Longtime Planning Director Jason Pezzullo will be leaving his position after about 19 years working in the Planning Department. He will be moving to a new role in Pawtucket as that city’s …
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Longtime Planning Director Jason Pezzullo will be leaving his position after about 19 years working in the Planning Department. He will be moving to a new role in Pawtucket as that city’s commerce director.
Pezzullo started work in Cranston’s Planning Department in November 2005 and worked his way up until he became planning director in 2018, succeeding Peter LaPolla.
Soon after he became director, Pezzullo said he had to rebuild the department because of a lot of retirements. He describes it as the “Cranston Family Tree,” an adventure of hiring great people who have also moved on and gone on to do great things but have remained friendly with the department and its employees.
“I put a new team together in Cranston and they're all very good, Pezzullo said. “And I'm sad to leave them, but they'll be fine. The city's in good shape, they're very capable and great people.”
For Pezzullo, it’s a bittersweet feeling to be leaving. He’s been in the Planning Department for nearly 20 years; a long stretch for anybody in this era, he says.
“I have a lot of great memories there; it's been pretty positive,” Pezzullo said. “But the time had come to do something different and that's what I'm moving on to. So I'm excited for that.”
Looking back, Pezzullo said he is proud of projects such as The Legion Bowl on Park Avenue, Cranston Printworks and Knight’s Crossing as ongoing and Chapel View and parts of Garden City as completed.
“We've done lots of small projects that might not mean much to people in the bigger sense, but a lot of infill development, smaller houses, starter homes and things like that,” Pezzullo said. “They don't mean much to many people, but that's someone's home, that's their everything.”
Pezzullo’s departure will leave a gap in institutional knowledge, as he had worked in the city’s Planning Department for almost two decades.
“Throughout Jason's career, the city can attribute many of his accomplishments as a result of his knowledge, experience and dedicated service to the city,” Mayor Kenneth Hopkins said. “His talents will be missed, and I wish him the very best of success that he deserves as he progresses his career.”
The city’s newly elected Planning Commission president and chairman Steve Frias also offered words of praise about Pezzullo and acknowledged his work as director.
“Mr. Pezzullo was a wealth of institutional knowledge, and we appreciated his efforts and recognized him at the last meeting, and wish him the best in Pawtucket,” Frias said.
As for the future of the position, the mayor’s chief of staff, Anthony Moretti, says the city is working with the Planning Commission in filling the job. He said both departments are getting ready to advertise the position and the job posting is in the works.
“There is no imminent deadline for recruiting the best candidate,” Moretti said. “But we certainly wish to fill the position as soon as possible.”
Beth Ashman is the assistant city planning director and according to Pezzullo, by default she will become the interim director.
“She's definitely the most senior person in the office in terms of her overall experience,” Pezzullo said. “So, I would assume that that's how it's going to play out. But the city would be well served to have her in that role for however long it takes.”
Moretti says the intent is to recruit for the position at the budgeted salary, which the fiscal year 2025 budget lists at $95,081.
Looking ahead, Frias says, the department will be focusing on whether to make changes to its recently adopted comprehensive plan.
“I expect our comprehensive plan will continue to recognize that Cranston is a suburban community that will continue to provide a variety of lifestyle choices for its residents in urban, suburban and rural settings,” Frias said.
Pezzullo said that phase two of the comprehensive plan will be the biggest focus, front and center for the planning department.
“Phase one was an update, and phase two is going to be a rewrite,” Pezzullo said. “That's where there's going to be much more broad public input given to the commission about goals, policies and actions. That's going to be a very heavy lift.”
Looking back on his time as planning director, Pezzullo said a lesson he has learned is that although the director is supposed to be apolitical, a lot of the work brought before the department is political.
“A lot of what we do is apolitical, [and] we're not supposed to be political for what we do,” Pezzullo said. “We're supposed to be very bureaucratic. Someone in this position has to recognize and be able to swim in those waters. And you have to understand politics but not be political.”
As a word of advice for the next director, Pezzullo had some simple and straightforward words, “Stick to your training and follow the law and things should work out.”
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