Grimm lays groundwork for city's future

SANDPOINT — The city entered the spotlight in the early 2000s and Sandpoint began to grow. Real estate office filled the downtown core and houses of all shapes and sizes began popping up helter-skelter.

But the city’s comprehensive plan, a tool that defines a municipality’s character and future growth, was an outdated, 30-year-old document.

In 2006, the city began to revise it. In 2007, they lured urban planner Jeremy Grimm to Sandpoint to lead the charge to the new plan.

Two years and 23 special council meetings later, a new 20-year comprehensive plan was adopted. By most accounts, Grimm was the prime mover behind that effort.

“It is the city’s long-range plan,” Grimm said of the document. “In my myopic perspective, it is the foundation of where a town goes.”

Fast forward another five years, and Sandpoint is largely transformed. Not only is the city a thriving, much desired destination for year-round vacationers, but it’s also attracting new employers and even the attention of the creative class — Silicon Valley, venture capitalists types. Movers and shakers.

“We specifically chose to live in a town where we live what we love and love where we live,” Charles Manning, president and CEO of Kochava, a fast-growing, internationally-recognized mobile analytics company, said Friday. “There’s an amazing dichotomy of community here.”

Grimm has been very much in the thick of things, defining the city’s future growth while helping interested businesses migrate to the area. He has cajoled, persuaded and guided Sandpoint’s path forward.

Grimm’s work is done, however, and on Wednesday he announced his departure at the end of January, jumping ship to Kochava, where he will learn a new skill set as director of publisher development.

When he leaves City Hall, he will leave a significant legacy behind.

Leading change, managing growth

Grimm’s duties increased after he completed the 2009 comp plan. In 2010, he went from planning director, to community development director as well. A self-professed go-getter, Grimm embraced his additional duties, becoming both a visionary and business advocate.

“Businesses are busy running businesses,” he said Friday from his desk at the city.

In addition to urban planning, Grimm began serving as a go-between for businesses and various local, regional and state programs, helping new employers get up and running in Sandpoint, connecting them with economic development grants and other incentive programs.

According to some, Grimm has been the keystone at the city since his arrival. He chose his words carefully when asked about his behind-the-scenes efforts at the city, while acknowledging his role in forwarding the Sandpoint’s future path.

“I am a constant agitator and educator,” he said. “I am relentless in the amount of information I push out to elected and appointed officials.”

It is information, facts and data, he said, that help elected officials make good decisions.

“Jeremy has had a lot of passion for the city, and in trying to create the best possible place he can in which to live and raise a family,” city councilman Thomas Eddy said. “His are going to be big shoes to fill.”

Successor

As to a successor, Grimm was circumspect.

“What’s become increasingly recognized is how important having someone here to do outreach and to act as a liaison to our businesses and do economic development has become,” he said.

“No one is irreplaceable,” he admitted, but it may prove challenging to find someone with equal measure of experience in urban planning and economic development needed to do the job. But he also felt there will be plenty of applicants to choose from.

“I firmly believe this is the best planning and community development job, if not in the Rocky Mountains, in the whole country. I have no doubt they will have dozens … of very qualified people applying to fill this seat.”

The salary, he said, was also attractive. Grimm currently earns $7,153.14 per month, according to city of Sandpoint.

 As for his legacy of establishing a concrete future for Sandpoint, Grimm, who became visibly emotional at one point, considered his efforts a personal success. Those recently came to fruition with the adaption of a new Sandpoint zoning code.

“It’s the most significant thing I’ve done since I’ve been here,” Grimm reflected. “It’s reset how future investment will shape our environment.”

Balanced economics

He noted that the city is not become a banana republic, reliant on a single industry or large employer, but instead has a diversified economic base — a balance of employers in aerospace, software, recreational vehicles, tourism, retirees, forest products and other industries.

“I’m not suggesting I caused this to happen in any way,” Grimm said in reference to the grants and funding the city has received for economic development. “But the work I’ve been associated with has helped support a lot of those companies.”

It’s a full time job and then some, he said, requiring the ability to work across the natural boundaries of internal city government as well as outside in the business community.

“I passionately believe that this position and all the elected officials, their job isn’t do what they want, their job is really to fulfill the publics trust. That is articulated in that document,” Grimm said.

That document, the 2009 comp plan, is now the foundation for Sandpoint, Grimm said, outlining the type of housing, economy, the physical built environment, and how transportation infrastructure will occur. It short, it defines a towns quality of life.

It’s a quality he will continue to embrace. Although he will be traveling extensively in his new job at Kochava, he plans to remain in Sandpoint.

“My number one goal for me and my family is to raise my family in this community,” he said. “It’s a pretty awesome place.”