Former Altoona and Bedford County planner always saw bigger picture
Carter passed away Aug. 30
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Former Altoona and Bedford County Planning Director Larry Carter, who died Sunday, Aug. 30, at age 80, excelled at explaining the ramifications of public policies to citizens who were concerned about them, according to the man who succeeded Carter as city planning director.
In the early 2000s, when the city was preparing a 400-page planning code update that would control zoning, subdivision and land development in Altoona, the Planning Department held a public outreach meeting at which an attendee expressed worries that the new rules would hinder potential returns on an investment he'd made, said Dave McFarland, who subsequently became Blair Planning Director.
Carter took the man aside and was able to show him how the proposed changes met the overall needs of the city and how they fit the neighborhood where the man had made the investment, ultimately making the man realize not only that his worries were groundless, but that the changes would likely benefit him, McFarland said.
"Larry made it easy to understand the big picture and how the system fit together," McFarland said. "He could articulate and promote community goals and objectives and help implement them."
That example of a helpful explanation in an environment of complexity was one of many connected to the code update, McFarland said.
Carter was also good at resolving differences between conflicting points of view, according to McFarland.
During that same time period, the city introduced plans for housing construction in a largely undeveloped section of Juniata, which unsettled some area residents, according to McFarland.
Some approached the matter from a direction opposite to that taken by others, but with Carter's help, both factions reached common ground, and both ultimately came out in support of the city's proposal, McFarland said.
"He was able to grasp the big picture, and make it practical and usable to John Q. Average Citizen," McFarland said. "He had a knack for that, and it made him a good planner."
Carter's judgments weren't always correct, but when he erred, he readily admitted it, according to McFarland.
"He was able to back off," McFarland said, recalling a memo headlined -- in 24-point type -- "I was wrong."
"That was typical Larry," McFarland said.
Carter had a good sense of humor, according to Ed Silvetti, former executive director of the Southern Alleghenies Planning and Development Commission, who knew Carter for perhaps 45 years.
Over that time, they would compare notes about the "petty politics of local government," Silvetti said.
They also used to play practical jokes on one another.
Silvetti couldn't recall the specifics of any joke in which he was the victim, but took delight in recalling his biggest success as a perpetrator.
It was in the early 1980s, in downtown Bedford, when Carter was planning director for Bedford County and Silvetti was working at a nearby building.
They would both often work late.
In Silvetti's job, he'd often take deliveries of computers, and they always came cushioned with Styrofoam packing peanuts.
Silvetti saved them up, storing the peanuts in big plastic bags.
One night, well after dark, Silvetti came out of his building and saw Carter's station wagon in the parking lot in back.
It was unlocked, because it wasn't necessary to lock your car in Bedford, Silvetti said.
Silvetti opened the car, rolled back the moon roof, closed the door and poured in the pellets until the car was virtually full.
Then he left to go home to Duncansville.
Carter would have come out about 11 p.m., according to Silvetti.
He would have opened the door only to have untold numbers of peanuts fall out.
He would have pawed out a space for himself to sit.
Amid the surprise and dismay of seeing the state of his vehicle, Carter also put his briefcase on the roof of the car, then forgot about it, until, traveling through Bedford's downtown, the briefcase flew off, scattering his papers, which he then had to collect, Silvetti said.
That was the only part of the incident that Silvetti regretted.
He didn't tell Carter what he'd done, and he denied it repeatedly when accused, year-after-year, until one time, at a meeting in downtown Altoona, speaking to a fellow Southern Alleghenies employee, he said, "watch this."
He approached Carter and said, "Larry, it was me."
"I knew it!" Carter said -- knowing also, instantly, what Silvetti was referring to.
Silvetti chose that moment to come clean to show his co-worker what a good sense of humor his old friend possessed, Silvetti said.
Carter never got mad about the packing peanut caper, he said.
Carter was "capable, likeable," according to Dick Haines, retired Blair County planning director.
"It was very easy to deal with him," Haines said, citing a time when Haines was looking for guaranteed landfill space when Carter was director of the Bedford-
Fulton-Huntingdon Solid Waste Authority.
Carter was "a proud native son" of Altoona, whose ideas when he was planning director about the appearance, marketability and beautification of the city to enhance economic development were later adopted, said Lee Slusser, who succeeded McFarland as planning director for Altoona.
"He was a good guy to work with," said longtime planning consultant Dick Sutter. "He thought through things."
Carter also was a musician, playing country songs on his guitar during social gatherings, when the planning directors of the six Southern Alleghenies counties would meet, Sutter said.
He was most in his element as Bedford County planning director, according to Sutter.
"It was a more rural setting than Blair County," Sutter said. "He just fit in."
"He was a good guy and a lot of fun to be around," Slusser said.
Mirror Staff Writer William Kibler is at 814-949-7038.