After 35 years of owning a construction company, Chuck Hunter’s retirement could have entailed traveling south in his motor home and working on some personal projects. Instead, the 65-year-old Gig Harbor resident moved into a new office in January: He started his term as the city’s new mayor.

Hunter, who owned Hunter Construction Inc., decided about 10 years ago to exit the business, but has kept working on projects, mostly from repeat customers. The company built homes, churches and commercial projects in Gig Harbor, and has done some work in the Kitsap, King and Thurston counties. One of his first buildings was Gig Harbor’s old City Hall, now occupied by a bank.

“I was fortunate to be able to do something I loved,” he says.

Hunter employed several people and supervised the jobs hands-on while wife Dianne, who grew up in Gig Harbor, oversaw the office.

“The construction industry has changed a lot in the last 15 to 20 years,” he says. “I felt I was at a stage where I had to get bigger or quit.” Ten years later, he finally did — and hung up his proverbial toolbelt in August.

Entering the political sector after 40 or more years in the private industry will take some adjusting. But Hunter is not a stranger to Gig Harbor politics. He has helped write the city’s design guidelines manual and later spent about a decade on the city’s Design Review Board. Even so, he sees himself as “nonpolitical” and hopes to keep it that way.

In mid-January, Hunter was just getting settled in but he already knew he had his work cut out. He comes into office as Gig Harbor faces several challenges, including a setback in the plans for a new hospital and growing citywide transportation issues. Aside from those two priorities, Hunter says his goal is to continue to preserve the city’s heritage.

Hunter has lived in Gig Harbor area since his family moved here in the 1950s, and eventually he and Dianne moved within city limits. He has seen the city grow and has always advocated controlled development — a view often different from many builders.

“I believe we have a unique place here: It’s a major asset and we need to protect it,” he says. “If we let development grow and don’t control it, we’ll lose what we’ve got and end up (looking like) some place that everyone left to come here.” On the other hand, he says, the city has to allow enough growth for businesses to remain viable.

As a member of the Design Review Board, Hunter has often tackled the issue of preserving the city’s character. As a builder and private citizen, he has done the same. One of his involvements in recent years was to help save from demolition the downtown Eddon Boatworks building where the world-famous Thunderbird boat was once built. As mayor, Hunter plans to continue advocating preservation, just from a little different angle.

Hunter succeeds Mayor Gretchen Wilbert, who was in office for 16 years. He doesn’t see making radical changes but wants to run things tighter. “I have a little different viewpoint, different approach,” he says. “It’s going to be a balancing act. I just hope I can live up to expectations — but I’ll do everything I can for it.”

Gig Harbor has gone through a major growth spurt in the last 15 years, and commercial activity has boomed in recent years. But Hunter says it’s not time to rest, as the second Tacoma Narrows Bridge makes the area seem closer to everything, and brings in new population and development. “We haven’t seen anything yet,” he says of the future growth.