Celebrate La Feria! ¡Celebra La Feria!

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La Feria is in the Lower Rio Grande Valley of Texas a few miles from one of the five bridges in the region that crosses the border into Mexico. The region, including the small town of La Feria, is experiencing significant population growth and urbanization. The city requested CPAT assistance to provide planning guidance on some of the oldest parts of the city, a collection of aging neighborhoods, including La Feria's original town site. The traditional neighborhoods exemplify much of what "new urbanism" seeks to create — houses within walking distance of schools, stores, libraries, and parks. However, an aging and deteriorating housing stock, underdeveloped commercial corridors, an incomplete sidewalk network and neglected park space are some of the mounting challenges that residents and city officials face. La Feria's most recent (2007) comprehensive plan identifies much of the study area as "in transition."

The La Feria CPAT engaged the community in with a visioning process and helped gauge where the city and its residents wanted that transition to take them. The report includes background information and brief history of the city, market analysis, a complete community branding package, recommendations to improve gateways, details on growing the city following the Main Street Four-Point Approach, suggestions for economic restructuring, and a housing improvement strategy to strengthen the housing market and downtown core.

Meet the Team

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Team Leader

Robert L. Barber, FAICP

Robert Barber is a founding Orion partner, having retired after 25 years of public service, most recently as director of planning for Hernando, Mississippi, from 1996 to 2012. He is currently president of the Mississippi Chapter of the American Planning Association, former chairman of APA's Chapter Presidents Council, and national board advisor of APA. He has been a member of the American Institute of Certified Planners since 1990. He was elected to the College of Fellows in 2010 and currently serves as its chairman. He is a former executive board member of the Memphis District Council of the Urban Land Institute and board member of the Mid-South Regional Design Center. Barber has served as Adjunct Professor of Planning in the Graduate School of Urban Affairs and Public Policy at the University of Memphis and is a lecturer in community planning for the Mississippi Municipal League's CMO program.

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Team Member

Andy Kalback

Andy Kalback is a talented designer with over 20 years of professional experience. His abilities include urban design, land planning, landscape architecture, illustration, and graphic communications. He has extensive experience in working with and assisting downtowns in the creation and communication of their future vision through master plans, design charrettes, and developmental strategies. His specific project involvement has included lead designer and project manager as well as sub-consultant to associated fellow professionals and disciplines. He has also developed plans for reusable environments, parks and open spaces, and environmentally sensitive areas. Professional assignments have taken place in numerous local and national locations as well as international locales including Brazil, Portugal, Korea, China, England, Poland, and the Caribbean.

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Team Member

Joseph "Tripp" Muldrow, AICP

Tripp Muldrow is an accomplished urban planner with experience covering a broad range of areas in the planning field. His particular talents lie in understanding how planning and urban design concepts apply to economic development policies and strategies. He has served on the faculty of the South Carolina Mayor's Institute for Community Design and has been guest lecturer at Clemson University, Pfeiffer University, and the South Carolina Planning Academy. Most recently, Muldrow was selected as part of an 18-person Kellogg Foundation Grant delegation to County Mayo, Ireland, to study sustainable tourism and community development. He serves as President-Elect of the South Carolina American Planning Association, a board member of Community Builders (formerly the SC Downtown Development Association), a commissioner for the Greenville Housing Authority, and on the Board.

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Team Member

Irayda Ruiz-Bode, AICP

Irayda Ruiz-Bode brings over 15 years of professional experience in all aspects of infrastructure planning and development and 10 years of experience in the formulation, implementation, and evaluation of programs and projects related to the sustainable management of infrastructure in Latin America and the U.S. Her experience includes providing technical assistance applying or adapting design standards to ensure environmental and technical quality of public infrastructure, land use planning and the improvement of the quality of life, sustainability investments, public services and institutional strengthening. She has also dedicated several years to teaching and research in urban issues. Throughout her career she has been part of multidisciplinary and multicultural teams, working in collaboration with public and private institutions and agencies of cooperation and bilateral and multilateral funding.

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Team Member

Philip L. Walker, AICP

Phil Walker has over 25 years of experience in community planning. His public sector experience consists of serving as the executive director of the Pensacola (Florida) Downtown Improvement Board and city planning director for Natchez, Mississippi. He spent the past two years serving as the part-time Interim Director of the Two Rivers Company — Clarksville, Tennessee's downtown and riverfront revitalization entity. His private sector experience includes positions with Hintz-Nelessen Associates, Christopher Chadbourne and Associates, and Looney Ricks Kiss Architects. Since establishing The Walker Collaborative in 2002, he has led award-winning planning projects. He has consulted to the National Main Street Center and numerous local Main Street programs, and is a speaker at national and regional conferences. He is also an instructor with the University of North Alabama's continuing education program.

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