JOB DESCRIPTION

Deputy Director of Development Services - Zoning & Design Review

City of Fort Worth, Texas

As Fort Worth continues to grow and evolve, the City is investing in leaders who can match pace with performance, leaders who can protect what works while advancing what's next. The City's Development Services Department sits directly in that equation, serving as both the operational gateway for development activity and a strategic platform for shaping Fort Worth’s long-term community framework.

This recruitment represents a rare opportunity: a senior leadership role inside a nationally recognized development services organization, now evolving from "exceptional at managing growth" to "exceptional at guiding it."

The Development Services Department: A performance-driven organization with a five-year blueprint

Fort Worth has surged past a million residents and is still adding almost 20,000 new neighbors each year. That explosive growth keeps the Development Services Department (DSD) at the center of the City's economic engine. A 240‑person team guides every plat, permit and inspection, and has been ranked #1 in Texas amongst 1200 cities by Texas Businesses in verified reviews on the economic development platform Scout. Fort Worth ranked the highest in two categories: "Speed of Permitting" and "Speed of Zoning." (4.0 of 5 for both). The only city to reach above 4 stars in these categories.

DSD's 2029 Strategic Plan is ambitious and outward‑facing. Among its headline initiatives:

• Delivery support for the $1.16 billion Panther Island flood‑control and riverfront redevelopment, coordinating entitlements across federal, regional and local partners.
• Launch of a next‑generation, AI‑enabled online permitting portal that improves both the customer experience as well as reduce staff time related to minor reviews and publish real‑time KPI dashboards that will aid in governmental transparency.
• An update to the Transportation Impact Fee (TrIF) program and 2028 study, opening the door to public‑private partnerships that keep new roadway capacity ahead of growth.
• Restoration of landmark civic spaces - including Heritage Park - and completion of the Historic Resource Survey that will guide preservation policy for the next decade.

These projects will contribute to shaping how, and how fast, Fort Worth grows. The Deputy Director will help turn strategy into reality.

Development Services is not a back-office function in Fort Worth. It is a high-volume, high-accountability operation that influences how the City grows, how quickly projects move, and how consistently policies are applied. It supports the full development lifecycle, zoning, platting, entitlements, infrastructure coordination, building permits, plan review and inspections, complex project facilitation, customer service, and data-enabled performance management.

Department structure and scope: a coordinated development platform

Development Services operates through multiple functional divisions that collectively deliver a coordinated development experience:

• Customer Care
• Development Coordination
• Development Engineering
• Plans Exam & Inspections
• Zoning & Design Review

The role: Zoning & Design Review as the City’s “growth-shaping” platform

This Deputy Director will oversee a complex and high-impact portfolio, including:

• Zoning change case management, Historic preservation, form-based codes, and downtown design,
• Zoning plan review, urban forestry, and zoning appeals,
• Platting and annexation / ETJ coordination,

What makes this opportunity distinctive

A high-performing department that measures itself

The Strategic Plan includes clear key performance measures and service-level expectations across Zoning & Design Review functions- turnaround times, error reduction, predictable administrative review timelines, and shot-clock compliance. This role will lead in a culture where performance is visible and where teams are expected to continuously improve, not simply maintain.

A portfolio where city-shaping decisions happen daily

Zoning and design review are where community character, economic development, neighborhood stability, and equity considerations meet real projects and real tradeoffs. The next Deputy Director will help ensure the City’s decisions are not just efficient but also coherent, aligned with broader policy direction and infrastructure realities.

What the City is looking for in the next Deputy Director

Fort Worth is seeking a leader with the presence and practical intelligence to steward high-stakes decisions in public settings, and the discipline to build durable systems behind the scenes.

• A proactive, city-shaping orientation - someone who does not simply process growth, but helps guide it with intentionality.
• A strong planning and urban design mindset - understanding how zoning tools, design standards, and area planning can reinforce quality-of-place outcomes and predictable development.
• Credibility with diverse stakeholders - development partners, neighborhood leaders, boards/commissions, and internal alliance departments.
• A workforce-builder’s instinct - a commitment to raising capability, training teams, strengthening accountability, and creating resilience through cross-functional knowledge.
• Operational maturity - an ability to protect performance standards while expanding the organization’s strategic impact.

Why Fort Worth - and why now

For the right leader, this is a chance to do work that matters:

• To help shape one of the country’s most dynamic cities,
• Inside a department that measures its performance and invests in its people,
• With a mandate to elevate how growth is guided - not just how it is processed.

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Planning, Urban Planning/Design, Public Administration, Urban Geography, Civil Engineering, or a closely related field.
• Six (6) years of progressively responsible experience in city planning, development services, or a closely related municipal function, including broad exposure to zoning/entitlements, land use regulation, and development review.
• Four (4) years of management or administrative leadership experience, including supervising professional staff and coordinating multi-function work programs.
• Valid Texas driver’s license (or ability to obtain upon hire).

Preferred / Highly Desirable Qualifications

• Masters Degree in Planning, Regional Planning, Urban Design or planning related degree strongly preferred.
• A demonstrated record of leading or influencing zoning and land use policy in a high-growth environment, including ordinance interpretation, case management, and code modernization.
• Experience overseeing or partnering closely with urban design, downtown design standards, form-based tools, conservation districts, or historic preservation programs where public process and defensibility are paramount.
• Working knowledge of subdivision/platting and annexation/ETJ coordination, including collaborative workflows with engineering, transportation, utilities, and capital planning partners.
• A history of success improving customer experience and service-level performance (cycle time, predictability, transparency) while maintaining decision quality and public trust.
• Evidence of strong people leadership-developing staff capability, building a leadership bench, implementing training/cross-training, and strengthening accountability in a high-volume environment.
• Professional credentials such as AICP and/or CNU