Murray brings in experienced urban design official for planning post

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Joe Copeland

Joe Copeland Jan 12, 2018

Jan 12, 2018

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                <h1>Murray brings in experienced urban design official for planning post</h1>
                <h2><p>Mayor Ed Murray has picked Sam Assefa, who has held high level land-use positions in several cities, to head Seattle's Office of Planning and Community Development. Assefa is currently the senior urban planner for Boulder, Colorado, where he has worked since 2010. Prior to that, he held positions</p></h2>
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               <p>By <a href="/author/joe-copeland-crosscut-com/">Joe Copeland</a></p> 
              <p><time datetime="2025-02-04T05:00:00-08:00">Jan 12, 2018</time></p>
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            <p>Mayor Ed Murray has picked Sam Assefa, who has held high level land-use positions in several cities, to head Seattle's Office of Planning and Community Development. Assefa is currently the senior urban planner for Boulder, Colorado, where he has worked since 2010. Prior to that, he held positions in Chicago —as director of Land Use and Planning Policy and deputy chief of staff to the mayor — and in San Francisco's Department of Planning and Development. Murray noted that Assefa, who holds degrees from MIT and the University of Illinois at Chicago, fled Ethiopia after his father was killed during a coup.</p><p>The nomination received immediate support from City Councilmember Rob Johnson, the chair of the council's Planning, Land Use and Zoning Committee. The full council must approve the selection.</p>
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Mayor Ed Murray has picked Sam Assefa, who has held high level land-use positions in several cities, to head Seattle's Office of Planning and Community Development. Assefa is currently the senior urban planner for Boulder, Colorado, where he has worked since 2010. Prior to that, he held positions in Chicago —as director of Land Use and Planning Policy and deputy chief of staff to the mayor — and in San Francisco's Department of Planning and Development. Murray noted that Assefa, who holds degrees from MIT and the University of Illinois at Chicago, fled Ethiopia after his father was killed during a coup.

The nomination received immediate support from City Councilmember Rob Johnson, the chair of the council's Planning, Land Use and Zoning Committee. The full council must approve the selection.

By Joe Copeland

Joe Copeland is the former senior editor&nbsp;for Crosscut, where he has been an editor since 2010. Before that, he was an editorial writer and columnist for the Seattle P-I and editorial page edi