By By MIKE VOSS
Contributing Editor
The City of Washington didn’t have to look far to find a new director of planning and community development — he was at City Hall.
John Rodman replaces Bobby Roberson as the director of the city’s Planning and Community Development Department. Roberson retired earlier this year.
Rodman’s promotion was announced by City Manager James C. Smith. Rodman was selected from a pool of approximately 50 applicants. The selection process used to pick the new director included resume reviews, telephone interviews and an extensive assessment center in which city managers, planners and human-resource directors from other local governments in the area. Area business leaders and community leaders participated in the selection process.
Rodman, who has a bachelor’s degree in urban and regional planning from East Carolina University, is a graduate of Washington High School. Previously, he served as planning director for Beaufort County from 1992 until 2001, when he became Washington’s planning administrator.
“John was selected because he has a good background in planning theory and because he has many years of experience with Beaufort County and Washington, which gives him a good perspective,” Smith said in a brief interview Friday.
Smith said he expects Rodman to combine his experience and that perspective to help guide the city as it strives to grow and develop in a manner that benefits the city and its residents.
“I think my biggest challenge is changing the Planning Department from being reactive to more proactive,” Rodman said in an interview Friday.
One looming, major development-related issue Rodman faces now that he’s in charge of the Planning and Community Development Department is the revitalization strategy developed recently for the city’s waterfront/downtown area. The strategy is the result of an effort led by Citizens for Revitalization, a group charged by the city with cobbling the strategy.
“Now, we’ve got to try to figure out how we’re going to implement it,” Rodman said of the strategy.
Another challenge the city faces is finding ways to get “folks from the bypass into Washington,” Rodman said, referring to the U.S. Highway 17 bypass at Washington, which is nearing completion. Rodman said there’s no doubt the bypass will reduce the amount of traffic coming through Washington’s core business area.
Bringing traffic from the bypass, once it’s open, into the city’s major business areas is vital to improving the city’s economy, Rodman said. Providing attractive gateways into the city, whether those gateways be along the bypass or elsewhere, will help induce motorists to stop in Washington and see what it has to offer, he said.
The new planning director also said it’s time to update the city’s zoning ordinances, which last underwent a major update in 1996.
“Some of our ordinances are a little dated,” Rodman said.
Modifications of the city’s zoning ordinances need to be made to reflect changes in development-related regulations and philosophies, Rodman said.