Anne Fadullon is resigning from her position of Philadelphia’s director of planning and development, effective Wednesday, seven and a half years after starting the department from scratch, writes Paul Schwedelson for the Philadelphia Business Journal.

She is leaving her position as Mayor Jim Kenney is serving the final year of his last term. Her interim replacement is Eleanor Sharpe, deputy director of planning and zoning.

After her departure, Fadullon hopes to see a continued focus on how the city can make the development process easier. Since its inception, her department has made major strides in this area, including permitting around 26,000 development projects last year, which is a significantly higher number than usual.

In addition, working with the city and receiving approvals has become more accessible to smaller developers, instead of just large businesses.

“My message to the next administration is please resource the development process,” Fadullon said, “because that’s your bread and butter to be able to do all these other things that really need to be done in Philadelphia.”

Read more about Anne Fadullon in the Philadelphia Business Journal.

More about Interim Director Eleanor Sharpe