.bodytext {float: left; } .floatimg-left-hort { float:left; margin-top:10px; margin-right: 10px; width:300px; clear:left;} .floatimg-left-caption-hort { float:left; margin-bottom:10px; width:300px; margin-right:10px; clear:left;} .floatimg-left-vert { float:left; margin-top:10px; margin-right:15px; width:200px;} .floatimg-left-caption-vert { float:left; margin-right:10px; margin-bottom:10px; font-size: 10px; width:200px;} .floatimg-right-hort { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 300px;} .floatimg-right-caption-hort { float:left; margin-right:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 300px; font-size: 10px; } .floatimg-right-vert { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 200px;} .floatimg-right-caption-vert { float:left; margin-right:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 200px; font-size: 10px; } .floatimgright-sidebar { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 200px; border-top-style: double; border-top-color: black; border-bottom-style: double; border-bottom-color: black;} .floatimgright-sidebar p { line-height: 115%; text-indent: 10px; } .floatimgright-sidebar h4 { font-variant:small-caps; } .pullquote { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 150px; background: url(http://www.dmbusinessdaily.com/DAILY/editorial/extras/closequote.gif) no-repeat bottom right !important ; line-height: 150%; font-size: 125%; border-top: 1px solid; border-bottom: 1px solid;} .floatvidleft { float:left; margin-bottom:10px; width:325px; margin-right:10px; clear:left;} .floatvidright { float:right; margin-bottom:10px; width:325px; margin-right:10px; clear:left;} David Wilwerding has been working to extend the same sense of community he experienced as a child in Defiance, a town of 300 in Western Iowa, to the much larger city of Johnston. After working as a city planner for less than five years, the 29-year-old was promoted to community development director in May. In this new role, Wilwerding aspires for Johnston to focus on long-term planning and growth.

How did you become interested in city planning?

I graduated from Iowa State [University]. I actually started in the architecture program. After I started, I just realized it wasn’t want I wanted to do. I had a friend who was in community and regional planning, so I looked into that and found it very interesting. I interned in West Des Moines for a summer and another semester and loved it. I got to see an awful lot of development and changes, which is what got me started in city government. After I graduated, I spent about two and a half years at the Des Moines Area Metropolitan Planning Organization as a transportation planner. Then this opportunity came up, and I felt like it was a good opportunity to get back into municipal government, city planning. I started as a city planner for about two years and then was promoted to senior planner.

What do you like about this work?

I really enjoy coming into the office and having a plan the day, and within an hour it’s completely shot. There’s so many dynamic things happening in the community and in our office that every day is different.

What are your goals as community development director?

I want to make sure that we’re continuing to be responsive to our citizens and the developers who are working here. I want to make sure we’re staying on top of all our long-term planning, so we’re being proactive and not just reacting to requests as they come in. I think in the coming few years we will work on updating our comprehensive plan and getting more citizen involvement. The last major rewrite was done in 1998. We’ve done amendments to different area plans and sub-area plans at different times since then, but it’s time, in my opinion, to look at the whole process again.

What do you see as Johnston’s opportunities?

Through our planning process, we need to make sure we’re preserving the space for future growth of office and commercial to support our tax base, but also to make sure we’re developing new residential areas that are unique and are meeting the needs of the residents that want to live here. We’re not just creating another cookie-cuter subdivision. We’re trying to create a sense of place and a sense of community.

What’s the biggest challenge for the city?

Probably our biggest challenge is to make sure we’re doing enough long-term planning to respond to the development pressures we’re seeing. Keeping our infrastructure expanding so we can continue to grow and looking out to future annexation to make sure that we’re setting aside land and planning for that development so we can continue to grow and maintain a vibrant community.

What’s it like coming into this role after Gene Martens ran the department for 14 years?

He’s really helped me make the transition pretty seamless. He’s still here until October assisting us and has built a really strong staff and it’s made my job very easy to move into this role and continue what he’s already started. When he started, I think there were only a couple of people in our department, and now we’re up to a staff of 9 full-time and two interns.

Where would someone find you on the weekends?

On the golf course. That’s my one big hobby. I like to spend a lot of time doing home improvement projects. That’s sort of my stress relief. Woodworking and remodeling. And just spending time outside.

What’s the worst job you’ve ever had? When I was growing up, my dad did pest control. I used to help him treat for termites, and that involved crawling through crawl spaces and a lot of dirty, dusty, dark places.

What advice you live by?

If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.