Neighbor Spotlight: Retiring Pine manager Scott Anderson reflects on opportunity to help shape the community
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Editor’s note: Neighbor Spotlight is a monthly feature that aims to let our readers learn more about the people in their communities who are working to make them a better place, who have interesting stories to tell or who the community feels deserve “15 minutes of fame.” If you would like to nominate someone as a Neighbor Spotlight, see pinecreekjournal.com, select the “Post Story” button in the upper right corner and complete the form to publish your nomination. Questions? Email Neighborhood News Network editor Katie Green at kgreen@triblive.com.
It’s not everybody who can look back as they end their career and see the goals they set out to achieve have been realized.
But all Pine manager Scott Anderson needs do to see the fruits of his labor is take a walk in the park or a drive through town.
Anderson, 66, announced recently that he is stepping down after 32 years of working with the township.
He has been asked to serve as a part-time consultant for the municipality through the end of the year to assist the new manager, Jason Kratsas. After that, Anderson plans to step away completely.
As Anderson reflects on his time with the township — 20 years in code enforcement followed by a short stint as assistant manager and then manager — he can proudly point to enhancements to the community, such as the development of the community park and in recent years, the addition of a splash pad for children.
But some initiatives that have helped shape the community are not as evident.
Anderson said the completion of Interstate 279 in the 1980s ushered in an unprecedented level of development.
“Until the late ’80s, there hadn’t been much development here at all,” Anderson said. “It was still mostly family farms and large tracts of land.
“But after I-279 was finished, developers realized that people could now drive to the city fairly quickly without ever having to go through a tunnel.”
The township also remained relatively undeveloped prior to the 1980s because public water and sewer lines had not yet been extended to the community, Anderson said.
Anderson said the township responded to the demand for new housing and the potential problems it could bring by developing a comprehensive plan that gathered input from residents and other stakeholders in the community.
“One of the recurring themes that came out of that comprehensive plan was that there was a strong desire for us to maintain our rural feel,” he said. “To me, that means focusing on the density of the ares that are being developed.”
In addition to setting minimum lot sizes to address density, the township imposed a “greenway” component to its zoning requirements.
“We have 25 miles of state roads in the township, and what you would typically see is homes being developed along them with the front of the house facing the road,” he said. “But we said, you’ve got to push the homes away from the roads.
“It’s one of the biggest things we did, and it’s had the most visual impact,” Anderson said.
While developers weren’t forced to change the orientation of the homes they built, the township’s rules made doing so desirable because it maximized the green space in a neighborhood, which became a selling point for the properties, Anderson said.
The township also developed design standards to guide developers when selecting materials, colors and other visual components.
While township officials were forward-thinking about creating a system of controlled development, the state’s requirements for managing stormwater created unforeseen problems that had to be corrected at the local level.
“Back in the 1980s when the developments were going in, the state didn’t require that the ponds being installed to collect stormwater be maintained,” Anderson said. “They just built them and forgot about it.”
Uncontrolled runoff from stormwater is a major source of water pollution because it carries silt and other contaminants into waterways, which can kill aquatic life.
To address the “orphan” stormwater ponds in the township, Pine launched a program that included assessing a fee on property owners to recoup the cost of having the municipality clear the ponds.
The township demonstrated its commitment to controlling stormwater when it faced making budget cuts in anticipation of revenue shortfalls because of the pandemic.
Despite the budget challenges, they didn’t touch the $587,000 budgeted this year for stormwater projects.
Anderson said while becoming the township’s manager was never a goal, he has relished the opportunity to lead the township.
“I get a great deal of satisfaction out of seeing things get done,” he said.
Anderson, a lifelong bachelor, said he still is making plans for how he will spend his time when he no longer has to punch a clock.
“I think I’d like to travel a little bit more,” he said. “And play a lot more golf.”