GREENFIELD — There’s a new face in the planning and building department at City Hall.
Elizabeth Bentz Williams has joined the local government’s ranks as its new senior planner. She replaces Jenna Wertman, who left recently to take a position as a senior planner with the town of Brownsburg.
Williams’ responsibilities include helping fulfill the tasks of the planning department, which include revising the town’s development code and handling petitions from those looking to get land zoned under various designations.
She has bachelor’s and master’s degrees in urban planning from Purdue University and has worked as a planner in Tippecanoe County and Indianapolis. For 27 years, she worked as a land use consultant for a law firm, through which she wrote ordinances and comprehensive plans and represented a variety of clients, including municipalities as well as commercial and residential developers.
Williams said she enjoys working on the municipal side and with residents.
“When you’re in an office of this size, you get to touch a lot of things,” she said. “When you’re in a big city, you have a smaller range of duties, so you’re confined to a smaller area. There’s so much more interfaces of interest and things that are going on within Greenfield, and you get to touch them all.”
She admires smaller communities, being from one in southern Indiana.
“It is a lovely community and it just feels like a good place to be,” she said of Greenfield. “I’m just really happy to be here and to provide help where I can, and hopefully add something to the community as a land use planner for the city of Greenfield.”
Joan Fitzwater, the city’s planning director, told the Daily Reporter in an email that Williams will fit in well.
“Elizabeth’s experience and knowledge is a real asset to the planning department as we juggle both our planning responsibilities during the current building boom and our Stellar Community projects like Depot Street Park and the facade revitalization projects,” Fitzwater said. “She is a steady hand in a very hectic time for the Greenfield Planning and Building Department and we are fortunate to have her here.”
The state selected Greenfield, Hancock County and Fortville for its Stellar Communities program in 2018, triggering millions of dollars in funding opportunities for community improvement projects.
Depot Street Park is going in between Depot Street, South Pennsylvania Street, Riley Avenue and the Pennsy Trail and is slated for completion later this year. It will feature an amphitheater, performance space, seating, areas for art and an event lawn.
The facade revitalization projects consist of hundreds of thousands of dollars in improvements to the exteriors of six buildings downtown.
