Patrick Walsh, who led development of Plan Houston, city bike plan, succumbs to cancer

Patrick Walsh had been the Director of the City of Houstons Planning and Development Department since November 2013. Patrick Walsh had been the Director of the City of Houstons Planning and Development Department since November 2013. Photo: Houstontx.gov / Houstontx.gov Photo: Houstontx.gov / Houstontx.gov Image 1 of / 44 Caption Close Patrick Walsh, who led development of Plan Houston, city bike plan, succumbs to cancer 1 / 44 Back to Gallery

Funeral services are pending for Houston Planning Director Patrick Walsh, who observers credited with using his five years in that post to nudge the nation’s largest city without zoning toward more innovative thinking.

Walsh, who died Friday at age 45, was diagnosed in June with glioblastoma, the most common and lethal form of brain cancer. He took leave from his city post shortly afterward.

As head of the Planning and Development Department, Walsh oversaw regulations on development and parking, programs for neighborhood protection and preservation, transportation planning and other topics.

A civil engineer as well as an urban planner, Walsh was a Carnegie Mellon University and University of Texas at Austin graduate. The Houston native graduated from Bellaire High School, where he was a drum major.

Walsh’s largest projects at City Hall were the development and approval of Houston’s first general plan, known as Plan Houston, and the first comprehensive update to the city’s bike plan in two decades.

Houston pet owners also may recall that dogs were barred from restaurant patios before fall 2011, when Walsh — who then worked for the City of Sugar Land, where he led transportation and long-range planning — successfully convinced the city council to adjust its health codes through his Paws on Patios group.

Councilman David Robinson called Walsh’s passing “heartbreaking” not only for his young family — including his wife of two years, Lindsey Aldrich Walsh, and their 1-year-old son, Julian — but for civic life in Houston.

“He was a capable, forward-looking leader who understood the city for what it is, both from the very huge scale at which Houston unfolds on the map but also the subtle texture on the streets and in our neighborhoods,” said Robinson, an architect and former city planning commissioner. “He will be missed. It’s just so unfair in so many ways.”

Robinson praised the way Walsh combined a subtle leadership style with a nuanced understanding of Houston to walk a difficult tightrope for all local planners: Prodding the sprawling city toward urbanism without triggering a revolt among traditionalists.

“Pat was a likable guy in a job that is not always likable, but he did it with a certain grace and uncanny ability to keep us on track,” said real estate mogul and planning commissioner Bill Baldwin. “He had a way of making people feel like their voice mattered.”

Clark Martinson, who runs the nonprofit Bike Houston, met Walsh when he was advocating for cyclists and pedestrians on a board that advises the Houston-Galveston Area Council and Walsh was working for Sugar Land. Martinson found the suburban engineer to be an unlikely ally. Just as surprising, Martinson learned, were Walsh’s interests outside the office, which included piano and competitive ballroom dancing.

“The joy he found in music and dancing — in engineering and planning, that’s not a combination I’ve seen,” Martinson said.

Lindsey Aldrich Walsh said her husband found a way to entertain those around him, regardless of the situation, whether it was playing Elton John classics on the piano in the foyer at M.D. Anderson or teaching his physical therapy nurses to dance the merengue.

“Pat approached everything with joy, dedication and a little bit of goofiness,” she said.

“He was so proud to be a Houstonian and he loved serving Houston,” she continued. “He most saw himself, in a city without zoning and with lots of different interests, as being the one to help bring everyone together.”

Both Plan Houston and the bike plan are in their infancy, but their adoptions were a feat unto themselves, said Amar Mohite, who worked with Walsh at City Hall and now is director of planning and infrastructure for Harris County Precinct One.

Mohite said Walsh’s success came from taking a deliberative approach, focusing on broader themes to rise above minutiae.

“People think of engineers as detailed, focused, and they are,” Mohite said. “He had that visionary quality of him in that he was able to see the big picture.”

Walsh also brought a warmth to the job, befriending much of his staff, many of whom did not know how serious his condition had become.

“He gave me a hug before he started treatment,” Mohite said. “I didn’t know what was happening, but he gave me a big, warm, friendly hug. He knew he was going for his treatment and I did not. That was Pat, though.”

In addition to his wife and son, Walsh is survived by his mother, Eleanor Walsh, older brother, Sean Walsh, his twin brother, James Walsh, and three nephews.

mike.morris@chron.com

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