SILVER SPRING, MD – Rose Krasnow, chief of the Montgomery County Planning Department’s Area 1 team, was named interim director today by the Planning Board. She will begin directing the 130-member agency on Monday, following the departure of Director Rollin Stanley, who resigned last month.
Krasnow has worked at the Planning Department since 2004. For the last year and a half, she has directed the Department’s Area 1 team, which crafts master plans and reviews development applications for the inner-ring communities around the Beltway. Before that, Krasnow was chief of the former Development Review Division for six years.
In taking the director’s position, Krasnow will work closely with Deputy Director Piera Weiss and the rest of the department’s management team on managing and delivering master plans, and overseeing staff on reviewing development applications and completing the countywide Subdivision Staging Policy and the Zoning Rewrite Project, among other initiatives. She will be the Department’s main liaison with the Planning Board, County Council and other county agencies.
Stanley announced he was leaving in mid-April to head the Planning, Development and Assessment Department for Calgary, Alberta. Planning Board Chair Françoise Carrier, who announced Krasnow as interim director at a staff meeting this morning, said the Board has begun a nationwide search and intends to hire a permanent director in six to nine months.
Krasnow, a former three-term mayor of Rockville, has worked in both the public and private sectors. She began her career as a bond trader with Oppenheimer and Co., Inc. in New York City, before moving to the Washington, D.C., area. Her stint as the administrator for a Rockville homeowners association led to her decision to run for the Rockville City Council, where she served two terms before being elected Mayor. She also worked as a senior policy analyst in the Smart Growth area for the National Governors Association in 2002 and 2003.
Three times named one of Maryland’s Top 100 Women, Krasnow also was honored by the Montgomery County Business and Professional Women’s Association in 2000 and was named Citizen of the Year in 2002 by the Rockville Chamber of Commerce.
Krasnow received her bachelor’s degree in political science from Washington University and a master’s degree in urban and regional planning from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill.
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