This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2017, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
The Salt Lake City Council on Tuesday unanimously approved Danny Walz to lead the Redevelopment Agency, ending a second search for Justin Belliveau's successor with much less drama than the first.
Walz, who has served for nearly 13 years as Midvale's Redevelopment Agency (RDA) director, told council members Tuesday that he interned with Salt Lake City's RDA — with "no idea what a redevelopment agency did or how it worked" — and worked his way up to senior project manager.
Now he's president of the Utah Redevelopment Association, and city leaders tried to woo him during an earlier job search that led to the April nomination of East Coast attorney Marc Woolley.
Mayor Jackie Biskupski pulled Wolley from consideration when The Salt Lake Tribune reported that he had been named in whistleblower lawsuits relating to his work at the Philadelphia Housing Authority from 1999 to 2003.
So the city tried again with Walz, and this time he was more receptive.
Walz said Tuesday that, during his previous stint with the city, he had worked on a wide range of projects, from small business renovation loans to the downtown Marriott.
He told Councilman and RDA board Vice Chairman Derek Kitchen that at first glance, the agency's biggest opportunities are its State Street, 9-Line and Northwest Quadrant projects.
Councilwoman and RDA board Chairwoman Lisa Adams asked what Walz makes of the city's arduous move to a separation of powers — in which the council, as RDA board, determines policy and budget, but Walz will report to Biskupski.
"The hard part is trying to find the balance of that," Walz said. "That's the unenviable position that we will be in. But if we do it right, everyone will get a win out of it and you're not fighting."
Walz is a District 7 resident and ran for City Council in 2005, losing in the primary.
As head of the RDA, it is his responsibility to restore blighted and underutilized areas of the city and support the city's goals of increasing the stock of affordable housing. The agency is allocated $62 million in the 2017-18 budget.
Belliveau left earlier this year to own and operate a craft brewery.
Twitter: @matthew_piper