FAX: 415.434.3947
San Francisco
Four Embarcadero Center
Seventeenth Floor
San Francisco, CA 94111
Practices
Maria Pracher
Print PDFMaria Pracher is a member of the Real Estate, Land Use and Environmental Practice Group in the firm's San Francisco office.
Areas of Practice
Ms. Pracher has over 20 years of land use experience counseling clients undertaking complex development and planning projects in California. She has represented clients in preparing land use plans, multi-phased development plans, large residential and commercial projects, mixed use projects, hotels, oil developments, coastal resorts, landfill projects, and redevelopment projects. Her practice involves providing strategic advice and managing the local, regional and state regulatory approval process for large projects, including leading the technical consultant team and negotiating with the regulators and other stakeholder groups. She has extensive experience in structuring a broad range of complex environmental review documents under the California Environmental Quality Act. Additionally, she has represented applicants for coastal development permits and local coastal programs under the California Coastal Act, including The Irvine Company and the Koll Company.
Examples of Ms. Pracher's recent work include representing numerous commercial and residential projects in the Bay Area, including Lennar Communities in the planning and redevelopment of the Hunters Point Shipyard. She counseled Stanford Hotels in connection with a 450 room hotel proposed on San Francisco Port property and Federated Department Stores in connection with a Bloomingdale's store in San Francisco as part of a larger mixed use development. Ms. Pracher handled Transamerica Senior Properties' proposal for a 240 unit senior housing facility in San Francisco as well as The Cambry Group's proposal for a 340,000 square foot telecommunications and Internet services facility in San Francisco. She advised The San Francisco PUC in connection with the land use approvals and CEQA compliance for a 500 acre mixed use development in Alameda County, and worked with Forest City in connection with environmental review of major mixed use redevelopment projects in Richmond and in Oakland. Additionally, she has been the land use and CEQA counsel for the Callhan/Da Silva Waterfront Redevelopment Project in Vallejo and the Signature Properties redevelopment of the Oak to Ninth Street site in Oakland.
Education
- J.D., Golden Gate University, 1981, highest honors, national Dean's List nominee, law review
- B.A., Mills College, 1978, honors awarded upon graduation
Representative Matters
Ms. Pracher has provided the land use entitlement and CEQA advice for the developers of the following recent major projects in the Bay Area:
The Vallejo Station and Vallejo Waterfront project involving the approvals for a 92-acre mixed-use development including residential, commercial, light industrial, open space and a multimodal transfer station along the City of Vallejo's waterfront;
The Oak to Ninth Street project recently approved by the City of Oakland for the redevelopment of 64 acres along the Oakland Estuary with a mix of residential, commercial, and open space uses;
The Hunters Point Shipyard/Candlestick Point project under consideration by San Francisco for the redevelopment of 780 acres with a mixed-use community including residential, retail, civic and community uses, a new football stadium, and parks and open space;
The Broadway Grand project approved by the City of Oakland for a mixed-use project with residential units and 40,000 square feet of retail use in Downtown Oakland;
The Uptown project approved by the City of Oakland for the redevelopment of nine blocks in the Uptown area with residential units, commercial use and a new park;
The MacArthur Transit Village project under consideration by the City of Oakland and BART for the development of 675 residential units, commercial and community space, BART parking and circulation improvements at the existing MacArthur BART station;
The St. Joseph's Adaptive Reuse project under consideration by the City of Oakland for the rehabilitation and reuse of the St. Joseph's site in East Oakland with senior and affordable housing;
The Pacific Union College and Eco-Village project under consideration by the County of Napa for the development of an Eco-Village with 380 residences, 50,000 square feet of commercial use, an agricultural preserve, open space and college housing and improvements.
Honors
- Best Lawyers in America, Land Use & Zoning Law, 2010
- Northern California Super Lawyers, San Francisco Magazine, 2007
Memberships
- Member, State Bar of California
- Member, Bar Association of San Francisco
- Member, Urban Land Institute
Articles
- Land Use and California Environmental Quality Act Update, July 27, 2004
- Important Developments in Natural Resources and Land Use Law During 2001 - Part 1, March 13, 2002
- Important Developments in Natural Resources and Land Use Law During 2001 - Part 2, March 13, 2002
- Ms. Pracher is the author/coauthor of "Drafting Effective Mitigation Measures" The Bay Area Echo; "Local Initiatives, Trick or Treat" The Recorder; "Certainty and Uncertainty: The Consequences of Costa Mesa" Northern California Real Estate Journal.