Acting Director of Redevelopment Plans to Resign

Barbara Knight, acting director of the Glendale Redevelopment Agency since the resignation of former director Susan F. Shick in February, notified city officials this week that she will resign Sept. 8 to join Shick in the ambitious redevelopment program under way in Long Beach.

Knight, who has worked for Glendale for more than seven years, was among contenders for permanent director of the redevelopment division.

However, Glendale officials awarded that position earlier this month to Jeanne Armstrong, a former redevelopment principal project manager for San Jose.

Armstrong, employed for almost 10 years by San Jose, which has a population of more than 800,000 compared to about 165,000 in Glendale, comes from a staff of 100 or so to direct Glendale’s seven-member redevelopment crew.

Armstrong said she was enticed to Glendale by “the high level of private economic development that is occurring here.”

Though she has been involved in many facets of development in the booming high-tech California community of San Jose, Armstrong said she has “never been director of the entire program; that is the opportunity that Glendale offers.”