Auburn’s planning and community development director, Kevin Snyder, has left to accept the top planning job in a California city.

Snyder, whose last day was Friday, Feb. 2, will be the planning director and oversee certain housing issues in Fairfield, Calif. He was unavailable for comment.

The City of Auburn originally hired Snyder in September 2008 to be the assistant planning director under then-director Cindy Baker, and he assumed his duties as interim director in December 2009 before taking the top job.

He left in 2013 to be community development director in Sedona, Ariz. but returned to Auburn later that year.

Snyder, a Northwest native, first came to Auburn in September 2008 as the assistant planning director and was promoted to director in 2010. Before coming to Auburn, Snyder worked in Vancouver, Wash., where he was the director of planning services and the principal planner for the consulting firm of Maul Foster and Alongi, Inc. There he started the firm’s first corporate business line of service, overseeing corporate operations, business and management, and project management for public- and private-sector projects.

Snyder also worked for two years for the City of Ridgefield as director of its newly-formed community development department, was the first planning manager for the newly incorporated City of Spokane Valley and served as senior planner for the cities of Beaverton, Ore., and Battle Ground.

He received his bachelor of arts in political science from Linfield College, and his masters in urban and regional planning from Portland State University.

The City will advertise the job nationally.