Planning Director Rollin Stanley Resigns
Known nationally for his smart-growth strategies, the planning director will be tough to replace, a county councilwoman said.
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Update (April 23, 2012): Rollin Stanley will leave his position as the director of the Montgomery County Planning Department to head the planning, development and assessment department of Calgary, Alberta.
Original post (April 19, 2012): Montgomery County Planning Director Rollin Stanley announced his resignation Thursday, reported Maryland Juice.
Stanley will leave his post in mid-May, The Gazette added.
"When asked about the matter, [Montgomery County] Planning Board member Casey Anderson stated simply: 'He got a fantastic offer. A much bigger job,' " Maryland Juice reported.
Anderson also provided details on Stanley's new position to Maryland Juice, saying, "It is a major city that has grown rapidly and is expected to continue growing fast. They want to announce his hiring themselves next week."
A county planning department spokeswoman confirmed to The Gazette that Stanley is leaving for another professional opportunity.
Stanley is known nationally for his "smart growth" approach to planning, about which he has written on his director's blog. But Stanley has also come under fire for controversial statements he used to describe his detractors, Patch reported.
In an interview with Bethesda Magazine, Stanley called some of his detractors "rich, white women" who spread fear about his initiatives. A group of activists asked him to publicly apologize, Patch reported.
Stanley later retracted his remarks.
Replacing Stanley will not be an easy task, said Montgomery County Councilwoman Nancy Floreen (D-At large) of Garrett Park, The Gazette reported.
"He's been a real visionary for the county," Floreen told The Gazette. "We need that kind of spirit and enthusiasm and new ideas to take Montgomery County forward. I wish the planning board luck in finding a replacement."
Read more about Stanley's resignation on The Gazette and on Maryland Juice.
What do you think of Stanley's decision to leave his post in Montgomery County? Where do you think he is headed? Tell us in the comments.
Timothy
5:29 pm on Thursday, April 19, 2012
Since you asked for speculation about where he's going, I'm going to guess he'll actually be moving to a LESS prestigious position. All this talk about how he's leaving to pursue a bigger opportunity strikes me as so much face-saving. My hunches:
1. population smaller than Montgomery County
2. land area smaller than Montgomery County
3. staff & budget smaller than Montgomery County
4. salary less than he's making now
I'm just not buying the idea that his move is completely unrelated to the recent controversy. Bet he was forced to issue his retraction and is leaving due to spite.
MocoLoco
5:42 pm on Thursday, April 19, 2012
That's really conspiratorial. Do you honestly believe that he could send out his resume, be interviewed and approved by a municipality and negotiate an employment contract, in that little time? His salary here was apparently $186,000. You don't walk away from that because a couple of critics pounce on something you said. I think people here will regret losing his drive and vision, and the county will even more so lose the fight with Virginia for business.
jag
7:52 pm on Thursday, April 19, 2012
My guess would be that A. yes, it's a "much bigger job," like the planning board member said (why would he lie?) and B. he had an open offer from the city/jurisdiction for awhile and decided now to take it because he reached his NIMBYism breaking point. Who can blame him? Hope all the people who called for his head over something so dumb are happy that he's now been poached and no longer will bother the ever-whining, loud, obnoxious, NIMBY minority.
Bubba
10:24 pm on Thursday, April 19, 2012
I'm no NIMBY person and I'm glad he's gone. His ideas were nothing special and I'm sure someone equally qualified will easily fill his shoes. His personality was his biggest fault. His total lack of diplomacy and disrespect for opposing opinions made him liability.
jag
11:16 pm on Thursday, April 19, 2012
What on earth does "His ideas were nothing special" mean? Did he invent smart growth? No. Has he done an excellent job helping to drag this county kicking and screaming into the 21st century? Yes. Hopefully he'll be adequately replaced and we continue to build on the successes of Bethesda and downtown Silver Spring and the current redevelopment and sector plans set up for White Flint, Wheaton, and Kensington. If we can't, this county is toast. Lord knows DC and Arlington Co. "get it" and unfortunately Stanley was one of the few with influence in this county that actually understood these issues and had a viable vision for the county. Here's hoping he won't be missed.
Bubba
11:25 pm on Thursday, April 19, 2012
I think you're giving him way more credit than he deserves.
jag
11:50 pm on Thursday, April 19, 2012
Hope you're right!
The Big Egg
5:30 pm on Thursday, April 19, 2012
The Rich White Women of Chevy Chase must be thrilled!
Bubba
5:51 pm on Thursday, April 19, 2012
I never have his ideas to be all that bold. There is a general consensus for developing high density areas around transportation hubs. Rollins is just pushing the same ideas being pursued all around this country. He may have pushed the concept with more zeal than others, but there is nothing innovative about his ideas.
