Senior City Planner for Development Projects @ Denver

About Our Job

With competitive pay, great benefits, and endless opportunities, working for the City and County of Denver (CCD) means seeing yourself working with purpose — for you, and those who benefit from your passion, skills and expertise. Join our diverse, inclusive and talented workforce of more than 11,000 team members who are at the heart of what makes Denver, Denver. Click here to find out about all the amazing benefits and reasons to work for CCD!

What We Offer

The City and County of Denver offers a competitive salary commensurate with education and experience. The salary range for this position is $80,217-132,358/year. New hires are typically brought into the organization with a starting pay between $90,000-100,000/year, based on experience and education. We also offer generous benefits for full-time employees which include but is not limited to:

• Competitive Medical, Dental, Vision Insurance (effective within 1 month of start date, City pays majority of premiums)
• Pension Plan for Life (Employee contributes 8.45%, Employer matches at 17.95%)
• 457 (b) Retirement Plan (no early withdrawal fee!)
• PTO (over 3 weeks in your first year) and 14 paid holidays
• Merit Increases
• STD, LTD, HSA, FSA, Life Insurance
• CARE Bank, Family Leave Benefits
• Employee Assistance Program, Employee Volunteer Program
• Tuition Reimbursement (up to $2000/year), We Qualify for Student Loan Forgiveness Program
• Learning and Development Opportunities; Courses and Career Development Resources
• EcoPass (unlimited free RTD bus/train rides)

Location

This position is located at the Wellington Webb Building, located at 201 W Colfax Ave. Denver, CO 80202.

The City and County of Denver supports a hybrid workplace model. Employees’ physical work location is based upon the position’s job duties and requirements, customer service and responsiveness, team and individual performance, and business needs and requirements. Our current practice requires in-office work for all employees for a minimum of three days per week. Business needs and initial onboarding may require additional days in the office.

Please note: Downtown parking expenses are the responsibility of the employee. We offer a flexible spending account option specifically for parking; if you elect this option, you can use pre tax dollars for parking. We also offer an RTD ‘eco pass’ to all City employees– allowing the use of public transportation for free as a City Employee.

What You’ll Do

BUILDING COMMUNITY

Denver Community Planning and Development is responsible for visionary city planning and ensuring safe, responsible, sustainable building. CPD regulates planning, zoning, development and maintenance of private property in Denver. We're working hard to make Denver a great place to live, work and play! Visit DenverGov.org/CPD.

The Development Services Division of the Community Planning and Development Department coordinates and administers Denver’s building, fire, and zoning codes through review, permitting, and inspection of all new development projects in Denver. Through each of these critical roles, Development Services helps to implement the city’s vision for an outstanding Denver.

The successful candidate for the Senior City Planner for Development Projects position will direct and manage the coordinated review process for new development projects, including the complex coordination of large and multi-phased projects. This position provides a single point of contact (from project inception to completion) that ensures that the entire review and approval process is timely, well-coordinated, efficient, and predictable with the focus on successful project outcomes.

Senior City Planner’s for Development Projects (Project Champions) meet with customers early in the conceptual stages of the development process to provide critical information about milestones and critical paths for the developer. They are responsible for managing the project, providing project updates, resolving conflicts between policies, codes and regulations across internal city departments and agencies and external entities, such as, Denver Water and Xcel Energy, and to track and document the history of a project through the review and approval process. You are not expected to be advocates, but rather project management liaisons leading and managing the review process with an emphasis on achieving successful outcomes as efficiently as possible.

Key responsibilities will include

• Working collaboratively with the Associate City Planner for Development Projects and the multi-agency review team to ensure review and approvals are completed accurately and effectively.
• Maintaining a focus on exceptional customer service focused on efficiently assisting development projects through the development review and approval process
• Managing large scale and multi-phased developments through various infrastructure, site planning, and subdivision phases.
• Coordinating with City Agencies and Departments to ensure implementation of city plans, regulations and policies through the review process, including assisting with development of zoning code amendments, Urban Design Standards and Guidelines, open space and parks plans, infrastructure design, Development Agreements, and capital improvement review.
• Providing urban design review and guidance for projects within Design Review Districts
• Managing the review responsibilities across a wide variety of assigned projects within the Site Design and Neighborhood Development team
• Facilitating the coordinated review process across agencies resulting in conflict resolution and final project approvals.
• Be involved with applying relevant codes, focused on successful place-making to create well-designed outcomes through review of development plan proposals.
• Reviewing development permit applications for completeness, accuracy, conformance to applicable regulations and coordination/distribution of applications for review by appropriate section/agencies within established timeframes
• Balancing multiple projects of different scopes and scales, ability to work closely with other city departments/agencies and external agencies to manage customer expectations.

