Riverside County Supervisor Chuck Washington has selected Ruthanne Taylor Berger to fill the 3rd District’s open seat on the Riverside County Planning Commission.
Taylor Berger is deputy executive director of the Western Riverside Council of Governments and has more than 30 years of experience in transportation planning, intergovernmental negotiations and land development. She has been a member of the Murrieta Planning Commission since 2011 and currently serves as chairperson. Her selection will go to the Board of Supervisors in a few weeks for approval.
Taylor Berger’s experience has touched on areas that range from watershed and critical-habitat planning to traffic-congestion management and air quality. In 1996 Taylor established the Riverside Clean Cities Coalition, which was instrumental in convincing WRCOG members to embrace the South Coast Air Quality Management District Fleet Rules.
In 1999, she spearheaded establishment of a Transportation Uniform Mitigation Fee for southern Riverside County. TUMF ensures that new development pays its fair share for the increased traffic that it creates. That test case in the southern county led to the program’s adoption throughout the western county by the WRCOG Executive Committee and implementation in June 2003 by WRCOG jurisdictions. She currently manages the $3.7 billion transportation fee program, one of the largest in the United States.
Taylor Berger earned a bachelor degree in history from Texas A&M University and has completed numerous certification courses and programs in her field, including the Executive Education Program at the Paul Merage School of Business, University of California, Irvine.
She and her husband have lived and traveled all over the world and now reside in Murrieta.
The 3rd District Planning Commission seat opened when former John Petty resigned as commissioner on May 20.
