Outgoing San Francisco Planning Director John Rahaim announced his departure in September. Rich Hillis will be the next to have the job.
"Mayor London Breed has appointed a longtime ally and former planning commissioner to head the planning department, an agency charged with shaping San Francisco development as the city’s housing crisis persists," reports J.K. Dineen in a paywalled article for the San Francisco Chronicle.
"The appointee, Rich Hillis, is the executive director at Fort Mason Center For Arts and Culture and has held several senior positions at the city’s Office of Economic and Workforce Development. He left the Planning Commission in September after seven years to become a candidate to lead the department," adds Dineen.
Hillis is succeeding John Rahaim, "who was appointed to the position in 2008 by then-mayor Gavin Newsom," according to a separate article by the San Francisco Examiner.
"In her statement, [Mayor] Breed emphasized the need to streamline the planning process to build more homes more quickly in San Francisco, echoing her newly announced ballot measure to streamline the creation of affordable housing in San Francisco, dubbed 'Affordable Homes Now,'" according to the Examiner.
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