- Land Use Planning, Permitting & Zoning: Urban Core Strategies founder, Craig Kelley, has decades of professional and political experience in all aspects of land use planning, permitting and zoning. In particular, he brings an understanding of how issues associated with development- traffic, parking, density, noise, light- can impact local neighborhoods and, in turn, impact project development. He has both written and voted on zoning amendments and has worked with multiple organizations, from developers to neighborhood groups, to help design successful processes around development.
- Legal Strategies: A member of the Massachusetts Bar since 1993 and an Honors graduate of Boston College Law School, Craig can capably represent a variety of legal needs. Other members of the UCS team have specific expertise in criminal defense, trusts & estates, copyright and real estate transactions.
- Disaster Preparedness and Climate Change & Resiliency Planning and Training: Craig has a MPA from the Harvard Kennedy School where he also served as a Research Fellow in Municipal Resilience and Democratic Institutions. He is a certified Massachusetts Municipal Vulnerability Assessor and is also certified under the Department of Homeland Security to run and evaluate gaming scenarios. Other team members bring urban planning, engineering and direct disaster response expertise to the UCS team.
- New Urban Mobility, Platform-Based Commerce and the Delivery Economy: Craig has long been a leader in local and regional thinking about new approaches to Urban Mobility. He has written zoning language to expand legal peer-to-peer car sharing, organized multiple conferences on the issue and has written a number of articles exploring how new mobility platforms, from Ebikes to shared scooters, both offer tools for cities to beat congestion while, if poorly managed and regulated, promise to create a more chaotic streetscape for everyone. Other team members bring expertise in product development, battery design and similar skillsets that integrate into policy design and implementation improvements.
- Digital Governance and the Internet of Things (IoT): Craig has become a thought leader in how local governments need to interact with their constituencies where they live- on line. Craig helps governments adjust their policies about digital infrastructure and communication tools and practices to meet the communication and response needs of their constituents through email, social media and platform-based permitting programs. Team members include experts in municipal telecommunications, privacy issues and data analysis.