Lyonnais is New County Planner

Former Columbia County Planner Kim Lyonnais has been hired once again by the County as its planner. Last week Lyonnais accepted the position, replacing Richard Hendricksen, who is retiring at the end of April.

In October, Lyonnais was hired by the City of Dayton as its part time planner. On March 26, he submitted his resignation to the city, effec- tive April 24.

In his new position, Ly- onnais will be director of planning for both Columbia County and the City of Dayton. Under an agreement that is being worked out between the city and county, Dayton will hire a new full-time planner, who will report to Lyonnais but will be paid by the city.

"I will be ultimately responsible for the city and county both meeting their planning requirements," said Lyonnais.

Lyonnais worked as Co- lumbia County Planner from 1986 until 2001. He worked as Walla Walla city planner from 2004 to 2011. He has also worked as a private planning consultant.

According to Dayton City Clerk Trina Cole, the city has begun the process of hiring its new planner. Under the proposed agreement with the county, that person will be paid by the city, but will work under Lyonnais'w direction.

Cole says the city's new planner will work in the County planning office, and the city will also pay a por- tion of the administrative costs to run the office.

Dayton Mayor Craig George stressed that in the proposed arrangement, the city will not be contracting with the county for planning services as it has in the past.

"We've had two contracts with the county in the past," George said, "and it hasn't worked."

In July of last year, the city and county ended an agreement that began in 2010 for the county to provide planning services to the city. After that, Dayton began the recruiting process that resulted in Lyonnais be- ing hired as city Planner.

George says he and the city council are commit- ted to making the new ar- rangement work, saying the public expects the county and city to work together on issues such as planning that affect them both. There are many planning areas that affect both entities, such as growth management act re- quirements and development around the edges of Dayton.

Lyonnais said he is work- ing on language for a new Memorandum of Under- standing between the city and county, with input from city and county officials. He hopes the agreement will be in place by May 1.

"I have two goals," Ly- onnais said of his new job. "First, we need to eliminate boundaries." He says it's important that there be a consistent planning process that doesn't abruptly change at the city limits. "We're all citizens of the county."

Lyonnais' second goal is to make the planning process more accessible to the public. "A one stop 'development services department' is ev- ery jurisdictions dream," he said. "And the expectation for consistency, fairness and great public service is a real possibility."

In a separate effort, Day- ton and Columbia County have agreed to form joint planning commission, made up of local citizens from the city and county. The new commission will replace the separate city and county planning commissions that have operated for many years. George said he hopes the new commission will be established and operating by mid-year.