Ahnna Nanoski developed a passion for planning in college. After becoming Jefferson City's city planner I earlier this year, she is now living her dream job.
Nanoski focuses on long-range planning, like plan updates, zoning rewrites and processing zoning cases. One of the most recent projects she is working on is rezoning parts of Jefferson City to comply with the 20-year Historic Southside/Old Munichburg District and Neighborhood Plan, which calls for rezonings, improving roads and encouraging commercial and residential developments.
One of her favorite parts of the job is working with her coworkers, who can make "anything from doing paperwork to working on an exciting project enjoyable," she said.
Before coming to Jefferson City five months ago, Nanoski attended the University of Iowa as a graduate student, receiving a master's degree in urban and regional planning. Prior to that, she attended University of Missouri-Kansas City, graduating with a bachelor's degree in urban planning and design.
Since her graduate program required hands-on experience, Nanoski said, she has not faced any challenges so far in her job. One of the real-world experiences she had while attending the University of Iowa was designing comprehensive and vision plans for a community in Iowa. During that year-long project, her group did the research, held open houses, spoke with local officials and created the document. That county went on to receive a designation based on the vision plan, she said.
Nanoski wasn't always set on planning. She originally was an environmental science major at UMKC but didn't believe that was the correct path for her.
"I didn't feel like being in a lab, doing rock and soil sampling was how I envisioned my life going," she said. "Something about planning was really interesting. I liked that it was people-based, place-based, it wasn't just about the math and science behind what's in soils."
One of the people who influenced her passion in planning was a UMKC professor, Michael Frisch.
"He had a really big impact on how passionately I feel about the planning field. When we would go through different projects for school - building models and making maps and thinking about implementation strategies for a community - I think the way he helped me think through things and inspire me to think big about planning really helped me be passionate for this field."
Nanoski wants to use her passion moving forward to engage the community more in Jefferson City.
"I think the built environment affects people's quality of life a lot," she said. "Depending on where the grocery store is located, where the schools are located, are things walkable, that's about people - what do people need?"
When not at work, Nanoski likes to take walks with her dog, Khal Drogo, and watch scary movies.