Anna C. Shimko

Anna C. Shimko

Lawyer-of-the-Year

Pronouns: she, her, hers

Anna Shimko is Chair of Burke’s Real Estate and Business Practice Group.  She focuses her practice on all areas of land use, real estate development, and environmental law, representing both public agencies and private landowners and developers in administrative and court proceedings to bring projects to fruition.  Anna has particular expertise in compliance with the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) and the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA).  She works closely with project proponents, public agencies, and environmental consultants on preparing and defending CEQA and NEPA documents such as negative declarations, environmental impact reports (EIRs), and environmental impact statements (EISs), including for complex projects such as water rights transfers, multi-phased mixed-use projects and large campus master plans.  Anna helps private clients through all stages of the land use approval process, obtaining entitlements to build or expand large shopping centers, stand-alone retail stores, mixed-use projects, hospitals, hotels and resorts, golf courses, residential developments, and quarries, among others.  She also assists cities, counties, special districts, and state agencies in regulating land and development, negotiating real estate transactional documents and development agreements, and updating general plans, specific plans, and zoning codes.  Anna represents clients in matters involving  the Subdivision Map Act, annexation, historic resources, public-private partnership transactions and financing mechanisms, the Coastal Act, air quality regulations, water supply, climate change regulations, transportation planning, eminent domain, and inverse condemnation.  Anna litigates land use, CEQA, and NEPA matters for public and private clients at trial court and appellate court levels, and serves as an expert witness throughout California in cases involving land use development issues.

Private Developers
  • Represented a well-known Bay Area computer animation studio in securing development agreement and zoning for a four-phase headquarters project.
  • Defended in court the EIR and entitlements for a 20,000-acre residential development and open space preserve in the Carmel Valley.
  • Represented one of California’s largest grocery store chains and a large nationwide home improvement store in numerous projects throughout the state to build new stores or expand existing venues.
  • Represented residential developer in obtaining local and coastal permits, including through several lawsuits and global settlement of Coastal Act, wetland, subdivision, traffic, and inverse condemnation issues.
  • Assisted prominent football team in drafting ballot measure and seeking permits for new stadium and shopping mall.
  • Represent Native American tribe with environmental review under state compact for new casino, as well as with CEQA and NEPA documents for federal and state permits related to highway improvements, management contract and other permits, and with associated litigation.
  • Secured major use permit amendments for renovation of Napa Valley resort on National Register of Historic Places.
  • Defended in court EIR and general plan consistency findings for shopping center in Monterey County involving water supply, traffic impact, and hazardous materials issues.
  • Assisted private developer with transit-oriented development grant funding and entitlements from and agreements with public agencies for housing project near rapid transit station.
  • Represented national developer in obtaining development agreement and all permits for phased shopping center, residential, and hotel project on redevelopment lands.
  • Defended CEQA review and height variance at trial court and Court of Appeal for demolition of unreinforced masonry building and construction of new research laboratory.
  • Worked with a Bay Area developer on an EIR, development agreement and permits for a mixed-use, phased redevelopment of commercial uses on port lands.
  • Represented a national hotel chain in its renovation of a high-end San Francisco hotel.
Public Agencies
  • Represented City of Albany in preparing an EIR for a waterfront development master plan, and later negotiated and defended in court a development agreement and gaming ordinance for a card room facility at a live horse racing venue on the waterfront.
  • Assisted the University of California at San Francisco with preparing EIRs (and defending associated litigation) for its acquisition of the Mount Zion Hospital and development of a biomedical research facility and administrative research space at the Laurel Heights campus.
  • Represent City of Santa Clara with ground leases, development agreements, EIRs and entitlements for private development of entertainment, office, retail, and residential uses on city land adjacent to Levi’s Stadium.
  • For City of San Carlos, prepared development agreement with Palo Alto Medical Foundation for hospital and medical office project, and assisted with EIR, general plan amendments and all permits.
  • Represented City of Orinda with a specific plan and EIR for mixed-use development of the Gateway Valley.
  • Worked with consulting firms to advise the California Public Utilities Commission in environmental review for the sale of fossil-fueled and hydroelectric power plants and siting new transmission lines and substations throughout the state, for replacement facilities at nuclear power plants, and for desalination plant to supply water to Monterey Peninsula.
  • Assisted Zone 7 Water Agency with an EIR for a water supply, transfer, and storage program.
  • Defended CEQA review of City of San Carlos decision to replace grass with turf on City play fields.

  • J.D., Cornell Law School, 1986
  • B.A., Urban Studies, University of California, Davis, 1983
  • State Bar of California
  • Secretary/Librarian, Land Use and Environment Committee, American College of Real Estate Lawyers
  • President, Harbor Equity Group, Waldo Point Harbor, April 2015 – present
  • Member, Board of Trustees, Marin Montessori School, 2023 - present
  • Campus Planning Committee, Marin Montessori School, 2015 – present
  • Advisory Council and Board of Directors, San Francisco Planning and Urban Research Association, 2003-2014
  • California Building Industry Association/California Business Properties Association, CEQA Reform Task Force, 1992-present
  • Treasure Island/Yerba Buena Island Citizens Advisory Board, 2001-2004
  • San Francisco Juvenile Probation Commission, 1996-2000
  • Vice President, Associated Students of UC Davis, 1981
  • City of Davis Ad Hoc Committee to Update the Housing Element, 1982
  • American College of Real Estate Lawyers, Elected Member
  • Lambda Alpha International (global land economics society), Elected Member
  • California’s Top 50 Development Lawyers, Daily Journal, 2014
  • Selected to The Top 50 Women Attorneys in Northern California, Super Lawyers Magazine 2004-2005
  • Selected to Northern California Super Lawyers, 2004-present
  • Best Lawyers in America (Land Use and Zoning), 2012-present