Chattanooga City Council recently confirmed Mayor Tim Kelly’s appointment of Dan Reuter as administrator for the Department of City Planning and Scott Martin as incoming administrator for the Department of Parks and Outdoors. Reuter joined City Planning Jan. 18, while Martin will start Feb. 1.
For three decades, Reuter has worked in planning, transportation and development in Georgia, where he’s managed projects supporting redevelopment, community improvement districts and planning for local and regional governments.
Reuter comes to the City of Chattanooga from RSI, a planning and economic-development firm based in Decatur, Georgia.
From 1999-2016, Reuter managed land use and community development at the Atlanta Regional Commission, and from 2004-2008 was an adjunct professor for Georgia Tech’s City and Regional Planning program.
Reuter is a fellow of the American Institute of Certified Planners and since 2005 has served on the American Planning Association’s Legislative and Policy Committee.
He is past chair of the APA Regional Planning Division, where he launched the Livable Communities Forum and served as president of the Georgia Planning Association.
Before ARC, Reuter directed the Douglas and Glynn County planning and zoning departments and was transportation planner for the Savannah-Chatham and Athens-Clarke County metropolitan planning organizations.
He holds a degree in business administration from the University of Georgia and a master’s degree from Georgia State University.
Reuter has launched several nonprofit organizations including the Chamblee Doraville CID, Peachtree Gateway Partnership, Aerotropolis Atlanta and the 75 Central Corridor Coalition.
Martin comes to Chattanooga from the River Heritage Conservancy, a nonprofit that created the 600-acre Origin Park on the Ohio River, where he served as executive director.
Previous leadership roles Martin has held include partnership coordinator for the park system in Boise, Idaho, where he helped to pass a ballot measure resulting in $10 million in new revenues for open-space preservation; director of parks and recreation, as well as director of commerce and leisure services, for Franklin County, Virginia; and parks director for The Parklands of Floyds Fork, a 4,000-acre public park system in Louisville, Kentucky.
Martin is North American co-chair and an executive board member for World Urban Parks. In 2021 he became a fellow in the American Academy for Parks and Recreation Administration.
Martin curated World Urban Parks’ 2020 Park Leadership series, which highlighted global innovation in park service equity, climate change, economic impact, homelessness in parks and healing for underserved communities.
In 2009, Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine appointed Martin to the Virginia Recreational Facilities Commission. Martin holds a Bachelor of Arts and an MBA in public administration from Boise State University.
Richey joins Chattanooga Heart Institute
Cardiothoracic surgeon Dr. Matthew Richey has joined The Chattanooga Heart Institute. Richey earned his medical degree from Creighton University School of Medicine in Omaha, Nebraska. He completed a general surgery residency at the University of Kansas in Kansas City and a cardiothoracic surgery fellowship from the University of Nebraska Medical Center, also in Omaha. He specializes in all aspects of cardiac surgery.