Langley Community Planning Director Jeff Arango is stepping down.

After three-and-a-half years at the helm, Arango confirmed he has accepted a position at Seattle-based BERK Consulting, a private planning company, and submitted a letter of resignation to city officials. Arango said he enjoyed his time as Langley’s planning chief, but that he was ready for a new challenge.

“I’m always interested in new challenges and new opportunities,” Arango said in a phone interview with The Record Wednesday.

Arango’s last day is Nov. 7. His resignation letter was submitted Monday to Mayor Fred McCarthy, who said he will turn it over to the Langley City Council at its Oct. 17 meeting for official acceptance, which McCarthy said he expects.

“It’s always a challenge when something like this happens,” the mayor said. “Obviously I’m excited for the opportunity he has professionally to grow, and an opportunity to move his career forward. His presence will be very much missed in the city.”

Arango took over the planning department in April 2011 after six years as a planning director in Vermont. In Langley he was the assigned staff person to four city citizen boards — the Planning Advisory Board, Design Review Board, Parks and Open Space Commission (for a time), and Arts Commission — and oversaw several projects and policies that will likely be around for decades. The largest was the Second Street redesign, which he managed from its design to its final street striping this June. Last month, he attended an international planning conference — a $2,300 trip paid for by the city and the Langley Main Street Association — in Buenos Aires, Argentina as a speaker for his work on Second Street.

That same project spawned the city’s newest citizen board, the Arts Commission, which will oversee an Arango-proposed and city council-approved policy to include a 1-percent-for-the-arts budget in capital projects.

“That was a really great experience for me professionally,” Arango said.

Times were not always light in the Village by the Sea, however. Arango filed a whistleblower complaint against the mayor at the time, Larry Kwarsick, after he discovered that Kwarsick had falsified a public document during his days as Langley’s planning director.

Eventually, Kwarsick resigned in January 2013 after Island County Prosecutor Greg Banks filed a lawsuit to force him out of office. Regarding the notoriety of the incident, Arango said he had no regrets.

“It is what it is,” Arango said. “At the end of it, I think I did the right thing.”

When McCarthy was appointed as the interim mayor in February 2013, he inherited three department heads: Police Chief Randy Heston, Public Works Director Challis Stringer, and Arango. By the fall, only Arango was still with the city with Stringer taking a job for the City of Mukilteo’s public works department and Heston retiring.

Some other highlights of Arango’s career include city code amendments adopted last month, parking improvements, restructuring the building department and lowering permit fees 27 percent, and the foundation of the Langley Main Street Association.

One of his unfinished works is the creation of design standards. Currently the city relies on its Design Review Board and Planning Advisory Board to make sure new construction is in keeping with the city’s look and feel. The recently finished, but not-quite-approved, demolition of historic buildings in the downtown commercial area ordinance includes language for how new buildings could be erected, largely keeping the 30-foot lot articulation of Langley’s founding on First Street and adding setbacks for floors coming up the bluff.

Arango also leaves at a time when the city is reviewing a proposed private-public project for an elevator and bridge on Cascade Avenue. He said he would give a recommendation to the city council before leaving the job.

McCarthy said he does not have a timeline yet for finding the next director of Community Planning. He wanted to wait until the resignation was official — after the city council meeting next Monday. The duration of the search was also unknown.

“We’ll take whatever time’s necessary,” McCarthy said. “It’s a very important position for the city.”