4LEAF is your trusted partner for comprehensive community planning. With 30 professional planners on our team, we bring a wealth of experience to help shape the future of your community.
4LEAF Planners have extensive experience providing on-call, long-range, and project-based planning services for public agencies. Our staff’s attention to detail and organized approach to project management help maintain project schedules while ensuring positive and timely results.
Our team of planning experts can help you and your community plan for a more resilient future. Our policy knowledge and experience equip us to create long-range plans that holistically consider the community. We provide comprehensive planning and more specialized planning services including housing, zoning, community outreach, program management, wildfire and disaster recovery, and environmental planning.
Why Work With Us
The 4LEAF Planning team has decades of experience working with state and local policies and regulations. We are experts at application review, project review and assessment, and the preparation of long-range plans, policy documents, and ordinances. We have the expertise you need to get the job done.
We Have the Planners.
4LEAF Planning Division is a trusted partner for comprehensive community planning. With 30 professional planners on our team, we bring a wealth of experience to help shape the future of your community. Our planning team can provide staffing that meets your needs. 4LEAF planners have extensive experience working in public sector planning and community development departments – in fact, many of our senior level planners spent years in public service and have joined 4LEAF to continue serving communities. Let us know your needs and we will provide an affordable solution.
We Have the Knowledge.
We understand public service because we come from public service. Our planners have decades of combined experience preparing planning documents ranging from over-the-counter permits and staff reports to complex land use plans and entitlements. We can join your staff on-site, we can work hybrid, or we can work remotely to provide staff support. Our extensive experience enables us to create long-range plans for communities. We can support your comprehensive planning efforts, including specialized areas such as housing, zoning, community outreach, program management, wildfire and disaster recovery, and environmental planning.
We Have the Skills.
Our planners ensure that the plans and reports we prepare are easy to understand with recommendations that incorporate community input and support your agency's vision. We are dedicated to understanding a community's collective vision and work hard to help you achieve it.
Our team of experts includes seasoned planners who excel at public speaking and enjoy presenting at meetings, conferences, and educational seminars. These highly skilled presenters shine at providing accessible information and recommendations to governing bodies including:
· City Councils
· Planning Commissions
· Boards of Supervisors
· Planning Departments
· Boards of Zoning Adjustments
· Design Review Boards and Committees
· Citizens Committees
· Coastal Commission
How Can We Help You?
We offer on- or off-site staff augmentation, project review and processing, long-range planning, project management, community outreach and engagement, and much more
Development Review
Our development review team ensures that projects are consistent with your local land use plan, zoning, and applicable policies to meet approval requirements. We can handle your files from application through condition compliance review. 4LEAF will help you review projects in a timely manner, whether augmenting your staff on-site or remotely. Let’s work together to ensure efficient, timely application processing without draining your staff resources.
Staff Augmentation
Our team of experienced and highly qualified planners can serve on-site, hybrid, or remotely. With a wide range of experience, we provide high quality planning services to clients. We are available if you need assistance with development review and advance planning projects. From Assistant Planners to Community Development Directors, our experienced planning professionals can provide staffing and oversight when workloads increase beyond a department’s capacity.
Entitlements
We provide permit processing services including ministerial and discretionary reviews. Our work entails timely and accurate zoning analysis and case processing to support agency clients. In addition to land use entitlements, we offer a range of current planning services that are tailored to client needs, such as expedited plan check, subdivision applications, and other planning approvals.
Agency Liaison
Our team has seasoned planners skilled in public speaking, delivering presentations, and providing information and recommendations to governing bodies, including:
· City Council
· Board of Supervisors
· Planning Commission
· Board of Zoning Adjustments
· Design Review Board
· Citizen Committees
· Coastal Commission
Environmental Review and CEQA
4LEAF’s team has experience across the spectrum of environmental technical documents, including the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). Our team provides services from drafting project descriptions and noticing to preparing categorical and statutory exemptions, initial studies, and environmental impact reports (EIRs). 4LEAF also offers services in third-party environmental document review. In addition to environmental document services, our team has a wealth of experience in coastal management, historic resources, airport planning, and more.