Bubba
5:52 pm on Thursday, April 19, 2012
Meant - I never have thought his ideas to be all that bold.
Malcom J
8:08 am on Friday, April 20, 2012
It's a great loss to the area. He's done a great deal to help bring Montgomery County from a 1950s mentality to one more attuned to the 21st Century.
B Allen
9:05 am on Friday, April 20, 2012
Good Riddence...he is not so smart. All he has done was take a concept "Agenda 21" and tried implementing it. Well, maybe he is smart because he got the idiots running MoCo to take it hook, line and sinker...but then again, those people from Leggett on down are not smart anyway...
Timothy
9:20 am on Friday, April 20, 2012
Rather than respond to the many points of view expressed, I'm going to expand on my original comment. If the new employer plans to announce next week, we should have a lot more info about which we can all respectfully disagree some more:
1. population: MoCo is closing in on a total population of 1,000,000
2. land area: depends on how you count the Ag Reserve and incorporated municipalities that largely do their own planning, like Rockville, etc.
3. staff and budget: 140 staff; the budget figure depends on how you count
4. salary: he makes $185,662 per year, according to the Wash Post
Remember, the official who knows called this a "major city". When the name comes out, let's see if your first reaction agrees with that description. Thank you.
Zinzindor
1:32 pm on Friday, April 20, 2012
jag certainly captures the problem with Stanley very well. He had to "drag this county kicking and screaming" into his planning vision, despite the "ever-whining, loud, obnoxious, NIMBY minority" and the "rich, white women" (read: educated and informed).
It really stinks when the peons don't want to have their lives, homes, neighborhoods, and wallets rearranged the way that the Planner wants them to be. Don't they all realize that he knows better than they do?
Commentous
8:47 am on Saturday, April 21, 2012
Doesn't that last paragraph describe the approach the Council just took for Wheaton's residents?
Corbin Dallas Multipass
3:17 pm on Friday, April 20, 2012
"He has little patience with dissenters. Stanley goes so far as to accuse them of being 'rich, white women ... spreading fear.' He says they stalk his appearances before community groups, sowing discord. He claims they refer to themselves as 'the coven.'"
Dude, seriously, if you can't plan out your words or plan to hire someone to plan them for you, then I dunno if you should be planning out a town.
Brigitta Mullican
9:03 am on Saturday, April 21, 2012
These dialogues are exactly what happens in every neighborhood. Most people I know don't want to get into these types of arguments/discussions. That is why they don't get involved and don't show up to meetings or public hearings. Once I hear criticisms I want to hear the other side of the argument. People are hired for their professional background, skills and knowledge. If I were Mr. Rollin and had to face what he has I would also go to a city who will appreciate his experience. I wish Mr. Rollin good luck.
B Allen
9:50 am on Saturday, April 21, 2012
If the county council and the county exec were not so free with the taxpayers dollars, i.e. spending millions on illegal aliens to come to MoCo and pay for them to be here, we would NOT have to keep building and building to increase the tax base. Lets face it, MoCo and MD as a whole is NOT business friendly (just look at the polls taken with CEO's around the country, MD is at the bottom as being considered business friendly), so that tax base is going away, slowly but surely. Get rid of the TAX and Spend, Tax and Spend MORE mental midgets in the county governemnt and we will ALL be better off.
art slesinger
11:33 am on Sunday, April 22, 2012
The problem Mr. Stanley presented was he did not grasp the difference between smart growth and too much growth. We don't have nor can afford the infrastucture to jam as many people as the developers and politicans desire to shoehorn into our county. We need to learn to live on less or we will become a bloated urban wasteland.
Timothy
12:39 pm on Monday, April 23, 2012
And the winner/loser is.....Calgary. Okay, let's hearthe sales pitch that this is really a move up, etc.
jag
1:22 pm on Monday, April 23, 2012
You seriously think MoCo is on the level as the city of Calgary? I think the redevelopment of White Flint is as important as anyone, but come on. Your guess was dead wrong - who cares. Good for Stanley and I wish him success in the big leagues.
Timothy
3:25 pm on Monday, April 23, 2012
No, jag, I don't think MoCo is one the same level as the city of Calgary. It's higher. Are there any objective criteria you'd like to cite, or should we just agree to disagree?
jag
3:44 pm on Monday, April 23, 2012
You already outlined the objective criteria and Calgary wins on all or most all of them (I don't know how much he's getting paid), so I'm not sure what you're asking for. If you don't know much about Calgary's size, density, etc. then feel free to research it. Their planning department is 5x the size of MoCo's - we're not even talking about apples to apples. I enjoying and prefer to live in MoCo v. Calgary, too (which is I guess what you mean by MoCo being on a higher level?), but as far as his job as a planning director obviously this is a huge promotion. Top tier city v. nice suburban county with a couple of pockets of development to oversee...I guess maybe we're talking about different things because it's about as clear-cut objective as life gets.
