Auburn’s planning and community development director, Kevin Snyder, is stepping down to accept the top planning job in Sedona Arizona.
The City 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.
Snyder did not return phone calls seeking a comment.
But City officials were unstinting in their praise for him.
“It’s a dream come true for Kevin because he and his wife have gone there for many years. It’s the place they want to retire to, they’re getting to do this great economic development plan, and the job opening came up,” said Auburn Mayor Pete Lewis. “Good for him. He has done an outstanding job. He and his wife are going to be a real jewel for their community.”
Councilmember Nancy Backus, who as a member and now chair of the Planning and Community Development Committee worked with Sndyer for several years, said he will be missed.
“He’s always been someone that if you see the code and it says ‘x’, he doesn’t say, ‘sorry, you can’t do it, this is what it says.’ Kevin is the kind of guy who says, ‘here’s what it says, let’s see how we can make this work.’ And that’s the forward thinking that he’s brought here, and I’m going to miss him so much,” Backus said.
The City will advertise the job nationally.
Before coming to Auburn, Snyder worked in Vancouver, Wash., where he was the director of planning services and principal planner for the consulting firm of Maul Foster and Alongi, Inc., starting the firm’s first corporate business line of service, overseeing corporate operations, business and management, and project management for public and private sector projects. He also worked for two years as the director of the newly formed community development department for the City of Ridgefield, was the first current planning manager for the newly incorporated City of Spokane Valley and served as senior planner for the cities of Battle Ground and Beaverton, Ore.
He received his bachelor of arts in political science from Linfield College, and his masters in urban and regional planning from Portland State University.
