In this webinar, experts from Ascent and the City of Santa Ana will provide an overview of Assembly Bill (AB) 130 and Senate Bill (SB) 131, which amended the CA Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), the CA Planning & Zoning Law, the CA Building Code, and other related laws. They will share their insights on anticipated impacts for local governments and practitioners, including housing development, climate action planning, parks and trails development, and other project types. These two bills, enacted as part of the state’s approved budget, has the potential to streamline or accelerate progress on housing, wildfire resilience, vehicle miles traveled (VMT) mitigation, and other aspects of the package, along with challenges for local electrification strategies/climate action plan implementation.
Resources
Meet the Speakers
Erik de Kok, AICP
Director of Interdisciplinary Planning
Ascent
Chad Beckstrom, AICP
Principal
Ascent
Greta Brownlow
Northern California Environmental Practice Leader
Ascent
Ali Pezeshkpour, AICP
Executive Director, Planning and Building Agency
City of Santa Ana
This webinar series is sponsored by:
Erik de Kok, AICP
Erik de Kok, AICP, is a planner with over 25 years of experience in the public and private sectors. He currently serves as Director of Interdisciplinary Planning at Ascent where he works across the firm’s practices and market sectors to offer holistic, innovative, and integrated approaches to address evolving and complex planning challenges. Prior to his return to Ascent in 2022, he served as Deputy Director at OPR where he led statewide planning, policy, and technical assistance programs. He also served on the APA California Chapter Board of Directors as Vice President for Policy and Legislation from 2023-2024.
Chad Beckstrom, AICP
Chad Beckstrom, AICP, is a principal with Ascent with over 25 years of experience in the environmental consulting industry. He leads Ascent’s Southern California Environmental Practice, focusing on delivering exceptional client service and a steadfast dedication to technical excellence in compliance with CEQA and NEPA. Chad works to provide his clients with the best professional advice to complex environmental planning challenges, including the most up-to-date legislation related to housing, development streamlining, and other planning projects. In addition to leading projects and teams, he regularly teaches professional courses on CEQA environmental review processes through university extension programs, professional seminars, and client- tailored training programs.
Greta Brownlow
Greta Brownlow joined Ascent in March 2023 as a Senior Environmental Director. Based in the Berkeley office, she is leading Ascent’s environmental planning team members in the Bay Area and directing significant projects in the region and beyond. With more than 20 years of experience preparing CEQA and NEPA documentation, Greta has amassed a diverse array of project experience, ranging from programmatic documents for projects such as general plans and specific plans to project-specific documents for development and infrastructure projects throughout California. Having completed a doctoral dissertation on community involvement and activism around new school development, Greta is particularly interested in the opportunities provided by the CEQA process for public education and engagement.
Greta enjoys the interdisciplinary nature of planning and environmental assessment and loves to learn new things. She also likes to share her knowledge and experience about best practices in the environmental and planning field with others. She has created and facilitated numerous professional development courses for UC Davis Continuing and Professional Education, such as CEQA: A Step-by- Step Approach; CEQA Update, Issues and Trends; and most recently, CEQA Project Management and Overview of California Environmental Regulations. She is also lecturer of Environmental Planning in the Urban and Regional Planning Department at San Jose State University. There she has also taught Private Development and Urban Planning, advised graduate students embarking on their master’s thesis projects, and more.
Greta’s publications include Practical CEQA: A Stepwise Guide to California Environmental Quality Act Compliance, which she co-authored with Terry Rivasplata, and a chapter in Schools and Urban Revitalization: Rethinking Institutions and Community Development titled Building Schools and Community Connections: Outreach and Activism for New Schools in Southeast L.A. Prior to joining Ascent, Greta led WRA’s environmental planning team and was a Principal at ICF, where she led the firm’s internal environmental education initiative.
Ali Pezeshkpour, AICP
Ali Pezeshkpour, AICP serves as the Executive Director of the Planning and Building Agency for the City of Santa Ana and is a member of the American Institute of Certified Planners (AICP). He has been working for Santa Ana since February 2011, where for the majority of his career in the Planning Division he oversaw efforts in long-range and advance planning, development processing, public counter, historic preservation and urban design, neighborhood initiatives, environmental justice efforts, and cannabis programs. His environmental experiences include environmental impact reports of various sub-types, mitigated negative declarations, complex exemptions, and various addenda, including a successful addendum to a 1983 EIR. As Director, Ali now oversees the Planning, Building Safety, Code Enforcement, and Administrative Services divisions, which are in place to ensure the highest standards of development and neighborhood quality in the City. In addition to working for the City, Ali served as a part-time adjunct professor for the Rancho Santiago Community College District where he taught courses on urban planning and ordinance writing to aspiring code enforcement professionals. Ali holds bachelor’s degrees in Community & Regional Development and French from UC Davis and a Master of Urban and Regional Planning from UC Irvine. Outside of work, he enjoys playing the piano, writing Wikipedia articles, traveling and camping, and cooking.