Elizabeth A. Camacho

Elizabeth A. Camacho practices in the area of land use permitting, associated environmental review and related litigation. Ms. Camacho represents clients in connection with development projects of all sizes across a broad range of use sectors, including residential, office/commercial, master-planned communities and centers, educational and other institutional facilities, energy and public infrastructure. She provides comprehensive land use counsel from the earliest stages of strategic project planning through the entitlement process and, if necessary, defense of any legal challenge.
Ms. Camacho has experience in the following areas of practice:

• Land use permitting, including litigation
• The California Environmental Quality Act
• The Subdivision Map Act
• General planning and zoning law
• The California Coastal Act
• Endangered species protection
• Air and water quality regulation
• Historic preservation law
• Design review
• Land use and growth control initiatives
• Inverse condemnation/takings law
• Congestion and growth management regulation

Representative Experience

• Howard Hughes Center, proposed 275-unit condominium building, 325-unit apartment building and proposed 500,000 square foot office buildings at Howard Hughes Center in Los Angeles: CEQA compliance, development agreement compliance, subdivision approvals and unified development plan; subsequent development agreement amendment.
• Ponte Vista Specific Plan, proposed 1,400-unit residential community to be located on 61-acre former U.S. Navy housing site in San Pedro, California: CEQA compliance, general plan and zone changes, specific plan and subdivision approvals before the City of Los Angeles.
• Chase Knolls, addition of 141 multifamily apartments to existing 260-unit apartment complex designated as a historic monument: Subdivision approval and site plan review, CEQA compliance, National Historic Register and City monument approvals, and Mills Act contract approval.
• Maimonides Academy, expansion of Orthodox Jewish day school in West Hollywood and Los Angeles: Zoning variances and CEQA compliance.
• Yeshiva University of Los Angeles (YULA) Boys High School, expansion of Orthodox Jewish Boys High School in Los Angeles: Conditional use permits, variances and CEQA compliance.
• Leo Baeck Temple, Temple/Cultural Facility Masterplan in Los Angeles: Conditional use permits, variances and CEQA compliance.
• Hotel Palomar, Westwood, California: Design review, specific plan and CEQA compliance.

Memberships and Affiliations

Ms. Camacho is co-president of the Latina Lawyers Bar Association, a member of the Board of Trustees of the Mexican American Bar Foundation, and a member of the Board of Trustees and chair of the Diversity Committee for Sequoyah School in Pasadena. She is a member of the Urban Land Institute, the Hispanic National Bar Association, the Mexican American Bar Association and the American Bar Association. She has served as a volunteer attorney for the Alliance for Children’s Rights Foster Child Adoption Project and as a voluntary settlement officer for the Beverly Hills Municipal Court.

Education and Bar Admissions

Ms. Camacho graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Oberlin College in 1989 and received her J.D. in 1994 from UC Berkeley School of Law, where she was co-editor in chief of La Raza Law Journal. Prior to attending law school, Ms. Camacho was a California State Senate Fellow and a legislative assistant for the California Select Committee on Courthouse Construction and Financing. She is admitted to practice in California.