Decatur has hired Ryan Sellers in the newly created position of senior planner. Earlier this month longtime Assistant City Manager Lyn Menne retired and Planning Director Angela Threadgill was promoted to Planning and Economic Development Director.
Chosen from among 30 candidates nationwide, the 27-year-old Sellers was previously city planner and head of the historic preservation commission in Newton, Kansas, population 19,000, where he worked from July 2018, until last month.
In Decatur he’s the primary staff liaison to the planning commission and he’ll oversee land use and zoning application.
Sellers grew up in Silas (current population: 452) in extreme southwest Alabama. He earned a Bachelor in Journalism from Alabama State University with the intention of becoming a fashion writer. But his direction changed at Alabama A&M where in 2018 he completed his graduate degree in Urban and Regional Planning.
“What I like about Decatur, it’s a very innovative, very busy city with a lot of moving parts,” Sellers told the AJC. “I wanted to get a job in housing and community development. I have a passion for affordable housing, and I’ve already met with the [recently created] Affordable Housing Task Force.”
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