Emmanuel Ursu
Principal Planner
Emmanuel brings over 20 years of planning and community development experience serving a wide variety of California cities. He is adept at successfully processing development applications for simple projects and complex development proposals in challenging environments. His experience spans coastal and hillside communities, urban environments, and suburban and semi-rural communities. He is pragmatic and thoughtful in his approach and seeks common objectives in a collaborative manner.
Emmanuel currently divides his time at our Hayward office and Petaluma City Hall, where he processes development applications for large-scale projects.
As the former Planning Director for the City of Orinda, he earned the trust of a highly engaged community and its leaders. He identified and leveraged opportunities to advance multiple public objectives, streamlined the development review process without compromising the community’s land use values, established and maintained a reputation for rendering thoughtful and fair decisions, and impartially advised City’s leaders on the implications/intent/meaning of city policies providing options to advance policy decisions.
Emmanuel holds a Bachelor of Science in Urban and Regional Planning from California Polytechnic University, Pomona. He has served on policy committees in the League of California Cities, and as President of the Planning and Community Development Department of the League.
He enjoys spending time with his family, alpine skiing, running and hiking.
Office: East Bay