Hope Schmeltzer

With more than 25 years of experience as a regulator and lawyer in state and federal land use, environmental and energy law, Hope Schmeltzer provides public agencies and private clients with practical legal advice in the development and operation of complicated projects.  Her projects include renewable power generation and energy storage, EV charging sites, high speed rail, high-tech and biotech research and development campuses, hospitals, wastewater treatment plants, and high-density residential and mixed-use developments.

Hope counsels public agencies and developers to ensure defensible California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), Coastal Act and other land use and environmental approvals. She understands the complexities of working with lead agency counsel, advising elected and appointed boards, including the nuances of the Brown and Bagley-Keene Acts and the Political Reform Act.

She is adept at guiding intricate developments through required land use and environmental, health and safety approvals, with a particular focus on renewable energy project strategies. Hope’s hazardous waste management and brownfields redevelopment experience includes managing multi-party chlorinated solvent groundwater sites, radioactive contamination, per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), petroleum hydrocarbons and heavy metals contamination.

Prior to joining the Monchamp Meldrum LLP, Hope served as Chief Counsel of the California Coastal Commission, Director of the Governor’s Clean Energy Green Team, Environmental Group Leader for the University of California’s Office of Legal Counsel, and Assistant Regional Counsel, U.S. E.P.A. Region 9. She also served for 12 years as the public member of San Francisco’s Local Agency Formation Commission (LAFCO), which enabled the creation of CleanPowerSF, and worked at the law firms of Landels, Ripley & Diamond, LLP and McCutchen, Doyle, Brown & Enersen, LLP. She is an active volunteer with the Cleantech Party, the San Francisco-Marin Food Bank, and the ABA National Appellate Advocacy Competition.  She is a member of the Lawyer’s Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area, and a Trustee of the Drew School.