Robert Yaro will retire as president of the Regional Plan Association at the end of the year, the New York City-based urban planning group announced.
Executive director Thomas Wright will succeed him as president, the organization said in an Aug. 7 statement. Yaro, 64, who has been with RPA for 25 years, will serve as RPA president emeritus and senior advisor, consulting on policy matters.
"Bob Yaro has built an extraordinary record of accomplishment at RPA, transforming the organization into a civic powerhouse whose work shapes public policy in our region and in urban areas around the world," said RPA Chairman and former Metropolitan Transportation Authority chief executive Elliot Sander.
Under Yaro, RPA has advocated improvements in transportation, economic development and environmental sustainability in the the New York-New Jersey-Connecticut metropolitan region. Many of these projects had their roots in RPA's third regional plan, "A Region at Risk," which Yaro shepherded in the 1990s.
