Clayton planning department to add assistant director, senior planner and technician; remote SOG training offered in May

Town of Clayton planning staff told the Board of Adjustment that the planning department expects to be fully staffed in April after hiring an assistant planning director, a senior planner and a planning technician.

Conrad, a town staff member, said the assistant planning director will be Haley Downey (also identified in the transcript as Haley Hogue). The senior planner will be Robert Tate, who the staff report said comes from the City of Raleigh, and the planning technician will be Corinne Miller, who was identified as a recent graduate of Ohio State University. Conrad said the department expects to be fully staffed in April.

Conrad also described a remote quasi-judicial training offered by the UNC School of Government in May. He said the training features instructors Jim Joyce and Adam Lovelady and that the town will pay the cost for board members who sign up. “It’s no cost to you, so the town will pay for it. We had a budget for that,” Conrad said. Board Member Spicer had already signed up, and Conrad invited other members to email him to register.

When asked whether training must be completed in a group location, Conrad said each participant will get individual access to the course and can complete it at home; the town will not require members to gather at Town Hall to take the remote session.

Conrad warned that he had found no pending applications in the system at the time of the meeting and said he was expecting April’s meeting could be canceled if no items are filed.

The board had no evidentiary hearings on the evening’s agenda and heard the staff update before adjourning.