Borough Certification Manager/Senior Planner

About the position

The Department of City Planning (DCP) plans for the future of New York City, working to create thriving and dynamic neighborhoods with access to housing and jobs, resilient infrastructure, and a vibrant public realm. The Department engages communities to develop inclusive plans, expands housing access and economic opportunity, and plans for long-term sustainability.

DCP supports the City Planning Commission in its annual review of hundreds of land use applications. The Department also advises on citywide strategic and capital planning, analyzes data, conducts policy analysis, and creates open data and civic engagement tools.

The Department of City Planning offers staff meaningful opportunities to help shape the future of New York City and address some of its most pressing challenges. The Department values public service, collaboration, and creativity, and supports professional development. The Bronx has again reached its all-time population level, and by 2040, the borough is projected to grow by more than 200,000 residents.

The Bronx Office has a diverse and dynamic work program focused on ensuring the borough has great neighborhoods, affordable housing, vibrant commercial and institutional centers, rich transit opportunities, and high-quality open space and waterfronts. The Office is made up of a team of planners and urban designers who work on a wide variety of studies, rezonings, and developments, across a large and diverse borough.

The Bronx Office coordinates the review of numerous private and publicly sponsored requests for land use and zoning changes and manages the Uniform Land Use Review Procedure (ULURP), including presentations to the City Planning Commission and coordination with Community Boards.

Bronx Office staff also work on a wide range of land use, zoning, urban design, and transportation issues in communities across the borough, and staff are the local experts on their communities, providing essential knowledge to policy makers and elected officials. The Office works in close consultation with the central divisions on borough-specific and city-wide issues.

The Bronx Borough Office is seeking a Borough Certification Manager (BCM)/Senior Planner.

The selected candidate will be responsible for oversight of the division’s application pipeline, including internal process management in coordination with staff, coordination with interdivisional pipeline team to ensure that division projects are appropriately prioritized and advanced, reinforcing and refining agency standard operating procedures, management of data quality across the Office and internal divisions, and development and implementation of tools and practices to assist borough staff and division management in awareness and oversight of project pipeline.

The responsibilities of the BCM role may utilize up to 50 percent of the selected individual’s time, while the remainder of their time will be spent on duties and responsibilities related to their core position as Senior Planner.

Responsibilities

• Work closely with central divisions including Land Use Review, Technical Review Division, Environmental Assessment & Review Division to ensure BXO’s projects are reviewed and advanced in a timely and appropriate manner;
• Maintain oversight of BXO’s Zoning Application Portal (ZAP) records to ensure planners are maintaining quality and legibility for both internal DCP use and public record-keeping;
• Monitor incoming project initiation materials (PIF, PAS, etc), ensure they are routed to the appropriate planners, and provide awareness and updates to division management as necessary;
• Maintain through knowledge of DCP Standard Operating Procedures, and contribute to their consistent utilization by staff;
• Provide recommendations for process improvements and participate in Agency efforts to refine and define processes;
• Regularly communicate with division management on pipeline, project status, and troubleshooting;
• Identify and help resolve bottlenecks in application review, monitors application workload across staff, and recommends adjustments in workload and staffing to the Borough Director/Deputy Director.
• Provide mentorship, training, and guidance to colleagues, and help establish office-wide best practices;
• Perform other related tasks.
• Review, analyze, and make recommendations on land use applications submitted to DCP pursuant to the Uniform Land Use Review Procedure (ULURP) and coordinate this work with technical divisions of the department, other city agencies, community boards, elected officials and the public;
• Analyze site plans and development proposals to determine compliance with NYC zoning regulations and the City’s land use planning policies ;
• Plan, organize and conduct economic, zoning, land use and urban design studies, research data, analyze conditions, prepare maps and written reports for economic and land use policy proposals.
• Create and organize graphic and written materials for presentations to the City Planning Commission, other governmental agencies, and the public ;
• Serve as the DCP liaison to one or more Bronx community boards ;
• Represent the department at meetings of civic, business and community groups, community boards, and public agencies; and
• Perform other related tasks.

Requirements

• Permanent Civil Service status in the City Planner title, or reachable on the City Planner active list (exam #5045), or New York City employees serving in a comparable civil service title.
• A baccalaureate degree from an accredited college or university and two years of satisfactory full-time experience in city planning; or
• A satisfactory combination of education and/or experience that is equivalent to "1" above. Graduate education in city planning, urban planning, urban design, architecture, landscape architecture, transportation engineering, public administration, economic development or related fields may be substituted for experience on the basis of 30 graduate semester credits from an accredited college for one year of experience. However, all candidates must have a baccalaureate degree.
• Authorization to work in the United States is required for this position.
• Applicants are responsible for ensuring that they meet all minimum qualifying requirements for this position at the time of application.

Nice-to-haves

• One additional year of professional experience as described in "2" above for Assignment Level III.
• Two additional years of professional experience as described in "2" above for Assignment Level IV.

Benefits

• Meaningful opportunities to help shape the future of New York City and address some of its most pressing challenges.
• Public service, collaboration, and creativity are valued.
• Support for professional development.