ABOUT
Eve Tapper Bio
Eve started her professional career as an aide for Congressman Sam Gejdenson in Washington, DC handling matters ranging from housing, transportation, seniors, health care and civil rights. This work included responding to letters and phone calls (perhaps this fact is exposing her age, there was no email back then) from constituents on a variety of issues. What she learned first and foremost, that she has carried with her in the rest of her professional life, is that what people really want is for their point of view to be heard. After six years on the job, Eve decided she wanted to get more involved in local projects and left Congress to pursue a Master’s Degree in Planning from the University of Virginia.
She received her degree in 1998 and immediately started working at the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission (M-NCPPC) in Silver Spring, Maryland where she helped create an area Master Plan for North and West Silver Spring and Takoma Park in Montgomery County, Maryland and a Trail Plan within a linear park in Potomac, Maryland.
Born and bred in Worcester, Massachusetts, in 2001, Eve and her husband Adam (this is not a joke), moved back to Massachusetts after over ten years living in the DC metro area. Her first job in the Commonwealth was as part-time planner for the Town of Lexington, MA, Adam’s hometown. In Lexington much of her focus was on analyzing proposed subdivision plans and researching and drafting zoning text amendments to be presented to Town Meeting.
In 2007, Eve was offered her “dream job”—working as the Economic Development specialist for the City of Newton, where she resides. The commute was easy and working in her own community for the first time ever, on projects that she could see completed, was exciting. Over the next several years, she moved within the Planning Department into the roles of Chief Zoning Code Official, Chief Planner for Current Planning and Acting Deputy Planning Director.
After six years as a staff member in the Department working closely with the Board of Aldermen on the special permit and zoning processes, Eve left her position in 2013 to run for a seat on the Board. Going door to door talking to voters reinforced her belief that people want their community leaders to listen to and understand their concerns. In its essence, working in municipal planning can be as political an endeavor as working in Congress.
The framework for Planners in a Pinch, LLC was envisioned in May, 2014 when the then-Newton Planning Director asked Eve to return to the department temporarily to “help out” in the Community Development Division while they were short staffed. She had never worked with the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) and HOME programs on the local level. But she knew the politics of the City and found she was a quick study on the issues.
Since then, Eve has worked as interim Planning Director in a number of different communities and has advised private clients on zoning issues.
Planners in a Pinch Communities
Since we started, Planners in a Pinch has worked in the following Massachusetts communities:
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Dedham
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Cohasset (2x)
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Boxborough
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Lexington (2x)
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Framingham
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Natick
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Newton (2x)
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Douglas
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Arlington
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Grafton
We have provided services ranging from acting as the Director of Community Development and Planning to collaborating with the existing professional team on an economic development grant program targeted to provide COVID-related relief to small businesses. We have also successfully recruited qualified applicants to permanently fill the open planner positions for our clients. And we are not always "one and done." You might think that once a permanent planning position has been filled, there would be no more need for our services. But we have been asked back in a few communities to work on special, short-term projects with the permanent team because we already have a sense of how to get things done in the community.