As Salt Lake City embarks on a handful of major development projects, a new planning director is ready to take the helm.

Mayor Rocky Anderson announced Wednesday that Sandy Planning Director George Shaw will fill the spot left by Alex Ikefuna, who resigned Oct. 30 after 15 months with the city to spend more time with an infant daughter, who has undergone heart surgery.

Shaw has been Sandy's planning director since 1984 and has worked for Sandy since the 1970s. He is an assistant adjunct professor at the University of Utah, where he teaches a planning methods course.

"George is very well regarded among the planning community and at the University of Utah," Anderson said. "He's a big believer in smart, sustainable-growth planning."

Shaw's salary will be $91,000 yearly, plus benefits. He is set to start Jan. 17.

Shaw takes the reins at a time when the city is about to see a number of projects get under way. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints recently unveiled its plans for a major overhaul of two downtown malls to make way for a new mixed-use development.

Master-planning work has begun for the city's northwest quadrant, the large undeveloped area west of the Salt Lake International Airport. A new office tower is being built at 222 S. Main, and the Utah Transit Authority is preparing to expand its light-rail system to a new intermodal hub at 200 South and 600 West.

"It's a new challenge. I've been here (in Sandy) a long time. I think Sandy's well on its way to becoming the community they want to become," Shaw said. "It's an exciting time in Salt Lake City right now with all the new plans."

Shaw lives in South Jordan. He was born in Murray and spent his teenage years in Provo. He graduated from Brigham Young University with a bachelor's degree in geographic planning. He has a master's degree in urban geography, also from BYU.

Shaw's colleagues praise his work over the past three decades in Sandy as wide-ranging and forward-thinking.

Nick Duerksen, Sandy's assistant director of community development, said Shaw led Sandy through its residential boom in the '70s, during which time it was the fastest-growing city in the nation, to today, as the city focuses more on commercial and office development.

"You name it in Sandy, he's had a role in it," Duerksen said, adding that Shaw was a wealth not only of planning expertise but also institutional memory, "kind of like your on-demand history for when you're working on a project in Sandy."

Shaw points to his recent work overseeing the creation of a downtown in Sandy, a city that used to have "no heart, no center." That downtown, revolving around the South Towne Center at 10600 South and State Street, now includes an office park, the South Towne Expo Center, the Jordan Commons shopping and entertainment complex and a light-rail station.