He has been a summer intern with the Pinehurst Planning Department.
The 22-year-old Ferrari is preparing for a career in urban planning and is about to complete his undergraduate degree at Appalachian State University. One of the requirements is completing 400 hours of work with a government planning and inspection department. He expects to enter Hunter College in New York next year to work on his master’s degree.
“It’s been very enjoyable,” he said. “I’ve learned a lot with the planning and zoning department this summer, although I was unpaid.”
After completing his 400 hours, Ferrari spent most of August vacationing on the coast of New England.
Ferrari is a 2002 graduate of Pinecrest High School and attended Sandhills Community College before transferring to Appalachian State University in Boone.
One thing that surprised him about working in a real planning department was “the political side” of it.
He hit the ground running by working in the area of code enforcement during the time leading up to and during the 2005 U.S. Open in June.
“We have been so busy before, it’s like a luxury to have the help of this intern,” said Pinehurst Planning Director Andrea Correll.
Ferrari is the second summer intern the village has had in the planning department. Michael Angstreich, also a Pinecrest graduate, was the first in 2004.
Correll, who became Pinehurst planning director in 2000, said she likes to give students who are majoring in planning an opportunity to learn what it’s like to actually work in the field.
Ferrari worked closely with Planner Bruce Gould, helping with the logistics and arrangements needed to do a series of public input sessions and surveys as part of a master plan for the New Core service district, a 19-block area with a hodge-podge of uses near the center of the old town section.
The village hired an outside consultant, Raybould Associates of Raleigh, to develop the master plan for that area. The final plan should be finished in October. It will be presented to a steering committee and then to the Village Council for adoption.
There were some routine duties, such as moving chairs around for meetings. He also helped verify addresses on homes and businesses to help emergency responders such as police, fire and rescue. He said he was able to “walk around neighborhoods, making sure the addresses the county had were the same numbers on the buildings.”
“I was a lot more involved than I thought I’d be with the U.S. Open,” Ferrari said.
He rode around with staff members who made sure the strict parking ordinances and related traffic control measures, as well as other restrictions related to the Open, were followed.
He actually used a tape measure to make sure privately owned vehicles or other things weren’t parked or intruding into the public right of way. He learned about a myriad of rules and regulations the village’s detailed and complex ordinances provide.
“Code enforcement was the most fun I had,” he said. “Interacting with people in the community who walk into the office or call, and the sessions with the public that we’ve had in the New Core planning process really appeals to me.”
He said he also enjoyed sitting in the audience at some Village Council and Planning and Zoning Board meetings.
Ferrari had to take notes during the meetings on projects that usually required detailed and exhaustive follow-up.
Appearance and architectural issues take up much of the time for staff members involved in code enforcement, he said. The village also has an active volunteer Community Appearance Commission as well as the advisory Planning and Zoning Board.
“Each day is different at the planning department,” Ferrari said.
Ferrari said most of the people “are easy to get along with,” and that he never had any unpleasant experiences with the public.
Angel Smith, the village’s code enforcement officer, said Ferrari has been a big help to her this summer. She said she has been able to catch up on a lot of her paperwork.
Smith usually runs around investigating complaint calls when she isn’t notifying people who are violating the ordinance. The village is required to send several notices to violators before it can take legal action such as levying fines.
Ferrari is an only child. His father took him on trips to the Northeast to buy antiques for their family business.
“I have a bunch of relatives in Westport (Conn.),” he said, so he doesn’t expect to feel homesick when he moves to New York to pursue his master’s degree in urban planning this winter.
He’s been earning some money for several years with his own yellow New York taxicab, a 1987 Chevrolet Caprice that displays the fares on its door in black paint and has a meter.
Ferrari says his taxi service is successful. He said he emphasizes reliability and efficiency.
“Some people complain that they’re ripped off by taxis, so I use the meter,” he said.
One of his most unusual calls was to take several dancers to work at Pure Gold in Southern Pines.
He’s probably put a good 30,000 miles on the taxi during his summer with the Pinehurst Planning and Inspection Department, driving around doing code enforcement checking and other duties.
Sara Lindau can be reached at 693-2473 or by e-mail at slindau@thepilot.com.
