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Oldsmar loses its planning director

Greg Scoville accepts a similar position from a Panhandle county that recruited him. He steps down Tuesday, leaving a full plate of projects for his unnamed successor.

OLDSMAR - After a year and a half heading up the city's planning and redevelopment efforts, Greg Scoville is moving to the Florida Panhandle.

Scoville, who began his job in Oldsmar in January 2003, will head north to become the assistant planning and development director for Walton County.

Everyone in Oldsmar "was very professional and very helpful and very kind," said Scoville, 47.

But he couldn't pass up a chance to take on a similar position at the countywide level.

"I really have a lot of mixed feelings about leaving," Scoville said. "But I was recruited, and you don't look a gift horse in the mouth."

He also will move closer to his hometown. A University of Florida graduate, Scoville hails from Milton in nearby Santa Rosa County.

Scoville will leave his Oldsmar City Hall office Tuesday. His new job in Walton County begins Oct. 11, he said.

Scoville's resignation comes on the heels of a major reorganization of the city's building and planning departments, Mayor Jerry Beverland said.

When Scoville, who makes $59,410 annually, began in Oldsmar, he oversaw building, planning and code enforcement in the city.

Now, Beverland said, the building department has been combined with the engineering department. And Scoville's successor will head the planning and code enforcement divisions.

At a February City Council meeting, Beverland lashed out at the planning department and called for a departmental overhaul after planners recommended against the construction of a Brusters ice cream franchise on a piece of vacant land.

"You can go to the planning department and ask someone a question and get one answer," Beverland said at the meeting. "The next day you can go back and ask a different person the same question, and you'll get a different answer."

But Beverland said recently that the department's problems had nothing to do with Scoville.

"We got along fine. We never had any problems. He was doing what he was supposed to be doing down there," Beverland said. City Manager Bruce Haddock said Scoville shepherded through a number of key projects for the city, including updating the town center code, helping plan the west Oldsmar annexation and creating architectural standards for the city's redevelopment district.

"He was always willing to sit down and talk about creative ways to work out problems," said Oldsmar Chamber of Commerce president Kevin Gartland, citing Scoville's work with downtown community development as a particularly good example.

"It's a shame he won't be here to see it happen. He's laid the groundwork for what I think are going to be some very successful years ahead."

Haddock said the city is looking for a replacement, and that an interim director of planning and redevelopment will likely be named once Scoville departs.

Whoever takes over the position will have a full plate, continuing work on the western Oldsmar annexation project, updating the city's comprehensive plan and working in the redevelopment district, Haddock said.

Catherine E. Shoichet can be reached at 727 771-4303 or cshoichet@sptimes.com