The city of Durango’s Community Development Department has a new director. Jayme Lopko brings over 23 years of experience in community planning to Durango from Clearwater, Florida.
Lopko started her job with the city in January. She and her husband’s move to Durango was a change of pace from life on the East Coast, she said. The couple are used to big city living, she having spent a good amount of time in Cincinnati and her husband being from Chicago.
But Lopko also spent 17 years in planning in the town of Hilton Head, South Carolina, before moving to Clearwater. She said Clearwater wasn’t the right fit for her and her husband, so after a couple of years they turned their sites to Colorado. Her son lives and works in Denver and her daughter is a college freshman, studying science and technology for geology in Missouri.
The Community Development Department is responsible for reviewing private and public development projects and administering the city’s long-term comprehensive plan; it oversees housing initiatives taken by the city; and it supports economic development with grants, programs and services for businesses.
Lopko said she’s bringing with her a change of perspective to city planning with a new approach to creating a customer friendly experience to the people served by Community Development.
She is reviewing the city’s development review process with the goal of speeding up processes while meeting all regulatory requirements to ensure fast and correctly permitted development.
She said she also brings a focus on relationship-building with community members. Good customer service requires people to be heard, even when they disagree with the city.
“We need to understand, ask questions, before we make a decision or issue a permit or come up with a policy. We need to listen to the public and make sure we understand what is best for this community and what they're trying to do with their property,” she said. “... Sometimes it'll work out in their favor and sometimes we'll have to come up with a compromise.”
The Lopkos visited Durango in December. She said they were charmed by Durango’s historic downtown and the friendliness of residents.
“People were just so nice, and nobody was in a hurry and trying to wipe you off the road when you're driving,” she said.
Lopko was Clearwater’s long-range planning manager. A city news release said she created a community redevelopment plan that rejuvenated a low-income neighborhood, led a complete rewrite of Clearwater’s comprehensive plan, and amended the city’s development code to include affordable housing regulations and account for accessory dwelling units.
In Hilton Head, she contributed to a workforce housing program and a home safety and repair program for low-income households.
Although she has spent over two decades in planning, she didn’t always know that’s what she wanted to do. She said when she started higher education at the University of Cincinnati in the late 1990s, she initially wanted to become an architect.
Lopko said she’s looking forward to building relationships with community members, learning about Durango’s history and understanding the community’s needs.
She said a common misconception people have about city planners is that their job is to tell people “no.” But her approach to the role is to help people find win-win solutions and compromises – not simply to regulate.
“We want people to be able to build their dreams, and whatever we can do to help them with that is what we're here for, and to make sure that they have the infrastructure and services and the parks and things to help them live a full life,” she said.
A big difference between planning in the big city and planning for smaller communities like Durango’s is there are more opportunities to get to know individual residents in smaller communities.
In the big city, planners are interacting with groups such as neighborhood associations more often than with individual residents. In a smaller community, she said, planners get to know families, sometimes families whose descendants span through the community’s history for generations.
cburney@durangoherald.com
