AMHERST — Several mixed-use buildings in downtown Amherst constructed over the past decade are enhancing the town’s tax base, providing both housing options for families and individuals and revenue needed to support municipal services and public education.

With many of these developments being advanced during Planning Director Christine Brestrup’s leadership, she has strived to ensure opinions from the public are heard as projects go through the permitting process, which leads to a better end result.

“We are helping developers to navigate the permitting process, and also helping the public understand the process,” Brestrup says of her role in overseeing the Planning Department. “It’s about helping the public to understand the impact they can have and the constructive criticism they can offer.”

Set to retire Friday after nearly a decade at the helm, and more than 20 years in the office, Brestrup said she feels an obligation to help people understand how development happens so they have less anxiety and can also offer input to improve projects allowed by town zoning, such as having sufficient screening from neighboring properties or finding ways to scale back a building’s size.

Planning staff, she said, works with developers as plans unfold.

“Staff knows the town well, so they can respond in appropriate ways to shape development,” Brestrup said. “A lot of experience has come to bear on that, and we know what we can recommend to a developer to make it better.”

Brestrup appreciates that so much of the development happening is consistent with the town’s first master plan, adopted by the Planning Board in 2010, though that plan’s origins date to the 1970s and potential impacts from the growing University of Massachusetts campus.

“The master plan we have is great,” Brestrup said. “It’s genius that development should be directed to downtown and village centers, showing foresight people had in place to preserve open space and outlying areas of town.”

Town Manager Paul Bockelman praised Brestrup’s dedication and commitment to the town and being a consummate professional in leading Amherst’s planning efforts.

“She is the embodiment of integrity, intellectual rigor and professionalism,” Bockelman said. “She is an excellent listener and treats everyone with respect.”

Brestrup has also strengthened trust in the Planning Department and positioned it well for success, he said.

Brestrup returned to the department in 2003, after working there in 1979 and 1980 as a graduate student in Landscape Architecture at UMass, and wrote the first handicapped access plan. She had departed for other work, including founding a landscape architecture company. “When this job opening came along, I thought maybe I could do that,” Brestrup said.

Starting as a land-use planner assisting the Zoning Board of Appeals, she then worked with the Planning Board, understanding that it was an “awesome job and awesome responsibility.”

Brestrup moved to her current position in 2015, succeeding Jonathan Tucker.

“I like being in a position where I can serve the public,” Brestrup said.

Much of the work is focused on private development, with Archipelago Investments and Barry Roberts two of the more prominent developers proposing new buildings. One building she looks at as a good project for Amherst is 26 Spring, across from the Inn on Boltwood and next to Grace Episcopal Church. That was built on a vacant lot and now offers apartments and eventually will have businesses along the street.

“That fits really well in the location and is a reflection of the architecture of Grace Church,” she said.

North Square, a development that went up in the Mill District on W.D. Cowls land, is also one she points to. “It’s a beautiful addition, 130 units, 26 that are affordable, with an interesting mix of stores, and really adds to the livelihood of that part of Amherst,” Brestrup said.

While the name of the department implies that its work prepares for the town’s future development, Brestrup said more time is actually spent on permitting projects. This includes staffing meetings of the Planning Board, Zoning Board of Appeals, Historical Commission and Design Review Board, writing up development application reports provided to these panels, and then drafting decisions, with conditions and findings.

In terms of planning, though, planners are currently helping to coordinate with Dodson & Flinker consultants creation of design standards for downtown properties. People are already being given an opportunity to talk to each other, having conversations and listening to those with differing viewpoints.

Brestrup has seen the various views play out in other ways, such as with a working group for the drafting of a solar bylaw, with some speaking to the urgency to develop green energy due to the climate crisis, and others advocating a cautious approach, especially if solar means compromising forests and farmland.

Like other municipal planning departments, it’s been difficult to stay fully staffed, even with people coming out of programs at UMass. Currently, Brestrup’s team includes Nate Malloy as senior planner, Jacinta Williams as a planner, with the second planner position vacant, planning program assistant Pamela Field-Sadler. The team also work closely with Building Commissioner Rob Morra and Jennifer Mullins, permit administrator.

Brestrup cites accomplishments during her tenure, including seeing the installation of directional signs and welcoming signs, a project that began a decade ago with the Business Improvement District. Seth Gregory Design refined designs and W.S. Sign Design crafted them. Just last year, three welcome signs were installed, one near the Emily Dickinson Museum on Main Street, the others at approaches to town on Northampton Road and Amity Street. Other directional blade signs for sites in town were also installed by the Department of Public Works.

She was also instrumental in new playgrounds at both Kendrick Park in town center and Groff Park in South Amherst, and the nearly completed refurbishing of North Common, where community consensus was reached on plans initiated by Weston & Sampson and then completed by town civil engineer Paul Dethier, ensuring that the town’s front yard would have grass, trees and areas to picnic.

Brestrup said she is hopeful about a proposed overlay district that would allow more mixed-use buildings to go up on University Drive and have more properties there reach their full potential for housing, shops and services. That proposal will be the subject of hearings by both the Planning Board and Community Resources Committee this fall.

Brestrup said she hopes her leadership has been good for the town.

“I’ve taken a personal approach, being a real person, and wanting to hear what others think,” Brestrup said.

Scott Merzbach can be reached at smerzbach@gazettenet.com.