Assistant Land Use Professional

Why work for Bellevue? Bellevue is a dynamic multicultural and future-focused city. Our Council vision is: "Bellevue welcomes the world, our diversity is our strength." As an employee of Bellevue, you’ll be valued and encouraged to contribute. The City invests in its employees and encourages and rewards employee growth and development by building on our commonalities and our differences. Bellevue is noted for its diversity, community involvement, intellectual excitement, artistic pursuits, and natural beauty. We work collectively to make it a place where you want to work, live and play.

We are looking for an innovative and collaborative Assistant Planner to join our team. You will report to the Housing and Special Projects Planning Manager and be on a team that makes up one of four work groups within the land use division. While the Housing and Special Projects team primarily focuses on Affordable Housing projects, there will be opportunity to explore many exciting development projects such as Urban Design, Environmental, and Single-Family. Your scope of work is diverse and varied and ranges from predevelopment consulting and providing public information on policies, codes, and processes to a variety of residential and commercial buildout projects. You will engage and collaborate with a very diverse client base within our dynamic community. You’ll put your top-notch analytics skills and exceptional customer service skills to work. Are you an entry level planner with an interest an in learning about development projects? Are you interested in exploring different types of land use planning to build your career? This might be just the position for you!

A little about our department: Development Services is a multi-department line of business that offers one-stop shopping for general information and the permits needed for development activity in Bellevue and the surrounding service areas. We are code compliance officers, engineers, finance analysts, inspectors, planners, plans examiners, permit technicians, and support staff from the Development Services, Fire, Transportation, and Utilities departments.

• Develops reviews that are predominantly focused on short time-frame, non-discretionary applications as identified in the Planner Series Project Types.
• Reviews and interprets plans (e.g., site, landscaping, architectural, civil, clearing, and grading).
• Undertakes technical analysis of proposed projects, reviews recommendations with team and supervisor, communicates and negotiates revisions with applicants, conducts site visits/inspections, reviews building and occupancy permits to ensure compliance with city codes and permit conditions, negotiates solutions to project issues in a cooperative manner, coordinates review and application of code requirements with other department reviewers within the city when necessary, conducts research for discretionary review projects under the direction of an associate or senior planner, and maintains records and files.
• Conducts policy analysis and process improvements.
• Analyzes technical documents and information, summarizes data, draws conclusions, and makes recommendations.  Develops professional experience relative to project management.
• Completes specific and routine tasks while gaining exposure to new substantive and procedural areas of expertise.  Accountable for accuracy of work on assigned tasks and projects.
• Coordinates application approval/permit issuance for projects within the assistant planner project types pursuant to adopted performance timelines.
• Demonstrates informal leadership through participation in meetings and providing input to others on substantive and process issues related to development review.
• Leads efforts to develop process improvement, work manuals, and other tools to improve the quality and timeliness of assistant land use professional project types.
• Produces clear written documents tailored to audience per division templates and professional standards with assistance from expert or senior staff when necessary.
• Works effectively and predominantly with single applicants and city staff.
• Communicates complete technical information in a direct and simple manner tailored to the audience.  Redlines plans and drawings using industry standards for clarity and vocabulary.
• Negotiates with applicants to achieve solutions in a collaborative manner.
• Develops expertise with application of regulations and policies and provides the appropriate interpretation as it relates to planning.
• Provides public information regarding ordinances, codes, plans, and regulations in person, virtually,  and in writing to citizens, professionals, home owners, and others.
• Assists in the development of public information hand-out materials.
• Attends professional development workshops and conferences pertaining to land use, environmental review, and planning.

Supervision Received and Exercised:

• Provides training to other assistant planners who are new to the workload.
• Reviews small- to mid-range predominantly non-discretionary projects involving familiar steps and known procedures and processes.
• Consults with senior staff on new, complex projects for the most effective method of handling the work. 
• Pursues continuous development of independent decision-making skills.

Knowledge, Skills, Abilities and Competencies

Knowledge of:

• Applicable codes and policies used in predominantly non-discretionary land use review.
• Understanding of clear and grade BMP's and tree preservation techniques used in land use review. 
• Comprehensive understanding of processes applicable to assistant planner project types.
• Development review programs and processes.
• Zoning laws and comprehensive plans including their formation, process of adoption, and enforcement.
• Principles, practices, regulations, and techniques in the field of land use, environmental or transportation planning.
• Microsoft Office software to prepare documents and spreadsheets.

Ability to:

• Read and interpret architectural, civil, and landscape plans and documents.
• Utilize computer programs created for the benefit of facilitating development services review including permit tracking, timekeeping, GIS, and word-processing applications.
• Communicate effectively orally and in writing with architects, contractors, developers, owners, supervisors, employees and the general public.
• Establish and maintain effective working relationships. 
• Write clear and concise reports and plans.
• Establish and maintain effective working relations with state and agency members. 
• Negotiate solutions to development review issues in a collaborative manner.
• Develop and implement systems improvements related to assigned body of land use professional project types.

Education, Experience, and Other Requirements

• Graduation from an accredited four-year college or university with a degree in land use planning, urban planning, landscape architecture, environmental studies, or a closely related field; or unrelated field and completion of an accredited professional planning certificate program.
• At a minimum, must have completed a related internship or other experience assisting in the development review process; one or more years of responsible related experience in any of the following is preferred: land use planning, developmental review, the development process, environmental planning, or urban design.
• Or, any demonstrated combination of education and applicable experience which provides the applicant with the required knowledge, skills, and abilities.

Salary : $81,662 - $112,712