Newly hired planning director ready for big challenges

Richard Bruckner, who for the past 10 years has been Pasadena’s director of planning and development, on Tuesday was named Los Angeles County’s director of regional planning.

When he starts work Feb. 1, Bruckner will become the key architect of revamping the county’s general plan—a document that will chart the course for how Los Angeles County will look and function for generations to come.

Bruckner said his biggest challenge in his new post will be dealing with new state legislation on climate change—an effort that will require the close alignment of land-use and transportation planning decisions. He said the county job presents “the challenge of diversity and scale.”

“It’s certainly a step-up in scope,” he said.

“His experience in Pasadena over the past 10 years has been tremendous,” said Katherine Perez, executive director of the Urban Land Institute’s L.A. District Council. She credited Bruckner, who is one of two public sector members of the institute’s executive committee—with the skillful implementation of Pasadena’s general plan.

“It’s Richard’s nature to be collaborative. It’s Richard’s nature to work in partnership,” Perez said, adding that he was skillful in bringing together diverse constituencies such as community stakeholders, business developers and transit planners in Pasadena.

He also has a broad network of relationships in planning and redevelopment circles across the state and commands respect because of Pasadena’s reputation as a well planned city in which community-driven processes play a big part.

Pasadena Mayor Bill Bogaard said Bruckner has been “highly influential in the city’s planning and development” over the past decade, and said he had deftly handled development and community implications of the Gold Line light rail coming to town.

As for high points of his Pasadena tenure, Bruckner pointed to accomplishments such an ordinance requiring developers to provide moderate- and low-income housing; updating plans to integrate housing and transportation in the city’s Old Pasadena and Lake Avenue districts, and setting aside 20 acres of “very important hillside habitat” in Annenberg Canyon.

The county position has been open since the departure of Bruce W. McClendon about a year ago.
As the county’s chief land use planner, Bruckner will earn $210,000 annually. His hiring was recommended by Los Angeles County Chief Executive Officer William Fujioka and approved by the Board of Supervisors.