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.
Read the full story: Meet the planning chief Mayor Breed tapped to shape SF development and build 50,000 homes
Crises and Innovation Converge on San Francisco Planning Director John Rahaim's Watch
The latest installment of the Planners Across America series interviews John Rahaim, planning director for the City and County of San Francisco, about the heightened passions and perpetual controversies of planning in the City by the Bay.
San Francisco Plans for 82,000 New Housing Units
California housing regulators have granted preliminary approval for the city of San Francisco’s housing element as mandated by the state’s Regional Housing Needs Allocation process.
L.A. Planning Department Adjusts to State Housing Laws
Los Angeles Director of Planning Vince Bertoni was recently interviewed the effects of new state planning and housing laws in the state’s most populous city.
Planetizen Federal Action Tracker
A weekly monitor of how Trump’s orders and actions are impacting planners and planning in America.
California plans to bury El Niño’s downpour
If the state plays its cards right, it may be able to store a billion acre-feet of El Niño’s water in aquifers.
Desperate measures: Advocates weigh draining Lake Powell to fill Colorado River
Draining the reservoir could reduce evaporation losses by a couple hundred thousand acre-feet.
US buildings threatened, destroyed by fires set to triple by 2060
Researchers found a high fire risk for socioeconomically vulnerable neighborhoods in the American West.
LA residents may be allowed to paint their own crosswalks
Councilwoman Katy Yaroslavsky put out a motion instructing the Los Angeles Department of Public Transportation to study the feasibility of allowing volunteers to paint crosswalks.
Dallas moves to overhaul its zoning code
The city's zoning reform will allow more multi-family and mixed-use developments.
FREE Course: Walkable City 1: Why Walkability?
After describing his path towards focusing on walkability as the essence of good planning, Jeff Speck marches through his five principal reasons for making more walkable places.
Reinventing Malls: Planning Alchemy—Turning Gray Fields Into Gold
The course focuses on the opportunities and imperatives that shape reinvention of mall sites.
City of Rosemead
Rutgers University, Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy
One Hundred Miles
Hunter College, City University of New York (CUNY)
The Architects Foundation
University of Cincinnati Online
City of Cambridge
Montrose County
The Pocatello Development Authority