Text size

Urban and Regional Planner Career Assessment

Maps, zoning, and a Tuesday night meeting where people are angry

Section 1 of 11

Welcome

Urban and regional planners decide how land gets used. Where houses go, where a business can open, where a road or a park or a trail belongs, and what the rules are for all of it.

This is the smallest job in this group and the only one where a regular part of the work is standing in front of a room of people who are upset with you. That is not a warning. It is the job description.

This takes about 15 minutes.

What is a Urban and Regional Planner?

A planner studies how a community is growing and writes the plan and the rules that shape it. You make and read maps, usually in GIS software. You draft and administer zoning: what can be built where, how tall, how close to the property line, how much parking. You review development applications and tell an applicant yes, no, or yes-if. You write the long-range comprehensive plan that a city updates every decade or so. You forecast population, housing, and traffic. And you take all of it to a planning commission or a city council in a public meeting, present it, and answer questions from residents. O*NET lists titles like City Planner, Community Development Planner, Regional Planner, Planning Technician, and Housing Development Specialist.

A city planner studies a land use map with a colleague.

The Reality: Three hard truths. First, the evening meetings. Planning commissions and city councils meet at night, and when a project touches somebody's neighborhood, the room fills and the tone is not friendly. People will be angry, and often they will be angry at you personally about a rule you did not write. You have to stay steady, explain clearly, and not take it home. Second, the education. O*NET reports 56% of people in this job saying a master's degree was required and 40% a bachelor's, and it sits in Job Zone Five. This is the one career in this group where the master's is the normal expectation, not the exception. Third, the size. North Dakota has about 90 planners in the entire state and about 10 openings a year, and ND pay of $78,500 trails both the national middle of $89,320 and Minnesota's $97,060 badly.

Your Responsibilities:

You write the rules about somebody’s land. Expect to defend them.

A Day in the Life

A city planner answers questions at a public meeting.

8:00 AM — Email. Three zoning questions and a developer asking about setbacks.

8:45 AM — Review a site plan against the ordinance. Two things do not comply.

10:00 AM — GIS work. Map every parcel within 300 feet for the notice letters.

11:30 AM — Meet the applicant. Explain what has to change and why.

12:30 PM — Lunch at the desk, finishing the staff report.

1:30 PM — Draft the comprehensive plan chapter on housing.

4:00 PM — Print the packet. Go home for two hours.

6:30 PM — Planning commission. Present. Twelve neighbors signed up to speak against it.

Maps by day, and a microphone and a full room at night.

Training in North Dakota

A bachelor’s starts you. A master’s is what most of these jobs want. Planners come from geography, public administration, geographic information science, landscape architecture, environmental studies, and civil engineering, and then most of them add a planning master’s degree. North Dakota does not have a large planning pipeline, but it does have two real graduate options and a solid undergraduate geography route. One warning before you count on a shortcut: I could not find a planning degree in North Dakota accredited by the Planning Accreditation Board, which is the accreditation that shortens the certification timeline. Check the accrediting body’s current list yourself before you assume.

Training Pathways:

Where to Train in North Dakota:

Before You Start: High school diploma or GED. Take government, geography, statistics, and as much writing and speaking as you can get. Public speaking is not optional in this career, and if the idea of a microphone makes you sick, start practicing now rather than finding out at your first planning commission meeting.

Tip: Start with financial aid and scholarships. Fill out the FAFSA, ask the school’s financial aid office what you qualify for, and ask an employer whether they help pay for school. That is where the money starts. After that, a career counselor or Job Service North Dakota may be able to help with what is left over, like tuition, books, a laptop, or exam fees. What can be paid for depends on the program and on your own situation, so ask before you enroll rather than after. Worth asking about specifically: two-year degrees that train you for a job, like civil engineering technology, land surveying, mechatronics, electronics, or instrumentation. North Dakota two-year colleges also cost far less than a university. Ask about paid summer internships too — engineering firms, plants, and survey crews hire students while they are still in school.

Certification & Licensing

AICP is the credential, and how fast you get it depends on your degree. There is no North Dakota planning license. The national credential is AICP, which stands for the American Institute of Certified Planners and is run by the American Planning Association. It is not required for most North Dakota jobs, but it is what marks a professional planner, and the experience requirement drops sharply if your degree is accredited by the Planning Accreditation Board (PAB).

AICP Certification:

The Exams: The AICP exam is offered in scheduled windows. For 2026 APA lists a standard exam window with registration May 4 through September 1 and a pilot exam window with registration October 1 through 30. Experience is submitted separately through an experience assessment.

Cost: APA lists a 2026 exam fee of $305 for the standard window and $100 for the pilot window, plus $305 to submit the experience assessment. APA membership dues are separate and are not part of those figures, so ask APA what membership costs at your career stage.

