Associate City Planner

City and County of Denver; United States; Hybrid; USD 69,000 - 113,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical Plans

Dental

Vision Insurance

Pension Plan for Life

457(b) Retirement Plan

PTO and Holidays

Merit Increases

EcoPass

Tuition Reimbursement

Student Loan Forgiveness Program

Learning and Development Opportunities

Employee Volunteer Program

Job summary

The City and County of Denver is seeking an Associate City Planner in the Community Planning and Development Department. This full-time role focuses on regulatory planning, rezonings, and long-range projects, reporting to the rezoning supervisor.

You will work on map amendments and text amendments to implement adopted plans and support neighborhood initiatives. We value equity in planning and require experience with planning codes, data analysis, and stakeholder engagement.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in a planning-related field required or equivalent.
• Experience with long-range plans, zoning codes and land use tools.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.

Responsibilities

• Review and interpret rezoning and sign plan applications for compliance.
• Lead rezoning applications, coordinate reviews, draft staff reports, present to boards.
• Engage stakeholders and facilitate meetings to resolve issues.
• Improve city processes to be more efficient, equitable, and transparent.
• Collect and analyze socioeconomic, land use, transportation data.

Skills

Equity in planning

Long-range plans

Zoning codes

Written & verbal communication

Interpersonal & customer service

Community outreach

Spanish language (preferred)

Government experience (pref)

Education

Bachelor's Degree in City or Regional Planning or related field

Tools

Adobe InDesign

GIS applications

SketchUp

Job description

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.

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 $68,773-113,476/year. New hires are typically brought into the organization with a starting pay between $68,773-86,000/year, based on experience and education. We also offer generous benefits for full-time employees which include but is not limited to:

• Five (5) Medical Plans
• Dental
• Vision Insurance (effective within 1 month of start date)
• 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 & Schedule

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.

Who We Are & 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 City and County of Denver’s Community Planning and Development Department (CPD) is seeking a highly motivated and creative individual to fill a full-time Associate City Planner position. In this position, you will participate on interdisciplinary teams for a variety of exciting and complex regulatory and planning projects that advance Denver’s vision of great, inclusive places. Our work is typically performed with the direction and mentorship of team leaders and project managers such as senior and principal city planners in a collaborative, team-based environment. This Associate City Planner position will report to the rezoning supervisor, and will primarily focus on regulatory planning projects, such as rezonings (also known as map amendments) and text amendments to the zoning code to implement our adopted plans. This position may also assist with long-range planning projects under Denver’s ambitious Neighborhood Planning Initiative program. While this position is focused on regulatory planning work, Associate City Planners typically also spend a portion of their time working on other CPD Planning & Policy teams and projects, and so we encourage all qualified candidates interested in working in the Planning & Policy division to apply.

Key responsibilities will include:

• Review and interpret applications, such as rezonings and sign plans, for compliance with applicable codes, policies, and standards.
• Lead rezoning applications, including customer support, management of internal and public review, drafting staff reports, presenting to Planning Board and City Council, and ensuring outcomes further the City’s adopted plans.
• Engage with internal and external partners, including facilitating meetings, making effective presentations, and bringing together stakeholders to anticipate and resolve issues.
• Contribute to efforts to improve city processes to make them more efficient, equitable and transparent.
• Collect and analyze socioeconomic, land use, transportation and demographic data for planning and regulatory projects
• Support public meetings and other stakeholder engagement events, including planning, preparation, and participation, and facilitation.

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:

• Commitment to integrating equity in planning
• Experience working with long range plans, zoning codes and other land use regulatory tools
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills
• Outstanding interpersonal and customer service skills
• Previous experience with community outreach/engagement
• Familiarity with software used in Denver’s planning and regulatory implementation efforts, including Adobe Creative Suite (especially InDesign); GIS applications and Sketchup or other similar design visualization/evaluation software
• Proficiency in speaking, reading and writing in Spanish is preferred but not required
• Government experience preferred but not required

Required Minimum Qualifications

Education requirement: Bachelor's Degree in City or Regional Planning, Architecture, Landscape Architecture, Historic Preservation, Engineering, or a related field.

Experience Requirement: Three (3) years of entry-level professional planning experience which includes participating and assisting in developing planning projects, goals, and guidelines and conducting planning studies and research in a variety of social, economic, and physical areas.

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. Additional appropriate education may be substituted for the minimum experience requirements.

Application Deadline

To consider this position, you must include the following on your job application: Resume Cover Letter. no later than Monday, September 13th, 2026, at 11:59pm.

Position Type

Unlimited. Position Salary Range $68,773.00 - $113,476.00. Target Pay $68,773-86,000/year, based on experience and education.

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.

Equal Employment Opportunity

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 [e-mail] with three business days’ notice.

Work Authorization

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, in English or Spanish.