Community Planner

Career Area: Planning and Analysis

Occupation Group: Policy Analysis and Planning

Salary

Percentile wages tell how much a certain percentage of an overall population in a geographic area or within a given industry or field makes. The percentile wage estimate is the value of a wage below which a certain percent of workers fall.

An example would be the 25th percentile, 25 percent of workers employed in that occupation earn less and 75 percent earn more than the estimated wage value. At the 75th percentile, 75 percent of workers employed in that occupation earn less and 25 percent earn more than the estimated wage value.

A typical Community Planner earns the following wages (national and state):

State

The average salary in North Carolina for those pursuing this career is $59,920

National

The average salary in the United States for those pursuing this career is $69,039

What Does a Professional in this Career Do?

Plans and designs projects that maintain or improve the quality of life in a community. Addresses specific transportation, economic development, housing and environmental issues. Develops plans that address aesthetic as well as technical concerns. Identifies community goals and anticipates the future impact of development.

Employment Trends

The job demand and job growth statistics shown here were derived from job posts over the past year. Expected job growth projections are extrapolated from year-over-year job post listing history.

Job demand and job growth is expected at the following rates:

Skills

A professional in this position typically utilizes the following skills in the course of everyday work in this exciting and challenging field:

Baseline Skills

The following are baseline skills every Community Planner is expected to have in order to experience success in this field:

• Planning: Working experience with the process of thinking about and organizing the activities required to achieve desired goals.
• Research: Experience performing creative and systematic work to understand a product, market, or customer, either before building a new solution, or to troubleshoot an existing issue
• Writing: Experience expressing business messages effectively in written form. This may include planning drafting and revising as necessary.
• Communication Skills: The ability to convey information to another effectively and efficiently.
• Teamwork / Collaboration: Experience working in collaborative efforts with a team to achieve a common goal or to complete a task in the most effective and efficient way.

Specialized Skills

These skills are specific to working in this career:

• Community Planning: Community planning is a practice that is engaged in by numerous disciplines: community work, urban planning, macro social work, architecture, urban geography, community psychology, environmental psychology, community psychiatry.
• Land Use: Land use involves the management and modification of natural environment or wilderness into built environment such as settlements and semi-natural habitats such as arable fields, pastures, and managed woods.
• Public administration: Working experience of Public administration. Public administration is the use of government policy and is also an academic discipline that studies this use and prepares people for working in the public service.
• Landscape Architecture: Landscape architecture is the design of outdoor public areas, landmarks, and structures to achieve environmental, social-behavioral, or aesthetic outcomes.
• Community Development: The United Nations defines community development as a process where community members come together to take collective action and generate solutions to common problems. It is a broad term given to the practices of civic leaders, activists, involved citizens and professionals to improve various aspects of communities, typically aiming to build stronger and more resilient local communities.

Distinguishing Skills

Any Community Planner that possesses the following skills will stand out against the competition:

• California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA): Working experience of California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), which is a California statute passed in 1970, shortly after the United States federal government passed the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), to institute a statewide policy of environmental protection.
• Civil Engineering: Civil engineering is a professional engineering discipline that deals with the design, construction, and maintenance of the physical and naturally built environment, including works like roads, bridges, canals, dams, and buildings.
• Municipal Planning: Municipal planning is the activity or profession of determining the future physical arrangement and condition of a community.
• National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA): Working experience of National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), which is a United States environmental law that promotes the enhancement of the environment and established the President's Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ). The law was enacted on January 1, 1970. To date, more than 100 nations around the world have enacted national environmental policies modeled afterNEPA. NEPA's most significant outcome was the requirement that all executive federal agencies prepare environmental assessments (EAs) and environmental impact statements (EISs). These reports state the potential environmental effects of proposed federal agency actions. NEPA does not apply to the President, Congress, or the federal courts.
• Environmental Laws and Regulations: Working experience of Environmental Laws and Regulations. Environmental law, also known as environmental and natural resources law, is a collective term describing the network of treaties, statutes, regulations, common and customary laws addressing the effects of human activity on the natural environment. The core environmental law regimes address environmental pollution.

Salary Boosting Skills

A professional who wishes to excel in this career path may consider developing the following highly valued skills:

• National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA): Working experience of National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), which is a United States environmental law that promotes the enhancement of the environment and established the President's Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ). The law was enacted on January 1, 1970. To date, more than 100 nations around the world have enacted national environmental policies modeled afterNEPA. NEPA's most significant outcome was the requirement that all executive federal agencies prepare environmental assessments (EAs) and environmental impact statements (EISs). These reports state the potential environmental effects of proposed federal agency actions. NEPA does not apply to the President, Congress, or the federal courts.
• Environmental Impact Statements: Working experience of Environmental Impact Statements. An environmental impact statement (EIS), under United States environmental law, is a document required by the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) for certain actions significantly affecting the quality of the human environment.
• Environmental Policy: Environmental policy refers to the commitment of an organization to the laws, regulations, and other policy mechanisms concerning environmental issues.
• Civil Engineering: Civil engineering is a professional engineering discipline that deals with the design, construction, and maintenance of the physical and naturally built environment, including works like roads, bridges, canals, dams, and buildings.
• Transportation Systems: A transportation management system (TMS) is a subset of supply chain management concerning transportation operations and may be part of an enterprise resource planning system.

Experience

This position typically requires the following level of experience. The numbers presented in the pie charts below were derived from actual job posts over the past year. Not all job postings list experience requirements.

Common Job Titles

It is possible to find work in this field in positions commonly listed as the following job titles:

• Community Planner
• Senior Land Use Planner
• Planner
• Senior Planner
• Community Development Planner

Similar Occupations

If you are interested in exploring similar occupations, you may want to research the following job titles:

• Policy Analyst