Sheri Bonstelle

Sheri L. Bonstelle is a Partner in the firm's Real Estate Department and is Chair of the Land Use & Development Practice. She specializes in land use, zoning, environmental, litigation and construction law.

Sheri works on large complex development projects from purchase of the property through entitlement, construction, and litigation. She manages all aspects of the entitlement process, including representing clients before local and state agencies, commissions and councils. She has entitled and successfully defended a range of cases from a million square foot mixed-use hotel, residential and retail development in Downtown Los Angeles, to a boutique hotel in a historic structure in Hollywood. She also represents agricultural owners in complying with the Williamson Act and farm housing laws, and industrial users in preserving trucking uses in response to recent State and local laws.

Sheri represents homeowners and retail and office owners in rebuilding efforts after the Palisades and Eaton fires, including obtaining sufficient property and building documentation, evaluating various rebuilding options, and planning cleanup, architectural design and permitting approvals.

Sheri also works with her clients to create solutions to address the housing crisis in California, from implementing Density Bonus or Transit Oriented Communities (TOC) provisions in the code to creating communal living and pod sharing developments. She also entitles eldercare facilities and student housing projects. She also defends housing development projects in State Court under the Housing Accountability Act, including prevailing in a case that found the City of LA acted in bad faith, where the Judge ordered the City to approve the project.

As an architect with extensive experience in historic preservation projects, she brings a thoughtful approach to the entitlement and renovation of historic structures, presenting before Cultural Heritage Commissions and in determining whether buildings meet the National, California and local standards to qualify for historic designation or compliance with the Secretary of the Interior Standards.

She represents property owners in developing single family homes in the hillside areas of Los Angeles and Beverly Hills, including obtaining City entitlements and building permits, and negotiating architect, contractor and construction management agreements. She also acts as Special Land Use Counsel in bankruptcy court to preserve the vested rights of housing and commercial projects to ensure that property value is maintained prior to sale.

She coordinates environmental review under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) and defends the cases in State court. She also obtains permits and approvals necessary under the Clean Water Act, Clean Air Act, Endangered Species Act, and California Coastal Act, and represents projects before the California Coastal Commission. She also assists in drafting local and State legislation related to housing, CEQA, and permit streamlining issues.

Sheri is a licensed architect in the State of New York, where she practiced architecture for several years prior to entering the legal profession. She was a project architect on many public projects, including the Hudson-Bergen Light Rail Line.

She often teaches courses on planning, real estate development, and related topics, and her experience includes serving as a Lecturer at California State University, Northridge for Planning Law (URBS 460) and at the USC Master of Real Estate Development program for Project Management and Construction Technology (RED 547). She also served as an Instructor for the Sierra Club’s Wilderness Travel Course and as a long-standing panelist for CEB’s Key Developments in Real Property. In addition, she frequently lectures and participates on panels for leading professional and academic organizations, including the Los Angeles County and Beverly Hills Bar Associations, Loyola Law School, USC, the Urban Land Institute, the California Preservation Foundation, AEP’s CEQA Advanced Workshop, and ProVisors LA Real Estate and Construction groups.