The Renaissance City Development Association has tapped longtime Norwich planning director and Waterford Selectman Peter Davis as the agency’s new executive director in a partnership with New London that calls for an expanded role for the economic development agency.  

Davis, 59, who has extensive planning and zoning experience in Norwich, political service in Waterford and family ties to New London, will become RCDA’s first paid director since 2006.

Davis is expected to earn $80,000 a year to lead New London's nonprofit development arm.

The City Council on Tuesday agreed to allocate $100,000 to the RCDA from a special fund set up under former city manager Martin Berliner and earmarked for RCDA's predecessor, the New London Development Corp.

The RCDA has additionally applied for $30,000 from the Community Development Block Grant program. A portion of the money will pay for Davis' salary.

Davis will begin the new position March 7, but for the first month, will serve both as RCDA executive director and Norwich director of planning and development until his retirement from that post April 4.

Davis said he would use accrued vacation time for any time away from the Norwich office during that time. He will retain his position as the Democratic Waterford selectman.

Davis said he was approached about his potential interest in the RCDA position shortly after the Waterford election, when he lost a bid for the first selectman’s seat but was elected to the Board of Selectmen.

RCDA attorney Karl-Erik Sternlof asked a mutual acquaintance if he thought Davis would be interested in the position.

He said he was hesitant after the first meeting with RCDA President Linda Mariani, Mark Christiansen and Sternlof, because the funding partnership with the city and the agency’s new duties were not yet defined.

A second meeting in December and two brief meetings with Mayor Michael Passero solidified Davis’ interest in the position.

“What I took from all the conversations was that there is a real change in attitude in New London,” Davis said. “I think there’s a group really committed to doing the work necessary to get something done. Passero is leading the charge.”

The agreement between RCDA and the city, to be signed by Passero, calls for collaboration between the city's Office of Development and Planning and the RCDA beyond the Fort Trumbull neighborhood where development focus has been through the years.

The agreement states that RCDA staff will be responsible for tasks that will include work on the city's plan of conservation and development and harbor management plan.

Davis said he did not know Passero before his two meetings with the newly elected mayor. But his brother, Dan Davis, is a long-time New London firefighter and served with Passero in the fire department.

Davis said his varied background in planning and zoning, business and politics should help prepare him for the New London position, which he called “a challenge” and “exciting.”

He has worked closely with the Norwich Community Development Corp., a similar agency that serves as Norwich economic development arm.

Davis grew up in Waterford, but his mother was born and raised in New London — in the same neighborhood with Passero’s family.

Davis’ grandfather had established a New London insurance agency in 1903.

Davis’ father, Herb Davis, moved the agency to Waterford with the family and started getting involved in local government.

Peter Davis ran the agency for about 14 years before starting his career in planning and zoning.

Herb Davis served as Waterford first selectman from 1971 to 1975, and Peter Davis entered town government in his early 20s, serving on Conservation Commission, the Representative Town Meeting and the Board of Finance.

He was elected as a selectman in 2003, but declined to seek re-election when his Norwich duties expanded to cover economic development under then-Mayor Benjamin Lathrop.

He didn’t seek elected office in Waterford again until last fall.

In Norwich, Davis was hired as the city’s first zoning enforcement officer in 1989 after serving for eight months as the wetlands officer in Salem.

Norwich created the position after a series of complaints in the rapidly growing Route 82 commercial district, Davis recalled.

He called then-City Planner Kathy Warzecha his first mentor in his planning career.

When Warzecha left Norwich, City Manager William Tallman consolidated the planning, zoning, housing and building departments in the mid-1990s and appointed Davis as the director.

The combined offices became the focal point for the city’s response to the rise of the region’s two casinos, handling the multitude of new housing developments, renovations of suddenly valuable downtown derelict apartment buildings and a variety of ethnic restaurants, grocery stores and businesses to serve the new immigrant population.

Those offices also dealt with the onslaught of housing complaints, overcrowding, illegal apartments and other problems also associated with the casinos.

“Nobody likes the problems, but dealing with the dynamic changes the casinos brought as a professional has been like a free education,” Davis said. “There’s been good and bad, obviously.”

Staff writer Greg Smith contributed to this report

c.bessette@theday.com

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