Springville

Department: Community Development

Position Reports to: Community Development Director

Pay Grade: 16

Employment Type: Full-time

Exempt/Nonexempt: Non-exempt

Description: Under general direction from the Community Development Director, performs professional planning services for the City. Develops and improves procedures, service delivery, and planning outcomes in collaboration with City departments, applicants, agencies, and the public.

Duties:

• Independently manages complex or multilayered development applications and planning projects from initial inquiry or preapplication through final action and required follow-through.
• Reviews and analyzes land use, subdivision, site plan, zoning, annexation, development agreement, design, and related applications for compliance with adopted plans, regulations, policies, and applicable law.
• Interprets the General Plan, land use regulations, development standards, development agreements, and administrative procedures; prepares defensible findings, recommendations, and conditions of approval.
• Coordinates multidisciplinary review with City departments and outside agencies; facilitates meetings, identifies conflicts or gaps, develops options, and escalates unresolved issues appropriately.
• Prepares and presents staff reports, findings, notices, ordinances, resolutions, agreements, policy recommendations, maps, graphics, and technical analyses to decision-makers and public audiences.
• Leads or substantially contributes to plan and code amendments, planning studies, public engagement, data analysis, and implementation of adopted plans and policies.
• Develops and maintains standard operating procedures, checklists, templates, guidance, code interpretations, tracking practices, and other tools that promote consistency and institutional knowledge.
• Evaluates workflows and service performance, uses data and stakeholder feedback to identify problems, and recommends and implements practical improvements.
• Provides technical guidance, training, quality review, and project-based coordination to Planner I, interns, consultants, or other staff as assigned.
• All other duties as assigned.

Education: Bachelor's degree from an accredited college or university in urban or regional planning, geography, architecture, landscape architecture, public administration, or a closely related field.

Experience: Three years of progressively responsible professional planning, development review, land use administration, or closely related experience, including independent management of projects or applications.

Equivalency: An equivalent combination of directly related education and experience that provides the required knowledge, skills, and abilities may be considered.

Preferred: American Institute of Certified Planners certification.

License: Valid Utah driver license.

KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS, AND ABILITIES

• Knowledge of municipal planning, zoning and subdivision administration, land use, urban design, development review, and planning implementation.
• Working knowledge of Utah municipal land use law, including applicable notice, due-process, open-meeting, public-records, and decision requirements.
• Skill in project and workflow management, including scope, schedules, dependencies, risk identification, issue resolution, documentation, and follow-through.
• Skill in facilitation, negotiation, conflict resolution, and building alignment among people with different responsibilities and interests.
• Ability to develop procedures, analyze performance information, lead process improvement, and translate organizational goals into practical workflows.
• Proficiency with GIS, electronic permitting and plan-review systems, records and project-tracking systems, office and collaboration software, databases, and presentation tools.

Physical Demands: Work is primarily performed in an office and public-meeting environment, with periodic evening meetings and site visits that may involve driving, walking on uneven terrain, and exposure to weather. The work requires the ability to communicate, review detailed plans and documents, use a computer and standard office equipment, and occasionally move materials weighing up to 25 pounds.

Area of Focus: DEVELOPMENT REVIEW ASSIGNMENT PURPOSE

Serves as the City's process owner and primary coordinator for land use development applications from preapplication through final action and required follow-through. The assignment integrates city departments and divisions, outside agencies, applicants, and decision-makers into a timely, predictable, consistent, transparent, and customer-focused review process.

