Sprinkler systems are expensive, and in early 2006, developer Wylie Holdings didn't want to install them at its Sandbox Lofts project in Lawrenceville. So the firm turned to Pat Ford.

Pittsburgh's Bureau of Building Inspection had ruled that the storefront-plus-lofts development needed additional fire protection. Mr. Ford was then Pittsburgh's planning director, as well as a tenant in another Wylie property. He's now Mayor Luke Ravenstahl's choice for the city's top development job, executive director of the Urban Redevelopment Authority.

Mr. Ford sent an e-mail to Bureau of Building Inspection Chief Ron Graziano asking whether the Butler Street building -- which includes two street addresses -- might be considered two structures, instead of one, so that Wylie wouldn't have to install sprinklers.

Though that argument didn't fly, Mr. Ford and other Wylie backers in the administration later won the day, when Mr. Graziano agreed to consider the project under an alternative building code, allowing it to proceed without sprinklers.

It's just one example of Mr. Ford's approach to development: It starts with close relationships with developers, and sometimes ends with the use of unusual measures in a bid to get things done.

"People buy properties with entitlements," said Mr. Ford, who has been serving as the mayor's development czar, charged with encouraging new projects and streamlining the city's permitting processes. "And when they come to us, they're coming to us for help.

"Whoever walks into my office, they're going to get the full support of my staff and the mayor's administration to do that project fairly, and within the books," he said. "If the community opposes [a project], I have to champion the law. I have to champion justice. And I have to champion due process," Mr. Ford said Friday.

His unapologetic approach to aiding developers and his brash, cigar-chomping image -- captured in photos on a blog by his wife, who's now the mayor's spokeswoman -- suggest a very different style is coming to the URA, an agency that steers some $100 million a year into housing, development and business.

'A lot of talk out there'
A Kansas native who earned a master's in planning at the University of Virginia, he spent much of his 15-year private career at the Baltimore-based architectural and engineering firm Whitney, Bailey, Cox and Magnani. There he created a planning division for the firm, opened a West Virginia branch, and worked in environments as different as struggling, inner-city Baltimore and wealthy suburbs of Washington, D.C.

While working in West Virginia, he met a reporter named Alecia Sirk, married her, and then hired her to be the "closer" on long-mouldering projects. By 2002, though, he and Ms. Sirk were tired of living for the billable hours, he said. "Sitting across the dinner table one night, we said well, why don't we just give government a shot?" he said.

In early 2002, then Mayor Tom Murphy hired him as the city's zoning administrator, where he built a reputation as someone who worked and played well with developers.

"He did perhaps deal with developers more on an informal basis than some guys," said Regis Murrin, an attorney who was Zoning Board of Adjustment chairman while Mr. Ford was the zoning administrator. That gave Mr. Ford a sense of what was happening in the development world, said Mr. Murrin, but it also made him "not so much an administrator as a participant, almost."

Mr. Ford doesn't see it that way. "There is a perception out there that I do hang out with developers. That is far from the truth. ... There's a lot of talk out there about what Pat does and what Pat doesn't do. But I'm transparent about my decision-making."

The talk in 2003 was that Mr. Ford had been parking his RV rent-free inside a warehouse owned by a firm with development ties.

Mr. Ford says he bought the RV in 2003, and drove it to Pittsburgh without figuring out where to park it. He asked friends in the community development field if they knew of a place he might put it for a while, and they found one.

"It was like a truck terminal in a warehouse," he said. "They found me some dead space on property owned by Pitt-Ohio," a trucking company in the Strip.

For a decade, Pitt-Ohio Express President Charles Hammel has been a key partner in the redevelopment of the former Armstrong Cork factory in the Strip District, now a $60 million, 297-unit apartment complex. Mr. Hammel said he knew someone was parking an RV on a Pitt-Ohio lot along 35th Street in Lawrenceville, but didn't know it was Mr. Ford's, nor who Mr. Ford was.

