Dallas Native Tasked With Addressing Housing Needs

CARLSBAD >> Signaling the dire need for housing, the Carlsbad Department of Development (CDOD) has hired a new employee with additional funds from the city strictly to attract builders to the area.

Shannon Summers was added to the CDOD staff to complement Executive Director John Waters and Jeff Campbell, the director of marketing and business development, in their mission of growing Carlsbad.

The 27-year-old Summers said that it "wasn't a secret" the lack of affordable housing in and around Carlsbad has impeded large economic growth, but that she is excited to begin the position and sell the area's natural beauty to prospective developers.

"It's a big chicken and the egg problem but (my job) is really going to be showing people why Carlsbad is so great," Summers said. "If I'm a big city person and I've fallen in love with this area, I can't see why somebody wouldn't want to build here, especially with as much potential as we have. That's just something that I'm going to have to show them."

Summers graduated in 2010 from the University of North Texas with a bachelor's degree in communications studies. She worked at Southern Enterprises in Dallas and worked her way up to the company's communications manager before leaving for New Mexico.

Summers began working for the CDOD on July 21 and has already begun tapping into her existing network to try and alleviate Carlsbad's conundrum. She has begun dialogues with some of the Dallas business journals to encourage workers to journey to Carlsbad, and has also begun trying to lure homebuilders from Denver to the area.

"I think that I'm coming here to help them (Waters and Campbell) because they have so much on their plates already that it's difficult for them to (focus on) all the areas in the department," Summers said.