Planning director could be on board by March
By John Barnhart

Bedford Bulletin
Jan 18.2006

Bedford County should have a Director of Community Planning by March 1, according to County Administrator Kathleen Guzi.

Building inspection, erosion and sediment control, storm water control, zoning, planning and the geographic information system will become divisions within this new department. Currently the departments in charge of these areas, along with all others, report directly to Guzi. Once on board, the new community planning director will report to Guzi on behalf of those departments. This, according to Guzi, will help keep planning separate from dealing with current development.
 

"It'll give more importance to the planning process," Guzi said.

According to Guzi, so much development is going on that county staff do not do enough planning. Day-to-day operations end up taking center stage and planning gets pushed aside.

The planning director will be able to make sure that all the functions are working together, rather than at cross purposes with each other. He will also be able to make sure that all the divisions know about a change in any one area, and how it affects the others.

Development is reactive to county staff. It's what's currently occurring and the county government's staff must react to it.

"Planning enables you to be proactive," Guzi said.

Guzi said when she was first appointed interim county administrator after her predecessor Bill Rolfe left for Orange County a year ago, she started looking closely at the development process. Soon after she was appointed county administrator, she got all the department heads together to look at what the county does well, and what needed improvement.

"We came to the conclusion that growth issues are our number one issue," she said.

That's what sparked the idea that a community planning director was needed.

Guzi was able to rearrange existing positions and the Board of Supervisors authorized the new department head last fall. She posted advertisements for it in publications of the Virginia Municipal League and the Virginia Association of Counties. A notice was also posted on the county's Web site.

The county received 25 applications for the position, the majority of which came from within Virginia. Guzi said they are currently working to develop a short list of between four and six candidates to call in for interviews. The position's pay grade has a salary of between $52,827 and $81,882. Where the new community planning director falls within that range will depend on experience.

According to Guzi, putting all the interrelated functions under one department head dedicated to planning will make it possible to do long range planning.

"I do think that this will streamline county operations," Guzi commented.