Resources
KEY PLAYERS IN PROTECTING TEJON RANCH
The following individuals and organizations were actively involved in the negotiations that led to the Tejon Ranch Conservation and Land Use Agreement:
» Amy Bricker, Shute, Mihaly, & Weinberger, LLP
» Graham Chisholm, Audubon California
» Bill Corcoran, Sierra Club
» Jim Dodson, Sierra Club
» Gary H. Hunt, California Strategies
» Eneas Kane, DMB Associates
» David Myerson, Resource Opportunity Group, LLC
» Gary Patton, Planning and Conservation League
» Kristeen Penrod, South Coast Wildlands
» Joel Reynolds, Natural Resources Defense Council
» Dan Silver, Endangered Habitats League
» Robert A. Stine, Tejon Ranch Company
» Richard Taylor, Shute, Mihaly & Weinberger LLP
» Bill White, Shute Mihaly & Weinberger LLP
» Michael White, Conservation Biology Institute
» Terry Watt, Terrell Watt Planning Consultants
Amy Bricker, Shute, Mihaly, & Weinberger, LLP
Amy Bricker is a senior associate at the law firm of Shute, Mihaly, & Weinberger, LLP in San Francisco. Her practice covers several areas of land use and environmental law, including CEQA, the Endangered Species Act, and state planning and zoning law. She represents community groups in administrative proceedings, litigation, and in entering settlement agreements related to these practice areas.
Graham Chisholm, Audubon California
Graham Chisholm has been Audubon California’s deputy state director and director of conservation since March 2005. Previously, he was the executive director of The Nature Conservancy's California Program from 2001 to 2004, prior to which he worked extensively with TNC in Nevada. In his capacity with Audubon California, he oversees all planning and implementation of an ambitious statewide conservation program aimed at preserving birds, other wildlife, and habitat.
Bill Corcoran, Sierra Club
Bill Corcoran is senior regional representative in the Los Angeles Field Office of the Sierra Club. During his 12-year career with the Sierra Club, he has worked with numerous Club volunteers in their work to protect public lands, address climate change and make our communities more livable.
Jim Dodson, Sierra Club
Jim Dodson is a long-time Sierra Club leader from Lancaster, California. His years of volunteer service have focused on public lands protection, including helping author and pass the California Desert Protection Act of 1994. He has held numerous Club positions, including serving on the National Board of Directors.
Gary H. Hunt, California Strategies
Gary H. Hunt brings over 30 years of experience in government, business, major land use planning, entitlement and development, government and political affairs to California Strategies. Hunt spent over 25 years with The Irvine Company, one of the nation’s leading master planning and land development organizations. Hunt’s political experience included staff positions with the California State Legislature, U.S. House of Representatives, California Governor Ronald Reagan, and Executive Director of the Californian Republican Party. Hunt, currently serves as State Finance Chairman for Governor Schwarzenegger.
Eneas Kane, DMB Associates
Eneas Kane is executive vice president and chief operating officer of DMB Associates, Inc., a locally-owned and operated real estate development firm based in Scottsdale, Arizona, with real estate holdings that include commercial developments, master planned communities and recreational resort properties in Arizona, California, Hawaii and Utah. Mr. Kane provides strategic guidance with respect to the company’s operations, with particular focus on the company’s land use entitlement and zoning matters, and oversight of legal and risk management matters.
David Myerson, Resource Opportunity Group, LLC
David Myerson is an independent consultant and principal of Resource Opportunity Group, LLC, whose efforts are focused primarily on facilitating acquisitions of parklands and public open space for recreation and wildlife habitat. Prior to forming his own consultancy, Myerson was director of Urban Projects for Environment Now Foundation in Santa Monica.
Gary Patton, Planning and Conservation League
Gary Patton is the general counsel of the Planning and Conservation League (PCL) Based in Sacramento, PCL is working for a fundamental reform of the state’s planning process, to make sure that our future growth is not only good for the economy, but that we preserve and protect our spectacular natural environment, and achieve our social equity and public health goals in California’s local communities.
Kristeen Penrod, South Coast Wildlands
Kristeen Penrod is founder and conservation director of South Coast Wildlands, and has been the unifying force behind the South Coast Missing Linkages Project, a highly collaborative inter-agency effort to identify and conserve the highest priority linkages associated with California’s South Coast Ecoregion. South Coast Wildlands’ mission is to protect and restore systems of connected wildlands that support native wildlife and the systems upon which they rely. South Coast Wildlands develops and applies science-driven technical approaches to solve natural resource management and conservation problems.
Joel Reynolds, Natural Resources Defense Council
Joel Reynolds is senior attorney and director of Natural Resources Defense Council’s (NRDC) Urban Program and director of the Marine Mammal Protection and Southern California Ecosystem projects. Reynolds joined NRDC nearly 20 years ago and has spearheaded NRDC's efforts to obtain or preserve legal protection for wildlife and its habitat in California and Baja, California. He currently specializes in issues of coastal protection, land use, environmental justice and transportation.
Dan Silver, Endangered Habitats League
Dan Silver is chief executive officer of the Endangered Habitats League (EHL). A physician by training, Silver left his internal medicine practice in 1991 to work full time on environmental issues. With EHL since its inception, he has seen the organization emerge as a regional leader in conservation and growth management.
Robert A. Stine, Tejon Ranch Company
Robert A. Stine has been president and CEO of Tejon Ranch Company since 1996. Prior to joining Tejon Ranch Company, Stine served for 17 years with the Collins Companies in San Diego, a privately held, diversified real estate development, construction and asset management company. Stine currently serves as a director of Tejon Ranch Company; First Community Bancorp, a bank holding company based in San Diego County; The Bakersfield Californian, a privately held newspaper publishing company; and as a director of the California Chamber of Commerce. He is also a member of the Urban Land Institute (ULI) and is active with its Recreational Development Council.
Richard Taylor, Shute, Mihaly & Weinberger LLP
Richard Taylor is a partner at Shute, Mihaly & Weinberger LLP. He works with public agencies and community organizations to resolve complex land use and public policy disputes. He recently advised a coalition of community groups in the Sierra in a series of settlement agreements with private developers to limit development on identified lands and secure a long term stream of funding for acquisition of open space in areas previously targeted for development.
Bill White, Shute Mihaly & Weinberger LLP
Bill White is a partner at Shute Mihaly & Weinberger LLP specializing in land use and environmental law. He has served as lead counsel for environmental groups in litigation and negotiations involving a major development projects, including the 2005 settlement agreement for the 23,000-acre Rancho Mission Viejo property in Orange County, and the current legal challenges to the controversial Foothill-South Toll Road project. He also represents public agencies in complex land use matters and takings defense litigation.
Michael White, Conservation Biology Institute
Dr. Michael White is a senior ecologist with the Conservation Biology Institute with over 20 years of project experience throughout the southwestern U.S. and the Pacific Rim. White worked for 10 years in the private-sector environmental consulting industry and the last nine years at the non-profit Conservation Biology Institute. He is currently working on landscape-scale conservation planning and assessment projects in the northern Sierra Nevada, Tehachapi Mountains, California-Baja California border region, and Colorado Desert, ranging in size from nearly 300,000 acres to over 6 million acres.
Terry Watt, Terrell Watt Planning Consultants
Watt is the owner of Terrell Watt Planning Consultants, which specializes in planning and implementation efforts focused on regionally-significant projects that promote resource conservation and sustainable development patterns. Prior to forming her own consulting group, she was the staff planning expert with the environmental and land use law firm Shute, Mihaly & Weinberger. She is an expert in general and specific planning, open space and agricultural land conservation and environmental compliance.
