Scott Levin Gesundheit

Scott Levin Gesundheit is an attorney in Holland & Knight's San Francisco and Los Angeles offices and a member of the West Coast Land Use and Environmental Group. Mr. Gesundheit focuses his practice on land use entitlements, California housing law, the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) and environmental litigation, representing developers, property owners, institutional investors, lenders, public agencies and nonprofit organizations throughout California.

Mr. Gesundheit has developed particular depth in California's rapidly evolving housing laws, including the Housing Accountability Act (as amended by Assembly Bill (AB) 1633), Builder's Remedy (as modified by AB 1893), State Density Bonus Law, Housing Crisis Act (Senate Bill (SB) 330), Housing Element Law, Permit Streamlining Act and Subdivision Map Act.

In addition, Mr. Gesundheit has worked on matters related to California transit-oriented development housing streamlining (SB 79), lot-split and starter-home laws (SB 9, SB 684 and SB 1123), accessory dwelling unit (ADU) laws, affordable housing covenant laws (AB 721 and AB 911), parking reform laws (AB 2097), and the state's ministerial and CEQA-streamlined approval statutes, including SB 35/SB 423, AB 2162, AB 2011, AB 1449, AB 130, SB 131 and California's Homekey Program. He has deployed these laws on behalf of both market-rate and affordable housing developers to advance stalled projects, fostering collaboration with cities and the California Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD), structuring density bonus incentives and waivers, and advising on replacement housing and tenant relocation obligations. His housing practice often extends to coalition building and advocacy.

For most significant California projects, compliance with CEQA determines whether a project moves on schedule. Mr. Gesundheit advises clients on all aspects of CEQA compliance, including exemptions, streamlining mechanisms (including checklists under CEQA Guidelines Sections 15168 and 15183), environmental impact report (EIR) addenda, responses to comments and coordination with technical consultants on traffic, noise, air quality, greenhouse gas and other studies. He also has experience litigating CEQA and land use matters, including defending project approvals and challenging agency decisions.

Mr. Gesundheit counsels clients whose business models depend on land use and regulatory outcomes at scale. He has advised a national electric vehicle charging station and mobility company on entitlement strategy for facilities across the state, including questions of state law preemption. He also helped a leading technology platform develop regulatory strategy spanning hundreds of California jurisdictions, including proceedings before the California Coastal Commission. On the transactional side, he conducts entitlement and environmental due diligence for acquisitions, dispositions, ground leases and construction financing, negotiates and unwinds development agreements, and analyzes zoning, subdivision and vesting issues for properties across Northern and Southern California.

Mr. Gesundheit devotes his pro bono practice to housing. He has defended nonprofit supportive housing providers in court, advised an affordable homeownership nonprofit and contributed research on CEQA and housing production that has informed published scholarship and the statewide debate over housing reform.

Mr. Gesundheit holds an MBA alongside his law degree. While in law school, Mr. Gesundheit served as a student coordinator of the Housing Pro Bono Project in partnership with Community Legal Services in East Palo Alto. He also worked as a legal intern at Californians for Homeownership, a pro-housing nonprofit organization affiliated with the California Association of Realtors.

Before law school, Mr. Gesundheit worked as a deputy in land use planning for an elected official in the Los Angeles City Council, with experience across the city, including areas such as Hollywood, Silver Lake, Koreatown and North Hollywood. Additionally, he has experience in real estate development in the San Francisco Bay Area.