connected to the job, their jobs. So there's a new website called Homes for Pinellas, where we talk about some of those strategies and also our funding opportunities for affordable housing. The other thing I would say though, is that we're trying to change the conversation and really talk about small affordable housing, not the housing that you think of with the set asides. But really, what? How do we serve all components of our community, up to 120% of the area median income up to 140%, in some cases, so we're not only serving our low income residents, but our workforce,
Nancy Surak 10:23
you have to have workforce. That's where, you know, I always say that's where your nurses, nurses, your teachers, your doctor, your not doctors, that's where your nurses, your teachers, your sheriff, police, your firefighters, that's, that's, that's where they live. It's your it's your workforce is the backbone of your community, your librarians where they have to have an affordable place to live. And I don't think I mean, I'm sure you guys have seen this in a built out county. But there's a rush of demand coming into the state of Florida in the last couple of years. Just unbelievable demand for housing and for other projects. In my case for land. How do you guys balance what the community needs are with all these people may be coming in, in from more expensive markets is that? You know, are you guys doing anything related to that? Are you just letting the market kind of play on its own?
Carol Stricklin 11:19
Well, it certainly is pushing rents higher, and as well as housing cost. For single family and other other types of homeownership. What we're doing there was we're trying to use land more effectively. So concentrating density in our corridors, allowing higher density projects, Pinellas kind of has a history of shying away from 30 units per acre, 40 units per acre, except in places like the downtown St. Petersburg. So we're really trying to change the conversation and think about density differently. Think of it as an opportunity to take some of our obsolete commercial centers, recycle that land into more sort of viable and really vibrant residential communities.
Nancy Surak 12:11
Yeah, or mixed use, right. So exactly. You have other components, whether that's workforce components, or health care or commercial, in conjunction with with the residential. So I applaud you for that. I'm a big huge fan of that. I do think that you guys sit in a pretty unique situation where everything is built out. And so you can build these great new places. I know, sometimes, though, it can be a sizable land challenge, you know, because I have people that will call me and say, Well, I'm looking for 10 acres in Pinellas County. And I say, well, good luck. Because it's challenging to find that do you know it's built out the the parcels have been already cut up pretty good. But to not to belabor that point, I did want to go back and ask you to define something that you mentioned earlier? Because I hear this term thrown around a lot in our industry, but I don't necessarily hear it with a definition. But could you explain to us what is the missing middle?
Carol Stricklin 13:13
So the missing middle refers to the idea that there's naturally occurring affordable housing that's accessible for entry level homeownership, people early in their careers, being able to buy that first house early on. And it really refers to allowing the market to produce that type of housing. So it's not the high end housing. It's not the housing that receives an affordable housing subsidy or set aside. It's that middle of the market, where housing is attainable to the workforce, essentially.
Nancy Surak 13:57
Thank you. But different than affordable housing, it's more a kind of step up or a first time buyer, if you think
Carol Stricklin 14:05
certainly a first time buyer, people that are forming households, you know, there's so much going on. We read about with demographics, and, you know, the the generational shift. It used to be that people early in their careers would buy a house in their 20s. We're seeing that being pushed out much later. And part of it simply because of affordability or lifestyle, but we're starting, I think to see people want to live in urban places. They want to live in vibrant communities, such as Safety Harbor, and Dunedin. They're looking for those opportunities to buy a house and start their families and their careers.
Nancy Surak 14:47
So you talked a little bit about the demographic shift. From a historical perspective. Are you guys seeing a much younger demographic in Pinellas County now than maybe historically?
Carol Stricklin 14:57
We are starting to see that, especially with the migration that you mentioned, you know, Largo in particular where I used to work, had a very high median age, a lot of retirees a lot of snowbirds. But in the last 10 years, we started to see those demographics change, because we were very intentional as a city in offering family friendly recreation and amenities and starting to change that equation. I think another factor also was the vibrancy of downtown St. Petersburg, young career professionals want that lifestyle. They love to live in St. Petersburg. And that's really spreading out from there as people look for more affordable options near urban places.
Nancy Surak 15:48
Yeah, I would certainly I just spent a few days in December of last year in Dunedin and I hadn't really done much there in the past. And that is a great little, just a gem in the county, just so many fun things to do and breweries and and I kind of scratch my head. And I'm like, How come I have never been here? And I think it was because sometimes I travel where the land will take me, you know, where there's availability. And I think earlier in my career, I tried to do something in Dunedin. And for whatever reason, I don't know if I don't think I did it, or something else happened and pulled me in a different direction. But it was a great, I think you guys have so many of those small, little towns with those great stories are a great opportunity to really get connected into the industry, you know, into the little town and have great shopping and great experience. So I don't necessarily think you guys cultivate that from a land planning standpoint at the county, but you certainly can influence that. So I'd love to ask you, you know, when you drive around town, do you take ownership of projects that you've been a part of whether they're public or private? I'm just really curious, do you say like I was a part of that, and I'm really proud of it?
