Key Contact

Don Naetzker Headshot
Donald Naetzker, RLA Director of Planning

Environmental Review & Entitlement Services

When undertaking a development project, it is critical to assess the social, economic, and environmental impacts of your project as required by state and National laws and regulations.  Fisher helps its clients through the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) process and state processes such as the New York State Environmental Quality Review Act (SEQRA).  Development must be undertaken with a systematic approach that seeks to first avoid adverse impacts.  When it is not feasible to avoid impacts, the next step is to minimize impacts to the greatest extent possible with the goal of staying below thresholds that require mitigation.  When, despite minimization efforts, mitigation is required, it is necessary to work closely with the regulatory agencies to develop prudent measures that mitigate the resulting impacts.  Clear documentation of this approach is critical to your project progressing smoothly through these regulatory processes.  Fisher brings decades of experience conducting federal and state environmental reviews pursuant to SEQRA and NEPA, our team of planners and environmental scientists have completed hundreds of environmental assessments and environmental impact statements and are ready to put our expertise to work for you.

Our team is accomplished at helping our clients through the full entitlement process, including zoning changes, variances, site plan approvals, land subdivisions, and building permits.  Our projects have ranged from public-sector investments in K-12 educational institutions to private-sector investments focused on commercial and mixed-use development. Our multidisciplinary team includes experts who firstly design great projects, and then conduct specialized studies to support defensible impact reviews, from traffic assessments to build-out analyses, with the goal of gaining required government approvals and facilitating project construction. 

What Our Clients are Saying

“The Fisher team recognized the project’s importance and significance early on while providing systematic guidance on the complexities of the procedural and substantive aspects of the State Environmental Quality Review Act process. Moreover, their balanced approach from both an economic and environmental perspective, combined with the depth and breadth of their team’s knowledge and expertise of critical environmental and engineering, was greatly appreciated.”

– Robert J. Aronson, Executive Director – Seneca County Industrial Development Agency