Politics & Government

St. Charles Seeks New City Planner

Current city planner David Gipson's last day with the city will be in January, but the city's announcement of his next job was apparently premature.

may soon be looking for a new city Planning Manager.

The city's Director of Community Development Bruce Evans said during Monday's Planning and Zoning Commission meeting that David Gipson, who currently holds the position, is in the running for a job with the City of Richmond Heights as the Assistant City Manager.

When asked about the hiring Tuesday afternoon, Richmond Heights City Manager Amy Hamilton told Patch the city not was ready to make public its choice for the assistant city manager job.

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“We’ll be happy to make an announcement once we get to that point,” Hamilton said.

Gipson said Tuesday afternoon he had not yet received an offer from Richmond Heights and declined further comment.

Find out what's happening in St. Charleswith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Still, the St. Charles City Council on Tuesday night approved a request from Evans to fill the vacant planning manager position. According to the request, Gipson's last day with the city will be Jan. 6, 2012.

The city planning manager is responsible for administering flood plain regulations, supervising the planning division and preparing applications for the Planning and Zoning Commission.

Gipson has been with the city of St. Charles since 2004.

"He will not be easy to replace," Evans said. "He is in many respects my right-hand guy.... Our loss is their gain–I've told the (Richmond Heights) city administrator that."

Evans said Gipson has helped turn the planning division into an efficient branch of city government.

"Five planners for 66,000 people is not a large planning staff," Evans said. "They work hard, they do a great deal."

Gipson wrote the Green Point Rating System, which is one of the first in the area. He also revised the city zoning ordinance and updated the 2002 Comprehensive Plan for the city, the draft of which was introduced to the Planning and Zoning Commission on Monday.

Gipson said on Monday night he has had a great staff while he's worked at the city and thanks Evans for hiring him straight out of college.

"Everything I've learned to this point, I've learned from Bruce," he said.

Correction: An earlier version of this article incorrectly reported the city council's approval of the request to fill the vacant planning manager position.


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