Two recent appointments for new urbanists

Two recent appointments have placed advocates of the New Urbanism in prominent planning jobs. Harriet Tregoning, director of urban and economic development at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has been picked by Maryland Governor Parris Glendening (D) to become the first Secretary of the Maryland Department of Planning. The department has recently been elevated to cabinet status. Tregoning’s main task will be the implementation of Gov. Glendening’s Smart Growth initiative, a program Tregoning calls the most exciting land use legislation in the last 20 years. “I consider it an honor to be asked by the governor,” she says. Planner Rick Bernhardt has returned to the public sector as Planning Director for Metropolitan Nashville-Davidson County in Tennessee. A former Director of Planning for Orlando, Florida, Bernhardt most recently headed the town planning office at the design firm EDAW. In Nashville, Bernhardt says, “we will seek to apply the principles of New Urbanism in a community that is seeking such application.”