Carol Stricklin 17:03
That's a great question, Nancy, because that's really the most rewarding part of what I do when, in particular, I drive up and down the Clearwater Largo road corridor, which was one of our redevelopment areas. And I see rosary Road, which is a community street that was completely rebuilt, and now is very walkable connects to the Pinellas trail next to that as a brand new apartment complex, the rosary apartments that has set aside for affordable housing in exchange for a density bonus, no subsidy. And it's really changed the fabric of that community and lifted, lifted that corridor up. And, you know, planning is a long game. So sometimes it takes 10 years to be an overnight success. But to go back to communities and see those projects is, is one of the most rewarding things I do.
Nancy Surak 18:00
Yeah, I would say the same. You know, when I get to drive, you know, I always joke around with my development clients, and I'm like, hey, you know, when you guys are done, I actually drive past your project and say, I built that I had nothing to do with the development or the building. But I will take such ownership because I'm, you know, 9.7 times out of 10, super proud of what comes out of the ground. Now there's an occasional project where I'm like, oh, but for the most part, like I'm really, really happy with what turned out there. And I've been thinking a lot about the influence that I have, just as from our brokerage standpoint, as to who I pitched projects to, or who I pitched land to, and I'm, I'm curious, if you experience anything like that, do you think your involvement sways a community's redevelopment in any way? Or maybe I would have to write, like, what you hope for where you live, what you hope for it to look like?
Carol Stricklin 19:00
It does. And you know, I was there was a project I wanted to mention to you, which was a redevelopment of a dead Mall. So malls run their course they go dark. And it was a pretty big piece of property that was in kind of receivership coming out of the Great Recession being managed by bank ownership. And we formed an incredible partnership to do something good on that land. And we were lucky to have the bank willing to sit down and do that. And as a result got a first class A apartments that Largo hadn't seen in 20 years. We got a nicely designed commercial center. But the thing I'm most proud of is we were able to negotiate dedication of an acre of land to PSTA, our transit company for a transfer center so We all have the individuals that used to sit on the side of the road, in a open bus shelter now have amenitized, convenient, modern transit center where they can, they can wait for their transfers. And I'm just really proud of that thinking about the ridership. And you know how many people over 10 years have been served by that facility. Because those are the kinds of things you think about.
Nancy Surak 20:25
Those are the lives that you've impacted, right, and hopefully a positive way, giving somebody a little bit of shade or shelter that might not have been there before cleanliness, you know, to the single mom, maybe with a stroller like that makes a huge difference on just how people love the community that they live in. So talking about this mall, redevelopment, tell me, did you, I know you didn't necessarily redevelop it. But what were some of the challenges that you recall associated with that project that you guys had to overcome?
Carol Stricklin 20:58
Well, one of the things we talked about is, is the big box and urban design. And the anchor was a big box. And we had, in fact, a few years before developed an ordinance to try to do some placemaking, even with these large scale commercial developments, it's about the design of the parking lot, the facade of the building, as it faces the roadway. And it was very successful, you know, it created a sort of walkable environment, while at the same time creating all of this economic activity with that store and all the employees and you know, it's just a successful project on both sides.
Nancy Surak 21:45
Right. That's cool. So there's been a term that keeps popping up, as we discussed that I want to dive into a little bit as well. Because your role is more the community development. But you've talked a lot about economic development, and the viability of jobs and creating an attractive place for new companies to bring employment to your community. I would love to know what your opinion is, how much has COVID in the impact of people really shifting to a more work from home environment affected? How you guys look at land development, or how you even look at land development, maybe historically, create the jobs, you want to have the office buildings or the industrial? Is there any change to Hey, wow, it really needs to be super balanced. Because you have so many more people working from their homes or apartments?
Carol Stricklin 22:39
Well, I think we've paid a lot of attention to what's going on with retail. I think retail is changing. I was at Uli, with you last week and intended to session that No, retail is not dead, but it's different. And so one of our projects, we're looking at the northern us 19 corridor, very large roadway, very busy facility. And the retail is changing there. And we're looking at how can we plan for what's next? It's a great corridor transit corridor. How can we plan for multifamily perhaps to take the place of some of those retail uses are no longer viable?
