William (Bill) Anderson, FAICP 

Founder/Principal, W Anderson City Planning + Economics, LLC/dba CITECON

Selected Positions:

Present:

Founder/Principal, CITECON
Lecturer, Urban Economics, Department of Urban Studies & Planning, University of California, San Diego

Previous:

Principal, City Economics + Planning, ARUP

Principal/VP, Director, City & Regional Planning, Americas, AECOM

Director, Planning & Community Investment, DCOO, City of San Diego

Deputy Executive Director, San Diego Redevelopment Agency

Senior Vice-President, Economics Research Associates (ERA)

Research Assistant, Harvard-MIT Joint Center for Housing Studies

Business Analyst, Dun & Bradstreet

Boards & Commissions (Present & Past):

Present:

ULI Urban Revitalization Council, Gold Flight (Vice-Chair)

San Diego Parks Foundation, (Audit Committee Chair)

San Diego River Park Foundation

Past:

American Planning Association (President)

California Planning Roundtable (President)

City Heights Community Development Corporation

San Diego Regional Economic Development Corporation

SanGIS, (Chair)

San Diego Public Facilities Finance Corporation

San Diego Planning Commission (Chair, Member)

ULI San Diego/Tijuana District Council

Citizens Coordinate for Century 3 (President)

Education:

B.A. Economics/Political Science, Claremont McKenna College

Masters City & Regional Planning, Harvard University, KSG

Bill’s focus is comprehensive planning, city and development economics, and implementation, working on projects in cities and regions throughout California, the United States, and internationally. He is a lecturer on urban economic development at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD), and serves as a senior advisor on planning and development engagements under the dba CITECON.

Bill’s 42-year professional experience includes Principal for City Economics + Planning at Arup, a global engineering and consultancy firm, a Principal/Vice-President and Director of City & Regional Planning - Americas for AECOM, a global multidisciplinary company, and a Sr. VP for Economics Research Associates, a national economic planning and market research firm with an international practice. With these firms, Bill has worked on economic planning engagements in over twenty-five states and in nine countries.

His government experience includes serving as Director of City Planning & Community Investment (CPCI) for the City of San Diego; Deputy Executive Director of the Redevelopment Agency; and Deputy Chief Operating Officer overseeing Planning, Economic Development, Real Estate Assets, Facilities Financing, and Development Services. Bill chaired SANDAG’s Technical Working Group of the region’s planning directors, SanGIS, and was a board member of the San Diego Public Facilities Financing Authority. Working with a team of city planners and with extensive public input, he directed adoption of San Diego’s City of Villages General Plan, which received APA’s prestigious Daniel Burnham Award for national excellence in comprehensive planning. It was California’s first large jurisdiction general plan successfully adopted in compliance with AB32, the landmark climate law. The Plan transitions future growth towards clustered, infill, mixed-use villages of different scales, designed for walking, biking, and transit access to preserve regional habitat and open space, and to reduce vehicle miles traveled, greenhouse gas emissions, and water consumption as the city grows its economy, jobs, households, and population.

A Fellow of the American Institute of Certified Planners, Bill is a former chair of APA’s Economic Development Division and was national President of the 38,000-member American Planning Association from 2013-15. A Filipino-American, Bill is currently supporting the formation of an Asian/Pacific Islander division at APA. With Dr. David Godschalk of the University of North Carolina, Bill co-edited the Planning Advisory Services (PAS) report Sustaining Places: The Role of the Comprehensive Plan. Bill was President of the California Planning Roundtable from 2018-2021, a 42-yr old resource group of public, private, and academic planners focused on planning issues facing the state, providing policy advisory and leadership training. Bill is a Vice-Chair of the Urban Land Institute’s Urban Revitalization Council and serves on ULI’s Curtis Infrastructure Forum leadership team organized by ULI to address sustainable and resilient infrastructure issues broadly defined and the role of the real estate industry in achieving objectives. Bill is also a member of Lambda Alpha, a land economics honorary society.

Bill’s public service activities include serving as President of Citizens Coordinate for Century 3, San Diego’s oldest planning and environmental advocacy group, a Mayoral appointed member/chair of the City of San Diego Planning Commission from 1995-2003, a board member of the City Heights Community Development Corporation from 2011-19, a board member of the San Diego Regional Economic Development Corporation, a founding and current board member of the San Diego Parks Foundation, focused on raising funds to support park improvements and recreation programs, with a particular emphasis on San Diego’s older, diverse communities, and a board member of the San Diego River Park Foundation.

Bill received his B.A. in Economics & Political Science from Claremont McKenna College, with coursework at the Danish International Student (DIS) program, and Master’s in City & Regional Planning from Harvard University.

Specific engagement and client experience available upon request.