Ashley Weinstein-Carnes

Ashley Weinstein-Carnes provides advice and counsel on a variety of land use issues with a focus on local administrative permitting, including the negotiation of agreements with local governments and public agencies; the coordination of environmental review under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA); and the processing of entitlements through public hearings and other administrative proceedings. She has successfully obtained land use approvals for large-scale projects, including mixed-use and multifamily residential developments, corporate R&D and office campuses, and industrial facilities.

In addition to land use permitting, Ashley conducts due diligence for the acquisition, disposition, and leasing of property. She advises institutional investors, lenders, developers, landowners, and lessees and lessors with regard to existing land use restrictions and agreements, as well as strategies and requirements for the re-entitlement of property.

Ashley is experienced in California’s planning and zoning laws, the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), the Subdivision Map Act, exactions and takings, and affordable housing laws. She has a particular interest in housing development, including strategies for streamlining residential and mixed-use residential projects, and regularly speaks and writes on changes in the regulatory landscape impacting housing production in California.

Prior to joining Coblentz, she was a real estate and land use associate at Cox, Castle & Nicholson LLP in San Francisco.

Ashley is an active member of the Urban Land Institute, serving on the Leadership Team of the Small Scale Development National Product Council and the Steering Committee of the San Francisco District Council Young Leaders Group. She is the Vice President of the Berkeley Real Estate Alumni Association and is a member of the Real Property Section of the American Bar Association and the California Lawyers Association.

Ashley earned her J.D. from the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law with an Interdisciplinary Graduate Certificate in Real Estate. While at Berkeley Law, she held the position of Development Director of Ecology Law Quarterly and served as a Research Assistant at the UC Berkeley Terner Center for Housing Innovation. Prior to attending law school, Ashley earned her M.A. in Urban Education Policy & Administration from Loyola Marymount University and earned her B.A., cum laude, in International Relations from the University of Miami.

Ashley is recognized as a Northern California Rising Star by Super Lawyers in the Land Use/Zoning category.