Williams selected as new executive director of TJPDC

The new executive director of the Thomas Jefferson Planning District Commission introduced himself to Greene’s supervisors at the Board’s regularly scheduled meeting Tuesday, June 9.
“I’ve been in regional planning for about 25 years,“ said Stephen W. Williams. “My philosophy is to focus on providing the best possible service to our member governments.“
The TJPDC serves the localities in Planning District 10, comprised of the City of Charlottesville and the counties of Albemarle, Fluvanna, Louisa and Nelson, along with Greene. It assists localities with planning, and lobbies for them in Richmond.
Currently, the TJPDC is working with Greene on its Comprehensive Plan update and the US 29/33 Multimodal Study.
It has been assisting at the county’s comprehensive plan workshops since last year. It is also working with Greene, the Virginia Department of Transportation Planning Grant, and the Renaissance Planning Group to study the US 29 corridor from the Albemarle County line to Ruckersville and the US 33 corridor from the Orange County line to the western end of the Stanardsville bypass. Called the US 29/33 Multimodal Corridor Study, it will analyze future growth patterns and develop multimodal transportation solutions for the two corridors to accommodate that growth.
The TJPDC is directed by a 12-member board, consisting of two representatives appointed by each local governing board, more than half of whom are local elected officials. Greene’s members of the board are Supervisor Carl Schmitt and Ruckersville resident Andrea Wilkinson.
Schmitt was part of the TJPDC’s selection committee that offered Williams his position. He explained that the selection process was a national one, and that the committee “worked for months.“
One of the reasons Williams was chosen, Schmitt said, was because Williams’ last position was in New Hampshire, where growth is being influenced by Boston. Williams’ experience there “parallels” what is happening in Greene, where growth is being driven by a “large population center,“ Schmitt said. “I think his experience will be very relevant to what we have here in our area.“
Williams spent seven years with the Nashua (New Hampshire) Regional Planning Commission: for his first two years he was assistant director and metropolitan planning organization coordinator; for the last five he was that commission’s executive director.
He has also served as assistant director and transportation planner for the East Central Intergovernmental Association in Iowa, and has held numerous positions with the Association of Monterey Bay in California. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Montana State University and completed masters’ degree coursework at California Polytechnic State University.
He assumed his position with the TJPDC effective May 11.