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Graduating from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo in 1971, Paul Crawford began his professional career as a planner in Tulare County, where he had grown up. In 1975 he went to work for the San Luis Obispo County Planning and Building Department. In 1980 at age 33, he became Planning Director, the youngest country planning director in California. Even before he became SLO County Planning Director, he led a project that replaced the traditional general plan diagram and zoning map with a single integrated map.
He went on to develop one of the first automated permit tracking systems in the nation. In connection with this, he developed a 24-hour zoning information service for the public called “Zone Phone.” Paul was an early leader in the use of computer technology and the internet in the planning field.
In 1990 Paul left the public sector to co-found a consulting practice, Crawford, Multari & Starr (later Clark) Associates. As a consultant, Paul worked on over 90 zoning ordinances updates and over 30 general plans, mostly in California. Paul also taught planning at Cal Poly SLO from 1980 to 2006 as an adjunct professor.
In the 1990s Paul became a leader in the Congress for New Urbanism. In the first decade of the 21st century, he became a leader in developing form-based codes, co-authoring the definitive book on the topic, Form-Based Codes: A Guide for Planners, Urban Designers, Municipalities, and Developers, which was published in 2008, weeks before his death. Paul was President and founding member of the Form-Based Code Institute.
Paul was an active member of the California Planning Roundtable for many years and a Fellow of the American Institute of Certified Planners. Paul was an accomplished photographer and in the last few years a frequent visitor to Italy.