(Washington, DC) After conducting a nationwide search, Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs (DCRA) Director Patrick Canavan, Psy. D., today announced the appointment of Bill Crews as DCRA Zoning Administrator.

 

The Office of Zoning Administration is critical to the District’s oversight of its booming construction activity. “Bill Crews brings a rare combination of elective and executive experience to this position,” said Dr. Canavan. “He has seen the benefits and challenges of good zoning administration from all sides of the picture."

 

Crews is an attorney and brings more than 20 years of land use experience to the position. For the last seven years, he has been an attorney-advisor in the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), facilitating state and local intergovernmental planning and cooperation.

 

From 1984 to 1998, he served as Mayor of Melbourne, Iowa, where he led efforts to implement a comprehensive overhaul of local zoning laws. From 1995 to 1998, he was the principal of Heartland Public Policy Consultants, which provided a variety of land use and environmental legal and advocacy services to clients.

 

Prior to that, Crews served four years as Marshall County Zoning Administrator, following a stint as director of The Nature Conservancy programs in Iowa. He is a graduate of the University of Iowa College of Law, where he focused on natural resource and land use law.

 

Since coming to the District of Columbia in 1998, Crews has been elected twice as Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner for Single Member District 6C07, and has regularly testified on his constituents’ behalf before the DC Board of Zoning Adjustment (BZA).