Matthew Gerken

Background

About Matthew Gerken

Matthew Gerken is an urban planner and environmental analyst who has assisted clients throughout California with policy planning, land use and transportation planning, community design, economics, climate, grant writing, and environmental projects for more than 20 years. Matthew has led the preparation of general plans; specific plans; revitalization strategies; climate action plans; zoning and development codes; housing elements; CEQA strategies, analyses, and documentation; quantified CEQA GHG significance thresholds; nexus studies and impact fee updates; air quality/GHG/noise technical studies; transportation impact assessments; market studies; and related work. He has authored grant applications that have secured millions of dollars to help his clients implement their planning, design, economic, infrastructure, and environmental priorities. He is the primary author of dozens of environmental, policy planning, urban design, regulatory, and strategic planning documents, including those for many of his clients' most high-profile projects and plans. He has managed many large, multi-year, projects and programs, along with a diversity of smaller-scale plans and projects, and many on-call contracts for public agency clients throughout California. Matthew has authored and overseen mixed-use specific plans, reinvestment strategies, and corridor plans. He has led code updates, design guidelines, climate action plans, and other types of implementation vehicles for general plans he prepared. He has conducted environmental review of general plans, specific plans, climate action plans, redevelopment plans, and other types of plans; residential, retail, mixed-use, and transit-oriented and transit-supportive projects; office and infrastructure projects; parks; schools; health care; and other types of plans and projects in both infill and greenfield settings. He has helped lead agencies throughout the state to develop and implement CEQA tiering and streamlining strategies, and to find and make use of applicable exemptions and partial exemptions. Specialties: Comprehensive planning, environmental planning, climate action planning, CEQA compliance and streamlining strategies, land planning, air quality and greenhouse gas analysis and policy development, thresholds development, noise analysis and policy development, grant writing, and project management.