What You’ll Bring

We value diversity of ethnicity, race, socioeconomic status, sexual identity, gender, religion, language, ability, and experience and exemplify this through the makeup of our team at all levels. You'll be right at home here if you cultivate strong relationships and push yourself, your work, the people around you and Denver to the next level.

Our ideal candidate has some or all the following experience, skills, and characteristics:

• Experience managing and coordinating complex, large-scale and/or multi-phased development projects, including balancing multiple active projects and competing priorities.
• Experience with development review, plan review, permitting, or entitlement processes, including reviewing development proposals for compliance with applicable zoning, land use, building, development codes, design standards, or guidelines.
• Knowledge and understanding of zoning, land use, architectural, site planning/engineering, development review, and development principles, practices, and processes.
• Experience serving as a primary point of contact for development projects and coordinating across multiple stakeholders, including developers, property owners, architects, engineers, consultants, government agencies, and internal review teams.
• Strong analytical, project management, organizational, and problem-solving skills, with the ability to evaluate complex information, manage competing priorities, and develop solutions to challenging development and regulatory issues.
• Strong communication, interpersonal, and customer service skills, including the ability to explain complex regulatory requirements, navigate difficult conversations, manage expectations, and communicate effectively with a variety of audiences.
• Demonstrated ability to collaborate across teams and disciplines, resolve competing or conflicting priorities, and build productive working relationships with internal and external stakeholders.
• Experience with professional planning, architecture, engineering, development, or a related field in a municipal development review environment or from the applicant/development side of the process.
• Ability to work as part of a team to support both internal and external customers; Self-motivated and motivated to help others.

Required Minimum Qualifications

• Education requirement: Bachelor’s Degree in City or Regional Planning, Architecture, Landscape Architecture, Construction Management, Public Administration, Business, or a related field.
• Experience Requirement: Five (5) years of professional experience reviewing development projects, rezoning, or amendment requests.
• Education/Experience Equivalency: One (1) year of the appropriate type and level of experience may be substituted for each required year of post-high school education.

Application Deadline

To be considered for this position, you must include the following on your job application (upload the attachment(s) to the Resume/CV section on the My Experience tab):

• Resume/CV
• Cover Letter
• You will also be asked two questions as part of the application process. So that you can prepare, here are the two application questions:
• Describe your experience and level of proficiency with software tools used for plan review or permit applications, such as Bluebeam, Accela, e-permit systems, Power BI, or similar tools. Please briefly describe how you have used these tools in your work.
• Please describe your project management experience with development, planning, permitting, or similar projects, including your role, level of responsibility, key stakeholders, and the number of projects you typically managed at one time. Please indicate whether you served as the primary point of contact and what aspects of the projects you led or coordinated.

Please submit your application as soon as possible and no later than Sunday, November 8th, at 11:59pm to ensure consideration.

About Everything Else

Job Profile

CE2161 Development Project Administrator SeniorTo view the full job profile including position specifications, physical demands, and probationary period, click here.

Position Type

Unlimited

Position Salary Range

$80,217.00 - $132,358.00

Target Pay

$90,000-100,000/year, based on education and experience

Agency

Community Planning & Development

Redeployment during Citywide Emergencies

City and County of Denver employees may be re-deployed to work in other capacities in their own agencies or in other city agencies to support core functions of the city during a citywide emergency declared by the Mayor.

The City and County of Denver provides equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, genetic information, age, or any other status protected under federal, state, and/or local law.

It is your right to access oral or written language assistance, sign language interpretation, real-time captioning via CART, or disability-related accommodations. To request any of these services at no cost to you, please contact [email protected] with three business days’ notice.

Applicants for employment with the City and County of Denver must have valid work authorization that does not require sponsorship of a visa for employment authorization in the U.S.

For information about right to work, click here for English or here for Spanish.