Ethan Wolin

New Haven’s City Plan Commission underwent a change in leadership after a longtime civic leader from the Hill stepped down from her role as chair.

Leslie Radcliffe announced that she would not serve a fourth one-year term as chair partway through a regular virtual commission meeting on Wednesday evening. The volunteer body, which consists primarily of five mayor-appointed commissioners, is responsible for reviewing a range of proposals related to land use, zoning and long-term planning for the city.

Without any contest, the commission unanimously elected Ernest Pagan — Radcliffe’s vice chair and a politically unaffiliated member of the commission — as the chair for 2025. Joshua Van Hoesen, the commission’s sole Republican, was elected the new vice chair.

“I remember when development didn’t come knocking at the door in New Haven,” Pagan said in an interview after the meeting. “So to see how much activity we have now, I think that’s a highlight, and that’s a benefit to the whole community. I’d rather be involved than just watching from afar.”

A lifelong New Havener and Westville resident, Pagan leads the local carpenters’ union and works to train high schoolers and people released from prison in the trades. He told his colleagues that he wanted to emphasize communication with residents in his new position.

As participants in the webinar-style Zoom meeting took turns commenting on the transition, City Plan Director Laura Brown, an official who works closely with the commission, thanked Radcliffe and the rest of its members.

“You all put in so much time and thoughtful effort,” Brown said. “It sometimes seems like it goes unnoticed, but it really is not unnoticed.”

Radcliffe, who retired in 2021 from her career as an administrative assistant at Yale, told the News that she decided not to continue chairing the commission so she could focus on taking care of herself, after experiencing health issues in the past year.

The New Haven Independent declared in 2021 that one would “be hard pressed to find a New Havener more involved in ‘civic engagement’” than Radcliffe, who previously served on the Civilian Review Board, a police oversight body, and currently serves as the board of directors president for Neighborhood Housing Services of New Haven.

“Once my civic activism began, I was all in,” she said. “I tell people I’m like Liam Neeson in ‘Taken’: I have a certain set of skills that I bring, and my skills are usually needed,” she added, riffing on a line by the actor in that action movie franchise who plays a former spy. “Organizing skills, running meetings, keeping track of agendas, action planning.”

Radcliffe said she also now wants to devote more time to her neighborhood, the Hill, by attending more community management team meetings, some of which conflict with City Plan Commission meetings, and by encouraging more residents to vote. She is a member of the Democratic committee in Ward 4.

Her third term on the City Plan Commission will end in February 2026, after which she said she would be willing to continue as a member if no one else steps up to fill the spot.