Keeping It Current: AICP is maintained through Certification Maintenance credits on APA’s schedule. Check planning.org for the current credit requirement and reporting period.

Salary & Job Outlook

North Dakota Urban and Regional Planner Pay (May 2025):

What that means: North Dakota published full data, and the honest summary is that this job pays less here than almost anywhere comparable. The ND middle is $37.74 an hour, about $78,500 a year, against a national middle of $89,320. Minnesota pays a middle of $97,060, nearly $19,000 more than North Dakota, with a Minnesota 25th percentile of $80,760 that is higher than the ND MIDDLE. Read that again: a planner at the bottom quarter of Minnesota’s pay scale out-earns the typical North Dakota planner. The ND bottom is roughly even with the national bottom, $61,070 against $60,010, so entry pay is not the problem. The problem is that ND pay stops climbing as high. If money is a major factor and you are willing to move, the Twin Cities market is the obvious comparison.

Jobs in North Dakota: About 90 people do this work in ND today. By 2034, that should be about 90 (about 6% growth). Expect about 10 job openings every year in ND from growth and people retiring or changing jobs. Across the U.S., the change is about 3% growth — average.

Outlook: Very small. North Dakota is projected at about 90 planners in 2024 and about 90 in 2034. The growth rate reads as about 6%, but on a base of 90 people that is single digits of new positions across an entire decade. About 10 openings a year, most of them replacing somebody who retired or moved. Nationally growth is about 3% with 3,400 openings a year. Practically, this means you watch a handful of cities — Fargo, Bismarck, Grand Forks, Minot, West Fargo — plus the regional councils and a few counties, and you take the opening when it comes. Patience or geographic flexibility is required.

Who Hires in ND: City planning departments in Fargo, Bismarck, Grand Forks, Minot, West Fargo and other cities, county planning and zoning offices, regional planning councils, the ND Department of Transportation and metropolitan planning organizations, tribal planning departments, private planning and engineering consulting firms, and housing and economic development authorities.

Work Setting: An office with two screens and GIS software, plus meetings. Site visits get you outdoors occasionally. The defining feature is the evening public meeting: planning commissions and councils meet at night, so expect regular evenings and occasional Saturdays. Small-city planners often wear several hats, handling zoning, permits, grants, and floodplain work all at once.

Physical Demands: Low. Desk work, driving to sites, and walking a property now and then. The demand is not physical. It is the emotional work of staying calm and clear while people who are upset are talking directly at you.

Sources: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, North Dakota, May 2025 (SOC 19-3051); North Dakota and U.S. long-term employment projections 2024–2034, via O*NET OnLine. Numbers are rounded.

Where This Leads

Path 1: Planning Technician — Entry level. Permits, maps, notices, and application intake.

Path 2: Associate or Junior Planner — You review applications and write staff reports on your own.

Path 3: City or County Planner — You run zoning administration and present to the commission.

Path 4: AICP Certified Planner — The national credential. 2 to 4 years of experience depending on your degree.

Path 5: Senior or Long-Range Planner — You write the comprehensive plan and the big policy work.

Path 6: Planning Director — You run the department, the budget, and the political relationships.

The Real Talk

What's Great:

What's Hard:

Be Honest: Can you stand at a microphone and stay calm while a room full of people tells you they are angry? Are you willing to earn a master’s degree? Can you accept about 10 openings a year statewide and pay that trails Minnesota by nearly $19,000 in the middle?

Part 1: What Attracts You?

What draws you to planning?

Part 2: Are You Ready?

1. I can present in public and stay calm when people are upset.
2. I can work regular evening meetings.
3. I can learn GIS and mapping software.
4. I can write a clear report that a council will act on.
5. I am willing to earn a master’s degree.
6. I can accept ND pay that trails Minnesota by a wide margin.
7. I can be patient about a field with roughly 10 openings a year.
8. I can be fair to an applicant and to the neighbors at the same time.

Part 3: Your Next Move

What's your plan?

Your Urban and Regional Planner Assessment Results

Sources & Learn More

Everything on this page comes from these sources. Each one opens the page the information came from, so you can check it yourself or keep reading.

Career information
Urban and Regional Planner on O*NET OnLine — what the job involves, the skills it uses, and related jobs.
Pay and employment data
North Dakota pay for Urban and Regional Planners — from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey, May 2025.
North Dakota job outlook, 2024–2034 — state projections from Projections Central.
Education and training
North Dakota schools that train Urban and Regional Planners — colleges and programs in this state, with how many people finished recently. From the U.S. Department of Labor, using federal college data (IPEDS).
More career exploration
RUReady.ND.gov career planning — North Dakota’s own career and college planning site. An account may be required.

Pay and outlook figures on this page were taken from the sources above in September 2026. Occupation code: 19-3051.00. Numbers are updated by the agencies over time, so check the links for the newest figures.