Katie Whewell (she/her/hers) is the Chief Planner for Current Planning for the city of Newton and manages the Current Planning Team and the day-to-day operations. She has over four years of experience in land use planning, zoning, and provides analysis to Newton’s City Council and Zoning Board of Appeals on a range of special permits and comprehensive permits. She works closely with applicants at the development review stage as they start to navigate the respective processes to seek zoning relief, also serving as a first point of contact with constituents and stakeholders in extracting information from the Zoning Ordinance and relaying its provisions in an easy-to-understand way.

Katie obtained her Master’s degree in City Planning from Boston University as well as her Bachelor’s degree in Political Science from Emmanuel College in Boston. Katie lives a car-free lifestyle in Boston’s West End and enjoys listening to Taylor Swift and Bruce Springsteen as she commutes to Newton via public transit and while going for walks around Boston’s neighborhoods.

In summer 2022, Katie checked off a bucket list item by going on a long-distance train trip from Chicago to California on Amtrak’s California Zephyr line and hopes to embark on more train travel in the future.