We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Carlos Espinoza a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Carlos, appreciate you joining us today. What did your parents do right and how has that impacted you in your life and career?

First of all, I am really thankful to my parents. They left everything behind in Mexico for my sister and I to have an incredible life. Without that incredible step of leaving their home country, I would not be here. My parents’ passion for always improving our family and helping others has inspired me. Because of this act, I have always wanted to give back to my community and my city. The reason why I started my own urban design & land planning firm as a Latino was to help people the look like me and speak like me. Latinos are 40% of Texas population, we are growing and demanding businesses that fit our needs and CGEA Planning+Design is here in honor of my immigrant story that helps developers & property owners build better housing opportunities.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I have also been passionate about cities and asking why some neighborhoods look the way they do, i.e. more trees or great walking trails/lake systems. Because of these questions as a teenager, and having lived during the Katy Freeway reconstruction stage in Houston (widest freeway in the world!), sparked a very extensive research on who is behind these ideas or plans. Especially when my Houston community in Spring Branch was changing too, I grew up in street that was filled with beautifully loblolly pine trees, and big acre homes. Suddenly as freeway construction started, they took some homes to build a new feeder road. The other homes along the streets became more densified and got townhomes. I wanted to know why these townhomes were being built and who was behind these decisions. This lead me to the city of Houston Planning Department website, which eventually years later got me an internship and later on a job there, that inspired me and taught me everything I know today as a business owner.

I am very proud to have been a very inquisite teenager about how roads are built and how urbanization inside cities is changing how we live and socialize with one another. CGEA Planning+Design, the business is built on this believe that asking all organizations, neighbors and developers why they want to build a certain home type or improve a community with new urban design is critical to our business model.

How do you keep in touch with clients and foster brand loyalty?

CGEA is not only helping communities and developers improve their community, we also offer training to all. We bring in experts via social media lives or in person meetings to learn about what is happening in Texas Land Development Rules. Recently we hosted an all Spanish developers class that the city of Houston presented at. The class provided the Spanish Speaking community with the news about the ordinance changes in Houston. We believe that fostering trust in our work but also providing a learning experience for our clients, that include architects, engineer, surveyors and investors is critical.

We also go talk to conferences at the local Keller Williams or the American Planning Association local chapters. We believe that our business is always changing and learning the new in and outs is the best way to attract new busines..

How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?

Our reputation is being a persistent firm that gets things done. We, sometimes, have to present cases at Planning Commission and make our client voices heard. Our 15+ years of experience in land planning is critical to having the tools and connections to get projects approved. We understand that community support is essential for a lot of our projects. We maintain and seek super neighborhood connections that foster good longer relationships but also support our special projects i.e. variances at the local planning commission.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.cgeaplanning.com
• Instagram: CGEAPlanning
• Facebook: CGEAPlanning
• Linkedin: CGEAPlanning
• Twitter: CGEAPlanning

Image Credits

Images by CGEA Planning+Design LLC

First Picture (Featured), image by Screenshot of Houston Television (HTV) at Houston Planning Commission September 2024.