Associate Planner - Long Range

Why Tumwater? Tumwater is more than just a city, it’s a vibrant community rooted in history and filled with opportunity. Located at the southern gateway to the Seattle-Tacoma metro area, Tumwater offers the perfect blend of small-town charm and big-picture vision.

Surrounded by the natural beauty of Puget Sound, prairie landscapes, rivers, and evergreen forests, we’re just over an hour from ocean beaches, the Olympic Peninsula, and Mount Rainier. Whether you’re into hiking, kayaking, brewery-hopping, or live music, you’ll find easy access to it all.

Here in Tumwater, we’re building a future that’s highly livable, connected, and inclusive. With safe neighborhoods, excellent schools, and a deep sense of civic pride, it’s not just a great place to live, it’s a great place to grow your career.

The City of Tumwater is seeking an experienced and motivated Associate Planner to join our Long Range Planning team and help shape the future of our growing community. In this role, you’ll support the development and implementation of long-range plans, policies, and programs that guide how Tumwater grows and evolves. You’ll conduct research and analysis, prepare staff reports and recommendations, interpret land use regulations, and manage planning projects of moderate complexity while working collaboratively with City staff, community members, and regional partners.

As an Associate Planner, you’ll have the opportunity to take ownership of meaningful projects with increasing independence and professional judgment while remaining supported by an experienced interdisciplinary team. You’ll help translate community priorities and planning goals into actionable policies, coordinate project teams, and contribute to initiatives that influence Tumwater for years to come.

For the first year, this position is likely to be split between long-range and current planning with 50% time allocated to each. This percentage will reduce to 10% current planning and 90% long range planning in the subsequent year. This is an excellent opportunity for a planner ready to broaden their experience, take on greater project responsibility, and make a lasting impact on the community.

• Independently manage moderately complex long-range planning projects from initiation through adoption.
• Conduct research and analysis related to land use, zoning, housing, transportation, environmental conditions, and demographic trends.
• Review and evaluate land use policies and development regulations and prepare recommendations for revisions or alternatives.
• Prepare staff reports, policy analyses, code amendments, and planning studies.
• Author or co-author substantive sections of Comprehensive Plan updates, development regulations, and related policy documents.
• Coordinate consultant task assignments and monitor work products for moderately complex planning projects.
• Coordinate public outreach efforts and support Planning Commission and City Council processes.
• Contribute to development and refinement of administrative procedures and internal planning guidance.
• Coordinate or contribute to grant research, applications, reporting, and funding coordination.
• Attend public meetings and present written, graphic, or oral reports and recommendations.

• Assist departments, applicants, and the public with land use proposals and permitting processes.
• Coordinate interdepartmental review of development projects.
• Evaluate permit requests for compliance with local, state, and federal regulations.
• Conduct pre-application meetings and coordinate project review.
• Prepare staff recommendations and conditions of approval.
• Independently prepares environmental review documentation and coordinates SEPA processes for…