Gray Planning Studio

Because community decision making isn’t black and white.

Celebrating over a 15 years of service to communities, Gray Planning is a woman-owned urban planning and community advisory consultancy based in Texas. We are committed to helping communities – and the people who live and do business in them - thrive. All of our projects begin with the end in mind – implementation, outcomes, and market realities are cornerstones of our work, and we take pride in working hand-in-hand with our clients to create places people and businesses are proud to call home. Our expertise includes planning, placemaking, historic preservation, spatial analysis, and stakeholder engagement.

Because every community and every project is unique, our approach is tailored to community goals, stakeholder priorities, and market conditions. Our experience spans a diverse range of clients from small towns and historic communities to fast-growing suburbs and emerging industrial hubs.

Using a community engagement process tailored to the needs of each project, we create plans that are responsive to market trends, grounded in fiscal reality, and focused on implementation. As collaborators with our clients, we design inclusive planning and placemaking processes that empower communities, build consensus, and support local ownership of outcomes.

Above all, we listen. We facilitate meaningful conversations, synthesize community input, and translate it into plans, strategies, regulations, and guidelines that are based in COMMUNITY, PLACE, MARKET, and ACTION.

We listen, facilitate conversations and discussions, then fold everything we have heard into plans, strategies, regulations, and guidelines that are based in COMMUNITY, PLACE, MARKET, and ACTION.

This philosophy is summed up in 4 tenets that are the foundation of our team philosophy:

Community:

PEOPLE FIRST. We practice everyday democracy by providing opportunities for people to engage in different ways and in different places tools and techniques that will make the process and the participation meaningful and effective. We aim to meet people where they are and encourage diverse voices and ideas.

Market:

We work with our clients to develop plans that are grounded in FISCAL REALITY and ACTION-ORIENTED, driven by the wants and needs of the market and the fiscal and economic realities of the community.

Place:

We believe in creating places with authentic character and identity tied to their unique place in the region. Inherent to our planning philosophy is developing PLACE-BASED COMMUNITY CHARACTER that carves out a distinctive place and identity for our clients.

Action:

IMPLEMENTATION must be an integral component of decision-making for our clients and partners. Our work does not end when a plan is adopted, we provide step-by-step assistance from start to finish to ensure plans become reality.