Mr. Hammel said he never had any direct dealings with the city on the Armstrong Cork project -- he let a Chicago development company handle that task.

Mr. Ford said he kept the RV at the Pitt-Ohio site for only three months, before moving it to an out-of-state campground. He later sold it.

'The kind of guy we need'
His chumminess was charming to some and jarring to others. One nonprofit official who met with Mr. Ford while he was zoning administrator remembers being taken aback when he ended their conversation by stating, " 'I like cigars. I like Scotch.' "

Mr. Ford makes no secret about the fact that his "first loves are cigars and Scotch, both of which are lavished upon him by friends," as his wife wrote on her blog.

Mr. Ford said his loves shouldn't be misconstrued. "My friends offer me cigars. I give my friends cigars," he said. "No one gives me a bottle of Scotch for a permit."

Some developers like his style.

"I think he is the kind of guy we need," said Walnut Capital Partners President Todd Reidbord, who also is on the planning commission. "He has the vision for moving the city forward; he is not an obstructionist. He has a can-do attitude."

In March 2004, Mr. Ford and his wife decided to leave the city and moved to Pompano Beach, Fla., where he became planning director. His wife became planning director in Margate, nearby.

By fall of 2005, Mr. Ford was ready to be back in Pittsburgh.

Mr. Ford said he didn't like South Florida's culture. "There's no neighborhoods. There's no real culture. It's a melting pot, but it's a melting pot on steroids."

But most of all, he said, he missed Pittsburgh.

In July 2005, Mr. Ford started meeting monthly with then-mayor elect Bob O'Connor. "From that first interview," Ms. Sirk later wrote on her blog, "Our Hero was truly engaged with Bob. Together they talked about all that development services could be, all the ways it could help make the City great."

His first year back in Pittsburgh, as Mr. Ford began his work for the O'Connor administration, he and his wife spent some time living at a Lawrenceville apartment owned by Wylie Holdings. Mr. Ford also became involved in aiding Wylie's rehabilitation of a four-story structure nearby that had once been two buildings.

Calling the project Sandbox Lofts, Wylie sought to install a ceramics shop on the first floor and four loft apartments above, plus what the building inspection file describes as facilities for casting and painting of ceramics.

The file indicates that in late March or early April of 2006, Wylie executive Joseph Edelstein met with Mr. Ford and Ron Graziano, the chief of the Bureau of Building Inspection until he was dismissed by Mr. Ravenstahl earlier this month. Mr. Edelstein has become a controversial developer because of his receipt of URA facade renovation subsidies despite a 1998 guilty plea for health insurance fraud.

"Is Joe a friend? Absolutely," Mr. Ford said. "He's one of my best friends. Do I treat him any differently? Absolutely not." He said he did not know the details of the fraud plea.

On April 2, 2006, Mr. Ford e-mailed Mr. Graziano asking that he consider the structure as two buildings, eliminating the need for sprinklers. "Regarding the city's liability," Mr. Ford wrote, "the city can require that adequate fire protection be maintained between the [two] buildings."

Drawings in the file indicate that the structure would function as one building, not two, and Mr. Graziano did not back down. Several months -- and several e-mails from other administration members -- later, building inspection staff found another way to get around the sprinkler requirement, by allowing the plans to be considered under an alternative to the International Building Code normally used by the city.

Mr. Ford said it's his job to know the rules and use them to help people.

"And if someone comes in to me and lays out a logical argument, and tells us that we're wrong in our interpretation, we should be humble enough to say you know what, sir, you're right. I didn't look at that code. And shame on us, and shame on the building official, for not knowing the rules."

'I expect results'
In July 2006, as Mr. O'Connor fell ill, Mr. Ford decided to change his party affiliation to Democratic from Republican, according to his wife's blog. " 'That's just not me anymore,' " he said, according to the blog.

