Rob Denys joined the City of Estevan in the spring of 1988, shortly after graduating from the University of Saskatchewan with an urban planning degree.
He was hired for a temporary, one-year position with the city, after the city received subdivision planning authority from the provincial government.
“They were looking for a junior planner to help them with their subdivision plans, zoning and that sort of thing,” said Denys, who noted he worked under the city engineer when he was hired.
He thought his stay in Estevan would be relatively short-term, regardless of whether his position would be extended past that first year.
Denys became the land development services manager in 2001, and ranks as one of the most tenured managers for the city. But he has decided it’s time to move on, and he will retire on Jan. 27, 2017.
“I’ve been here (almost) 29 years, and that’s a long career in any job, made even longer because I’ve been with the same organization,” said Denys. “I do have the opportunity now to retire, and I put a lot of thought into it. I consider myself to be fairly young yet, and I want to look at other opportunities.”
He recalls that he stayed with the city, in part, because they kept extending his job, and they asked him if he wanted to remain with the city once his job became permanent.
“I really came to enjoy Estevan, and I decided I would probably stay here for a few more years,” said Denys. “Twenty-nine years later, here I am.”
He was hired to be the land development services manager after that position was created in 2001.
“The building official at the time was also under the engineering department, and they didn’t really like that arrangement,” said Denys. “With the way my position evolved, I was kind of supervising the building official at the time anyways, so they thought it would be prudent to break land development out into a separate department from engineering, and put the building official under me.”
Denys and the building official were the employees in land development until a few years ago, when a junior planner was added to the department.
As the person in charge of land development, Denys was at the forefront for the city during the construction boom that occurred in Estevan from 2007 to 2014. The city set several records for the quantity and the value of the building permits. Several new residential subdivisions were constructed, and new commercial and industrial developments occurred.
“Since the 1980s, there has been hundreds upon hundreds of millions of dollars invested in this city,” said Denys. “It’s just amazing to see that even though we are a relatively small city, to see the amount of growth that we have had. It’s just mind-boggling.”
There have been boom and bust cycles in the past, and Denys said it meant he had to be one step ahead of what might happen.
“You have to do planning in the growth years, but you also have to do planning in the years that aren’t as active, because you have to be ready for the next cycle,” said Denys.
Those peak years were highly stressful, because he was short staffed. At times he didn’t have a building official, so he had to juggle his responsibilities as a department head and those of a building official.
He also had to balance the aspirations of council and private developers.
The last couple of years have remained busy, even though the quantity and the value of the permits has plunged due to concerns about the local economy. It diminishing number of permits has allowed Denys to catch up on work associated with developments in the city.
“We are ensuring that all development meets the obligations of those conditions of approval might have been at that time,” said Denys.
They also have to be ready for the next cycle of development in the city, which Denys believes is coming. The housing that was constructed during the peak years needs to be absorbed before that can happen.
“If local economic conditions do improve, we could certainly see an uptick going into 2017 and then 2018,” said Denys.
Denys hasn’t decided what he is going to do next, and whether he will seek another job associated with community planning. But he’s confident that he’s leaving the department in good hands with the staff that they have.
