OREGON - A man who helped bring tall, eye-catching buildings to the region's light-rail and bus lines resigned from Metro last month after a reorganization took away his program and staff.

Phil Whitmore founded a program that helped plan and subsidize projects in Portland, Hillsboro, Milwaukie and Gresham. The program was one of the nation's first to use federal transit money not just to buy trains and tracks but to influence development around them.

Whitmore, who was Metro's manager of transit-oriented development, said he was asked to stay to handle several Gresham projects but feared he would no longer be credible with developers and lenders.

Some developers and others said Whitmore's drive and expertise were the key to the program's success. Metro officials said they hoped Whitmore would stay but believe the program will remain successful.

Whitmore, who would not give his age, was approaching retirement, said Metro Planning Director Andy Cotugno, Whitmore's boss. Last year, the agency hired an assistant director, Megan Gibb, to learn from and eventually replace him. The program was moved to a long-range planning unit so more Metro staffers could learn from it.

"There's too many projects for one individual to manage," Cotugno said.

Metro hired Whitmore in 1981 when the area's first light-rail line, Portland to Gresham, was still in planning stages. Back then, marrying land use and transportation "was kind of an idea before its time," said transportation consultant Bob Post, formerly of TriMet, which housed the transit-oriented development program for several years.