Nancy Surak 23:24
Yeah, it's definitely I'm glad I love to hear retail is not dead, I do a fair share of retail deals. And unlike retail, it's not dead. It's different. You're right, but it's not dead people. Still, consumers still want to feel in touch a number of the items that thereby including myself. But going back to sort of your career path. And the whole goal of this podcast is to expose and to share stories about kind of what you're working on as a professional, but also to talk about kind of where you came from, and some of the things that you've done in your own career. If you were going to be approached by a young woman who maybe is contemplating land planning as a career or even a developer, and they said, Hey, Carol, like, I want to make a change in my community, and I want to see things differently. What's a piece of advice that you might give them?
Carol Stricklin 24:20
Well, I think it's a terrific time to go into real estate or land development. It's a very welcoming profession. But there's so many interesting things happening now. Particularly, I think, with the ESG realm with sustainability. If, you know a young career professional has an opportunity to work in that sort of transformative part of the real estate industry where we're looking at energy efficiency, green building sustainability, climate change, you know, I would say go into the industry and focus on that that sort of that future ESG initiative.
Nancy Surak 25:02
I'm hearing a lot more about that. And I, those conversations have always been kind of in the background, but I'm hearing the term ESG more and more. Really probably within the last like 12 to 18 months. I think it because it finally got a term. Think before it was it was green building and an environmentally sustainable redevelopment and now everyone's saying, Well, no, we're gonna call it this name. And that always helps right with with those initiatives. You also alluded earlier to Uli, the Urban Land Institute, I know that we're both big fans, huge fans, are there other organizations besides you, Ally, that you would recommend folks who are interested in our world to get involved with or to check out? Well,
Carol Stricklin 25:53
one of the transitions I made in my career as a planner, I would always go to the planning conferences, and talk to other planners and, you know, realize that I needed to talk to other segments of the industry and began involvement with Urban Land Institute, and learn from people that are in other segments of what I do. I also started going to ICSC. Ah, okay. And, you know, a little bit of a fish out of water there. But we went as a as a local government, and put up a table and said, come invest in our community. And for the first couple of years, they kind of looked at us and said, What, and then people came up and started talking about the pieces of land that they had, or they were representing, or opportunities that they were looking for. So really kind of flipping the script and saying, go outside of your comfort zone, go, you know, go meet your Peer Professionals, nother, opportunity I had was to talk with crew, the real, you know, real estate, women professionals, and was able to do a zoom call with them. So you're looking outside of the sort of purely the professional associations to look at the other segments of the industry, I think is just been really beneficial to my career.
Nancy Surak 27:24
Yeah, that I would, I would also echo that Urban Land Institute has been great for me, but there are others, you know, I have been involved with different realtor organizations, but I find that I learned the most when I'm in organizations like, like you ally, or crew, or IIC, where you have different parts of that deal. represented at the table. So you may have someone who's doing the financing someone like yourself, who's on the public sector side, a developer broker in the conversation is, can really, I think, make huge differences, you know, for because you share your experience. And that's really part of why I'm doing this right, as I'm wanting more women to share their career stories and tell other folks how great of an industry this is. Because, you know, my feel is that there just aren't enough of us. So I'd like to see more females of all different ages in our industry. So just to go back to a question I always like to kind of throw out is, has there been anything in your career or on a deal that you've been involved with that you thought when it occurred? Oh, my goodness, I've never seen this before. And I hope I never see it again.
Carol Stricklin 28:43
You will that is one of the questions I was was thinking about as I was preparing for this. And I think the most surprising thing to me, as a woman professional, was, on occasion being attacked personally. You know, and it's, it's, it's surprising, it's not something you expect. And when it happens, it's it's pretty shocking. And at one point, it even happened during a public hearing. We're on a break and a public hearing an individual involved with an application came up and made some very personal remarks. So you live through that and it makes you stronger and you learn from it. And you kind of learned that it's you know, your persona and your leadership and your poise as a woman that makes those types of things seem irrelevant.
Nancy Surak 29:49
It is scary though. I lived through that. I've had that happen to me but on the opposite side where I've been in favor of a project and have a either had A citizen who was just adamantly against something, really get kind of, you know, too close for comfort, have some pretty hurtful things to say, which weren't really based, in fact. And I had to kind of just remove myself almost mentally from the whole dialogue and situation and say, you know, this just a lack of education, and understanding of what this really means. But this is this person is super passionate about it, I'm gonna let them speak their mind. And I'm going to try to get out as safely as quickly as possible. But I have I've had that happen as well. You know, and I know that when you talk about land planning, or in your case, particularly Pinellas County change is not always welcomed. You know, people don't always want their communities to change. And for those of us like you and I, we can we go to these national conferences, and we see these beautiful projects that are demonstrated on the big screen, and we're like, ah, that would be great. Like, we want that for our place, because we know how much of a contribution it makes to just the way, you know, a standard of life. And, you know, it's unfortunate that we sometimes have to defend that but too bad not more people can attend you ally meetings, I think they would see it from our point of view a little bit more. But just to wrap up, I know we're getting tight on time, I want to thank you for shorter, sharing your time with me giving us a history of your personal career, and also what you're seeing in Pinellas County right now. I always like to wrap up my interview with a handful a couple of questions that I am a huge supporter of number one I'm a big reader or audiobook listener should say of self help books or things that give me motivation or inspiration. Is there anything that you've read recently, or a podcast that you've listened to recently that you'd like to share with the listeners or myself, that you found particularly inspiring or helpful in your world?
