Assistant Director of Development Services - Zoning & Design Review

City of Fort Worth, Texas

Fort Worth is a high-performance, full-service municipal organization operating at the center of one of America's most dynamic growth regions. The City's work is not theoretical-every decision has immediate consequences for neighborhoods, infrastructure, economic vitality, and the lived experience of residents and businesses. That reality has shaped a culture that values execution, measurable outcomes, transparency, and cross-department collaboration.

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."

About the City of Fort Worth as an Organization

The City of Fort Worth is a full-service municipal organization operating under a council-manager form of government. The Mayor and City Council set policy direction, and the City Manager Jay Chapa serves as the organization's chief executive, responsible for implementing Council priorities and overseeing daily operations across the enterprise.

Fort Worth delivers services through 27 departments and major offices, spanning public safety, infrastructure, community development, financial stewardship, and internal operations. The City's scale is reflected in its workforce of approximately 7,200 employees, including roughly 4,500 civilian employees, 1,700+ police employees, and about 960 fire employees. Supporting this platform is a multi-billion-dollar operating structure; the City's FY2026 operating budget is $3.09 billion, including a $1.11 billion General Fund. Together, this scope demands leaders who can drive performance in a complex environment, balancing customer expectations, transparency, risk management, and cross-department coordination while delivering measurable outcomes.

Department structure and scope: a coordinated development platform

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

Customer Care provides the front door for customers, helping with submittals, answering questions, managing CRM inquiries, and improving customer satisfaction through education, communications, and training resources.

Development Coordination supports critical connective points: contract management, business support/financial management, facilitation for strategic projects, strategic operations/KPI tracking, and administration of programs such as transportation impact fees. This division emphasizes both customer navigation and internal accountability.

Development Engineering delivers infrastructure-related development review: engineering plan review, stormwater development services, transportation development review, and water/wastewater coordination, supporting safe, compliant, predictable development with a strong customer experience orientation.

Plans Exam & Inspections ensures public health and safety through building plan review, code adoption and amendments, and inspections, including modernization efforts such as video inspections and certification goals.

Zoning & Design Review is the engine where land use, urban form, entitlement decisions, and place outcomes converge. It is one of the most visible, stakeholder-facing portfolios in the Department and one of the most consequential for Fort Worth's long-term success.

The role: Zoning & Design Review as the City's "growth-shaping" platform

The Assistant Director of Development Services - Zoning & Design Review is a senior leader who helps set direction, align teams, and ensure decisions are consistent, timely, and strategically grounded. The role has historically been a key part of the Department's leadership team during a period of tremendous growth, strengthening the operational foundation, improving processes, supporting staff, and keeping pace with increasing development volume while maintaining high service standards.

Now, the role is evolving.

This is not a turnaround. Fort Worth is not "fixing what's broken." The City is building on a strong foundation and asking the next Assistant Director to help the City Manager's office shift the organization from primarily responding to development pressure to more intentionally guiding growth through proactive planning, area plan development, and alignment of land use decisions with infrastructure and transportation investments.

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

Zoning change case management, ordinance updates, and administration of the Zoning Commission.

Historic preservation, form-based codes, and downtown design, including Certificates of Appropriateness, code enforcement in designated districts, federal review components, and the boards and commissions that support design and preservation.

Zoning plan review, urban forestry, and zoning appeals, including compliance with the urban forestry ordinance, Boards of Adjustment administration, verification letters, and related determinations.

Platting and annexation / ETJ coordination, including subdivision ordinance enforcement, coordination of Plan Commission and development review committees, and collaboration across the entitlement and predevelopment landscape.

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 Assistant Director will help ensure the City's decisions are not just efficient but also coherent, aligned with broader policy direction and infrastructure realities.

A "next phase" leadership seat

Fort Worth is recruiting a leader who can operate at two levels simultaneously:

Operational excellence (cycle time, predictability, customer experience, staff capability)

Strategic city-building (area plans, code management, growth alignment, implementation discipline, long-term outcomes)

That combination is rare, and it is exactly what makes this position compelling.

What the City is looking for in the next Assistant 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.

The City is particularly interested in a leader who brings:

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.

This is a role for someone who can be both strategist and operator, equally comfortable with board-facing complexity and internal execution.

Why Fort Worth-and why now

The Assistant Director role has been central to building a strong operational foundation during a period of sustained growth. The next leader will inherit a division that is organized, accountable, and ambitious, now ready to push further into proactive planning and long-term alignment.

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.

Qualifications

Fort Worth is seeking a seasoned municipal leader who brings technical depth in zoning and entitlement systems, credibility in public-facing decision environments, and the ability to translate policy into predictable, high-quality outcomes at scale. The successful candidate will be both a strategic growth-shaper and an operational executive-equally capable of building durable internal systems and navigating complex stakeholder dynamics.

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 (or comparable design/planning credentials) are valued.

Mackenzie Eason & Associates

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Assistant Director of Development Services - Zoning & Design Review