Town hires land use planner
BY PETER B. BRACE
Planning Director Andrew Vorce hired a new land use planner last week to fill the position left vacant by Leslie Woodson when she took the senior planner job for the department on July 18, 2005.

Shaun Logue

Thirty-year-old Shaun Logue of Roxbury Crossing, Mass. will be on the job begining Nov. 13. His base salary will be $55,890.

Vorce said he chose Logue from 20 other applicants because of his background and his education, and that, in Vorce's judgment, Logue is going to be a good fit in the planning office and will enjoy living on Nantucket.

"His personality and his experience, and I guess understanding of what he'll be facing for the challenges of the job," said Vorce. "He did come out and meet the board members and attended one of our meetings."

After Vorce became Planning Director in May 2005 and Woodson ascended to her senior planner role, Vorce began the search for a new land use planner that eventually drew 30 applicants, but only two of these applicants impressed Vorce enough to hire one of them. However, both declined Vorce's job offering for other opportunities on the mainland, so he decided to wait until last spring to resume his search. Logue won the position because of his extensive education and experience.

Armed with a BA in Urban Planning and Studies and a Masters of Urban and Regional Planning from the University of New York at Albany, Logue's last job was environmental planner at the firm of Beals and Thomas, Inc. of Southborough, Mass. where he did environmental planning, civil engineering and design.

On Nantucket, the land use planner reviews all development applications for approval-not-required plans, subdivisions, cluster subdivisions, major residential and commercial developments and Zoning Board of Appeals applications, and is responsible for preparing and issuing oral and written reports and findings. This person must also possess data and statistics skills, perform specialized planning studies, preliminary analysis of impacts and regulatory compliance, write reports, and create maps and related graphics.

The land use planner works in concert with the planning director, senior planner, other staff and works with other town board and community groups as necessary.

Logue feels he can more than handle this workload and is excited about moving to Nantucket

"A land use planner, I feel it's very important that I fulfill a number of roles," said Logue. "As opposed to working in one single field, I get to touch on all sides of the planning field.

"I went there in the summertime and I was riding my bike around, and I absolutely fell in love with the place. It's a place I can see myself becoming a part of the community."

Naturally, Vorce and Woodson will feed off of Logue's enthusiasm, as they are more than happy to have a full staff once again, allowing Woodson to join Vorce in the continuing work on the 41-81D Master Plan.

"This position is the principal staff person to the Planning Board and now that he's here, both mine and Leslie's time can be used for non-routine duties such as secondary dwellings and ANRs [approval-notrequired] - it's very time-consuming," said Vorce. "I can now shift a lot of Leslie's time into the 41-81D and depending on the outcome of the Special Town Meeting, developing more of the articles we want to have for the annual Town Meeting."

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