About

We are a research organization formed in Colorado under the belief that communities of all sizes should have access to innovative planning tools that enhance the planning process and help citizens and staff make informed decisions about the future. Our Mission is to provide research and consulting services to help communities solve problems, promote collaboration, understand change and achieve balance. Download our one page summary here.

We pride ourselves in the following:

We provide solutions tailored to our clients needs.
We do not force canned solutions onto unique problems. We evaluate your needs and develop and implement tools to meet those needs.

We are committed to advancing the field of planning and community development.
We believe in sharing information and processes. The more widely our tools are used and the more information we are able to share, the further our field advances. We do not consider our ideas to be proprietary and encourage you to implement them, expand on them and improve upon them.

We are an active member of our community.
As a firm working in the field of community development, it is very important to us to be involved in our own community and to give back where possible. We are constantly looking for opportunities to better the lives of those in our community.

About the Founder

Sarah McClain has a unique combination of skills in urban planning and technology which she brings to the organization. She is a certified planner with an undergraduate degree in Environmental Policy and a Master's in Urban Planning. She is also CEO of the Telluride Tech Festival and has headed it up since 2000. Sarah previously worked as a consultant at a Boulder planning firm, RRC Associates, Inc., with a focus on affordable housing and survey research. Her experience as a consultant provided her the opportunity to collaborate with many different communities and counties across the West. Her move to found BalancedCommunity stemmed from the desire to take a new approach to solve old problems, particularly in enhancing data visualization and public participation.