Katharine Lusk was hired as the first executive director of the Boston Planning Advisory Council, effectively kickstarting the work of a body created more than three months ago, through an executive order signed by Mayor Michelle Wu.
Lusk will make $150,000 at the helm of a committee of city department heads, brought together to help advise the mayor, as she works to carry out the sweeping planning and development changes announced this past January, in her State of the City address.
“I am delighted to be working with Katharine as we change the way we plan our city together, ensuring alignment among each division of our city to best plan for our future,” Chief of Planning Arthur Jemison said in a statement.
Wu, who announced the hire on Friday, said in a statement that Lusk’s “decades of experience across the public and private sectors and track record of creating new models for engagement and planning will be an important part of our work to ensure that Boston is a city for everyone.”
Prior to starting her new role on May 1, Lusk worked as co-director and founding executive director of the Boston University Initiative on Cities, an interdisciplinary urban research and policy center co-founded by the late Mayor Tom Menino. She was previously Menino’s policy advisor, Wu’s office said.
Lusk also created the Boston Women’s Workforce Council, a collaborative governance partnership focused on closing the gender wage gap, and later served on this council as a mayoral appointee.
“(Boston) is already at the forefront of climate action, equitable planning, and transformative policy shifts on issues like housing affordability and mobility,” Lusk said in a statement. “I’m looking forward to helping the team best serve the people of Boston and turn even more plans into reality.”
Her hire, made by Jemison in his capacity as council chair, kicks off the work of the Planning Advisory Council, which Wu’s executive order tasked with “increasing coordination among departments that engage in planning and advising the mayor on planning across the city.”
Per the late January order, the city’s various departments are directed to consult with the advisory council on any planning purpose, but this committee has no formal approval or permitting authority.
The council, chaired by the chief of planning, includes an assortment of other city officials, whose cabinets conduct the majority of “built environment planning initiatives” across the city: the chiefs of arts and culture; energy, environment and open space; housing; streets; equity and inclusion; operations; and finance.
The creation of the Planning Advisory Council is part of Wu’s “ambitious growth agenda” for Boston, which is “focused on advancing the city’s resilience, affordability and equity goals,” her office said.
This agenda also includes the establishment of a city Planning and Design Department, which would replace the Boston Planning & Development Agency, a quasi-independent authority the mayor has long sought to abolish, the Herald has reported.
The mayor also committed to updating Boston’s zoning code “to create thousands of additional housing units,” and reform the Article 80 process “to increase speed and predictability for development,” her office said.