Sean Pritchard is many things: 35 years old, a father of five, a lifelong northender and, as of this month, the first city planner in Springfield's 203-year history.
"The typical planner in a mid-sized city of around 100,000 would be someone with a master's degree in urban planning," said Andrew Greenlee, a professor of urban and regional planning at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. "Many local government planners also choose to become certified planners and pursue the American Institute of Certified Planner's credential."
Pritchard doesn't have a college degree. He attended Lincoln Land Community College but never earned an associate's degree.
Stephanie Brown, president of the Illinois chapter of the American Planning Association, said the capital city has been an outlier among Illinois municipalities in that it has not had a planner on staff.
Since the 1970s, the city has contracted with the Springfield-Sangamon County Regional Planning Commission for its planning work. The closest Springfield has come to having a city planner was when then-Mayor Tim Davlin hired Paul O'Shea in 2006 to serve as the city's planning and design coordinator. O'Shea, an architect who also had extensive experience in historic preservation, held the position until 2015.
However, he was clear that his role was not the same as that of a true city planner.
In a Guestwork column O'Shea wrote for Illinois Times, he recounted the conversation he had with Davlin when he was first asked to come work for the city ("Springfield needs a city planner," June 2, 2016).
"...I'm an architect and I respect those who possess the education, formal training, experience and expertise of a city planner, so it's best for me not to assume the expectations of that role," O'Shea told Davlin, explaining why he didn't want the title of city planner.
Brown said there is no precise qualification to be a part of the profession.
"For the most part, we either have a four-year bachelor's degree in urban planning or a bachelor's degree in some related fields like geography, political science, architecture or landscape architecture, and then a master's degree in urban and regional planning," she said.
But she added since urban planners are not a licensed profession, there are no minimum educational credentials that must be met, unlike architects or engineers.
"Urban planning is hard to define sometimes because it is so diverse... where people come from. It could be more the advocacy side of things to the technical economic development. You can have a wide range of backgrounds and still find your way into urban planning," Brown said.
"There are people who serve as urban planners across the state who did not get an education specifically in urban planning. But they kind of found their way into the profession one way or the other," she said.
Pritchard said he left college because he became a father at a young age.
"I started a degree, but I had a child at a young age," he said. "I'm so proud of her. She's going to be a freshman next year."
Early in his career, Pritchard sold insurance for Horace Mann and later did underwriting and internal audits for the company. In between stints at Horace Mann, he was a financial sales consultant at PNC bank and a business development manager at Barnes & Noble.
Pritchard joined the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity in February 2020. One of the positions he served in was acting deputy director of business development, where he played a role in developing and managing incentive programs that generated business investments across Illinois.
Pritchard noted that he has acquired "a multitude of designations" throughout his employment experiences.
"Not only do I have certifications in cybersecurity, but I have multiple designations and certifications across the gamut. I'm certified as a women's business advocate through one of the banks that I worked with. I'm an associate of customer service through what was called LOMA, a nationally recognized designation of insurance companies," he said.
Val Yazell, the city's director of planning and economic development, said she is not concerned that Pritchard does not have a degree. Both Yazell and Mayor Misty Buscher's chief of staff, Mike Disco, interviewed Pritchard for the job.
"For me, what was appealing was his experience with DCEO, understanding resources for the community, and he just kind of thinks outside the box, which is something that I think we need. We need to rethink how to approach development in the city," Yazell said.
Pritchard said two priority areas for revitalization are Springfield's impoverished east side and the city's downtown.
"(I) want to focus on the east side and downtown – piggybacking off of the work of the Medical District plan – just understanding how we can bring more businesses, more affordable housing to both downtown and east side," he said.
Yazell, who will retire at the end of this month, described the planner as someone who will "fine-tune" the vision for the city.
"I think this is someone who will be working in economic development but also help the mayor fine-tune her vision, focus on the areas where she's putting out fires. ... This will be someone who will have a dedicated amount of time to spend looking at the city and evaluating where land development should be (and) analyzing some of the data that we have that, unfortunately, sometimes just sits on the shelves."
Scott Reeder, a staff writer for Illinois Times, can be reached at sreeder@illinoistimes.com.