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After more than 13 years at the helm of Southampton Town’s Land Management Department, Planning and Development Administrator Jefferson Murphree has resigned, effective early next month, to join the private sector.
Mr. Murphree, 53, said he will step down from his position on January 6 to become the director of planning at Vanasse Hangen Brustlin Inc., known as VHB, a consulting firm based in Hauppauge. The veteran planner said he is excited about the new opportunity for “a whole bunch of different reasons.”
“Career growth,” he said on Monday. “Professional growth. A whole bunch of exciting new jobs.”
Town Supervisor Anna Throne-Holst said the town hasn’t yet decided who will fill the $117,000-per-year position, and that the town would advertise for qualified replacements. Mr. Murphree said he recommended the town fill the position in-house, and suggested Assistant Town Planning and Development Administrator Freda Eisenberg would be a good fit.
Ms. Throne-Holst said she and other board members were surprised to learn the news of his departure last week. “We wish him well,” she said. “He’s certainly served the town for a long time and has been involved in a lot of projects over the years. I think that for him this is probably a good move on a personal level. So I wish him well.”
About 13 and a half years ago, Mr. Murphree was hired as the chief planner of Southampton Town’s Current Planning Division. He has since climbed the ranks to the top spot, overseeing the Department of Land Management and its six divisions: Current Planning, Long-Range Planning, Building and Zoning, Housing and Community Development, Environment, and Intermodal Transportation.
Looking back, Mr. Murphree said he’s worked on many town studies. He mentioned that he was particularly proud of the town’s critical wildlands study, an exhaustive environmental analysis of the eastern half of the town. It was initiated under former Supervisor Patrick Heaney.
Mr. Murphree fell in love with planning in 1981. He worked for the U.S. Department of the Interior Bureau of Land Management, where he took on “the best job of my life,” as he described it—a project transforming railroad tracks into biking trails in California through the nonprofit group, the Rails-to-Trails Conservancy. The trail, called the Bizz Johnson National Recreation Trail, is the longest rail trail in California, spanning about 25 miles, according to an article on the Rails-To-Trails Conservancy’s website.
He drew the maps by hand. It was a time before computerized maps.
“It was such a great part of my life,” Mr. Murphree said. “The people at the time really inspired me to get into planning.”
After the rails-to-trails project, he went on to help develop the first transfer of development rights program in Hunterdon County, New Jersey. The program was designed for the preservation of agricultural lands, he said.
In his new position, Mr. Murphree will work on projects mainly in Riverhead and Brookhaven towns, he said. Due to the Southampton Town ethics code, Mr. Murphree will be prohibited from doing work in the town for one year.
Rohma Abbas on Dec 20, 2011