About the Department

About the Department

The City of San Jose’s Department of Planning, Building, and Code Enforcement serves to ensure the orderly and safe development of private properties, compliance with all applicable building, zoning, and quality of life ordinances and regulations, and to promote healthy and safe community standards. This is accomplished by departmental staff in service to customers by:

Assisting and guiding land use and development to promote long-term goals and objectives that render safe, beneficial, and more sustainable communities;
Providing orderly administration and compliance of building codes, as mandated by the various levels of government, to ensure the construction of buildings, homes, and structures meet intended life safety and structural requirements; and
Investigating and resolving citizen complaints of municipal code violations on private property in order to promote, maintain, and improve quality of life issues that better allow for safe and harmonious conditions in all neighborhoods.

About the Division

The City’s Planning Division provides oversight and assistance towards the City's growth and development in relation to regulations related to land use, zoning, development standards, urban village plans, and environmental impacts. The goal is to encourage development that strives for safety, high quality of living standards, and support of the health, inclusion, and wellbeing of all persons living and working in San Jose.

The Division is seeking applicants for the Planning Technician classification. This is a full-time position that is responsible for providing the public with information about land use regulations and permitting requirements and directly assisting customers through the permit application process by completing the initial processing of applications. This includes, but is not limited to, the calculation of application fees, determination of application completeness, data input into the City's permitting system database, creation of maps, and routing electronic plans and documents to other City departments and outside agencies for review.

The Planning Division is divided into four teams:

Permit Center: The Permit Center team focuses on public information services, administrative-level staff reviews for development projects, and zoning compliance reviews for building permits.
Development Review: The Development Review team is responsible for processing rezonings and development permits, historic preservation, and community outreach.
Environmental Review: The Environmental Review team fulfills requirements under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) and National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) for assessing environmental impacts for public and private projects, ensures environmental mitigation compliance, and implements the Santa Clara Valley Habitat Conservation Plan.?
Citywide Planning: The Citywide Planning team focuses on long-range planning, including General Plan updates and amendments, zoning and sign ordinance amendments, preparation of urban village plans, housing policies, data analytics, and community engagement.

What We Do

The Department’s Planning Division ensures compliance with the above-mentioned obligations by annually reviewing, analyzing, conducting, researching, processing, and issuance of:

4,000 zoning compliance reviews for building permits;
Over 150 commercial, industrial, residential, and mixed-use development permits;
Over 500 of environmental clearance reviews for public and private projects, including approximately 4 to 8 Environmental Impact Reports, 20 to 30 Negative Declarations/Mitigated Negative Declarations, and over 150 exemptions;
Over 50 zoning changes;
Multiple General Plan Amendments, ordinance amendments, urban village plans, and land use policies; and
Over 50 community meetings and workshops.

Position Duties

The Planning Division is currently seeking to fill one full-time Planning Technician vacancy. The position will work with other Planning Technicians on public information services, intaking and coordinating permit applications, and providing administrative support for public hearings. The position is primarily responsible for providing basic land use regulation and permitting information to the public, managing application submittal appointments, and ensuring a seamless process for applicants when completing the initial processing of their permit applications. This includes responding to public inquiries about the permitting process and providing guidance on the required application documents. Planning Technicians also provide necessary clarifications to ensure that customers are applying for the correct permitting process and that the information provided is accurate. The duties require close collaboration with other City departments and creative, analytical thinking to troubleshoot issues, and appropriately update tracking sheets and applications as they relate to changes in State laws and City requirements. Planning Technicians also provide administrative and technical support for in-person and virtual meetings (Zoom) to ensure that meeting agenda, presentation slides, and public speaking timers are appropriately displayed. This position occasionally requires working late on weekday evenings to provide administrative support during public hearings.

Salary Range

$75,435.36 - $91,596.96 Annually

This salary range includes an approximate five percent (5%) ongoing non-pensionable compensation. Actual salary shall be determined by the final candidates’ qualifications and experience.

Duties and Responsibilities

Respond to customer inquiries related to land use planning and zoning-related questions to ensure customers understand the basic processes.
Provide information regarding permit processing, policies, and procedures to applicants and help ensure that applicants are briefed and successful in the next steps of the process.
Work with permit applicants, including application intake and providing fee information and general zoning and land use information.
Create and maintain maps, graphic illustrations, permit applications, documents, spreadsheets, and other land use planning materials primarily using computers and associated software, including Microsoft Office Suite, Adobe Suite, and ArcGIS.
Assist in the preparation and general conduct of public meetings. Provide administrative and technical support for public meetings, including Planning Commission, Historic Landmarks Commission, and Planning Director hearings, requiring some availability on weeknights.
Research official records from City departments and outside agencies to obtain information, such as the use of property and permit history.
Provide detailed, technical, and specialized support work to city planners and other staff.

Minimum Qualifications

Education: High school diploma, General Education Development (G.E.D.) Certificate, or California Proficiency Certificate or equivalent.

Experience: Two years of technical experience using a personal computer to create word processing documents, computer graphics, databases, spreadsheets and maps.

Acceptable Substitution for Experience: An associate degree from an accredited college with an emphasis in a technical field such as computer science, geographic information systems, computer graphics, or architectural drafting with completed coursework in each of the following software applications: word processing, computer graphics, databases, spreadsheets and maps.

Licenses: Possession of a valid California driver's license may be required.

Other Qualifications

The ideal candidate will possess the following competencies, as demonstrated in past and current employment history.

Job Expertise - Demonstrates knowledge of and experience with applicable professional/technical principles and practices, Citywide and departmental procedures/policies and federal and state rules and regulations.

Communication Skills - Effectively conveys information and expresses thoughts and facts clearly, orally and in writing; demonstrates effective use of listening skills; displays openness to other people's ideas and thoughts.

Customer Service - Demonstrates the ability to anticipate customers' needs and deliver services effectively and efficiently using professional demeanor.

Initiative - Exhibits resourceful behaviors toward meeting job objectives; anticipates problems, is proactive, and avoids difficulties by planning ahead; displays willingness to assume extra responsibility and challenges; pursues continuing education opportunities that promotes job performance.

Problem Solving - Approaches a situation or problem by defining the problem or issue; determines the significance of problem; collects information; uses logic and intuition to arrive at decisions or solutions to problems that achieve the desired outcome.

Teamwork & Interpersonal Skills - Develops effective relationships with co-workers and supervisors by helping others accomplish tasks and using collaboration and conflict resolution skills.

Multi-Tasking - Can effectively handle multiple projects and responsibilities simultaneously; has handled a wide variety of assignments in past and/or current position(s)

Selection Process:

The selection process will consist of an evaluation of the applicant's training and experience based on the application and responses to all the job-specific questions. You must answer all job-specific questions to be considered. Otherwise, your application may be deemed incomplete and withheld from further consideration. Only those candidates whose backgrounds best match the position will be invited to proceed in the selection process. Additional phases of the selection process will consist of one or more interviews, and one of the interviews may require an in-person interview.

If you have questions about the duties of these positions, the selection or hiring processes, please contact Jun Kim at [email protected].