Planning Technician (Planning and Development) (Civil Service)

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Job Summary

Under general direction, the planning technician provides accurate technical customer support and general planning assistance to citizens and City staff. Provides drafting, graphics, or technical support to professional planners to illustrate and provide documentation for planning and zoning studies.

Overview

Job Description

Under general direction, the planning technician provides accurate technical customer support and general planning assistance to citizens and City staff. Provides drafting, graphics, or technical support to professional planners to illustrate and provide documentation for planning and zoning studies.

Essential Functions

• Quickly and accurately evaluates land use-related applications for development in a manner consistent with Department policies, goals and objectives for excellent customer service and within timeframes established by the Department.
• Performs receptionist activities and communicates knowledgeably, candidly, and confidently with a wide variety of people in person and by telephone including neighbors, employees, agencies, other city departments, and vendors to provide information and direction on the status of zoning applications, permits, deficiencies of applications, purposes of the land use and platting regulations, and provide accurate explanations of procedures, ordinances, rules and regulations pertaining to land development; demonstrates excellent customer service skills.
• Prepares, reviews, and proofreads correspondence, memos and reports to be signed by the supervisor to ensure accuracy; reviews, edits, and updates information and documents as needed; conducts training and development for newer team members to ensure efficiency and accuracy of work.
• Provides technical and other support to higher level planning professionals by gathering information related to land use and a variety of planning issues from multiple sources; prepares reports outlining findings.
• Designs and prepares graphics materials for use by planners and other City staff in presentations to a variety of audiences.
• Prepares, updates, maintains, and prints maps for use by City staff and in response to citizen requests.
• Performs a variety of office support duties including data entry, file management, completing forms, maintaining logs, collecting money, preparing cash reports, and compiling and organizing data to facilitate routine paperwork processing.
• Sorts, orders, and distributes all incoming inter-office and U.S. mail and processes all outgoing mail; picks up and/or delivers inter-office and outgoing mail at different city locations to ensure prompt mail distribution; operates reproduction equipment to make copies for those requesting copy services.
• Exercises initiative and work independently with minimal supervision in furtherance of Essential Job Functions.
• Attends community meetings and zoning change request meetings with more senior staff to explain maps and graphs; records meeting minutes, as needed.
• Performs any and all other work as needed or assigned.
  
  

Knowledge, Skills And Abilities Required To Perform Work

• Basic knowledge of City Codes related to zoning.
• Knowledge of computer operating systems and software packages including but not limited to MS Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Adobe Acrobat Pro.
• Knowledge of GIS, techniques and tools used in mapping graphics.
• Knowledge of planning principles and practices, including pertinent specialties, research and data collection.
• Skills in reading and interpreting maps, property surveys, aerial photography and structural floor plans and making reasonable interpolations from scaled drawings, legal descriptions and digital records to non-dimensioned plans.
• Skills in creating effective visual presentations for data from narrative descriptions, blueprints, plans and field measurements, etc.
• Skills in building and maintaining an accurate database for GIS, with the ability to pay close, accurate attention to details.
• Skills in communicating with other city employees and the public by oral and written means.
• Ability to learn and use proficiently electronic processing systems and databases and all Department’s permitting processing systems.
• Ability to establish and maintain an effective working relationship with all levels of management, city officials, vendors, other government agencies, other employees and the general public.
• Ability to manage multiple tasks simultaneously, work comfortably in an environment of moderate ambiguity, and produce quality results while under deadlines and moderate pressure.
• Regular, reliable and punctual attendance is an essential function of the job.
  
  

Education

MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS:

• High school diploma or GED.
  
  

Experience

• Three (3) years of heavy customer service experience AND/OR experience in plans review, zoning administration, building code issuance or surveying.
  
  

Equivalencies

• Associate degree in Urban Planning, Geography, Architecture, Construction Management, Social Sciences, GIS, Public Administration or a related field plus one (1) year of the stated experience will meet the education and experience requirements.
• Bachelor’s degree (or higher) in an Urban Planning, Geography, Architecture, Construction Management, Social Sciences, GIS, Public Administration or a related field will meet the education and experience requirements.
  
  

Salary Range

$23.68 - $26.61

The salary listed on this job posting is the starting salary range; amount offered will depend upon qualifications.

City of Dallas is an Equal Opportunity Employer and values diversity at all levels of its workforce.