County narrows search for zoning administrator

    Washington County is a few weeks away from hiring a zoning administrator to handle the county zoning ordinance that will go into effect July 1. Assistant County Engineer Jacob Thorius said that the county received nine applications for the position, and that it will likely make its selection by June 1.

    According to the job description posted on the county?s Web site, the zoning administrator will be in charge of coordinating all aspects of land use planning and regulation in the county. He will be in charge of administering and enforcing the zoning, subdivision and airspace protection ordinances. He will also provide support to the Planning and Zoning Commission and the Board of Adjustment.

    Thorius said that after the county board of supervisors passed the ordinance in March, he and other county employees spent one week narrowing down the job description of the zoning administrator.

    ?The job description we came up with is a combination of three or four job descriptions we found of zoning administrators in the area. We didn?t think we needed to reinvent the wheel,? said Thorius.

    Thorius said the county began accepting applications in late March and stopped taking them in late April. He said the county interviewed a few of the nine applicants just last week. Thorius was surprised at the small number of applications the county received.

    ?I?m surprised more people didn?t apply, considering the state of the economy,? said Thorius. ?Jackson County [in east central Iowa] recently hired a new zoning administrator, and they got 40 applicants.?

For more, see our May 10 print edition.