NATCHEZ &045; Former Code Enforcement Officer Andrew Smith is Natchez’s new city planner.

Mayor Phillip West, who discussed the two finalists for the position with aldermen in executive session Tuesday, reached Smith by phone Thursday morning to formally offer him the position.

Smith said by telephone later Thursday morning that he would be present at Thursday afternoon’s Planning Commission meeting and would be on the job full time from then on.

Smith, who runs a planning consulting firm in Jackson, worked for seven years in city planning departments, including work as Natchez’s code enforcement officer from 1994-96.

The other finalist for the position, Dennis Story, has 22 years of planning experience at the state and local levels and in private firms.

That included serving as director of planning and development from 1991-2002 in Alexandria, La., where he now runs a planning consulting firm.

West said Thursday choosing from the two finalists was difficult.

&uot;It was six in one hand and a half a dozen in the other. But (Smith’s) being from Natchez and having worked here before, and his having worked for the State of Mississippi and having contacts there&uot; made him the best choice, West said.

Smith said his decision to return to Natchez, where he was educated in public schools and received practical experience in code enforcement, &uot;was a heart decision.&uot;

His first priority will be to discuss with West and aldermen their vision for the city and how he can help realize that vision.

However, Smith said specifically he wants to have a neighborhood-based approach to planning, working with existing neighborhood groups to achieve that vision.

In addition to a myriad of other duties, the city planner meets frequently with the public to explain the city’s planning, zoning and preservation ordinances, rules and regulations.

He also reviews applications for zoning variances, planning and historic preservation requests and the like and presents them, in the form of

staff reports

, to boards that decide the issues.

West said Smith, who will make $45,000 a year, will have additional duties &uot;that will touch on community development.&uot;

Those duties will include tasks regarding downtown (including riverfront) development and housing and urban renewal. &uot;We have too many dilapidated properties in this city,&uot; West said.

Members of the city’s planning-related commissions have said they need a planner to advise them in their decisions as well as to explain the city’s planning rules to the public.