Practice Expertise

  • Real Estate, Development and Finance
  • Land Use and Development
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Areas of Practice

  • Land Use and Development
  • Real Estate, Development and Finance
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WSG Practice Industries

Profile

Elaine is a land planner and member of the firm's Real Estate, Development and Finance group. Elaine's focus is land use planning and development.

Elaine has over 15 years of experience as a land use planner both in the public and private sectors, including as a senior manager in the Fairfax County Department of Planning and Zoning and as a planning consultant.

Relevant Experience

  • Assist team attorneys in obtaining approvals of rezoning, special exception, and special permit applications for office, retail, hotel residential and mixed use projects throughout Northern Virginia.
  • Assist team attorneys in obtaining administrative approvals including complex zoning and site plan interpretations and Zoning Ordinance amendments.
  • Prepare Comprehensive Plan amendment and 2232 applications for submission to local jurisdictions and advocate approval on behalf of landowners and commercial developers.
  • Negotiate with local jurisdictional staff, appointed and elected officials on behalf of clients throughout land development process.
  • Assist clients in coordinating consultant teams and preparing development plans.
  • Extensive experience drafting complex development agreements.
  • Lobby staff, appointed and elected officials in local jurisdictions.
  • Extensive experience testifying at Fairfax County Planning Commission and Board of Supervisors public hearings.
  • Experience facilitating citizen workshops and working with citizens groups, task forces and other committees on Comprehensive Plan amendments and rezoning applications.
  • Represent clients in the five-year “Tysons Corner Urban Center” Plan and Zoning Ordinance amendment process.
  • Assist attorneys in performing land use due diligence.

Projects have included:

  • Mixed use, transit-oriented developments in Fairfax County.
  • Large-scale, secure government office projects in Fairfax County.
  • One million square foot retail center in Fairfax County.
  • 2,000-acre planned community in Prince William County.
  • 1,300-acre residential mixed use community in Loudoun County.
  • 600-acre commercial and multi-family planned development in Fairfax County.
  • Senior assisted living facilities in Fairfax County and the Town of Leesburg.
  • Major utility substations and power lines in Fairfax and Loudoun Counties.
  • Retail shopping centers and free-standing commercial uses in Fairfax County.
  • Smaller multi-family and single family residential projects in Fairfax County.

Education
MA, Urban Planning, University of Michigan, 1983

BA, University of Virginia, 1980

Areas of Practice

  • Land Use and Development
  • Real Estate, Development and Finance

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