City Manager Eric Williams didn’t have to look long or far to find a new planning director for Henderson.
He has hired Erris Dunston from the Franklin County Planning and Zoning Department to lead the city’s Department of Planning and Community Development. She replaces Grace Smith, who resigned last month to take a lower-profile job in the city of Durham’s Planning Department.
Dunston is listed as a planning technician on Franklin County’s Web site, which lists her as part of the Planning and Development Department. Her first day as a Henderson employee will be Monday, June 27, when she will be introduced to the City Council at its 7:30 meeting that night.
“I am excited to welcome such an enthusiastic and well credentialed individual to the City’s management team,” Williams wrote in the e-mailed announcement about Dunston’s hiring. The announcement was received too late in the day to seek comments from Dunston.
Williams offered some details about the new planning director. She has lived in Franklin County since early childhood and has worked for the county since 1998. Her duties have included zoning administration, regulatory matters, site development reviews, inspections and citizen/developer assistance, in addition to extensive work with geographic information systems and planning applications. She’s a member of the Carolinas chapter of the Urban & Regional Information Systems Association.
She previously worked for two businesses involved in aerial photography and digital mapping and with a company specializing in soil testing.
Dunston holds a bachelor’s degree in geography from North Carolina Central University and has taken some graduate courses at N.C. Central.
She takes over a city department composed of longtime Henderson employees: zoning administrator Brownell Wright, community development specialist Gwen Wright, secretary Mary Helen Finch and Downtown Development Commission Executive Director Sheri Jones, who is largely autonomous.
Smith left after 10 years with the city, most of it as planning director, largely to get relief from increasing demands on her time, which took her away from her husband and child.
Smith was one of three department heads to resign within weeks of one another; the others are Finance Director Traig Neal and Human Resources Manager Mary Cephas. Nothing imminent is expected for those jobs.
The city also lacks directors for the Kerr Lake Regional Water System and for the Public Utilities Department but is not actively trying to fill those jobs.
Williams picked Dunston out of four candidates for planning director.
Among the issues and projects Dunston inherits are the controversial amortization ordinance for auto repair shops and junkyards; plans for the city to get more aggressive in enforcing minimum housing standards for rentals; and a still-unapproved application for a comprehensive Community Development Block Grant project on David Street.
Dunston is due to attend her first Planning Board meeting July 11. Williams and Assistant City Manager Mark Warren filled Smith’s role as adviser and director for the Planning Board during its June 6 meeting.