Why Planning Departments Feel Overwhelmed (Even When They're Fully Staffed)

Heather Davis, MCP, AICP, CZI, CFM

Last week, a planner told me they were drowning.

Not because they were understaffed.

Not because development activity had exploded.

Not because their budget had been cut.

In fact, their department was fully staffed.

Yet everyone felt overwhelmed.

Sound familiar?

If you've spent any amount of time in local government, you've probably heard some version of the same complaint:

"We need more staff."

Sometimes that's true.

But many planning departments aren't struggling because they lack people. They're struggling because they've built systems that make good people less effective than they should be.

The uncomfortable truth is that adding staff to a broken process simply creates a larger broken process.

The Hidden Sources of Overwhelm

When most people think about planning department workloads, they imagine rezoning requests, development applications, site plans, permits, enforcement cases, and public meetings.

Those are the visible tasks.

The real workload is often hidden beneath the surface.

Consider a typical day.

A planner starts reviewing a site plan.

Before they can finish, a resident calls with a zoning question.

Then they're pulled into a meeting.

After the meeting, they answer emails.

Then another meeting.

Then a permit counter question.

Then a supervisor needs information for a council agenda item.

By the end of the day, the planner spent eight hours working but only completed two hours of actual project work.

The issue isn't workload.

It's fragmentation.

Death by a Thousand Meetings

Local government has developed a remarkable ability to schedule meetings about work instead of doing the work.

Planning departments are particularly vulnerable.

Staff meetings.

Leadership meetings.

Interdepartmental coordination meetings.

Pre-application meetings.

Development review meetings.

Project update meetings.

Commission meetings.

Board meetings.

Emergency meetings.

At some point, someone should probably schedule a meeting to discuss all the meetings.

Research consistently shows that excessive context switching reduces productivity and increases mental fatigue. Every interruption requires the brain to stop one task, process new information, and then attempt to return to the original task.

That process has a cost.

In planning, where work often requires concentration and technical analysis, the cost is significant.

The Myth of Multitasking

Planning professionals pride themselves on being able to juggle mutliple projects.

The problem?

Multitasking isn't real.

What we're actually doing is rapid task switching.

Each switch creates inefficiency.

A planner reviewing a traffic impact analysis cannot simultaneously answer zoning questions, draft staff reports, and respond to emails at peak effectiveness.

Yet many departments structure work exactly this way.

The result is predictable:

• Longer review times

• Increased errors

• Employee frustration

• Customer complaints

• Burnout

None of these are staffing problems.

They're process problems.

Workflow Mapping: The Exercise Nobody Wants to Do

If you want to understand why your department feels overwhelmed, map a process.

Any process.

A rezoning application.

A site plan review.

A zoning verification.

A variance request.

Start with application intake and follow every step until completion.

What you'll usually discover is shocking.

Duplicated reviews.

Redundant approvals.

Unnecessary handoffs.

Manual data entry.

Information being request multiple times.

Departments reviewing the same item independently.

The average planning process contains far more waste than leaders realize.

Not because staff are doing anything wrong.

Because processes evolve over years and nobody ever stops to redesign them.

Technology is Not a Magic Wand

Many departments assume software will solve their problems.

It won't.

Bad processes entered into good software simply become automated bad processes.

Technology should eliminate friction.

It should not automate inefficiency.

Before implementing new software, departments should ask:

• What problem are we solving?

• Which steps can be eliminated?

• What information is truly necessary?

• Where are delays occurring?

Only then should technology enter the conversation.

What High-Performing Departments Do Differently

The most effective planning departments share several characteristics.

They Measure Work

They know:

• Applications received

• Applications completed

• Average review times

• Outstanding cases

• Staff workload distribution

What gets measured gets managed.

They Protect Focus Time

Not every hour should be available for interruptions.

Dedicated review time often produces more results than additional staff.

They Standardize Process

Consistency reduces confusion.

Confusion creates delays.

Delays create frustration.

They Eliminate Unnecessary Steps

Every step in a process should answer one question:

"What value does this add?"

If the answer is unclear, the step should be evaluated.

The Leadership Challenge

For planning leaders, the solution isn't always hiring.

Sometimes it's harder.

It requires questioning how work gets done.

It means examining sacred cows.

It means challenging procedures that have existed for years.

It means asking whether meetings are necessary.

It means creating systems that allow talented professionals to focus on professional work.

That's not always comfortable.

But it is necessary.

Final Thoughts

Most planning departments don't have a people problem.

They have a process problem.

The good news?

Process problems are solvable.

Before requesting another position, spend time understanding where your staff's time is actually going.

You may discover that the biggest opportunity isn't adding capacity.

It's removing friction.

Because the most effective planning departments aren't necessarily the ones with the most staff.

They're the ones that make the best use of the staff they already have.

Planning isn't about predicting the future. It's about preparing communities for it.