Carol Stricklin 31:59
Well, with my management team here in Pinellas County, we just completed reading together the infinite game by Simon Sinek. And we call it our infinite game book club, over pizza. But it really talks about having more of an infinite mindset. Being flexible, really focusing on the cause of what you're doing, know the why that sees Simon Sinek is kind of famous for the power of y. But what was so powerful about it is it gave us a chance to use that book as a way of talking about real issues, such as trust among our team or leadership. And that's really the power of those types of books is is not just reading them, but talking to your peers about them and in engaging around those concepts that you maybe wouldn't normally take the time to talk about.
Nancy Surak 33:02
That is fascinating. I would love to know, have you tell us a little bit more about without violence without you know, saying anything? You shouldn't obviously, what are some of the issues around trust, like I feel like we live in a time in society, where mistrusts is sort of a lot of people's biggest concern, right? That Who do you trust? Who's you know, who's in your corner? What were some of the dialogues or conversations or around the trust conversation? Well, we spend a lot
Carol Stricklin 33:35
of time actually talking about transparency and communication. Government can be kind of stovepipe. And we have our stuff, and we don't necessarily share it. But what we talked about is, the more you share what you're doing, reach out to other people in the organization, get to know each other form those form those bonds. That's how you build trust is through communication, being clear about what you're doing and why.
Nancy Surak 34:08
I would imagine that even outside of the organization that certainly spills out into the overall community as well. Right. It's the same concept. Oh, absolute communication. Right. Yeah. Good point.
Carol Stricklin 34:21
There is a sense, you know, kind of the opposition that you see in communities to change that transparency, that communication builds trust with the community as well.
Nancy Surak 34:32
Now, I oftentimes will see people get really concerned about a particular design element, right? And I'll say, Well, did you go sit down, you know, did you go like, try to find out who's doing the plans? Did you raise this concern before you got to a public hearing? Like why why wait, you know, and, and I even tell developers on projects that I'm on, I'm like, Hey, here's the community leaders like Go and sit and have a cup of coffee with them. You You know, and explain to them what your hope or your goal is for your project. And let them tell you what their hopes and goals are. So that you can find some middle ground, because it may be that, you know, what they really want is a beautification project around the corner that has nothing to do with your project. They want your project to be successful, but what they really want to do is fix blight somewhere else, and have those dialogues. And those conversations are to say, Well, if you throw up a little bit extra screening from a landscaping standpoint, that may work, but what that community really may want is a larger walking path that maybe isn't determined by code, you know, or a dog area where they can come and take their dogs because there isn't a fenced in area in that particular neighborhood. So I always say, you know, go and at least have the conversation. Recognize that you don't, you don't have to be at battle all the time, prepared, but to listen, you know. So I'm glad to hear that you guys are focusing on the trust and the communication both internally and externally. So then finally, I'd like to know, where if somebody wanted to follow what's happening either in your department or with you professionally or personally, where should they follow you or follow Pinellas County growth so that they can figure out kind of what's next?
Carol Stricklin 36:20
Well, I'm very active on LinkedIn, and try to use that as a platform to share what's happening with me professionally, but also, what's going on with some of the projects we have. And certainly Pinellas County promulgates a lot of information through our communications department. We are starting a new video series with some highlights of some of our projects, but certainly connect with me on LinkedIn. Love to get to know some of your listeners. And often thank you again for joining me.
Nancy Surak 36:56
It's been a pleasure getting to know you a little bit better. And I'm super excited about to see you know, how you evolve and in your new role and what's coming next for Pinellas County. It's a great favorite of mine in the Tampa Bay region. And I hope you guys are going to see great, great success in the years to come as your community continues to evolve and develop. Thanks again for joining me. Thank you, Nancy. Thank you for joining us for another episode of she's wild the podcast for women in land and development. If you enjoyed today's show, please go out and rate us so that we can be found by other women in our industry. And if you know women who are working in land and development, please share this podcast with them. And if you know a total rock star woman, badass chick who is killing it in land and development anywhere in North America. I want to know who she is. Please reach out to me so that I can feature her on an upcoming episode.