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Rumors that Planning Director Carol Barrett has resigned her post swirled around City Hall Thursday.  

While the City Manager’s Office made no official announcement about the resignation and Barrett did not return calls to the Daily Planet, the city of San Marcos, Texas, posted an announcement on its Web site Thursday that City Manager Dan O’Leary had hired Barrett as its new Director of Planning.  

Barrett came to Berkeley from Austin, Texas, in September 2001. The two cities had stark differences in their planning processes. Austin was coming off a 10-year growth spurt during which the city grew by nearly 200,000 residents.  

Berkeley, which is already built up, had a 10-year growth spurt of exactly 136 people according to the 2000 Federal Census.  

Barrett took over at a time when there was both heavy pressure to create more housing in Berkeley and intense resistance to development. The resistance came from vocal and knowledgeable neighborhood groups who worried tall, dense, infill development would alter the character of their neighborhoods.  

The city’s Planning Department consists of about 70 full-time employees and is budgeted at about $9 million annually. Planning Department divisions include Toxics Management, Current Planning and Building and Safety.  

According to the San Marcos Web site, Barrett will take over a planning department with 15 employees and a budget of $577,000.