Housing Elements and Implementation
Our 4LEAF team will work to ensure your Housing Element is in order so you can receive that all-important HCD certification to avoid consequences and to qualify for state and federal funding. We will assist you in its implementation and we can also provide you with the tools to help track and report back to HCD. We have excellent working relationships with HCD and a 100% certification rate for our 6th cycle Housing Elements.
Community Outreach and Engagement
We provide meaningful and authentic community outreach and engagement. Our team can design public participation programs tailored to the needs of diverse communities. We are adept at facilitating community workshops and public meetings, administering community surveys, designing project websites and social media resources, and doing embedded engagement on the ground
Long-Range Planning
4LEAF has expanded our Planning Division to equip us to best serve the long-range planning needs of communities, especially related to housing, equity, social justice, and fire resiliency. Many of our senior-level planners come from public agency service and joined 4LEAF to continue to provide services to communities statewide.
Project-Specific Services
4LEAF can assist your Planning Department with project-specific services, including, but not limited to:
· Project Management
· Policy Review and Development
· GIS Services
· Grant Writing
· Cannabis Regulations
· Fire Recovery Permitting
· Sustainability Oversight
· Code Compliance
· Department Administration
· Staff Augmentation
· Department Administration
· Process Improvements
· Organizational Alignment
Service Spotlight: Community Outreach and Engagement
4LEAF provides meaningful and authentic community engagement for any project. Our team excels in designing public participation programs tailored to the unique needs of diverse communities. Our approach ranges from traditional to emerging engagement methods. We are adept at facilitating community workshops and public meetings, administering community surveys, and designing project websites and social media resources.
We are also the leading purveyor of Embedded Planning – an engagement method where planners work from community spaces to understand people’s needs, build partnerships, increase participation, be part of community life, and advance equity. Examples of Embedded Planning engagement include leading community walks and neighborhood canvassing, organizing pop-up events in non-traditional places, and creating informal planning “offices” in the community.
Leadership
As your consultant, we understand that our role is to advocate for your agency and represent your best interests. 4LEAF’s team will function as an extension of your agency's staff, seamlessly integrating with the personnel and practices established by your jurisdiction and adding the perspective and expertise that only 4LEAF can offer.
Daniel Hortert, AICP
Director of Planning
Daniel has 30+ years of Planning and Development services experience, including 20 as a public servant for municipalities with populations ranging from 3,500 to over 3.5 million. Daniel’s expertise covers a range of municipal planning and development functions including Planner, Senior Planner, Planning Manager/Principal Planner, and Department Director for municipal, county, and private sector agencies. He is experienced in land development, construction, community engagement and education, project management, project budget control and oversight, and residential, commercial, and industrial site planning. Daniel can assist your agency with planning staff augmentation requests.
Jane Riley, AICP Director of Advance Planning and Housing Policy
Jane is an experienced planning professional with a proven history of moving forward successful planning and policy initiatives. She has worked as a planner for more than 30 years and cares deeply about the communities she serves. Her decades of experience include both current planning and advance planning. Jane has a wealth of experience leading the preparation, adoption, and certification efforts for a variety of comprehensive planning documents, including Housing Elements. As the lead staff for the Napa Sonoma Collaborative, she has led multiple subregional initiatives and is a respected collaborator for the 16 member jurisdictions. Jane has managed efforts to adopt inclusionary and workforce housing programs, created a variety of zoning programs to implement housing and land use policies, and directed progressive and award-winning housing programs.
Tonya Ward, AICP
Principal Planner
Tonya is a skilled land use planner and project manager with 25+ years of municipal planning experience specializing in development review and program implementation. She is experienced in land use and community planning, zoning regulations, architectural applications, coastal development permits, historic preservation, environmental review, cannabis permitting and the management of daily department operations. Tonya’s experience in a wide range of planning roles and goal-oriented approach allows her to assess the client’s needs and resources that bring about streamlined practices and achieve results.
Recent Clients
