Ypsilanti hires new city planner

By Christine Laughren
Feb. 5, 2010    ·    1:42 p.m.

The City of Ypsilanti will have a new city planner beginning Feb. 15.

Teresa Gillotti, Ypsilanti’s Michigan State University Extension planner, will replace City Planner Richard Murphy as he takes a new job with the Michigan Suburbs Alliance.

“It happened fairly quickly that Murph was offered a job from the Michigan Suburbs Alliance and had to quickly take it,” Gillotti said of the city planner position Thursday afternoon. “I officially start on the 15th, Murph’s last day is the 19th so I’ll have a week of overlap which will be good.”

Gillotti has been working in Ypsilanti, in her MSU Extension capacity, for approximately two years. April McGrath, administrative service director for the city, said Gillotti was a natural choice to fill the position.

“She’s already been working with us for the last couple years and she has stepped up to the occasion several times,” McGrath said this afternoon.

Gillotti has been instrumental in working with the Ypsilanti Downtown Development Authority and the City to spur economic development.

Although, she had a hard time rattling off the long list of items she has worked on, Gillotti said she has been involved in several alternative transportation projects and housing related projects. Gillotti has also been extremely active in the DDA as it made the transition to one 12-member board and continues the search for a new director.

In fact, Gillotti, who has a masters in planning from the University of Wisconsin, was the front-runner for the executive director position at the DDA, but decided not to take the position when offered the job as city planner.

McGrath said the City would be interviewing planning consultants to help with the transition and re-evaluating the city planner’s job description. She said Murphy took on a lot of extra work as City Hall reduced staff over the past couple years and some of that work could be delegated to another position or a new employee.

For his part, Murphy said he is putting together a list of items he has been working on over the past couple years.

“I’m trying to figure out what I’ve been doing that gets passed on to Teresa, what I’ve been doing that perhaps gets contracted out to someone else and what I’ve been working on that we could consider not doing,” he said Thursday.

Major projects to be handed over include Ypsilanti’s Water Street property and the Ann Arbor – Detroit Commuter Rail project.

Murphy said his new job, a policy research and advocacy position focused on urban transit development, is a newly created position in the MSA.

“I’ll be focused on transit development, what the tools are that we need to provide robust transit it Michigan, get that created at the state level and implemented at the local level,” he said.

Although he is moving on in his career, Murphy, who has a masters in planning from the University of Michigan, said he would still be an “Ypsilantian.”

“I’m part of my neighborhood association, part of the Frog Island [Community] Garden, and I can’t expect not being appointed to some board or another eventually.”

Murphy also said he would most likely be working with the City in the coming months as the Ann Arbor – Detroit Commuter Rail project rolls forward.

McGrath and Gillotti said they were sad to see Murphy go and many community members have thanked and congratulated him on the local blog MarkMaynard.com

Murphy begins his new job at MSA Feb. 22.