Havre de Grace officials are shuffling responsibilities at the direction of the mayor and City Council, creating a separate department for planning the city?s increasing development.
Resolutions introduced by the City Council Monday divided the responsibilities of the Department of Economic Development and Planning to create a department solely responsible for reviewing new developments, issuing building permits and conducting building inspections, City Administrator Jim Newby said.
Under the old system, the same person responsible for attracting and developing businesses in the interest of economic development could run into conflicts when making sure the new businesses conformed to the city?s development regulations, Mayor Wayne Dougherty said.
“The same guy who tried to talk [a business owner] into coming to the city would have to say ?you can?t do this; you can?t do that,? ” Dougherty said. “And you had an individual who was focusing on two different areas.”
Economic development ? attracting businesses, drawing tourism and providing support to business ? now will fall under the director of administration.
Without the occasionally divergent goals of the planning department, the economic development office can work more closely with the city?s tourism office and chamber of commerce, Dougherty said.
“It lets us have better communication between us, so we can communicate with our citizens better,” Newby said.
Dougherty said the new arrangement would help the city better deal with growth and development. Harford County is expected to gain more than 6,500 new households by 2011 as the result of growth at Aberdeen Proving Ground, and Havre de Grace lies within the “development envelope” where county planners want to steer that growth.
