Arthur Jemison, recently named head of Boston’s Planning Department, will leave his position next month and return to Michigan, where he will serve as executive director of the Detroit Housing Commission.

His work with Mayor Wu has been relatively brief – he arrived in May 2022 – but his term has been a productive one, helped no doubt by his previous experiences working in City Hall with the Boston Planning and Development Authority (BPDA) and the Boston Housing Authority (BHA).

In a statement to The Reporter this week, the mayor called Jemison “an exceptional leader and partner to accomplish our shared vision for Boston’s growth – grounded in affordability, resiliency, and equity.”

In a letter that he sent to the Planning Department staff last Thursday, Jemison, who has been living in Dorchester while his family has stayed in Michigan, said he is moving back home because “I need to be more available to my family.”

He also used the letter to outline his beliefs about municipal planning and development – “I believe in growing Boston by leading with planning and elevating design. I believe in reforming the zoning code, modernizing development review, and ensuring public land for public good. Together, we made incredible progress to meet these priorities over the last 2+ years, and today our organization is thriving and set up for success in its next chapter.” 

And he laid out what he saw as the department’s successes, among them, “approximately 11,000 new housing units, including 3,790 income restricted units approved in two years. …We have also successfully launched Article 80 modernization, Squares + Streets, and are working hard on comprehensive citywide zoning reform.”

He added: “I want to share my gratitude to Mayor Wu for giving me this opportunity. It has been my honor to serve the residents of Boston as part of her administration.” He also noted that Devin Quirk, the former deputy chief of the BPDA and now the deputy chief of the Planning Department, will serve as acting director when he heads for Detroit.

The story of Jemison’s imminent leave-taking sort of leaked out of City Hall via reports in The Globe that carried reactions by actors on the Boston development stage and a Dorchester politician.

“He was trusted by the development community to be honest and authentic with them, and to have an understanding of the vicissitudes of the development process in the midst of high interest rates and supply chain issues,” Ted Landsmark, a BPDA board member and professor at Northeastern University, told the paper. “He initiated a transformative process that laid the foundation for changes the mayor promised.”

City Councillor John FitzGerald, who represents Dorchester and worked on development for the city for some 17 years, had opposed creating a planning department while serving on the council. He told The Globe that he has heard reports of low morale due to the many changes facing the department’s 210 employees.

“I think we’ve already seen a drain of institutional knowledge come out of that agency,” he added. “The timing is tough right now. We need to make sure the city continues to grow.”