CORE ASSIGNMENT RESPONSIBILITIES End-to-End Application Management

• Owns, administers, and coordinates the standard development review workflow, ensuring that responsibilities, requirements, deadlines, decisions, and next actions remain clear throughout each application.
• Serves as the primary project manager and applicant contact for assigned land use applications from preapplication and intake through review, public action, recording, closeout, or other required follow-through.
• Coordinates completeness review, routing, departmental review, meetings, notices, staff reports, hearings, decisions, conditions of approval, and project records.
• Organizes and facilitates preapplication conferences, Development Review Committee meetings, comment-resolution meetings, and project status meetings.
• Identifies missing, duplicative, inconsistent, unclear, or conflicting review comments; facilitates resolution and communicates a consolidated, organized, and actionable response to the applicant.
• Documents unresolved issues, responsible parties, options, and consequences, and escalates them through established channels when timely resolution cannot be achieved at the staff level.

Documentation and Continuous Improvement

• Maintains current process maps, standard operating procedures, service standards, application checklists, templates, routing rules, code interpretations, decision records, and customer-facing guidance.
• Maintains accurate project status, deadlines, next actions, review history, decisions, and supporting records in the City's permitting, records-management, and project-tracking systems.
• Monitors measures such as application completeness, review turnaround, on-time performance, review cycles, overdue items, and applicant feedback; reports trends, risks, and improvement opportunities.
• Leads collaborative evaluation, testing, implementation, and documentation of workflow, technology, communication, and customer-service improvements.
• Trains staff and reviewers in adopted procedures, documentation standards, systems, service expectations, and implemented improvements.

Communication and Service

• Provides applicants and stakeholders with accurate, consistent, and timely information regarding requirements, status, decisions, responsibilities, and next steps.
• Builds productive working relationships across departments and creates regular opportunities to address recurring problems, align expectations, and improve the applicant and community experience.
• Balances efficient problem solving with consistent application of adopted law, policy, standards, and the public interest.

AUTHORITY AND ACCOUNTABILITY

The Development Review Planner is accountable for the integrity and performance of the review process, not for replacing the professional judgment or final technical authority of reviewing departments.

Development Review Planner: Routing, schedules, status, meetings, consolidated communication, procedural compliance, records, follow-up, documentation, performance monitoring, and escalation.

Reviewing Departments: Timely, accurate, complete, and defensible discipline-specific review, comments, decisions, inspections, and approvals.

Community Development Director: Process standards, workload and priority decisions, support for cross-department coordination, and resolution or elevation of significant issues.

City Administration: Citywide service expectations and resolution of escalated organizational conflicts that cannot be settled at the department level.

FUNCTIONAL AUTHORITY

• Establish application schedules and coordination practices consistent with law, adopted procedures, and City service standards.
• Request review status, clarification, documentation, and participation needed to keep applications moving and records complete.
• Convene issue-resolution meetings and request revision or clarification of comments that are incomplete, unclear, duplicative, or inconsistent with an agreed requirement.
• Recommend procedural, staffing, technology, policy, or service-standard changes to the Community Development Director.
• Escalate missed deadlines, unresolved conflicts, legal risks, or decisions requiring authority beyond the assignment.

This assignment does not confer direct supervisory authority over professional reviewers or final technical approval authority assigned by law, ordinance, policy, or professional licensure to another official or department.

SUCCESS INDICATORS

• Applicants, reviewers, and decision-makers can readily determine each application's status, requirements, responsible parties, deadlines, and next actions.
• Review comments are coordinated, understandable, defensible, and delivered through a consistent communication process.
• Deadlines and risks are visible, followed up on, and escalated before they become avoidable failures.
• Procedures, checklists, templates, interpretations, and public guidance are current, documented, and consistently used.
• Performance information is reviewed regularly and produces documented, implemented improvements rather than isolated observations.
• Reviewing departments participate in a professional, collaborative service culture while retaining accountability for their technical work.

Numeric targets, implementation milestones, and first-year deliverables are established in the employee's annual performance plan and may be adjusted as process maturity, workload, and City priorities change.

RELATIONSHIP TO CLASSIFICATION

This profile supplements the Community Development Planner II job description and identifies the principal assignment of the position currently being recruited. It does not replace the classification description. The City may modify the assignment based on operational needs, provided the work remains consistent with the Planner II classification.

Drug screen and background checks performed