Claremont names Gina Gavan as planning and development director

Homeowners seeking a permit, builders waiting on site-plan review and downtown businesses chasing approvals now have a new point person in Claremont: Gina Gavan, who started May 11 as director of planning and development. The city announced her appointment May 14, placing one of the city’s most powerful resident-facing offices under her leadership.

Gavan inherits a department that shapes daily decisions as much as long-range growth. Claremont’s planning and development office handles zoning, subdivision and site-plan guidance, building permits, business licenses and the codes that go with them. It operates from 14 North Street in Claremont, where applicants are told to check whether a residence or business expansion must meet local zoning, subdivision and site plan rules before moving ahead.

The city says Gavan brings more than 20 years of experience in business consulting, events, economic development, municipal innovation, strategic planning, business attraction and community revitalization. Her recent work included sponsorship and membership development for the Henderson Chamber of Commerce in Nevada and service as chief development officer for a nonprofit in Las Vegas. Before that, she was chief innovation officer and director of economic development for North Las Vegas, where she worked on redevelopment, infrastructure expansion, business attraction, workforce development and large-scale projects.

That background matters in Claremont because the planning director will be central to how projects move through the city’s system. The Claremont Planning Board reviews master plan development and development proposals through site-plan, special-permit and subdivision processes, so the department director becomes a key link between applicants, staff and the board. The city’s 2017 Master Plan was built from a 2016 public vision session, 230 surveys and more than 100 public subcommittee meetings, showing how much local input has already gone into the city’s development priorities.

Claremont is Sullivan County’s only city, and its growth story still reflects the Sugar River, where early development was tied to water power and the mills that followed, including textile, paper and machinery operations. That history helps explain why planning decisions in a city of 12,949 people at the 2020 census, and an estimated 13,105 in July 2024, can carry outsized weight.

Gavan arrives as the city pushes ahead with major projects that will demand close coordination from the planning office. The Route 12 and North Street project calls for reconstruction, realignment and widening of about 5,200 feet of roadway approaches, along with waterline installation, drainage work and traffic disruptions including lane closures and alternating one-way traffic. Claremont also received an $800,000 EPA brownfields grant for assessment, cleanup and reuse planning at Sugar River sites, including the former Synergy/Monadnock Gas Works site and the former Joy Manufacturing/Foundry site. A separate FY2026 congressional request sought $1.4 million for Sugar River revitalization and brownfields redevelopment, including a riverwalk connection.

The planning office says it is open weekdays from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., and permit and business-license work is handled through OpenGov or directly through the office. For builders, property owners and merchants, the city’s next round of decisions will now pass through Gavan’s desk at 14 North Street.