After Mr. O'Connor died and Mr. Ravenstahl took over, Mr. Ford developed relationships with the young politician and big city institutions. He has his arm around Mr. Ravenstahl in a picture posted in Ms. Sirk's blog entry dated Nov. 16, 2006, capturing the scene during a University of Pittsburgh-West Virginia University football game. The two men were there with the mayor's Chief of Staff Yarone Zober and several government affairs officials from the University of Pittsburgh, including Paul Supowitz, Jimmy Williams and Charles McLaughlin Jr.

This year Mr. Ford was a key figure in negotiating a resolution between Pitt and Boston-based developer Beacon/Corcoran Jennison on the future of prime Hill District land.

In February, Mr. Ford was elevated from top planner to director of economic and community development, a new post in the Mayor's Office post designed to draw together planning, building inspection, and the various city authorities that have roles in new construction.

In a July interview, Mr. Ford showed a vast flow chart demonstrating the Byzantine path developers must travel to get zoning and planning approval, building permits, water tap-in OKs, and more. "Right there is the level of frustration in the city of Pittsburgh," he said. He said he would strive to balance "the public input, versus the need to expedite.

"I expect results," he added.

Developer Lee Gross, who has many properties in Lawrenceville and is working on a URA-assisted project in Highland Park, applauded Mr. Ford.

"I think he wants to get stuff done, make stuff happen," he said, describing Mr. Ford as "more new school than old school."

Mr. Ford's next move up was foreshadowed by Mr. Ravenstahl's June 14 demand that 11 directors, including then-URA executive director Jerome Dettore, submit resignation letters for his consideration. Mr. Dettore left the agency, where he had spent his entire career, the next month.

Even before Mr. Dettore left, Mr. Ford told him to fire four URA employees, several sources said. Others protested, and the firings never occurred.

Mr. Ford characterized those suggestions as efforts to improve customer service. "All I know is, the game needed to be raised a notch, and if it means bringing in new people to do that, new ideas, I'm going to do that," he said.

'I'm all about justice'
Twice in his city tenures Mr. Ford has been involved in cases in which the city took the unusual step of suing its own planners or administrators.

As Mr. Murphy's zoning administrator, Mr. Ford pushed for approval of developer Craig Cozza's plan for a seven-story condominium at 341 Grandview Ave. Though Mr. Murphy opposed it, on the grounds that it was too tall, the Zoning Board approved it. The city then joined residents in suing to reverse that decision.

"What Craig Cozza did was perfectly within his rights, within his zoning," he said. "The community didn't want it. ... If we don't like the product that's being built, then let's change the rules.

"I'm all about justice."

Courts upheld the zoning decision in 2005, allowing Alex Development principal Craig Cozza to build, but the lack of progress since has upset some residents.

Last year the city's Historic Review Commission considered a proposal by Elmhurst Group to build a 10-story medical building in Oakland next to the Schenley Farms Historic District. Mr. Ford lobbied hard for approval, according to several people involved at that time with the commission, but it was rejected.

In February Mr. Ravenstahl removed commission chairman Mike Eversmeyer, who voted against allowing the building. Mr. Ford said that had nothing to do with the Elmhurst vote.

"I felt strongly that what [Elmhurst was] doing was within the law. They were entitled to due process, and justice needed to be served," said Mr. Ford. "When I spoke with the Law Department about that, we both concurred that the city should challenge that decision."

The city joined Elmhurst in suing the commission. Schenley Farms residents jumped in on the commission's side. On Sept. 20, the commission and residents prevailed in Commonwealth Court, meaning Elmhurst must either appeal to the state Supreme Court or resubmit its plans to a changed commission.

Asked for an instance when he opposed a development, he pointed to the planned North Shore casino, which has made it through several Planning Commission votes, but doesn't have final approval.

"That design is unacceptable," he said of the hulking garage behind the structure. "If it goes forward with that design, I'm going to oppose it."

As he moves to the URA, though, he loses his ability to affect the very project he opposes. "The planning commission is going to weigh the applicant," he said.

"I'm not a go-go type," he added. "I want to study things, find out what the commonly held vision of the community is, and then let's work to accomplish that."