City hires two new planning professionals City hires two new planning professionals (January 28, 2005)

Held senior posts in Sacramento, Walnut Creek
by Jeb Bing

Two new principal planners for Pleasanton's Planning Department have been hired to fill key positions recently vacated because of retirements. They were on their jobs yesterday.

Donna Decker, currently a Senior Planner for the city of Sacramento, was appointed Pleasanton's Principal Planner for Current Planning, replacing Jerry Iserson, who was named Director of Planning and Community Development last November. He succeeded longtime Planning Director Brian Swift, who retired last October.

At the same time, Janice Stern, now the Senior Long Range Planner for the city of Walnut Creek, was appointed Principal Planner for Advanced Planning, a position previously held by Wayne Rasmussen, who retired early from the Pleasanton post to start his own consulting business.

Stern's hiring comes at an opportune time for Pleasanton officials, who are currently considering major revisions as they update the city's 1996 General Plan. At Walnut Creek, Stern coordinated that city's 2003 General Plan update, as well as its Downtown Specific Plan and Housing Element update. Earlier, she was employed by the city of Fremont, where she managed its 1990 General Plan update and its Centerville Specific Plan, and provided staff support to the City's Historical Design Review Board.

A longtime resident of Pleasanton, Stern also has a private sector background, having worked previously for the consulting firm of Dyett & Bhatia, which provides urban planning services to municipalities. In that role, she served as a project manager on General Plans for the cities of Vacaville, Redlands, Corte Madera, Orinda and Salinas. She holds a master's in Urban Planning from UC Berkeley and a bachelor's degree from San Francisco State.

In her new position, Decker will be responsible for general land use planning, site inventory and analysis, general plan conformance and zoning compliance review, Iserson said. She has worked previously in the private sector for various engineering firms as either an assistant engineer, designer or architect. She holds a master's degree in Urban Planning from the University of Southern California and a bachelor's degree in Architecture from UC Berkeley, and has a state license as a Landscape Architect. A resident of Yuba City, she plans to relocate to the area shortly.

"I'm very pleased that both of these outstanding professionals are going to be part of the Planning Department in Pleasanton," Iserson said. "Both have considerable experience in planning, and they'll have ample opportunities to make significant contributions to our city."

Although officially retired, both former Planning Director Swift and former Principal Planner Rasmussen have been rehired on a specific project basis as consultants - Swift to help manage the General Plan update process, and Rasmussen to help in planning the development of the city's 318 acres of open space on the Bernal property.

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