Timothy
4:16 pm on Monday, April 23, 2012
Not so fast there, jag. Calgary's land area is slightly more than half that of MoCo, and each has a population of approximately 1 million. As for your contention that Calgary's planning dept. is five times that of MoCo, I think you are jumping to a conclusion. Maybe you could explain why it would take five times as many people to do the job in Canada? Let's see what factsthe other media sources have to report.
jag
4:42 pm on Monday, April 23, 2012
Right, it's a city. We live in a county (with an Ag. Reserve, rural areas, etc.). Of course the city of Calgary is a smaller land area than MoCo. So is New York City - what's your point? Think running the planning department for Idaho is better because it has a bigger land mass? Of course not. Why would you think that means anything in the context of being a planning director?
"Maybe you could explain why it would take five times as many people to do the job in Canada?"
We're talking about the CITY of Calgary. Of course there's a bigger planning department staff than for the suburban COUNTY of Montgomery. Calgary looks like this, in case that's the confusion: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Calgary_panorama-2.jpg
I trust you can imagine why the planning that goes into that is more complex than what we find in MoCo.
This is such a weird conversation. I don't think I've ever gone back and forth about something so blatantly obvious. I guess his opinion of it being a much better position is all that matters. Best to him. Best to you too; I'm not opening any more Patch emails - they're killing my productivity! Cheers.
Timothy
5:09 pm on Monday, April 23, 2012
jag, One of the problems with your reasoning is that it is based on assumptions. The planning department for Calgary simply ISN'T five times the size MoCo's. I invite you and anyone else to go to the website for the city of Calgary and check it out for yourself. If all of your contentions are so factually unsupported, then......
Brian
5:27 pm on Monday, April 23, 2012
It is being reported in the Washington Post and elsewhere that he will head a department of over 800 people. Not sure where that information is coming from but it seems relevant to this conversation.
Brian
6:03 pm on Monday, April 23, 2012
Per the 2012 - 2014 budget posted on the Calgary website it projects 755.2 full time employees in the department and a total budget of $34.4 million for 2012.
http://www.calgary.ca/CA/fs/Documents/Plans-Budgets-and-Financial-Reports/Business-Plans-and-Budgets-2012-2014/Approved/Business-Plans-Budgets-2012-2014-Approved-PDA.pdf
The Big Egg
12:45 pm on Monday, April 23, 2012
Calgary has over a million people and has hosted the Olympics. If Montgomery County had a shot at hosting the Olympics, it would pss away its chances and lose out to Northern Virginia.
The Big Egg
12:46 pm on Monday, April 23, 2012
Oh, and here's a blurb from Wikipedia: "The economic boom and rapid growth recently experienced in Calgary has led to issues such as urban sprawl and an infrastructure backlog. With no geographical barriers to its growth besides the Tsuu T'ina First Nation, the city has seen suburbs spread increasingly further out at an accelerated rate. This has led to difficulties in providing necessary transportation infrastructure to Calgary's population."
We should be so lucky to have economic growth here.
Timothy
1:02 pm on Monday, April 23, 2012
Gee, I read the Wikipedia stuff, too. Sounds like it was written by the Chamber of Commerce. And please keep in mind that Mr. Stanley has been hired by the city of Calgary. He won't be overseeing the planning of the suburbs.
Bubba
3:58 pm on Monday, April 23, 2012
Not that I give a flying one way or another because I could care less where he went. But, most of Calgary lives within the city limits.
ED
8:11 pm on Monday, April 23, 2012
You want to read something really interesting - check out the Wikipedia sites for population densities in various cities. The Town of Kensington currently has a population density of 3,668.6/sq. mile while Calgary has a population density of 3,442/sq. mile. I wonder how many rats can be put in a cage before they start killing each other! I hope Mr. Stanley finishes his anger management classes before he has to deal with the Federation of Communities in Cowtown.
Laura L Thornton
8:35 pm on Monday, April 23, 2012
The 800-employee count for the Calgary planning department was stated in a Montgomery County Planning Department press release.
ED
7:25 am on Tuesday, April 24, 2012
Calgary has a different governmental structure than Montgomery County. According to this morning's Washington Post, Stanley will not only manage a planning department, he will also manage tax assessments and permitting.
tfm
11:51 am on Tuesday, April 24, 2012
Exactly - whoever looked up the org chart for the Planning Dept should have k\looked at the entire organizational structure that Mr. Stanley will oversee. And as for Calgary's rapid growth - it's mostly oil and gas and the technology that surrounds it - sold on world markets at world prices. In other words, the city and it home province are rolling in dough.