Isaacson to discuss economic development, county comprehensive plan update
Elias Isaacson will field questions on economic development and the 2026 Comprehensive Plan update at a noon lunch talk in the Unitarian Church Fellowship Hall.
Economic development, housing and the county’s next comprehensive plan update will be on the table when Community Development Director Elias Isaacson meets residents at the League of Women Voters of Los Alamos’s Lunch with a Leader. The gathering is set for Thursday, June 18, at the Unitarian Church Fellowship Hall on N. Sage Street, with attendees arriving around 11:45 a.m. to eat the lunches they bring, talk with neighbors and hear Isaacson speak at noon before a question-and-answer session.
Isaacson is expected to use the forum to walk through how Los Alamos County is approaching growth and business development, and how the 2026 update to the County Comprehensive Plan is taking shape. That combination matters in a place where the questions are rarely abstract. Residents are already weighing housing supply, permitting, redevelopment and how to keep commercial areas viable without erasing the county’s small-scale character.
Isaacson took over as community development director on May 12, 2025, after the Los Alamos County Council approved his appointment on March 11, 2025. He came to Los Alamos after leading community development for the City of Santa Barbara, and he previously held senior leadership roles in Santa Fe and Española. County reporting said his main focus areas are housing and economic development, a pairing that puts him at the center of some of the county’s most persistent policy debates.
He also brings outside perspective through his work on the boards of The Housing Trust in Santa Fe and the North Central New Mexico Economic Development District. The League’s event listing says he lives in Santa Fe with his wife, Jessie, and their son, River. Those details may sound personal, but they also point to a planner whose career has moved through several New Mexico communities with different growth pressures and land-use challenges.
That broader experience could shape the way he talks about Los Alamos’ own limits. County economic-development materials say Los Alamos has scarce land and is focused on infill and redevelopment opportunities, not sprawling expansion. The county has already adopted downtown Los Alamos and White Rock town center master plans, created the White Rock Metropolitan Redevelopment Area and completed a comprehensive update to Chapter 16 of its Development Code. In that context, the June 18 discussion is not a ceremonial lunch. It is a preview of decisions that will affect neighborhood growth, project timelines and the county’s direction for months to come.
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