Chris Mathias, a former longtime City of Moline economic development leader and Scott County planning & development director, is Moline’s new director of community and economic development (CED).
He replaces Ryan Hvitløk, the former CED director who first joined Moline in April of 2022. Mr. Hvitløk moved to the Houston area earlier this year for professional and family reasons, the city said. Mr. Mathias is scheduled to rejoin the City of Moline on Aug. 7. The city declined to release his salary because he is not yet on the payroll.
“The city is happy to welcome Chris Mathias back to serve as the new director of community and economic development,” Moline City Administrator Bob Vitas said in a news release. “His institutional knowledge of the city and vast experience in urban and regional planning will be invaluable to the organization and CED Department at a time when great opportunities and challenges are underway.”
Major projects that Mr. Mathias will oversee include the city’s riverfront master plan, a new eastern gateway Tax Increment Financing (TIF) district, I-74 corridor redevelopment, a SouthPark Mall master plan and other major economic development projects.
Among the significant projects Mr. Mathias had a hand in during his earlier stint in Moline – which ran from 2004 to 2021 – were the creation of John Deere Commons and the renovation of the Element Hotel. He left Moline to move across the river as Scott County’s planning director in 2021, the City of Moline’s news release said.
“When I started working for Moline 19 years ago, I never thought that one day I would be named a director,” Mr. Mathias said in the release. “I’m extremely proud to be named the next CED director and I know there’s so much work to be done and it’s going to require an enormous amount of hard work. I’m looking forward to working with the city staff, mayor and city council to make some great projects happen that will benefit the residents of Moline.”
Chris Mathias came to Moline in 2004 as a planning and zoning technician and was promoted to property management coordinator in 2009. He served as the city’s temporary land development manager in both 2018 and 2020 and was serving in that position when he left to lead Scott County’s planning department in 2021.
In Scott County, Mr. Mathias was responsible for enforcement of the county’s zoning, building code, subdivision and floodplain development ordinances as well as overseeing its comprehensive development plan.
