Tiverton’s town planner resigned in June 2022, and it’s a job that still remains vacant more than three years later.
It’s a glaring gap as the town, like municipalities throughout the state, reckons with complex zoning ordinances, a housing crisis and other constantly evolving infrastructure needs, says William Gerlach, chairman of the town’s Planning Board.
“Tiverton faces unprecedented pressure from development as we strive to balance challenging – and sometimes competing – needs across economic growth, affordable housing and preserving the aspects that make our community unique,” Gerlach told Providence Business News via email recently.
The town has a part-time, contracted planner and administrative officer who does excellent work, Gerlach says. But while the contractor relieves some pressure, the need for a full-time planner can’t be ignored.
“The influx of development applications makes it difficult to stay ahead of everything,” Gerlach said. “It’s hard to shift from constantly reacting to being proactive.”
It’s not just Tiverton facing this challenge: In Warren, the town planner position has been vacant for a year, which has thrown a wrench in the municipality’s nationally recognized climate resiliency efforts. The flooding that vexes area residents and businesses, meanwhile, isn’t taking a break.
Other communities only have a part-time planner.
Those involved in city and town planning say there are unfilled openings because fewer people are entering the field.
And it’s a theme that echoes beyond the Ocean State, and even internationally.
Sue Schwartz, president of the American Planning Association, recalls that when she landed her first planning role in 1987, she was one of around 300 candidates competing for the position. Schwartz remains in that same role in Greensboro, N.C., today.
But the hiring landscape has changed drastically. When the department posted its most recent opening, Schwartz says, just nine people applied. Schwartz expects this shortage to only intensify over the next few years.
The field lacks formal data on this scarcity, Schwartz says, but planning officials are telling the same story anecdotally when it comes to the shortage and its driving influences. For one, public-sector salaries that can’t keep up with the cost of living often push qualified individuals to forgo municipal positions for the private sector.
And it’s not just about the money. With zoning proposals often subject to intense scrutiny, planning professionals are wary and burnt out, which can prompt them to seek private-sector roles.
“The feedback we get is there’s only so much tolerance, or a lack of civility and aggression that can happen even at the local level in planning issues,” Schwartz said.
There’s also a lack of awareness about planning as a career, Schwartz notes. While people know the basic responsibilities of a doctor, lawyer or accountant, few realize what a planner does on a daily basis.
Rhode Island largely reflects these national challenges, says Scott Wolf, executive director of Grow Smart Rhode Island and a member of the R.I. State Planning Council.
“Some planners are understandably experiencing burnout because the demands on them in Rhode Island have increased in recent years with the passage of a lot of land-use reform legislation,” Wolf said.
The legislative changes are generally supported by Grow Smart, which focuses on improving quality of life and economic vitality through neighborhood revitalization and environmental stewardship. But most planning departments haven’t increased their staff sizes accordingly. Smaller communities in particular sometimes can’t even afford a full-time planner, Wolf says, or they manage with just one full-time planning professional.
Planning boards, meanwhile, can’t shoulder the responsibility alone. These municipal bodies are often composed of volunteers, Wolf says, acting somewhat like a nonprofit board without an executive director to guide them.
Meanwhile, Rhode Island lacks an in-state master’s degree program in community planning, Wolf says – not the only pathway to a planning career but a significant stepping stone.
“We kind of have a perfect storm of forces that are contributing to the shortage,” he said.
The state has made some efforts to close the gap, Wolf says, such as a housing-focused municipal fellows program, which provides temporary staff to some municipalities. Still, it’s just one piece of the puzzle.
Some communities are struggling to develop comprehensive plans – voluminous guidelines for future growth and development that are legally required to be reviewed and updated every decade.
And with a massive workload to reckon with, planners may “lack the bandwidth to think creatively about development and redevelopment, and get bogged down in trying to handle ... project proposals and zoning variance requests,” Wolf said.
And “it’s not just an abstract trend,” Wolf said. “It has real-world, negative consequences for positive housing, community and economic development.”
While the shortage extends beyond Rhode Island, Schwartz says she doesn’t commonly hear about planning roles remaining vacant for a year or more, as some Rhode Island communities have experienced.
“I wish those communities that are struggling to scope out the best, and [that they will] hopefully find some strategies that work for them,” Schwartz said, “because [communities] need their planners. A lot is changing around us every day, and they need them.”
Indeed, back in Tiverton, Gerlach hopes to see this realization sooner rather than later.
“Community leaders and citizens need to recognize that having highly experienced planners on staff is an investment in the long-term vitality and vibrancy of special communities like ours,” he said.
