Planning Board Appoints Rose Krasnow as Interim Director

The Montgomery County Planning Board appointed Rose Krasnow to serve as the interim director of the county's planning department, according to a statement issued by the planning department Friday.

Krasnow will begin directing the 130-member agency on Monday, following the departure of Director Rollin Stanley, .

The board has begun a nationwide search for a permanent director, and intends to hire one within six to nine months, said Montgomery County Planning Board Chair Françoise Carrier.

Krasnow has worked for the planning department since 2004. For the last year and a half, she directed the department’s Area 1 team, which crafts master plans and reviews development applications for the inner-ring communities around the Capital Beltway. Before that, Krasnow was chief of the former Development Review Division for six years.

As interim director of the planning department, Krasnow will manage master plans and oversee staff on reviewing development applications and completing the countywide Subdivision Staging Policy and the Zoning Rewrite Project, among other initiatives. She will be the department’s main liaison with the planning board, county council and other county agencies, according to a statement.

Stanley is leaving the Montgomery County Planning Department to head the Planning, Development and Assessment Department in Calgary, Alberta, .

Krasnow, a former three-term mayor of Rockville, has worked in both the public and private sectors. She began her career as a bond trader with Oppenheimer and Co., Inc., in New York City before moving to the Washington, DC, area. Her experience as the administrator of a Rockville homeowners association led to her decision to run for the Rockville City Council, where she served two terms before being elected mayor. She also worked as a senior policy analyst of smart growth for the National Governors Association in 2002 and 2003, according to a statement.

She has been named one of Maryland’s Top 100 Women on three separate occasions, and was honored by the Montgomery County Business and Professional Women’s Association in 2000. In 2002, she was named Citizen of the Year by the Rockville Chamber of Commerce, the statement added.