Town Hires New Planning and Conservation Director

Town Manager Jeffrey Hull is pleased to welcome Valerie Gingrich as the Town’s new Planning and Conservation Director. The position became vacant following the retirement of Carole Hamilton who had served in the position since 2004.

Gingrich comes to Wilmington from the Massachusetts Office of Coastal Zone Management (CZM), where she served as a Regional Planner. While at CZM she reviewed and drafted approvals for Municipal Harbor Plans. She was lead reviewer for significant development projects along Boston Harbor including the Wynn Casino development proposed for the City of Everett, and the Fort Point Downtown Waterfront District Harbor Plan, both projects comprising billions of dollars in development.

Prior to working at CZM, Gingrich was a Planner for the Boston Redevelopment Authority, where she served as a citywide Waterfront Planner and as the South Boston Neighborhood Planner. She worked with Boston’s Zoning Board of Appeals, state regulatory agencies, and developers on the review and approval of a re-zoning of South Boston’s First Street Corridor and various large scale Seaport District developments.

Gingrich has her Master’s Degree in Planning from MIT, and a Bachelor’s Degree in Economics from Gordon College. She brings a tremendous wealth of knowledge and experience in the public realm and has an impressive track record in coordination and negotiation of permitting a wide variety of projects from small single parcel projects to highly complex multi-parcel master plans.

“I was impressed with her accounts of working constructively with multiple constituencies including residents, the business and environmental communities and developers to move projects forward,” Hull said of Gingrich.

Gingrich’s first day is January 12.