An Interview with Ann Hutchinson, Senior Director of Municipal Planning, Natural Lands, 2022 College of Fells of AICP

What did you want to be when growing up? A scientist, because I used to visit my dad and other relatives in their labs and thought it looked fun.

What was your first job? Besides babysitting, I worked in a limestone factory in my small hometown in Illinois on the Mississippi River. My job was to take samples of limestone and mix them with other stuff to see if they could be used as plastic filler by the automobile industry. It turned out that the limestone did not hold colors well, so it didn’t work out.

How did you get into planning? I got hooked on planning after taking an architectural history class in college about the 1871 great fire of Chicago, and how architects and planners rebuilt the city. I went on for a Masters in Landscape Architecture. My first job in PA was in the planning office at Lower Merion Township, where I learned so much, especially about the MPC, from Charlie Guttenplan and later hired and enjoyed collaborating closely with Liz Rogan.

Municipal planners are known to endure long night meetings. What’s the latest you ever left a Township meeting? 2:10 am

What is a highlight of your career? Working with Randall Arendt on launching the Growing Greener – Conservation by Design program at Natural Lands. Randall was welcoming of new ideas and expanding the concept. It’s been really wonderful to work at a land trust that makes municipal planning such an important part of its mission, and to be surrounded by so many knowledgeable colleagues who freely share their conservation expertise, which benefits the work.

You will be inducted into the College of Fellows of the American Institute of Certified Planners at the national APA conference this May. What was your reaction when you found out? I felt extremely honored that my PA Chapter peers nominated me, it really means a lot to me. I was also surprised to learn that PA is not so well represented in the AICP College of Fellows, despite all the impactful planners we have here. But we can showcase our collective work in 2023, when the national conference returns to Philadelphia!