Amid a slew of pending construction projects and a housing crunch, Durango’s Community Development Department is getting a new director.

After 35 years with the city and 29 years as planning director, Greg Hoch plans to retire in October.

Hoch stepped down to a planner emeritus role in early May and will spend the next four months handing over the reins to Kevin Hall, who was promoted from assistant director. Hall will be paid $115,000 annually to oversee planning, code enforcement, city engineers and building inspections.

“I think Kevin has a good managerial sense about him,” Hoch said.

In addition, former planning manager Nicol Killian is stepping into the assistant director role as part of the changes. Hoch expects she will be instrumental in managing the department’s responsibilities.

“It’s a big diverse work load,” Hoch said.

The largest planning projects include Twin Buttes, a residential development on U.S. Highway 160 west, the Escalate Drive extension and a potential apartment complex, and the expansion of Three Springs.

Encouraging affordable housing has also been a high-profile issue for the department. A proposal to increase the fees required in lieu of building affordable housing caused concern from the home-building industry, and so the staff is working on a complete package of changes that could be ready in the fall.

Hall has been involved with all the issues since joining the Community Development Department about three years ago. But the unusually long transition will be helpful.

“We’ll have a good, smooth transition from Greg’s leadership to mine,” he said.

Hall has been with the city since 2001, and he has some projects he would like to tackle next year. For example, he would like to review the agreement between the city and La Plata County that governs construction.

“It’s more challenging than it probably needs to be ... What we’d like to do is find a system that works better for everybody,” he said.

mshinn@durangoherald.com