Chris Ryer, Director of Baltimore’s Department of Planning for the past six years, is planning to retire but will stay in his position until a successor is named.
Mayor Brandon Scott announced on Thursday that Ryer will retire after a 40-year career in community planning and development, much of it with the City of Baltimore.
“Director Ryer’s planning expertise and leadership have been instrumental in creating a more equitable, sustainable, and prosperous Baltimore,” Scott said in a statement. “His deep understanding of our neighborhoods and commitment to community-led planning have helped transform how we approach urban development in Baltimore. From modernizing our zoning code to spearheading innovative sustainability initiatives, Chris leaves behind a legacy that will benefit generations of Baltimore residents.”
Ryer is the latest of several city leaders to announce plans to step down from key positions that affect Baltimore’s built environment. Others include Colin Tarbert, president and CEO of the Baltimore Development Corporation (BDC), who will step down June 13; Laurie Schwartz, president of the Waterfront Partnership of Baltimore, who will retire on June 30, and Eric Holcomb, executive director of Baltimore’s Commission on Historical and Architectural Preservation, who plans to leave his position before the end of the year.
Dan Taylor, formerly the Vice President of Business and Neighborhood Development with the BDC, is replacing Schwartz. Replacements have not been named for Tarbert or Holcomb.
Started as an intern
Ryer’s first job with the city of Baltimore came after he enrolled in the University of Maryland’s Master of Community Planning program more than 30 years ago. Although Baltimore’s planning department initially wasn’t taking interns, Ryer convinced the director to make an exception, and that led to his first assignment as a neighborhood planner in Northwest Baltimore in the mid-1980s.
After 10 years with the planning department, Ryer moved to the non-profit sector, where he worked for the Trust for Public Lands and a community organization in southwest Baltimore.
In 2002 he returned to the city’s planning department as Chief of Comprehensive Planning and Deputy Director. After a stint at the Maryland Department of Housing and Community Development, he served as Executive Director of the Southeast Community Development Corp. for a decade.
Former Mayor Catherine Pugh named Ryer director of the Baltimore’s planning department in early 2019 to replace Thomas Stosur, who had retired. During his tenure as Director, Ryer built on Baltimore’s community planning tradition, begun in the 1960s under legendary director Larry Reich, to establish a comprehensive community development strategy in partnership with the city’s Department of Housing and Community Development.
Major accomplishments
Under Scott’s leadership, Ryer focused on embedding equity throughout the department’s work, ensuring that community planners became leaders in engaging residents traditionally left out of planning processes. According to Scott and others, some of Ryer’s major accomplishments include:
- Completing an equity-focused Comprehensive Plan that proposes new transparency in zoning and land use decisions
- Guiding Harborplace’s redevelopment master plan, which calls for replacing aging pavilions with four mixed-use buildings and creating a climate-resilient waterfront promenade for future generations
- Developing a rapid city-wide response to food insecurity during the COVID-19 pandemic, managing more than $38 million in emergency food distribution contracts
- Transforming the capital budget process to better reflect community priorities
- Creating the Neighborhood and Sustainability SubCabinets to coordinate cross-agency initiatives and community partnerships
- Establishing the Clean Corps program to help disinvested communities recover from pandemic-related challenges
- Implementing the Baltimore Green Network Plan to create and maintain green spaces in neighborhoods experiencing population decline
- Advancing cutting-edge sustainability and food policy initiatives that have positioned Baltimore as a national leader in these areas
“Inclusive leadership’
“From the outset, Chris understood that good planning is not only essential to a city’s built environment, but also to economic and community development in the broadest sense,” said Jon M. Laria, Chair of the Planning Commission, in a statement.
“People and businesses thrive in a city that is thoughtfully planned, and Chris and his outstanding colleagues in the Planning Department are responsible for creating and nurturing a comprehensive framework that will fuel Baltimore’s growth,” Laria said. “The Planning Commission looks forward to identifying for Mayor Scott a visionary leader who will help fulfill the Mayor’s commitment to create a more equitable, sustainable, and prosperous Baltimore.”
“Director Ryer’s inclusive leadership transformed how Baltimore engages with planning,” said Eric Stephenson, Vice Chair of the Planning Commission, in a statement. “The launch of the Planning Academy — where my own involvement began — has empowered residents across the city to advocate for their neighborhoods. Under his tenure, equity became a guiding principle through the department’s equity analysis, and impactful programs like Clean Corps are addressing long-standing issues like neighborhood cleanliness for the first time in decades.”
“In a position where saying ‘no’ is often the path of least resistance, Chris Ryer consistently sought the more challenging road of ‘how do we get to yes?,’” said Justin Williams, Deputy Mayor for Community and Economic Development, in a statement.
“I’ve had the unique perspective of working with Chris from both sides of the table — in private practice as a land use attorney and now as Deputy Mayor who sits on the Planning Commission,” Williams said. His exceptional talent for balancing aspirational planning ideals with development realities has advanced Baltimore’s built environment through pragmatic collaboration rather than rigid regulation.
“The Planning Director must make difficult choices about projects and funding that inevitably disappoint some stakeholders, yet Chris has navigated these challenges with integrity and foresight,” he continued. “His ability to connect dots and see around corners has made him an invaluable advisor. As someone who also began his career in a junior role in city government before returning to serve in the Mayor’s cabinet, I deeply appreciate Chris’s unwavering commitment to thoughtful public service.”
According to Scott’s announcement, Ryer will continue to serve as director until his successor is appointed. In keeping with the Baltimore City Charter, the Planning Commission will develop a list of candidates for Scott’s consideration. The selected candidate must then be confirmed by the City Council.
“Being a community planner in the Baltimore Planning Department was the best job I ever had,” Ryer said in a statement. “The ability to work directly with Baltimore’s citizens in their own neighborhoods is a dream job.”
Chris Ryer is community sensitive. A professional of integrity.