Gearhart City Planner Carole Connell will retire Nov. 24, City Administrator Chad Sweet announced at the Nov. 2 City Council meeting.

“She has done a wonderful job for us for almost 10 years,” Sweet said. “We’re going to miss her.”

A professional planner and consultant since 1972, Connell was hired by Sweet in 2013.

“It has been a rewarding 10-year position,” Connell said.

Highlights for her in Gearhart included the process of creating an effective short-term rental program, the development of the first long-range transportation system plan, adding tsunami awareness and mitigation to the development process and the creation of the first city parks and recreation master plan, which will guide city decisions for years to come, she said.

Connell’s first position was a college internship position with the Clatsop County Planning Department. In the years to come, she held planning posts in cities throughout the state, including Bend, Redmond and Sherwood, where she was the city’s first planning director. She started her own business and served as the part-time city planner for Gearhart and other cities. Daily development decisions introduced her to property owners and their land, adding depth and interest to the job.

Difficult changes in the city’s downtown commercial center have been painful, she said, including the closure of the Gearhart Market, the opening of a pub and deli business that was subsequently abandoned and the loss of the Sweet Shop. Both of these commercial spaces remain empty.

“A decades-old guiding principle of the Gearhart comprehensive plan is for the city to deter tourism and remain residential, with the exception of the Highway 101 commercial corridor,” Connell said. “The policy has frustrated property owners in the town center who can’t easily compete with the plethora of commercial shopping on the north coast. But I believe Gearhart’s charming little downtown will return in time and that it should remain as a local commercial service center.”

She will spend much of her time with her husband, Pat, at her family homes in Portland, Gearhart and “casita” in Loreto, Baja Sur Mexico.

City staff and volunteer planning commissioners have “consistently been a pleasure to work with,” she said. “Public service is a thankless job most of the time. But it is essential because the people at City Hall are the safeguards of an always improving Gearhart community.”