William Anderson

Biography: Bill’s focus is comprehensive city and regional planning, development economics, and implementation, working on projects in cities and regions throughout the United States and internationally. He is a lecturer on urban economic development at the University of California, San Diego, and serves as a senior advisor to clients on planning and development under the dba CITECON. Bill’s professional experience includes Principal for City Economics at Arup; Principal/VP and Director of City & Regional Planning, Americas for AECOM; and a Sr. VP for Economics Research Associates. With these firms, Bill has worked on economic planning engagements in thirty states and ten countries. His government experience includes serving as Director of City Planning & Community Investment for the City of San Diego; Deputy Executive Director of the San Diego Redevelopment Agency; and Deputy Chief Operating Officer. Bill chaired the San Diego Association of Governments’ Technical Working Group of the region’s planning directors, chaired SanGIS, and was a board member of the San Diego Public Facilities Financing Authority. He directed adoption of San Diego’s City of Villages General Plan, which received APA’s prestigious Daniel Burnham Award for national excellence in comprehensive planning. It was California’s first large jurisdiction general plan adopted in compliance with AB32, the landmark climate law. An FAICP, Bill was national President of the 38,000-member American Planning Association from 2013-15, President of the California Planning Roundtable from 2018-2021, is a Vice-Chair of ULI’s Urban Revitalization Council and serves on ULI’s Curtis Infrastructure Forum leadership team. Bill received his B.A. in Economics and Political Science from Claremont McKenna College, and Master’s in City and Regional Planning from Harvard University.