Knoxville-Knox County Planning Executive Director Gerald Green has announced his resignation. Green has headed the planning commission (formerly called MPC) since 2015 and has brought major changes to the agency.
Green rebranded the agency, renovated the offices and reorganized internal processes to put more focus on customers and collaboration with partnering organizations and agencies, improved community outreach and engagement, improved communication between staff and public officials, and oversaw the update of the City of Knoxville’s zoning code (Recode Knoxville).
Green came to Knoxville from North Carolina where he had worked as director of the Jackson County Planning Department in Sylva. He was chief planner for the city of Asheville, N.C. for 13 years and owned a business that provided land use planning for seven years.
His bachelor’s degree is from Virginia Tech and his master’s degree in urban and regional planning is from the University of Tennessee. He also holds the AICP designation from the American Association of Planners. In Knoxville, he has served on the board of directors for the Muse of Knoxville.
“I greatly appreciate the opportunity to work for the citizens of Knoxville and Knox County and am proud of the accomplishments of the past 4 1/2 years,” Green wrote on the Planning Commission website. “With the assistance of an outstanding staff and the support of elected and appointed officials, we have improved the ability of Knoxville-Knox County Planning to achieve its mission of building a healthy, vibrant community.”
In his last few months on the job, Green will continue working closely with staff and the Stakeholder Advisory Committee on the city’s new zoning code and will help guide staff as they take on other projects, plans and studies. This will include the significant task of updating the Knox County General Plan. Mayors Indya Kincannon and Glenn Jacobs will form a search committee to find a successor between now and his last day on July 10.