LAMORINDA WEEKLY | Orinda hires new Planning Director, previously with Contra Costa County


New Orinda City Planning Director Lashun Cross Photo Sora O'Doherty

Orinda officials, including Mayor Darlene Gee and City Manager David Biggs, are expressing their delight at hiring Lashun Cross to be Orinda's next Planning Director, replacing long-serving Drummond Buckley who retired after many years with the city. Cross was a senior planner at Contra Costa County before joining the city team.

Originally from Miami, Florida, Cross moved to California when her childless aunt and uncle offered her a home in San Leandro. They had only one condition: she had to agree to work. Cross had no problem with that, and was soon working at a pizza restaurant, while she finished high school early. She enrolled in classes at Chabot college during her senior year, and only applied to UC Berkeley and San Luis Obispo.

Knowing that her aunt and uncle would prefer that she stay close to them, Cross enrolled at Berkeley in 1992, entering the School of Environmental Design. Cross says that her grandfather has averred that she always wanted to be an architect from a young age.

The new Planning Director agrees that she has always been fascinated with how things look. "I've traveled a lot," Cross says, "from Egypt to Russia to France and Italy, and Egypt impressed me the most because of how different it looked."

After graduation, Cross worked for the city and county of San Francisco, under then Mayor Willy Brown in the Department of Public Works, Bureau of Streets and Environmental Services, and later working at the airport dealing with regional water quality control compliance issues. Cross still remembers getting a license to drive on the tarmac, and being the subject of a complaint from a pilot on her first time trying it out. "I didn't think I was that close to the airplane," she recalls.

In her more than 24 years with Contra Costa County, Cross worked on the airport land use commission and the Doherty Valley development in San Ramon - a development of 11,000 housing units in the unincorporated county area later annexed to San Ramon. Cross was with the county as the project went from paper to built.

Cross, who lives in Pinole with her partner and her adopted son, says that what really drew her to Orinda was Plan Orinda. She likes the small town feel of Orinda and wants to see the downtown precise plan implemented. Cross added that she looks for inspiration close by, citing the development of downtown Lafayette and Walnut Creek.

Cross is spending her time getting to know the staff and the Orinda code. She had her first meeting with city attorney Osa Wolff. "I fell like this will be a good relationship," Cross said. "I like that she gives her reasoning and respects you." After taking a quick break to Hawaii, Cross is now settling in to work at the Orinda Planning Department.