Dennis Madsen
TESTIMONIAL
Dennis Madsen
Manager of Urban and Long-Range Planning
City of Huntsville
dennis.madsen@huntsvilleal.gov
Q: Where do you live?
I live on Monte Sano. No one in Colorado would call it a “mountain”, but it’s what passes for one around here. It’s a small neighborhood that is surrounded by several thousand acres of State Park Land and Land Trust property, but it’s also only a 10-minute drive to Downtown.
Q: Where are you from and how did you get to the Redstone region?
All my family are from the suburban Boston area, and I was born in Massachusetts. I was an itinerant “corporate brat”: my mom moved us around the Midwest a good bit for work. We lived in Indiana, Illinois and Minnesota, though I eventually returned to New England for college. I found my way south when I attended grad school at Georgia Tech (go Jackets!) to study architecture, and it was during my time in Atlanta when I met my future wife.
Between architecture school and working for design firms, I spent almost two decades in Atlanta, which meant that I’ve lived in the South more than I’ve lived anyplace else. While we enjoyed Atlanta very much, my wife was originally from Huntsville and, after we had our son, she was keen to return. In 2012, the City posted for the Planner position, and we took the opportunity to relocate back to her hometown. We’ve been here since 2013 and haven’t looked back.
Q: If you raised/are raising kids, please share about their education experience:
I am a very strong supporter of public schooling. In fact, when we started our son’s educational journey in Atlanta, I got involved with the PTSA at the local elementary school two years before he was eligible to enroll. One of the many attractions of Huntsville was knowing that we could find housing we could afford in a desirable school zone. In fact, my wife is a product of Huntsville City Schools – Jones Valley Elementary, Huntsville Middle, Huntsville High (I won’t tell you what class).
We enrolled our son Adlai in Pre-K at Monte Sano Elementary, and then transferred him to the Academy for Science and Foreign Language to start fourth grade. We wanted to take advantage of their expanded STEM offerings and their championship Future City program. To wrap up his local school career, he attended the STEM magnet New Century Technology High School, which has been far and away the best educational experience we’ve had. We’ve appreciated the variety of options that HCS has been able to provide for education.
Adlai graduated just last month, and is headed to another public school – Auburn University – this Fall. Thanks to the quality of instruction and depth of AP offerings at New Century, he’ll be taking almost two full semesters in credit with him.
Q: What is an ideal weekend for you?
We targeted the Monte Sano neighborhood because my whole family likes hiking and biking. I love being able to walk out my front door and have miles of trails right around the corner. And if we ever want to switch it up, there are Land Trust of North Alabama sites scattered all across the Huntsville metro, as well as a growing public greenway network.
Outside of recreation, my absolute favorite place in Huntsville is Lowe Mill. It’s one of the largest arts communities in the United States, and it occupies a massive historic cotton mill (which pushes my old architecture school buttons).
Q: What is one thing you would like Space Command personnel to know about the region?
After having spent 20 years in Atlanta, I really appreciate the pace of Huntsville. For the first year I lived here, I was half an hour early to everything. I soon learned it just doesn’t take that much time to get anywhere. And yet, there is still so much to do, among the recreation opportunities, parks, shows, restaurants… Plus, if you’re ever keen to visit Nashville or Atlanta, we’re a short drive away from both cities. It’s super easy to take advantage of major metro amenities without having to live day-to-day with big city headaches.