Chris Mundhenk is an Ascent principal and the firm’s environmental practice leader. He has more than 20 years of experience in preparing environmental analysis and documentation and performing mitigation monitoring and reporting. Drawing on his professional experience throughout California, Chris provides management and strategic guidance for technical analyses, regulatory permitting efforts, and CEQA and NEPA compliance projects. Known for his dedication to projects and innovative problem solving, Chris has compiled a diverse array of project experience and expertise, ranging from programmatic/large-scale projects such as general plans and larger specific plans to smaller development/infrastructure projects for public and private clients.
Chris’s experience includes the following:
- Preparing CEQA/NEPA documentation for more than 400 projects, including university-related development, reuse of the former Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles as a K-12 facility, a statewide EIR with five site-specific analyses for seven different development options, utility-related capital projects and facility replacements, multiple city general plan and specific plan EIRs, and proposed regulations
- Serving for 4 years as an in-house consultant for the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California (MWD), the largest supplier of treated water in the United States
- Serving as contract manager for multiple on-call technical services contracts for clients including MWD; the University of California, Davis; the Sacramento Municipal Utility District, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, and the California Department of Fish and Wildlife
- Managing multiple mitigation monitoring and reporting programs for development projects throughout California
- Leading several regional transportation planning efforts with metropolitan planning organizations
- Supporting air quality, GHG, and noise modeling
- Managing multiple protocol and reconnaissance-level biological surveys in Southern California
- Serving as curriculum contributor and presenter for AEP’s CEQA Essentials and Advanced CEQA Workshops