The Santa Barbara County Planning and Development Department has a new director as of Tuesday.
The Board of Supervisors approved Lisa Plowman during its meeting Tuesday in Santa Maria at the Joseph Cento Betteravia Administration Building.
Ms. Plowman has spent more than 19 years helping private and nonprofit developers with land-use entitlement and planning issues.
She has served as principal and planning manager of RRM design group for the past five years. RRM is a multi-discipline design firm specializing in development of mixed-use in-fill, affordable housing, parks and recreation, public projects, specific plans and master plans. The company has more than 130 employees and four offices in California.
Ms. Plowman managed the company’s Santa Barbara office and its 20 employees. She guided the entitlement process for all private development projects and worked with public agencies on long-range planning projects including specific plans, master plans, reuse plans and contract planning services.
Prior to her time at RMM, Ms. Plowman served as planning manager of Peikert Group. There she was responsible for leading land-use consultations; developing entitlement strategies for clients; managing the design and entitlement process for residential, mixed use and commercial projects; and facilitating design conflict resolution meetings and community engagement.
Before that, Ms. Plowman spent 11 years at the Santa Barbara County Planning and Development Department. She worked her way up from Planner III to Supervising Planner during her tenure and left the department as deputy director in 2005.
“Ms. Plowman will be an excellent leader of the Planning and Development Department during this pivotal time in our County’s history. Lisa’s vast experience with land use planning will serve our County’s unique environmental, residential and economic needs well,” said Second District Supervisor Gregg Hart said in a statement.
Ms. Plowman graduated from UCSB with a bachelor’s degree in environmental studies in 1987.
She will replaces former interim planning Director Dianne Black, who stepped in to fill the vacancy left when former Director Glenn Russell retired last March.
