ORANGE : Landscape Architect Sworn In as Planner
William J. Cathcart, a landscape architect and former Chamber of Commerce president, has been chosen to replace David Hart on the Planning Commission.
Cathcart, president and partner in the architectural firm Cathcart/Begin Associates Inc., was sworn in by Mayor Don E. Smith this week at City Hall.
Cathcart said he will try to bring a new perspective to the commission.
“In the landscape architecture profession, we are not environmentalists per se but we are not on the developer’s side either,” he said. “We believe that the environment must be protected, but if all the ‘Ts’ are crossed and the ‘I’s’ are dotted, a planned community is permissible.”
A Los Angeles native, Cathcart, 46, has lived in Orange for the past 18 years. He and his wife, Deputy City Clerk Cassie Cathcart, live in central Orange with their son, Jeff.
Cathcart graduated from Cal Poly in Pomona in 1970 with a bachelor’s degree in environmental design.
He is a former president of the Chamber of Commerce and Orange Kiwanis Club and chaired the traffic circulation committee for the citywide planning project, Orange 2000.
Cathcart replaces David Hart, who resigned from the commission in May.
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