Practices > Strategic Regulatory Guidance

Ascent professionals are here to help you with your most challenging and complex environmental approvals, armed with decades of experience in a wide array of environmental and natural resources regulatory compliance requirements.

Assisting our clients with the complexities of environmental and natural resources-related regulatory approvals is a cornerstone of Ascent’s consulting services. We have extensive experience in strategic and effective approaches for securing environmental permit approvals. Our approach emphasizes providing credible and complete information and pursuing open and engaging coordination with decision-makers at regulatory agencies. It has been our experience that regulatory agencies seek to base their permit approvals on trustworthy information that is credible, balanced, and objective. We have applied this strategic approach successfully for private developments and public facilities.

Our expertise includes:

Clean Water Act, Section 404 wetland permits and 401 water quality certifications
Fish and Game Code Section 1602, Streambed Alteration Agreements
Endangered Species Act, Section 7 Biological Assessments, Opinions, and Consultations
Endangered Species act, Section 10(a) Habitat Conservation Plans and Incidental Take Permits
California Endangered Species Act, Section 2081 Incidental Take Permits and 2080.1 Consistency Determinations
Tahoe Regional Planning Agency development permits

We also support our clients in securing a wide variety of environmental and land use approvals that address sensitive resource. This includes the attainment of California Coastal Act and San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development permits and consistency determinations, environmental approvals for hazardous materials remediation plans under Department of Toxic Substances Control procedures, and water quality approvals under the Porter-Cologne Water Quality Control Act. We are also proficient in addressing highly-sensitive public trust doctrine issues.