A Clifton Park resident will serve as the town’s new director of planning. The Clifton Park Town Board voted unanimously Monday, April 7, to appoint John Scavo to fill the vacant position.
The position opened when former planning director Kate Maynard resigned in March.
Maynard, who worked as the town’s planning director for more than a year, left to be the director of planning for the Town of Wilton.
Scavo, 43, who lives on Rosewood Drive with his wife and son, said he is looking forward to working with the residents of his town.
No one knows the community more than the people who live in it, Scavo said.
`I am very pleased that the Town Board has appointed John to the director of planning role,` said Planning Board Chairman Steve Bulger. `John’s strong qualifications and experience were very apparent during the interview process, and I know that myself and the other Planning Board members really look forward to working with him as we move ahead.`
Scavo worked for the Laberge Group in Albany, a planning, engineering, architecture and surveying firm that provides consulting services to several clients, where he was a senior economic developer and senior planner.
He said one of his main goals as director of planning is to secure funding for projects.
Scavo said planning for implementation is important and although it is easy to develop a project, funding is necessary to ensure the project will be completed.
He has been integral in securing grant funding for several municipalities, including South Glens Falls, where he secured micro-enterprise business loans for new businesses with five or fewer employees.
Scavo lived in Cohoes, where he was a city planner, before moving to Clifton Park. As city planner, Scavo worked on revamping the city’s image so that developers would want to build there, he said.
`To make decisions effectively, you have to live in a community,` Scavo said.
In Cohoes, he said, there were several absentee landlords who were not properly caring for their properties so he reached out to them to work on revitalizing the city. He said the city revisited its town code and made it the enforcement tool it needed to be.
`Many issues communities face are not unique,` he said. `I will never put blinders on.`
Scavo said that 40 percent of planning projects are regulatory and 60 percent of the projects are securing funding for the project.
He said he has to look at the decisions not only from a planning perspective, but also from a resident’s perspective because his decisions could affect his town as well.
`Given his background, he should be able to hit the ground running in what is a critical position at Town Hall,` Bulger said.
Scavo said he is excited about some of the town’s projects, especially the Dwaas Kill transfer development rights and the town’s open space preservation efforts. He also said he is impressed by the town’s commitment to open government most recently their effort to offer video stream of the Town Board meetings.
He received a bachelor’s degree in sociology from SUNY Cortland.
He will be paid $65,000 annually.
The Planning Board is interviewing candidates for the open assistant director of planning, but resumes are still being accepted for the position, according to Bulger.
The assistant director position opened when Janis Dean retired in February after 20 years with the department.
Interested candidates for the assistant director position may send their resumes to Michael Shahen, Town Administrator, One Town Hall Plaza, Clifton Park 12065.“