George Proakis named planning director

George Proakis has become planning director for the City of Somerville, Massachusetts, after seven years as a city planner for Lowell, Mass. Somerville, site of six transit stations to be built in the next five years, is adopting a new comprehensive plan and is interested in following it with a new city-wide zoning overhaul that would include form-based codes for some of its traditional neighborhoods.