Another high-level SF City Hall department head bites the dust in the Lurie administration, as Planning Department director Rich Hillis resigns after five years of steering the department through COVID and the Housing Element process.

It’s certainly no coincidence that in the four months since Daniel Lurie was sworn in as SF Mayor, several department heads have stopped down. Most notably, last week’s resignation SFPD Chief Bill Scott was reportedly at Lurie’s behest, according to Mission Local’s sources. That site also reported that Lurie wanted SFMTA director Jeffrey Tumlin out as well as SFDPH director Dr. Grant Colfax, and now both are gone.

So it sure seems consistent with this pattern that SF Planning Department director Rich Hillis announced his resignation Tuesday morning, in news broken by the Chronicle.

Granted, easily 90% of San Francisans have never heard of Rich Hillis and have no idea what the SF Planning Department even does. (They approve or deny permits for new development or renovations.) But this is huge news among City Hall insiders and local real estate developers, as the Planning Department is the No. 1 factor in whether SF will hit its state-mandated goal to build 82,000 new housing units by the year 2031.

“This was not an easy decision, but after more than 25 years of City service, this is the right time for me to make a change,” Hillis said in his resignation letter obtained by the Chronicle. “I’m looking forward to taking some time off and thinking about what is next for me.”

Wait… “taking some time off and thinking about what is next?” That sort of sounds like Lurie told Hillis he’d prefer to see a resignation letter. Though having watched more hours of Planning Commission meetings on SFGovTV than I am comfortable admitting, I can tell you that Rich Hillis has been a very YIMBY-friendly, pro-development department head. Rich Hillis is no Aaron Peskin, that’s for sure.

And Lurie had nothing but nice things to say about Hillis’s tenure (though he always says nice things about holdovers who resign on his watch).

“For more than two decades, Rich Hillis has been a model public servant and made people’s lives better in communities across San Francisco,” Lurie said in a statement to the Chronicle. “He has dedicated his career to advancing smart policies that make our city more affordable, welcoming, and vibrant.”

Though regardless of Hillis’s policy positions, his tenure has not seen much housing development. Much of that had to do with COVID — Hillis had the poor fortune of being appointed in February 2020.  And while Hillis did move mountains to pass that SF Housing Element plan for the 82,000 new units, those units haven’t really been moving through the pipeline in the two-and-a-half years since the housing element’s passage.  

That’s probably more because of construction costs and high interest rates more than any policy decision. But maybe Hillis had to fall on his sword, because he hasn’t been cutting deals with the well-heeled developers. And Daniel Lurie likes cutting deals with the well-heeled.

Hillis has worked various roles at City Hall since the Frank Jordan administration, and has climbed the ranks. His phone is already probably ringing with opportunities to be a developer lobbyist, so Hillis will be fine.

But this is another opportunity for Lurie to put his own stamp on the direction of the City and County of San Francisco, and opportunity he may have explicitly asked for.

Related: SFPD Chief Bill Scott Is Stepping Down — Did Lurie Push Him Out? [SFist]

Image: SFGovTV