Veteran Staff Aide James Hartl to Be County Planning Director

James E. Hartl, a 20-year veteran of the Los Angeles County Regional Planning Department, was named director of the department Wednesday.

Hartl, who will be paid $84,250 a year, has served as acting director since July, when then-Planning Director Norman Murdoch transferred to the new position of director of economic planning, working under the county’s chief administrative officer.

Murdoch was viewed by many community activists as strongly pro-growth. But he also had ups and downs in his relations with the pro-growth, conservative majority on the Board of Supervisors.

The planning director oversees development in the vast unincorporated areas of the county.

“I guess what I’m for is planned growth,” Hartl said in an interview Wednesday. “What I mean is that growth is inevitable. We have to make sure that all the potential impacts of that have been analyzed and mitigated.”

He said that his goals include “streamlining the development permit process” and coordinating planning between unincorporated areas and neighboring cities.

“I am very pleased that Jim Hartl, who rose through the ranks of the Planning Department, has gone all the way to the top,” said Board of Supervisors Chairman Ed Edelman. Hartl was selected in a private meeting of the supervisors.

Hartl, 43, joined the county as an assistant planner in June, 1969, after receiving his bachelor’s degree in urban planning from Cal Poly Pomona. He later received a master’s degree in public administration from Cal State Long Beach.

He and his wife, who is a teacher, live with their son in the San Gabriel Valley community of La Habra Heights.