[HSVTiger]

This will be a critical hire to help address Huntsville primitive road system, poorly planned retail centers and overall lack of good design in the city.
Some of the 14 committee choices may have too much of conflicting interest
in any planning that would change things for the good.

Huntsville officials are preparing to scour the United States for a "visionary" to become the city's first manager of urban and long-range planning.
Mayor Tommy Battle said he is looking for a creative thinker who can figure out the best ways to improve aging neighborhoods, reawaken downtown, develop thousands of acres of Limestone County farmland and keep traffic flowing smoothly -- while making sure those plans are understood and embraced by city residents.
"This is an essential position for our future growth," Battle said Monday. "We have a planning department with some great people in it, but they're too caught up with day-to-day activities to step back and look at where we need to be five years, 10 years, 15 years from now."
The job opening will be advertised through the American Planning Association, the Congress for New Urbanism, Urban Land Institute, Progressive Planning magazine and several other trade journals and websites.
Officials also want to get the word out in cities with good urban planning reputations: Nashville; Raleigh, N.C., Austin, Texas; and Seattle.
While the ads won't appear for a few more days, Director of Urban Development Shane Davis said he has already received "a few e-mails."
Battle mentioned the urban planner job during a Mayor's Institute on City Design workshop at Auburn University in mid-February.
Battle has appointed a 14-person selection committee to sift through resumes and winnow the field to about a half-dozen finalists who will be invited for interviews.
The committee includes Davis, city Economic Development Director Michelle Jordan, local architects Frank Nola and Paul Matheny, subdivision developer Louis Breland and two members of the Committee of 100 group of local business leaders -- Randy Schrimsher and Donna Lamb.

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