Andrew Warren has been named Blacksburg's new zoning administrator at a time when land-use issues have dominated town government.

Warren took the post Oct. 16, succeeding Steve Hundley, who left in August to take a job in Spotsylvania.

Since 2005, Warren has served as the town's development administrator, a position that works with the zoning administrator to oversee development projects.

Before coming to Blacksburg, Warren worked as a city planner in Roanoke and earned a master's degree in public administration from Virginia Tech, according to a news release. His new salary will be $51,208, Blacksburg Human Resources Manager Elaine Gill said.

Acting Planning Director Chris Lawrence said Warren was chosen from a pool of six applicants and that Warren's experience in a more urban setting will help the department adjust as the pace of growth-type issues accelerates in Blacksburg.

In his new position, Warren will be called upon to interpret and enforce the town's complex zoning and subdivision ordinances, and his rulings will bear the weight of law. He will also oversee one employee, the town's zoning inspector.

Warren comes to the job during a "challenging time from a development standpoint," Lawrence said. "We have an amazing amount of work and development going on in town."

For his part, Warren said his previous job has prepared him for many of the challenges he will face as zoning administrator.

"It's a great community and a good place to work," Warren said. He added that his goals are to enhance prompt and accurate service for residents and applicants.

He will take his new post amid major departmental changes. The department in which Warren serves -- formerly called planning and engineering -- has been split in two. He will work in the planning and building department under a new director who is yet to be hired, while former planning and engineering director Adele Schirmer takes the reins of the new engineering and GIS department.

But "the nice thing about him is he ... knows the dynamics of the community, the legal issues and the zoning rules," so he can step right into the job "and run with it," Lawrence said.

The zoning administrator can also become a lightening rod in the town's seemingly endless political debates on development issues. The most recent flare-up was over a 40-acre retail revitalization project planned along South Main Street.

When developers submitted plans that showed a big-box chain store widely thought to be a Wal-Mart Supercenter on part of the property, town council hastily passed an ordinance that would require extra governmental review of large-scale retail projects.

The developer filed a suit in Montgomery County Circuit Court naming the town and Hundley, the former zoning chief, as defendants. It asked the court to bar the town from applying the ordinance to the project so late in the process. Council had already approved a rezoning that cleared the way for the project.

Hundley was asked to rule on whether the ordinance could be applied to the project, and he ruled that it should apply.

But the Board of Zoning Appeals, a quasi-legal body that hears appeals of the zoning administrator's decisions, later reversed Hundley's decision. Council has appealed the zoning board's decision to the Circuit Court. The case is scheduled to be heard in December.