Firm profile
CommunityScale is an urban planning consultancy focused on helping communities across the country improve equity, economic mobility, and housing attainability. We provide a range of services and analytics products designed to help our clients make more informed and targeted decisions around policy and investment.
Our areas of focus are:
- Housing needs assessments: Data-driven and interactive assessments for a variety of use cases
- Zoning: Authoring new districts and complete overhauls for mixed-use environments and missing middle housing
- Consulting: Development opportunity assessments, master plans, and other needs
Our work is data-driven and forward-focused, leveraging new tools and resources to deliver actionable analysis and insights. Whereas conventional planning work is based on “trailing indicators” such as Census data that describe conditions a few years ago and thus offer limited opportunities to influence, we incorporate real-time “leading indicators” from big data sources to reveal current trends at their early emergent stage where informed intervention could still make a difference.
CommunityScale is headquartered in Massachusetts and collaborates with customers, clients, and partners across the country from small towns to large regions.
Our team
Our team includes skilled professionals with extensive experience in planning, urban design, housing policy, and cutting-edge analytics. The common denominator across our portfolio of past and present work is an emphasis on understanding housing markets, promoting broader housing attainability, and deploying cutting-edge tools to extend our clients’ capabilities and community impacts.
Jeff Sauser
Jeff Sauser, co-founding Principal at CommunityScale, has experience leading projects for public and private clients across the country. His work emphasizes the role of housing policy and production in driving economic development and creating opportunities for socioeconomic mobility.
Nels Nelson
Nels Nelson, co-founding principal at CommunityScale, is focused on urban planning, zoning, and spatial data analysis. He has a proven track record of working with public agencies, private developers, and community stakeholders to deliver transformative projects.
Sarabrent McCoy
Sarabrent McCoy, Associate at CommunityScale, is specialized in geospatial data analysis and urban design for strategic planning processes across scales and contexts. She establishes data-driven observations that help build consensus across stakeholders.