PARIS – After a little more than a year as director of the Growth Council of Oxford Hills, John Shattuck will leave the job for one in Topsham.

Shattuck will become the economic and community development director for the Topsham, and will begin work Feb. 11.

“It’s been a great year,” Shattuck said. “I’m not leaving for negative reasons. I’m very happy with a number of things we’ve accomplished in cleaning up a difficult situation that existed for the Growth Council.”

In November, the council began working as the Western Maine Economic Development Council, a division of Community Concepts Inc.

“The Growth Council still exists,” Shattuck said. “That’s still in the process of being dissolved, because the mission of the Growth Council has been taken over by the WMEDC.”

Shattuck began serving as council director in December 2006, replacing Brett Doney. In Topsham, he will be part of a redevelopment effort taking place at the 79-acre Topsham Annex, which is part of the Brunswick Naval Air Station.

“One of the real attractions was to be involved in what I expect will be the largest, highest impact economic development in a generation in Maine,” he said.

The annex and the station are scheduled to close in 2011, according to the Web site of the Topsham Annex Reuse Master Plan. The plan seeks to redevelop the annex for a new use after the closure.

Shattuck said the final dissolution of the Growth Council will come with the sale of the Oddfellows Building in downtown Norway and a 10.5-acre land parcel on Pike’s Hill. A mill property in Bridgton was sold to Dan Craffey in December.

Shattuck said local investors have been looking at the Oddfellows building for a possible purchase and rehabilitation.

The Growth Council retained the Pike’s Hill property from a 161-acre property initially slated for use as a technology park. The majority of the land was sold to the Western Foothills Land Trust last summer. Shattuck said the parcel will be turned over to the six towns who invested in the tech park.

Mary Ellen Therriault, associate director of public relations with Community Concepts, said the policy board of the Western Maine Economic Development Council and the leadership of Community Concepts will meet next week to set out a plan for finding Shattuck’s replacement. Therriault said the search may take a month.

“We really are excited about this new venture and want to make sure we don’t lose any momentum,” she said. “I think it will happen fairly quickly.”

Shattuck had previously spoken about the need for the Growth Council to get away from real estate investment and look to encourage business retention and expansion, infrastructure investment, and work force development. He also encouraged the expansion of the Growth Council mission to include the entire county and not just the Oxford Hills communities.

“He’s going to be very much missed,” Therriault said. “He was a great resource and really dedicated to the effort of bring economic development to western Maine.”

Shattuck said he will still be available to the organization while it searches for a new director.

“I’m certainly going to continue working with the GC in the dissolution process,” he said. “I anticipate putting a fair amount of time into these activities for the next couple of months.”