CARY, NC – After directing the community’s nationally recognized planning efforts for the last five years, Planning Director Jeffery G. Ulma is leaving the Town of Cary to become a Senior Associate in the new Research Triangle area office of Clarion Associates, a land-use consulting firm with offices in Denver, Fort Collins, Snowmass Village, Chicago, Cincinnati, and Philadelphia. As a member of Clarion’s new east coast team, Ulma will provide planning, zoning, and growth management consulting services to local, regional, and state governments.

Under Ulma’s leadership, Cary has become North Carolina’s municipal leader of innovative smart growth initiatives, including Cary’s Schools Adequate Public Facilities Ordinance, the Open Space & Historic Resources Plan, and the Growth Management Plan. Ulma also oversaw the Town’s 2001 redistricting effort and a 1998 special census as well as the development of Cary’s Town Center Area Plan, the Southeast Gateway Area Plan, and the completion of the Land Use Plan. He joined the Town of Cary on July 8, 1996 after having served as the Planning Director for Pitt County, North Carolina from August 1987 to June 1996.

"When you’re looking to fill your key positions, you want people who are professional and technically competent and who possess the ability to relate to and work with an extraordinary variety of people and issues. That’s Jeff," said Cary Town Manager Bill Coleman. "The problem with finding people like Jeff is that he’s the kind of person that everyone else is looking for, too. We hate to see him go."

Ulma holds a Bachelor’s degree in geography from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a Master’s degree in urban planning form the University of Arizona in Tucson. He is a member of the American Planning Association and the American Institute of Certified Planners. His last day with Cary will be October 26^th. Between now and then, Town Manager Bill Coleman will name an interim director to serve while the Town conducts a national search for Ulma’s replacement.

Regarding the switch, Ulma, 44, said he was really going to miss "all the great people at the Town of Cary" but that he was looking forward to "new challenge and an opportunity to join a nationally-recognized private consulting firm after 20 years of government work. This feels like a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that I just can’t say ‘no’ to."

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