Birgitta Kuehn, an at-times embattled member of the Plymouth Planning Board, has resigned, following a move to Chicago.
Kuehn broke the news to the board Wednesday night via Zoom and submitted her resignation to Town Clerk Kelly McElreath on Thursday.
Kuehn served on the board for five years. She was chair until fellow board members voted to replace her in 2022 after she sent developer Rick Vayo a letter threatening to not recognize him at future meetings unless he apologized for what she described as a lack of civility at a previous meeting.
Kuehn moved to Chicago with her husband, Brian, an electrical engineer, who accepted a job offer there.
It’s familiar territory for Kuehn. She grew up in Oak Park, Illinois, and raised her family in Evanston, Illinois, where she earned an MBA from the Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University and worked for much of her professional life at Evanston Northwestern Healthcare.
Kuehn served as the Planning Board’s representative on the Community Preservation Committee, which makes recommendations on how to spend millions of dollars in Community Preservation Act funds that go to housing, open space, or historic preservation.
In October, Kuehn’s fellow Planning Board members suspended her from that position after a fellow member, Carl Donaldson, who is Black, accused her of sending emails that he called racist.
Kuehn, who apologized to Donaldson, told the Independent at the time that her suspension was imposed, in part, because of her skepticism regarding development plans.
Some projects are “not necessarily in the interest of the citizens of Plymouth, compared to the interests of the developers,” she said in an interview. “I push back a lot. I’m a very sharp-elbowed woman.”
Despite the suspension, Kuehn showed up to take her place on the Community Preservation Committee in December to defend what she saw as her right to serve on it. Committee member Betty Cavacco objected, and after a 4-2 vote, Kuehn was asked to address the committee as a visitor, not a member.
She told the Independent then that her suspension from the committee was motivated in part by the fact that had she voted at meetings of the Community Preservation Committee since her suspension, at least one key vote would have resulted in a tie, preventing the committee from creating the position of an administrative assistant who reports to the town manager. The committee’s former chair, Bill Keohan, had vigorously defended the committee’s independence from the town manager. (In June, the Select Board decided not to reappoint Keohan.)
In February, Kuehn and her attorney, Town Moderator Steve Triffletti, protested the fact that Triffletti would not be allowed to speak at a Planning Board meeting to defend her as the board decided whether Kuehn should be removed from the Community Preservation Committee altogether. The Planning Board nonetheless removed Kuehn from the preservation committee.
But she continued to serve on the Planning Board. Most recently, she opposed a request by developer A. D. Makepeace to be allowed to build 113 more market-rate units at its Redbrook housing development in South Plymouth. The Planning Board is waiting for advice from town counsel on that proposal.
The Planning Board and the Select Board can advertise for volunteers to fill Kuehn’s position until the May town election, or they can leave the position vacant until then. In May, voters will choose someone to fill the remainder of Kuehn’s five-year term, which expires in 2026.
“You will be missed,” Steve Bolotin, chair of the board – who has sometimes clashed with Kuehn – told her Wednesday night. “I wish you the best in your old hometown of Chicago.”
Fred Thys can be reached at fred@plymouthindependent.org.