John Zeanah

John Zeanah is an urban planner and policy strategist whose career spans leadership roles in planning, housing, and community development. He previously served as the Director of Planning and Development in Memphis for over seven years. Among his accomplishments, John led the development and adoption of the Memphis 3.0 Comprehensive Plan, the city's first comprehensive plan in forty years and winner of the American Planning Association's Daniel Burnham Award of Excellence for a Comprehensive Plan in 2020 and a Charter Award from the Congress for the New Urbanism in 2021.

John has been an early champion of building code reform in Memphis, Tennessee, and across the United States to support housing supply and small-scale development. John authored two local building code amendments and Tennessee state legislation reforming building code. John is principal and owner of Interval, LLC, a planning and policy advisory firm that specializes in helping public sector clients better understand, implement, and improve their plans, policies, codes, regulations, and processes. He also serves as a member of the Board of Directors for the Center for Building in North America.

Areas of expertise: urban and comprehensive planning, policy, zoning, building code