Pittsburgh mayor names new city planning director and zoning administrator

PITTSBURGH — How the new administration of Mayor Corey O’Connor will handle any new citywide planning initiatives is yet to be determined after Pittsburgh City Council voted at the end of the year to cancel the remaining contracts for outgoing Mayor Ed Gainey’s $6 million comprehensive planning initiative.

Yet he will start his new administration with new leadership of the city’s Department of City Planning, announcing late Friday that he has named Ivette Mongalo-Winston as director of city planning and Carolyn Ristau as the new zoning administrator. Mongalo-Winston replaces Jamil Bey and Ristau takes the position long held by Corey Layman.

According to her LinkedIn profile, Mongalo-Winston has spent the past 10 years leading her own firm specializing in urban design, planning and policy, and before that spent 10 years at downtown-based Urban Design Associates, a highly influential and well-connected architecture firm, where she worked as a designer and project manager.