A hands on land development and entitlement professional with an extensive range of expertise and experience encompassing all components of land entitlement and development. Toby built a solid reputation for providing the creativity, strategies, value engineering, and solutions to overcome virtually impossible land development and entitlement issues. Her land entitlement, development, project management expertise, astute business acumen, creative out of the box strategic planning and solutions have unlocked thousands of acres of land with an environmentally friendly and safe approach to development while saving hundreds of millions of dollars in project costs. In addition to her discerning ability to drill down into a projects’ most minute details, Ms. Waxman’s keen insight, environmental, technical, design, and engineering expertise and experience brings the “Crow’s Nest View” to development projects looking out for that proverbial iceberg and maneuvering around it.


An executive and industry leader in a career spanning over 35 years in land development she has obtained the local, state and federal entitlements and permits that have created billions of dollars in value; managed project development teams and a national team of project managers with responsibility for the entitlement & development details for projects ranging from complex and environmentally challenged Master Planned Communities, Business & Industrial Parks, Specific Plans & Capital Improvement Projects, Single & Multi-Family Communities, and Commercial Projects that includes 18 Master Planned Communities encircling nearly 8,000 new homes, several Capital Facilities Assessment District (CFD) funded improvement projects totaling in excess of $58 Million dollars. ESG’s Clients rely on her environmental expertise in CEQA, CESA, and EPA and her technical expertise to strategically and effectively chart the course of entitlement, review their design and environmental consulting Teams’ technical analyses and studies for consistency with CEQA and successfully unlock their land for development with environmentally sound solutions and mitigation to minimize the significance level to less than significant and less than significant with mitigation incorporated where possible.


Toby launched Entitlement Strategies Group, Inc. in 2009. Prior to founding ESG, Inc. she was Vice President & Division Manager of the Los Angeles/Ventura Division for Griffin Industries, Inc., a Southern California developer/homebuilder with offices in Los Angeles/ Ventura, Inland Empire, Sacramento, California, Atlanta, Georgia, and Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Additionally she was the Vice President of Engineering with the responsibility for all Company-wide final engineering of the public and private improvements and environmental consulting disciplines for preparation and completion of the required technical studies required for the projects’ lead agency’s environmental review through filing of the Notice of Determination.

       

Credits & Professional Affiliations

ESG is a current member of the Association of Environmental Professionals (AEP); a past member Building Industry Association of Southern California (BIASC) & the National Association of Homebuilders (NAHB). Toby has served on the Building Industry Association’s Los Angeles/Ventura Chapter’s Board of Directors as Vice President of Government Affairs for 5 years. She provided the leadership and key negotiation for a successful compromise between BIA and the LA County Fire Dept. for Fuel Modification Guidelines, Building Fire Sprinkler Systems, and the LA County Dept. of Public Works Building Code Revisions that translated into a cost savings for the Local Building Industry of $1 Billion dollars.


For these efforts, both she and BIA GLA-V received the 1997 National Association of Homebuilders (NAHB) State & Local Government Affairs Recognition Award for Local Legislative/GA Program Achievement-Western Region. She was awarded BIA’s 1996 Member of Excellence Award, and BIA’s Women’s Council Award of Service Appreciation in 1997, and nominee for BIA Builder of the Year Award in 1996.


A leading authority on project management and published author of the business book “Beware! The Devil Is In The Details: Proven Principles for Exceptional Project Management” and recipient of the NABE 2017 Pinnacle Achievement Award for Best Business Book. Her industry related articles have been published in national periodicals: Professional Builder, HousingZone, Housing Giants Magazines. A previous keynote speaker at BIA’s Land Development Forum on the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES), and has developed and taught training seminars on Project Management, NPDES, California Department of Real Estate Public Report Process for Subdivision Land Development, Subdivision Improvement Bonding, Time Management, and Construction Environmental & Biological Monitoring.  


Public/Private Industry  Associations, Boards & Committee Representation

Recognized and respected by her peers and community leaders as a strong industry leader and a proficient negotiator with various levels of Federal, State, and Local government and private industry, she has served on various Public Agencies’ committees:



Toby Waxman, CEO & Founder